In June 2021, the International Secretariat for Water (ISW) launched the “Global Youth Take Action – 2nd edition” call for projects on the Youth for Water and Climate Platform (YWC). We are pleased to announce that 211 projects were submitted from over 70 countries with more than 50% of the projects led by women. This response demonstrates the growing need for innovative financing mechanisms for young water leaders in the water and climate sector. All over the world, youth are mobilizing and implementing creative solutions to build a sustainable future for their communities.
Over the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted inequalities worldwide regarding access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services and the capacity of vulnerable populations to respond to a global health emergency.
This call for projects has been designed to identify, encourage, and support youth engagement related to water resources management and climate change adaptation. More specifically it aims to support initiatives regarding water & health, water & agriculture, water-related risks, and water sharing working towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 6 and 13.
Selected projects
As part of the Global Youth Take Action – 2nd edition, 9 projects from 9 different countries have been selected by our jury to receive financial and technical support. More than half of the projects selected are led by young women and all of them are directly or indirectly related to the water and health thematic. The jury for this call for projects was composed of inspiring young professionals and senior experts: Thierry Vatin (General Director, Agence de l’eau Artois PIcardie), Sonja Behmel (Member of the board of directors, International Secretariat for Water), Gideon Commey (Finalist, Global Youth Take Action 1st edition), Hycinth Banseka (Regional Coordinator, Global Water Partnership), Lyazzat Syrlybayeva (Co-Regional Coordinator, Central Asia Youth for Water), Joyce Mendez (Co-founder, Paraguayan Youth Network for Water) and Brianna Huber (Founder and Executive Director, Her2O).
1- Cameroon: Ensuring access to safe water resources
Project leader: New Generation for Christ
This project, related to water and health, aims to improve the health and living standards of the Barombi Kang community by enhancing access to safe water resources. To respond to the water shortage and water quality problems, this project popularizes simple and inexpensive technologies by building a bore well in the community and educating rural residents on effective usage of water points and sustainability approaches.
2- Tanzania: Healthy Environment for Better Education
Project leader: Arena Recycling Industry
Healthy Environment for Better Education’ major goal is to provide education and improve the community’s health, sanitation and water quality through plastic waste management. To do so, they upcycle the plastic waste into Eco bricks, sustainable building materials. These bricks will be used for the construction of a toilet and a water tank for the Buza Primary school. By doing so, this project will directly train and empower 20 women of the community in the recycling sector.
Project leader: Hossana Chinonyerem-Oleru
This advocacy project aims to reduce maternal mortality rates in rural communities in Imo state by improving the patronage of PHCCs for uptake of quality basic obstetrics services by pregnant women. More specifically, it seeks to ensure that clean running water is provided across PHCCs and is used to improve sanitation and hygiene practices in those facilities.
4- Benin: WASH CAMP USAV
Project leader: ONG UN SAMEDI AU VILLAGE
ONG UN SAMEDI AU VILLAGE will host a WASH CAMP for 30 youth-led organizations to educate them on challenges and solutions related to WASH in their region. Half of the beneficiaries are women. The general objective of this project is to contribute to the reduction of waterborne diseases in Beninese communities. By directly training the leaders of youth-led organizations, this project will ensure the long-lasting impact of the WASH CAMP: the youth-led organization will become reliable channels for circulating information and sustaining lessons learned.
5- Sri Lanka: Bindu – Drops
Project leader: Today for Tomorrow
The project aims to provide access to safe water to 20 households of the Puttalam village by connecting them to the rural water supply and by providing the village with a new water source for home gardening by implementing 2 rainwater harvesting tanks. There will be many benefits for the community such as an increase in agricultural products, better health for villagers and a decrease of time spent on fetching water for the women and children.
6- Colombia: Proyecto Madre Tierra
Project leader: Corporacion para el desarrollo humano y social facilitar
This project aims to reduce climate-related risks of contamination of the water source used for domestic consumption by training and empowering 20 young indigenous women of the Senú Nuevo Carivia Indigenous Community (CISNC) in leadership, water protection and ecological restoration, and climate change and ecosystem-based water adaptation strategies. At the end of the project, 1200 endemic trees will be planted on 3 hectares in the natural reserve La Praderato, to mitigate the risks of water contamination of the El Corcobao creek.
7- Venezuela: Un Hogar Potable
Project leader: Organización Venezolana de Jóvenes para las Naciones Unidas (OVJNU)
This project will improve the standard of living of 100 families of the vulnerable communities of the San Cristóbal and Junín Municipalities by providing them with technical training and mentoring regarding the construction and commercialization of Bio Sand Filters. The project will focus mainly on the empowerment of the mother heads of the households. This program will improve the quality of water for human consumption and will provide a venture
8– Kazakhstan: Water leaders of Kazakhstan
Project leader: Aigerim Karibay
This project is tackling the low interest from the younger generation for water-related jobs due to their lack of understanding of the problem and of the career opportunities related to that field. The goal of the project is to show future applicants and students the variety of professions and employment opportunities in different areas in the water sector. To do so, the team will organize an awareness campaign in universities and organizations, and produce short informative videos to share on social media.
9– Uzbekistan: Pure water
Project leader: Bunyod Igamberdiev
The goal of the project is to improve access to safe, clean drinking water for rural households. The objectives are to conduct a series of training and awareness-raising activities on the importance of drinking clean drinking water for 500 households from different regions of the country that use imported water and to distribute 500 free water filters to the beneficiaries of the training. After completing the activities, a survey and monitoring will be conducted among the beneficiaries on the state of health and sanitation.
Conclusion
The implementation of the projects has already begun! We invite you to visit the project pages to see their progression and their impact on local communities.
This call for projects is made possible thanks to the collaboration and financial contributions of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), l’Agence de l’eau Artois-Picardie (AEAP), the Global Water Partnership (GWP) and Montréal International which will enable youth from around the world to access support to help implement innovative and creative projects.
