Why Africa’s youth must lead — and why we need finance to match our courage

Africa Climate Summit 2 reflections from our Director’s desk

By Celiwe Shivambu

Celiwe Shivambu, African Climate Alliance’s Managing Director, at Africa Climate Summit 2025 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

I arrived in Addis with the same flutter every new leader feels: nervous, hopeful, carrying the work and trust of thousands of young people behind me. The second African Climate Summit concluded on 10 September 2025, and for three days the continent spoke with one voice about adaptation, justice and African-led solutions. At my first major summit as Managing Director of the African Climate Alliance, I went to listen, to learn  and to make sure the stories of children and youth were not side notes but central to the work that follows.

What hit me most was obvious and profound: our presence matters. African Climate Alliance’s story — our youth, our litigation, our vision does not just resonate, it is urgently needed. The Cancel Coal Victory showed that legal accountability can stop harmful projects and clear space for renewables. But victories like that must be scaled, supported and financed across jurisdictions if they are to become the norm rather than the exception.

“The Cancel Coal Victory showed that legal accountability can stop harmful projects and clear space for renewables. But victories like that must be scaled, supported and financed across jurisdictions if they are to become the norm rather than the exception.”

There were many powerful moments. At a ChildFund Alliance  side event two young boys described living through floods, planting trees and demanding clean air and water. They were not presenting data, they were demanding a future. That demand is the heartbeat behind everything youth- and child-led organisations do: grassroots adaptation, local advocacy and creative accountability. When children speak like that, leaders must listen and funders must act.

Child Fund side event at Africa Climate Summit 2 — the only child-led session at the Summit.

One of the conversations that shifted my thinking came at a round-table with ASG Selwin Hart, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Climate Action and Just Transition organised and chaired by ACA’s Advocacy Coordinator, Sibusiso Mazomba in his new role as the  UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. Selwin sat with youth and children and  listened as we spoke at length about accessibility and participation: how summits like ACS2 and future COPs must be made child-friendly, inclusive spaces where children can meaningfully participate, not only watch from the margins. He heard how children and young people want to be “listeners and leaders” at the same time. That moment made clear to me that meaningful youth participation is not optional; it is a right and a practical necessity if solutions are to work on the ground.

“Meaningful youth participation is not optional; it is a right and a practical necessity if solutions are to work on the ground.”

Conversations and chats with the young people I met at ACS2 concluded  that the  ICJ Advisory opinion on Climate Change is a legal win for youth; it strengthens the legal basis for claims and for national accountability. At ACS2 we discussed how that win only becomes tangible when Member States, regional bodies and funders translate it into budgets and programming. The advisory opinion will go to a UN General Assembly 80th session vote in September; but an advisory opinion alone does not automatically mobilise resources. We must press Member States to adopt the opinion and to create predictable, grant-heavy financing streams so that litigation, adaptation and community resilience can scale.

ACS2 produced real commitments  from the African Climate Innovation Compact  and the African Climate Facility to pledges toward adaptation, green industrialisation, and the operationalisation of the Africa Climate Change Fund. Leaders called loudly for grant-based adaptation finance, lower borrowing costs, and reformed global financial governance. Those announcements matter. But they are the start, not the finish. The financing gap for Africa’s climate and development goals remains vast; the commitments must become predictable, accessible and directly available to communities and youth-led initiatives.

“Leaders called loudly for grant-based adaptation finance, lower borrowing costs, and reformed global financial governance. Those announcements matter. But they are the start, not the finish.”

Here’s what we must demand and build, together:

• A continental fund that is  transparent, accessible and youth-focused and that directly finances youth-led innovation, adaptation projects, legal strategies and education. Too much money today bypasses local actors and ends up filtered through distant intermediaries. Youth-led projects need direct pipelines.

•  Green Banks (or equivalent instruments) with a mandate to de-risk finance for youth entrepreneurs and community projects. These should offer simplified products that match the realities of young innovators.

• Grant-equivalent commitments for adaptation and loss & damage, not loans that deepen debt burdens. ACS2 rightly insisted adaptation finance is an obligation, not charity. That has to be reflected in new funding architecture.

•  Dedicated lines or quotas in continental funds for youth-led litigation, education and community resilience, because accountability and local knowledge are core climate responses, not add-ons.

We left Addis with an important institutional fact: the Africa Group will provide the COP presidency for COP32 and countries including Ethiopia (which has launched a formal bid) and Nigeria have already put themselves forward to host the 2027 conference. That means COP32 will be an African presidency and an African moment; it is the moment for us to insist the agenda, finance tracks and leadership are youth-centred, designed and delivered with children and young people at the front.

To the young leaders I met in Addis: keep your courage. You and your organisations  are doing the hard, necessary work governments and markets too often promise and postpone. To funders and policymakers: your instruments are important, but your willingness to trust youth with resources is what turns pilots into movements and resilience into systems.

ACS2 was a promise, a continent aligning around ambition. The test will be whether we can move from summit pledges to budgets, from statements to scaled programs, and from symbolic participation to real leadership for youth and children at every level. Africa is getting younger; our institutions must align with that fact. If COP32 is the African presidency, let it be the youth and child-centred COP: youth in the presidency, youth designing theme and finance tracks, youth at every negotiating table.

If ACS2 taught me anything as a first-time Managing Director it is this: Africa's youth  are not waiting. We are organizing, litigating, teaching and rebuilding. What we need now is finance that matches our courage,  finance that is fast, flexible, and accountable to the communities it intends to serve.

Join us. Fund us . Walk with us and help build an Africa-led, youth-centred climate transition that finally aligns money with justice.