Mayor Bakitte empowers youths to mitigate climate change

By Ben Musanje

17^th April 2024

The Nansana Municipality Mayor Regina Nakkazzi Bakitte has launched a global program in which youths will directly participate in mitigating the climate change within the municipality.

The initiative is dubbed Nansana Youth Climate Fund which is under the Youth Climate Action Fund that was recently launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies to provide technical assistance and funding for 100 mayors to activate tens of thousands of young people aged 15-24years to design, produce and govern urgent climate solutions in their cities.

50,000 USD in microgrants will be given by the fund to each city to assist youth-led climate projects that are customized to meet the needs and objectives of the area.

Mayor Bakitte says that they have already started receiving applications from different youth and women clubs within the municipality of which those with good proposals that meet local contexts and objectives will earn 40,000 USD to implement the climate initiatives.

She says that in this initiative that will be conducted in two phases will have activities like tree planting, public education campaigns, recycling programs, and disaster preparedness initiatives are a few examples of these projects.

According to the Bloomberg Philanthropies website, cities in the Fund span 38 countries across six continents that are respond to the urgency of the moment and commit the initial 50,000 USD within six months will receive an additional 100,000USD to support more youth-driven projects over the course of one year.

The Youth Climate Action Fund helps cities close this gap by providing the tools and motivation they need to involve young people in the process of creating climate solutions.

The initiative will be implemented in collaboration with United Cities and Local Governments by the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University. To guarantee the initiative’s success, C40 Cities and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy will work together as learning partners.