Sample Proposal on Raising Awareness and Inspiring Youth on Climate Change

Interested in the topics of youth, environment or climate change? Need to assist youngsters with getting their voices found out about what is important to them? Need to get inventive? Is your intention to bring issues to light among youth about climate or Climate Change? Climate change is a challenge that needs to be addressed now to reduce the risk it poses to the youth of today and generations unborn.

This sample proposal has been developed with a goal to engage the energy, enthusiasm and values of youth on issues related to infrastructural development such as roads, drains, sewage, dams, national parks to from personal lifestyles and to work with their communities, the private sector and government to make significant inroads on reducing emissions and to provide young people and youth with information on climate change and what they can do about it using the linkages between road transport, tree planting and sanitation as major components; providing the opportunities to work on concrete projects to make a difference, and recognition and rewards for their work towards emissions reduction.

The proposition methodology is to bring issues to light among youngsters and youth about environmental change, its causes and expected effects, and supporter on how people can manage inspiring youth to make moves inside their networks to diminish outflows utilizing the linkages between street transport, tree planting and disinfection.

Introduction of the Project

Human development is about people. It is about expanding people’s real choices and the substantive freedoms – the capabilities – that enable them to lead lives they value. Choice and freedom in human development mean something more than the absence of restraints. People whose lives are blighted by poverty, ill-health or illiteracy are not in any meaningful sense free to lead lives that they value.

Climate change has become one of the defining forces shaping prospects for development in the 21st Century. Ghana is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol on Climate which entered into force 16 February 2005 and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was ratified by Ghana’s Parliament on 26 November 2002. Although Ghana has committed itself to meeting its obligations under the Convention and the Protocol for achieving stabilization of greenhouse gas emission, and climate change will continue to have huge and lasting impacts on its ecosystems and productivity, its climate change responses are very limited. The cost of taking preventive action now is much lower than paying the price later. The Kyoto Protocol provide avenues under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) which holds great potential to promote technology development and transfer and can assist Ghana in attracting foreign direct investment in the energy, transport, waste management, industry, land usage and management, and forestry sectors where there are clear potential to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The formal and informal sectors of Ghana’s economy are strongly based on natural resources: agriculture, pastoralism, logging, road construction, eco-tourism, mining amongst others. Climatic variations that alter the viability of these activities, for better or for worse, have very high leverage on the economy. Population and development pressures continue to worsen the exploitation of Ghana’s land-cover. These pressures coupled with climate change will negatively impact on the ecosystems will affect the distribution and productivity of plant and animal species, water supply, fuel-wood, among others. Climate change will however impact greatly on women and children who constitute the majority of the poor and depend mostly on natural resources for their livelihoods (like agriculture) that are susceptible to climate change. Natural resources productivity and biodiversity may even be irreversibly lost due to climate change.

The declines in agricultural productivity and food insecurity as a result of declining soil fertility due to changes in rainfall pattern and water stresses have grave consequences on Ghana’s development. Inland fisheries and fish farming systems are predominantly along riverbanks and as a result of water stress will suffer during intense rainfall periods which result in floods and during episodes of drought and habitat destruction.

Human health will be adversely affected by projected climate change. Changing weather patterns and raising temperature will escalate the pressure on our limited medical facilities and staff to cope with the increased demand. This will result from higher numbers of patients suffering from malaria, meningitis (CSM) and other water and air-borne diseases. Persistent droughts and flooding in the face of our inadequate sanitary infrastructure will result in frequent of epidemics of enteric diseases such as cholera and dysentery. These will lead to loss of manpower and decreased productivity whiles automatically increasing healthcare burden which is likely to derail the infant National Health Insurance Scheme.

Substantive portions of Ghana government’s investment go into provision of basic infrastructure for development such as roads, bridges, railways, dams, housing. The impact of climate change on these infrastructure particularly roads, bridges, historical buildings serving as tourist sites/attractions due to exposure to damaging flooding, deep potholes, erosion, excessive heat and other extreme events are very devastating. The exacerbation of desertification by changes in rainfall and intensified land use poses a serious threat to land resources. The reservoir storage of the xxxx dam shows high sensitivity to variations in runoff and periods of drought as evidenced by critically low levels, threatening hydropower generation and industrial activity, which endangers Government’s effort in ensuring growth through the private sector.

The recent flood that hit the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Western Regions of Ghana in YYYY revealed the nations vulnerability. The following were the statistics that were recorded by the Ministry of Interior with regards to the flood;

Ghana’s environmental and climate change challenge profile will be in a more dangerous position in the coming decades. This is due to consistent human activities such as littering with non-biodegradability plastic waste which leads to depletion of soil fertility, check gutters and drains and results in flooding of home, and roads causing deep potholes formation and erosion; huge traffic congestion which leads to high consumption of fuel and large volumes of CO² emission; rampant bush fires and illegal felling of trees, expanding surface mining and quarries which depletes our greenly surrounding, reduces CO² uptake, increases temperature and destroys water bodies; increase in industrial activities with huge energy demands; and the discovery of oil which will lead to the drilling of more wells and establishment of more oil refineries. Climate change will have serious permanent damaging effects on Ghana, and it is critical to consider climate change as a development issue. Integrating environmental and climate change concerns into Ghana’s development agenda is critical in order to ensure the long-term achievement of development goals, in particular the Ghana Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and Millennium Development Goals.

Climate change is a challenge that needs to be addressed now to reduce the risk it poses to the youth of today and generations unborn. Unfortunately Ghana as a country is not doing much to halt the continuous effects of climate change. Most adult Ghanaians are preoccupied with day to day issues. The current generation of this country stands directly in harm’s way and they have the least resources to cope. This has compelled many young people to be primarily concerned with, even overwhelmed by, their education, health, future employment and financial situations which look very blurred.

ABC Foundation therefore through this project seeks to develop a youth-focused Public Education and Outreach (PEO) strategy on climate change. The strategy seek to provide young Ghanaians understanding in the issues and support them with the knowledge, stimulus, and, most importantly, the opportunity to work together towards emissions reductions. The strategy will be piloted in the Greater Accra Region within 2009 and 2011 outcomes replicated in other regions of the country in three (3) phases within a period of ten (10) years (2011 – 2021). It will also be used by the member organizations of Ghana National Youth on Climate Change to champion the issues.

ABC Foundation believes that young people hold the keys to Ghana’s climate change challenges and education is the lead stream in their engagement on climate change actions. Young people through action-oriented projects will be engaged in environmental policy development advocacy while incorporating them in capacity building to ensure sustainability of in-and-out of school operations. There is an enormous gap between action and gratification, or tangible results on climate change. While youth may not see an immediate reduction and corresponding environmental response/reparation, the strategy will provide other ways to reward their actions. Young people will be recognized, respected and rewarded for their contributions and accomplishments. In particular, value will be attached to their volunteer work, in order to engage youth at the community level.

Flexible and multiple sub-projects approach that is more responsive both to the diversity of youth and diversity of funding and other available resources will be employed. The youth will be involved in all processes and stages of implementing and expanding the strategy; design, planning and delivery of an outreach campaign, adverts, and other aspects of this strategy. They will know where their input will go and how it will make a difference (the kind of decisions or impacts they can affect, realistic timelines for change, and what they can expect to see). Opportunities will be created for young people and adults to work together. Campaigns will be easy, accessible and convenient for youth to participate. Sub-projects will encourage interaction, information and knowledge sharing, and participation among the community as a whole. Businesses and industry will be approached to be part of the solution to demonstrate needed integration between the economy and the environment.

Goal of the Project

The goal is to engage the energy, enthusiasm and values of youth on issues related to infrastructural development such as roads, drains, sewage, dams, national parks to from personal lifestyles and to work with their communities, the private sector and government to make significant inroads on reducing emissions.

Broad Objective of the Project

The broad objective is to provide young people and youth with information on climate change and what they can do about it using the linkages between road transport, tree planting and sanitation as major components; providing the opportunities to work on concrete projects to make a difference, and recognition and rewards for their work towards emissions reduction.

Specific Objectives of the Project

• • To facilitate a concept of environmental citizenship among Ghanaian youth, through the integration of knowledge, sense of responsibility and successful action to mitigate climate change impact.
  • To create and strengthen our young leaders, both to learn from them now and to prepare them to become tomorrow’s decision makers.
  • To reinforce and reward existing environmentally friendly lifestyles among youth, thereby delaying or reducing the adoption of greenhouse gas emitting practices among Ghanaians.
  • To strengthen and build upon existing institutions and services for young Ghanaians, both to recognize and reward work already being done, to support new work within those institutions, to avoid duplication, and to avoid drawing funding away from current activities.
  • To integrate Ghanaian youth efforts into the global effort to gain global recognition and support.

Project Strategy

The project focuses on two components in this strategy:

• • Raising awareness among young people and youth about climate change, its causes and potential impacts, and advocate on what individuals can do to reduce emissions using the linkages between road transport, tree planting and sanitation as major components.
  • Motivating youth to take actions within their communities to reduce emissions and to encourage others in their lives (peers, families, communities) to reduce emissions using the linkages between road transport, tree planting and sanitation.

The project focuses of the following campaign strategy and issues

• • Awareness Creation – which intersects with the broader information, awareness and advocacy campaigns on the issues below;
    • Advocate for recycle of at least 25% of the volume of plastic waste which chock gutters and drains and cause flooding, create potholes, erosion and destroy roads in the country. This also aims to improve on the sanitation and environmental degradation situation in the country.
    • Call for improvement in the road transportation system and the needed support for alternative transportation methods to the car culture in the country to reduce the heavy traffic congestion, high consumption of fuel, waste of time and the huge CO2 emission.
    • Contribute to the enhancement of energy efficiency and conservation through the use of energy saving bulbs, reducing wastage of electricity and other domestic fuels.
    • Promote nature conservation and greenly environment through positive connections of the youth with the environment by planting trees along selected roads, within selected parks and along some rivers and water bodies personal.
  • Mainstream media campaigns, both to profile and reward participants, and to catalyze them to take notice of the problem and look for more information and ways to become engaged.
  • Mainstream special promotions and events, emphasizing novelty and entertainment.

Project Implementation Structure / Strategy

The project implementation structure /strategy will be in two (2) phases.

Phase I

Phase I will be within YYYY and YYYY, and is the general advocacy phase and will be in five (5) parts:

• • Expansion of Green-Life Clubs in schools from the Basic to Senior High level to provide;
  • Capacity building for youth groups
  • Information and awareness campaigns
  • Community actions
  • Evaluation of the phase

Phase II

Phase II will be for specific advocacy on ensuring protection, long duration and safety on a specific adopted road. Trees will be planted and maintained along the full stretch of the road by groups of students and youth clubs within the communities along the road. The trees and greens along the road will be evaluated and awards given to groups whose portions are well maintained.

Capacity Building Strategy 

The strategy is to reinforce youth’s current awareness of environmental matters such as littering of gutters and drains with plastic waste, cutting down trees indiscriminately, bush burning, road traffic congestion and huge CO² emission rather than focusing just on climate change. It will highlight individual causes and effects on climate change, illustrating its local, national and global dimensions and impacts and how they affect the economy and our way of life. The strategy is to encourage widespread dissemination of information on environmental issues to continue awareness raising and sharing of values and viewpoints of the youth. It will connect the need to mitigate or adapt to climate change to ensure employment opportunities and show how an environmentally-friendly lifestyle improves on health, and make the world a better place at the same time. It will put national climate change strategy into global context to build on the global perspectives and concerns of youth, but connect the strategy back to the community and how they affect them personally.

The strategy will focus on events designing and implementation of activities that can involve and allows more youth to participate in, but for shorter periods of time – requiring less time commitment. Empowering them on means to form and enhance alliances and partnerships between themselves and governments, private sector, educational system, NGO’s, churches, sports groups. This will include, especially, how to develop collaboration, communication and coordination between them and stakeholders who deal with similar issues.

Communications, Social Marketing and Engagement Strategies

The strategy focuses on the youth as leaders and influencers on adults and on their peers, and as participants working for change within their communities and country. This is an engagement strategy rather than a marketing strategy. The goal of communications and social marketing strategies is to bring about change from diverse ideas and behavior or adoption of new ideas and behavior. It is generally accepted that these strategies are most effective when media and information campaigns are combined with personal interventions with the target group. The strategy therefore looked carefully at a model of engagement: how to turn knowledge into action, how small individual actions can be aggregated for greater benefit; and how to ensure that the actions will have longer term benefits for the community, the country and the planet.

Mobilization Strategy for Phase I (Media-Oriented & Advocacy Sub-Projects

The strategy is to mobilize the youth (membership of the Green-Life Clubs) and stakeholders around four (4) major media-oriented and advocacy sub-projects. The strategy includes focusing sub-project concepts on the little things the youth can do to have an impact on climate change. The sub-projects will help the youth to identify good environmental/climate change practices, what works and what doesn’t work, and reward what does – through prizes, press releases, internet communications, and so forth. The sub-projects will provide incentives and rewards for youth who are making an impact in their community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because it reinforces their positive behavior. Media attention is given to the concepts to broadcast their inspiring stories of successes which are important to let the youth know that they are working as a team with other peers and with older Ghanaians, not only as individuals.

Plastic Waste Audit Campaign (PWAC) for recycle of plastic waste

Gutters and drains across the country are chocked with plastic wastes, causing damaging floods which cause destruction to home, properties and infrastructure such as roads with potholes and erosion. The members of the Green-Life Clubs will mobilize plastic waste generated in their homes within a one week period and bring them to school. These plastic wastes will be collected from the schools and put into a single pool. The membership will also undertake signature collection campaign within their schools to support the demand greater commitment and political will towards recycling at least 25% of plastic wastes produced in the country. The collected plastic wastes and signatures will be presented by a youth delegation to the Ministers of Environment, Local Government and Education, and the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at a campaign launch. Representatives of other relevant stakeholders such Embassies, NGOs, religious and traditional bodies will be invited. The collected plastic waste will be given to companies involved in recycling. Call will be made to the general public not to be throwing plastic waste unto roads and streets.

Energy Audit and Efficiency Enhancement Campaign

Membership of the Green-Life Clubs will undertake one-months community outreach which will educated both family and community members on energy usage and efficiency and encourage them to change their ‘onion’ bulbs to energy saving bulbs. Prizes will be given to each member who will present the cases of an energy saving bulb and an onion’ bulb as evidence of work done for educational and promotional materials such as pencils, pens, rulers, exercise books and T-shirts; the grater the number of evidence the grater the prize. Collected cases and ‘onion’ bulbs will be presented to the Minister of Energy and personnel from Energy Commission, Energy Foundation and Electricity Corporation of Ghana for destruction in media event.

Clean-up the Community Campaign (CCC)

Membership of the Green-Life Clubs in each of the nine (9) Metropolis, Municipality and District in the Greater Accra Region will undertake joint clean-up exercise and clean the drains and gutters along selected streets and roads within their community. The clean-up exercise will be done with the collaboration of their respective Assemblies, and other stakeholder institutions and organizations such as youth groups, religious groups, traditional councils, security personnel within the locality.

Road Transport Improvement and Environmental Conservation Campaign (RTI&ECC)

There is increasing number of cars on our roads causing huge traffic congestion, full consumption and polluting the air with CO². The membership of the Green-Life Clubs numbering over one thousand (1,000) will undertake a road show campaign with a convoy of over twenty (20) big buses to draw attention to increasing stress on our roads and its environmental and economic cost. The campaign will call for effective bus transportation services as alternative to the car culture. The convoy will start from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle to the xxx Dam proceed to the xxxx Park in the Central Region. The road campaign will highlight the adverse impact of climate change on biodiversity and demand greater commitment from all stakeholders. Participants with the collaboration of managers will also plant trees along portions of the road, the banks of the xxxx Dam and also at the xxxx Park. Representatives of stakeholder institutions and bodies, celebrities and the Media will be invited for their participation in the road show.

The road show mainstreams media campaigns and raises the needed awareness whiles rewarding the youth, providing them the opportunity to take notice of the problem and look for more information and ways to become engaged. It is also a special promotional event that emphasizes novelty and entertainment as members who participated in the other campaign actives will rewarded.

Project Evaluation

The strategy has an impact evaluation system in place to learn the effect of the strategy on youth, and to provide means by which youth can provide feedback and input. A good baseline data will be established at the beginning of this strategy and evaluation of increased levels of knowledge, awareness and action at the end of the strategy. It is important to reflect that early evaluation may miss some of the long term benefits on youth participation efforts is an ongoing and developmental process. While recognizing that concrete outcomes take time, it is also difficult to attribute attitude and behavior changes solely to such campaigns when other extraneous factors can also be strong influences on behaviors and attitudes.

Evaluation Criteria

• • The social marketing campaigns will be evaluated for creating a positive and significant impact according to the following criteria:
    • Awareness – A broad awareness of the campaign, its theme and basic messages among youth
    • Attitudes – A general acceptance of the campaign messages among youth
    • Behavioral intentions – Discernable differences in intended behaviors the youth exposed to the campaign than that were not exposed to the campaign
    • Interpersonal communications –Demonstrated increased willingness and commitment to disseminating information on the issues to others among youth as exposed to the campaign
    • Current use – Discernable differences in behaviors that can be currently changed, such as taking the bus, carpooling, using appliances efficiently and other personal contributions
    • Trends – A development of general trends in attitudes and behaviors, especially among the targeted audience
    • Use of Campaigns as Models – Adoption of strategies or specific projects by groups not included in the strategy, or by groups wanting to adapt strategies or specific projects for campaigns on different issues and topics and requests for expertise or consultancies

Testing of indicators would be completed by the following qualitative and quantitative methods:

• • Tracking surveys for individual projects
  • Tracking surveys for the strategy
  • Tracking surveys for youth to measure their increased awareness and knowledge of climate change issues before the campaign, mid-way and upon completion.
  • Formal and informal discussions with young people and adults, using focus groups, consultations, conferences, throughout the time frame of the strategy.

Log Frame

Plan of Action