Reimagining urban systems through community-driven approaches that reduce pollution and extraction, protect public health, and advance circular models rooted in reuse, repair, and shared responsibility.
YCCGA is a global youth-led alliance working to formalise meaningful youth participation in climate governance. Established as a collaborative platform for Youth Climate Councils (YCCs) across regions, YCCGA works with youth climate movements, local and sub-national governments, municipalities, and relevant institutions across Africa, Latin America, and Europe to co-create inclusive mechanisms that embed youth leadership within climate policy systems at local, national, and global levels. More than a network, YCCGA exists to amplify the voices of underrepresented and marginalised youth by moving engagement beyond consultation toward shared governance and action, empowering Youth Climate Councils with the institutional access, policy knowledge, and technical support needed to collaborate effectively with decision-makers, influence climate policy processes, and translate advocacy into tangible outcomes. Through structured replication support, cross-regional coordination, and continuous policy learning, the Alliance enables Youth Climate Councils to implement locally grounded, youth-led climate solutions that address real community needs while strengthening accountability, local ownership, and peer collaboration. By translating complex global climate processes into accessible, youth-friendly formats and supporting coordinated policy advocacy, YCCGA ensures that youth and marginalized communities are not only present in climate conversations, but are equipped to co-create solutions, influence decisions, implement action, and sustain long-term impact, guided by principles of intergenerational justice, inclusion, collaboration, and community solidarity to advance resilient and equitable climate governance systems worldwide.
GAYO’s Eco-Club Campus Chapters (GECCC) is a pan-African university-based movement launched in 2020 to build Africa’s next generation of environmental leaders through strategic collaboration with tertiary and training institutions. Working with student-led chapter executives and campus coordinators, GECCC equips young people with practical climate leadership skills, hands-on project experience, mentorship, and professional networks, strengthening employability while closing the workforce gap in climate and environmental sectors. Across 40 universities in Africa, the network has grown to 12,000+ members, serving as action hubs for student-led initiatives in circular economy, climate education, zero-waste campaigns, ecopreneurship, and community outreach, turning environmental learning into visible, locally owned impact.
The Africa Youth Climate Fund (AYCF) is a flagship initiative of the Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO) that aims to shift resources, power, and decision-making to Africa’s youth-led climate movements. Built on participatory grantmaking, AYCF closes the gap between the scale of youth-led solutions and the limited funding they receive, enabling emerging leaders and organisations to design, deliver, and scale locally grounded interventions. The Fund provides catalytic support across three pillars: entrepreneurship and innovation (Africa Climate Innovation Challenge – ACIC), movement building (Re-granting), and research (Climate Research Fund for African Students – CRFAS), while strengthening accountability, collaboration, and local ownership to advance climate justice and resilience across Africa.
The African Youth Negotiators Fellowship (AYNF) is GAYO’s flagship programme for building a strong pipeline of African youth negotiators who can engage credibly across the UNFCCC ecosystem, from COPs to Subsidiary Body sessions, technical workstreams, and national coordination processes. The fellowship closes the access and capacity gaps that keep many young Africans out of formal climate governance by combining rigorous training, thematic negotiation labs, and structured mentorship to equip fellows with both technical fluency and practical diplomacy skills. To date, AYNF has trained and mentored 180+ youth leaders from 25+ African countries, supporting their contributions to policy analysis, drafting, support coordination, and youth constituency engagement in real-world negotiations.
