At the national level, the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP), 2012 of Ghana acknowledges the role of young people in the fight against climate change. It states that “the youth form a significant proportion of the population of Ghana and live with the impacts of climate change much longer. As such, the youth are key stakeholders in the climate change process”. Additionally, the National Climate & Green Economy Strategy, 2016 of Ghana notes that “children and youth are vulnerable to the impact of climate change but can also be agents of change in the fight against climate change.”
The Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND) on the basis of the above conducted a survey in 2016 among youth leaders (between the ages of 15 – 35 years) in selected communities in Ghana as part of a Youth Role in Climate Change Adaptation project.
Ghana is divided into 3 zones namely the Northern, Middle and Southern zones and each of them have unique geographic and environmental characteristics. Thus for this exercise, one community per zone was selected to obtain a fair and accurate representation or data on climate change experiences by young people. The southern zone represents the coastal areas; the middle zone represents rainforest areas while the northern zone represents high temperature areas.
Youth leaders were purposely selected because they are undeniably very active and key influencers in the welfare of their respective community. Social actions or community-led mobilisation activities often have them leading the cause hence a major force to reckon with.
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