Between 13 and
16th of May 2018, the first and
second prize winners of the Climate Change Adaptation Through Youth Innovation (CATYI) competition paid a visit to the Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies (IESS) of the University of Ghana. The
visit forms part of awards for the CATYI competition held among selected Senior
High Schools in the Lawra and Nandom districts of the Upper West Region on January 20. The visiting team comprised of five students from the Nandom and
Lawra Senior High schools who won the first and second positions respectively, team
supervisors and the local coordinator of the competition.
Hosted by the ASSAR
Ghana Team, the first day activities included a welcome address from the Director
of the Institute, Prof. Chris Gordon, introduction to the Institute and the
University at large and series of presentations from invited guests. The chief
executives of youth-led environmental organisations; Greener Impact
International (GII)
and Environment360 gave inspiring presentations
emphasising existing opportunities requiring youth action in the country.
The students also used the opportunity to share their award
winning ideas with colleague students, mainly environmental club members from
the Achimota Senior High School in Accra.
On a tour of the University Campus, the students
visited some Departments, Centres and ongoing project units including the Marine and
Fisheries Sciences Department, Monitoring Environment for Security
in Africa (MESA),
Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (CERGIS) among others.
The teams also visited coastal Accra, specifically
Jamestown, a dominant fishing community which has the lighthouse and the James
fort, originally used as a slave post and later a prison. The Jamestown visit helped
the students appreciate the differences in livelihood activities as well as the
dynamic nature of climatic and non-climatic stressors of coastal compared to
semi-arid regions.
Both students and their supervisor were
impressed about the efforts of ASSAR particularly with respect to the
involvement of the students through the introduction of the CATYI competition. Mr. Jacob Dumba, a tutor of the Lawra Senior High
school is convinced that the students have “learnt
so much about the environment and climate change through the competition”
and is of the firm view that establishing more environmental clubs in the
schools will enhance students’ knowledge on environmental issues. Through the competition the students were encouraged
and motivated to take action in their own capacities towards the
environment. Maaku Samson of the Lawra
Senior High School is poised for action and this is reflected in his comments
to us….. “I will encourage people and let
them know that we don’t have to wait for someone to motivate us or give us
something to protect our environment but we have to work hard to promote the
quality of nature”. Mohammed
Ibrahim of the Nandom Senior High School on the other hand was grateful for
being inspired and having his confidence built, Mohammed has learnt that “you can’t be a good innovator if you don’t
want to try”.
Way forward
The interactions with Greener Impact
has created the linkage that enables the integration of the CATYI students into
the youth related activities of the organisation, particularly in subsequent Ghana
Youth Conference on Climate Change and Sustainable Development (GYCCCSD)
activities. The Team is also exploring the possibility of creating an online
exchange platform in the schools for knowledge exchange on climate change and
also strengthening existing environmental clubs in the area.
The CATYI Competition was implemented as part of the Small Opportunities Grant (SOG) Award
received under the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) Program. The
SOGs are in recognition of the need to go beyond academic capacity building
within ASSAR to do more to strengthen the capacities of those living and
working in the ASSAR study sites. Read more about other ASSAR research for
impact activities here
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