 good morning good to see everyone well most of you back here for day two this is what it looks like when someone is what we call buying time so what I'm doing right now is just filling the space with my voice so that I can encourage those still getting a cup of tea to fall fall into the room yes you I'm talking about you good morning good morning good morning it's so brilliant to see you here for day two I'm delighted to be back on stage and we've got two panels coming your way today with lots of interesting insight to add and perspectives to share today is going to be a much lighter day we are hopefully running up until 2 o'clock but it's a jam-packed show nonetheless remember the best show in town so the DG told us I will be discussing hopefully just giving you a little bit of a brief about what we're expecting for the rest of today and then I will welcome the moderator for my first panel today's discussion is focusing predominantly on youth movements and consultants having to take their place within the climate change discussion and discourse how innovation and human mobility should and will be at the centre of innovation and global policy discussions need to centre the youth as much as any other groups now the last panel so this will be the fourth panel that we will have today will highlight the shared responsibilities of all actors and the importance of transformational partnerships transformational partnerships with private sectors for climate action so that's roughly the roadmap to where we're going but before we do that let's get you going nothing nothing from this room I would like to introduce I am I am is a multicultural band with members from Brazil and Gola Italy and Greece I am blends centuries-old traditions with the black and rhythmical language of Lusophony cultures providing a hot stepping voyage across the African diaspora who what an intro who wrote that I am please take the stage good morning good morning to all of you it's a great pleasure for us to share this moment with you we are a young multicultural project and this song we just played it's called Osala like to express the feeling of being away from home from our origins we are all migrants and we are all gathering to strengthen and to live what is being far from our homeland from our people from our own codes Osala is the energy is like inshallah Osala which is Mauricia from Brazil meaning peace and the beginning of everything and now we'll play seca is a snapshot a registry of people from a specific area in the northeast of Brazil they don't get rain there and they don't get help because of political there's no political will but the world today has this challenge water and water management and the planet management who is shouting for help far be it from me to stop a dance party but this is the United Nations so please kindly get back to your seats immediately thank you very much where's the DG I love it you nearly got me up but I was too busy typing what I'm saying next thank you so much thank you that was I am they are a phenomenal band I have in the time that they were performing downloaded both of their most recent albums so feel free to do so they are across all platforms that's a bit of a sales pitch for them it is however time to turn our attention back to the agenda for today now the next panel is one that rests very close to my heart my focus as a journalist is environmental journalism specifically that which affects women and children so the panel that we have coming up with Michelle is going to be one that is incredibly important for us to take on board and take back to our home countries with us the panel is the new solutions for new generations youth perspectives on climate action and mobility our moderator for this panel is Michelle Klein Solomon the IOM regional director for Central and North America and the Caribbean she is based in San Jose Costa Rica she assumed this position on the 31st of August 2020 and she provides advice to governments in all the regions of the world and to regional intergovernmental and non-governmental entities on a wide range a whole host of migration policy matters from 2016 to 2018 she was director of give a get full compact for migration at the IOM leading the IOM support to states and partners in the development and implementation of the global compact for safe orderly orderly and regular migration I now introduce and welcome our moderator to the stage to introduce her panel for the next 90 minutes hi good morning everybody good morning wonderful to see you all and Amy that was great fun where are you Amy I might want to continue the dance party and I brought a little bit of my new look from Central America from the Caribbean and the Pacific I was inspired by our moderator from yesterday with her bright yellow so I'm bright orange for the morning this morning and I think it's a good signal for our youth and our youth engagement it's a great pleasure to be with you all this morning we have a really rich panel I have five presenters and it's going to be interactive like yesterday and I'm going to challenge you to be interactive also so I'm going to hear from each of them one at a time I'm going to call them up individually and get them started introduce each one and give them each the first question that will be posing and then once they've all had a couple of rounds of questions will be coming to you and again as the moderator said yesterday we want you to focus on questions that you have for them not so much reading your national statements but really thinking about the issues that are presented here and what kinds of questions you have that will help all of us collectively take better decisions now to frame today's discussion it is extremely important to recognize that youth young people are actually at the highest record total number of the global population 1.8 billion people in the world today are under the age of 30 that's extraordinary in total terms it's also extraordinary in percentage terms 31% of the full world's population is under the age of 30 which means we need to be hearing from listening to and considering the challenges that young people will be facing because they're the ones who will inherit and have to live in the world that we have created and will be the ones facing the challenges that we leave behind and very particularly the youth of the future will live in a world that is profoundly affected by climate change that will live in economies that in societies that are more vulnerable more less resilient because of the effects of climate change in all of its many dimensions we talked about yesterday but we'll also be entering economies that are in a sense hampered by the effects of climate change so agriculture fishing aquaculture a forestry all of these areas that will be very hard to make a living which will lead to increasing pressures for movement from rural communities to urban communities putting increased pressure on cities not only to provide services but also to offer jobs livelihoods for growing youth populations and what will that mean in terms of the pressure for displacement and we heard our new director general Amy Pope very exciting yesterday we want to be able to better anticipate the effects of climate change so we don't leave people in harm's way that people have an opportunity to not simply wait and be forced to react but perhaps to take preventive adaptive steps so to actually move out of harm's way before harm hits it's much harder after the fact it's much easier if we plan and prepare and don't wait until people are displaced and their rights have been violated and they are tremendously vulnerable but to see in this context not only migration as a survival strategy but in the best case scenario migration as an adaptation strategy something where migrants can actually be empowered to move in safe regular orderly ways to not be in harm's way and we want to hear enough for me we want to hear directly from the people who are in this panel from people from various different regions of the world and these people were selected very carefully because they are not simply representatives of youth from their regions they are people who are actually taking action they are actually leading movements they are actually taking the responsibility and using the space that is offered to them to advance action on climate change immobility and with that it is my great great pleasure to introduce our panel this morning and to kick us off I'm going to invite you each one at a time to come up and I'm going to ask you a question so be ready I'm going to turn over to you very quickly first let me invite Rose Rose kubu singe from migration environmental in China I'm a change advocate Rose is from Uganda and please join me up here on the stage Rose so nice to see you good morning my dear good morning welcome welcome and Rose if you don't mind I'm going to pose the very first question for you to get us kicked off so people can hear a little bit about you but also hear your view your voice your views and the question I want to ask you is it's clear that there are different challenges and barriers both to youth engagement and to youth voice on policy and I want to hear from you in your region what have you experienced as a youth advocate in the context of climate action and human mobility and very specifically what's your perspective about the key challenges that you face in your region when you talk about climate change and specifically it's linked to human mobility and again recognizing that youth are disproportionately affected by climate change and of course in the future unfortunately we are more likely to be displaced or forced to migrate as a result let's turn over to Rose thank you so much for joining us thank you and she'll however and really a pleasure being here and greetings from Uganda I arrived here yesterday yeah I think great questions I from Uganda Uganda perspective and the Eastern Horn of Africa perspective I'm sure everyone knows what is happening there maybe I shouldn't assume but in the Eastern Horn of Africa we've had five consecutive with failed rainy seasons and you can imagine what that means to the live loads of people the young people actually last week I was in Mohokia IDP camp flood victims of 2020 they were displaced during COVID and they are still in the camp they have not yet been resettled and I'm going to quote what's one of the IDP told me they left us here they ignored us they threw us here they have had seven months without any kind of support and that is an IDP camp for the last four months I've been in refugee camps in Rwanda and I'm doing my research there on renewable energy access in refugee settings the situation is still not good but to be honest I feel ashamed to say it was much better than in an IDP what does that mean that climate migrants have been left behind in development in the climate agenda and in Uganda that those are the not the only ones we have we have climate migrants in the in the East in the East of the country and also in with your area most of them are flood victims if you go to Kenya the northwestern the northwestern parts of Kenya if you go to Somalia to Sudan to Rwanda and Congo where they was it in May people were displaced by by floods again so I'm not gonna talk about this because you know the challenges of floods and and you know cyclones and the droughts but talking about youth so last month we had the African Youth Forum Climate Mobility Forum organized by IOM the Eastern Horn of Africa regional office and we were over 70 young people figuring out what our voice can be in the expansion of the Kampala Declaration I don't know if I should assume that we know the Kampala Declaration but it was a declaration by ministers in the Eastern Horn of Africa to act on climate mobility and integrate climate mobility in the development plans and the migration and climate policies so I was last year and this year it was being expanded to a continental level and we had a youth youth consultation to see the to ensure that the youth voices are part of the expansion of the declaration and these are the messages that came from the young people young people are not just the future they are the present and whatever policies and programs are being developed now are being developed for the youth and you cannot develop something for the youth without them so youth want to be co-designers youth want to be collaborators they don't want to be just put on the panel and then nothing happens after that we are focused on action and initiatives when I came back from the camp talking to people talking about the kind of solutions they want to see most of the solutions where we want to be resettled we've been left here we can't leave if I had time I would have showed you the pictures of the video that I recorded there the settlement is horrible the way they are sleeping so they want to be resettled and that is what you were talking about Michelle can plant resettlement and migration plants be adaptation yes they can and we just need to harness those ones from the young people perspective the capacity not only just in terms of knowledge but also in terms of resources and funds is lacking I love that camp feeling powerless because I was like I can do these initiatives I can do the livelihoods and stop making or sustainable agriculture but I don't have the resource capacity to do that and those are the challenges and also coming to this basis I mean to me I feel privileged because I know joy that I met in the camp has no idea that idea means happening even when I tried to share about climate change I felt so it was so hard because someone is telling you oh my neighbor just died and stuff to death and you're like oh climate change no the agency to them is not knowing about climate change is fast getting access to the best needs and then we can talk about climate change after that after getting what to eat so I felt powerless I was like I can do these livelihoods I can do sustainable farming I can do because they have a bit of land that they can that some organization actually youth organization called our youth climate action network hired for like four of them to plant and then they can share as a group share the food as like we can do this but I don't have the capacity so I feel powerless but coming here I hope I'll share with you after this and maybe you can give me more power and see how I can share these resources if they're there or knowledge with other young people and I want to go back next time with solutions not to just go and ask these people what challenge they're facing thank you so much Rose thank you you've said many many interesting things it's a great kickoff to our discussion there's so many things that could pick up but I want to be just one there is no way for solutions for youth without youth with youth for youth and youth absolutely at the table helping design the solutions thank you so much we'll look forward to hearing from you more let me call our next panelist up and you've already met her because she was part of our opening yesterday morning Kulud Ben Masur she is the African Youth Ambassador for peace of the African Union Kulud please join us and thank you so much for being here again today good morning my dear lovely to see you lovely to see you thank you so much you'll be over on the end and while you're walking over there I'd like you to think about exactly the question I posed to Ruth Rose what do you see as the biggest challenges and barriers to youth engagement on climate change and mobility in your context over to you thank you thank you so much for the lovely in the start of the discussion I have to say that we had a discussion yesterday with my fellow youth delegates and we exchanged a lot on the challenges that we perceived as young people and the barriers that are presented to us and allow me to speak about my region North Africa perhaps it will bring a regional perspective I think we have a very exceptional context let me say it this way because we do have the real meaning of climate induced mobility and we although we have real issues of internal displacement and climate change risks and challenges we feel that they are becoming really alerting especially to the vulnerable groups that are the young people now when I see how these challenges are presented and what as young people our role is to to provide support and perhaps to think about solutions as Rose mentioned we feel powerless at some point because the challenges are not just to be in the spaces and to speak up but sometimes we need real concrete actions and tangible results to overcome these cascade and risks and to me when I see the recent events that happened in Libya in Morocco and the challenges that we faced earlier this year in Tunisia in terms of drought and water scarcity it makes me think what can we do as young people when we are invited to such places how can we collectively collaborate together and come up with the help of international bodies like the IOM and so many other agencies to overcome these challenges and perhaps raise awareness more about how to combat them there is one thing that I always try to reflect whenever I'm invited to such spaces that is the psychological effects of this climate change effects on young people sometimes we tend to focus more on the resilience and adaptation mechanisms the medication mitigation mechanisms but we tend to forget the real psychological impacts on young people the trauma the social anxiety it's not easy to take a young person from a safe and stable environment and force them because sometimes it's an obligation it's not an option to leave a stable environment and go perceive a much stable I would say perhaps a refugee camp or somewhere else to start from scratch so those psychological effects are really a barrier to the hopes and the dreams that we mentioned yesterday in the opening statements because that's what we're trying to promote we're trying to create a much more resilient environment so that whenever a climate change effect can happen at least the consequences are not blocking to the advancement of young people so I think it's really important that we do not neglect such aspect when we speak about climate change in the context of human mobility Bravo I thank you so much for for first of all all that you're doing to bring visibility to climate change and mobility in your region but very specifically for bringing out the psychological impact on youth in particular youth by definition are still growing they're still finding the way in the world and this becomes part of your psychological makeup if the challenges that face and you're right too many people are actually forced not with a question of choice to move and the displacement has profound lasting psychological effects and I appreciate you bring this up so front and center we need to be worried about the and concerned about psychological development and the long-term implications thank you Kulu thank you for everything that you're doing let me invite our next panelist up I'd like to invite Eddie Frank Vasquez Sanchez and Eddie if you wouldn't mind wonderful to see you thank you Eddie is one of the young leaders for the sustainable development goals and maybe Eddie you can think about as you come up to the stage telling us just for a sentence good morning which I'll go still be in the needle welcome tell us a little bit about yourself where you're coming from and the voice that you represent as well as as the other two panelists have just said some of the barriers and the challenges that you and your colleagues face thank you very much Eddie thanks for being with us thank you first of all good morning to everyone is really nice to be here also representing the voices of the youth in the Caribbean my name is Eddie I'm from the Dominican Republic and one of the 17 year leader for the sustainable development goals recognized by the UN youth and boy office in the UN so talking about challenges sometimes is difficult to talk about it because the main challenge is the real challenge in this case climate in action for us in the Caribbean islands we face a reality that we can't avoid each year after year we receive natural disaster which are intensifying each time that we do not take the necessary action under climate change but that reality we can avoid it for many families in the Caribbean climate change means that we need to be displaced or to lead displaced from for the environments that we live in for the realities that we have been living for the last years that's not something we can negotiate that that's not something that somebody will tell us okay you can live with that yes we have to it's the only thing that we have left because it's a reality that we have been condemned unfortunately to live but that's a reality that it's not only for this year we face a year after year during more than six months that the usual time that the hurricane season last in the Caribbean so talking about challenges most most specifically last year in the Dominican Republic the organization that I belong to who went to sustainably we made a nationwide consultation about climate change our youth in the Dominican Republic and trying to identify different topics we realized that Dominican youth were concerned about three main perspective when we talk about climate mobility the first one is the emotional copy that was already mentioned by Kuluk the second one is the limited opportunities that are linked to moving to another place and the third one is also regarding to the absence of guarantee to our human rights but also to the access to the public and basic services for us as young people so our development face itself with all these limitations which are which our previous generation have faced when they decided I come from a family that decided to move to the capital city in order to get better opportunities but that was a decision they took it was a decision that it was hard for them I recognize it but if they weren't necessarily forcibly being displaced to one place to another just because there was a major situation happening around them and that's something that really concerns us that's something that put our future at risk and that's something that needs to be a little bit more considered when we talk about policy engagement and developing in this kind of dialogues thank you so much Eddie yes as you know part of my remit includes the Caribbean and Central America and I travel all the time to see and you're right it's an existential issue in this particularly in the small island states but not exclusively and the Dominican Republic Haiti on the other side of the island and the come and the countries around are very profoundly affected by the hurricane season and by the rising sea levels also which are making it harder and harder for people to live safe and dignified lives at home your family is a good example of people making the choice to move before they're forced to and adapting that way unfortunately others and other Caribbean islands have not had that that privilege and we saw in the video that we showed yesterday colleagues and friends and member states in other island countries like Dominica were displaced completely as a result of hurricanes in the last few years and it leads to long-term destruction and displacement not not something that we would want to wish on anybody thank you for being here Eddie and thank you for sharing your perspectives let me invite now Himavati Shekhar Himavati has just arrived this morning from a very long journey thank you so much for making the long travel to be with us she is actually the founder of an organization lovely to see you thank you to called enabling necessary action through climate talk and as she is the global South focal point for Yongo and maybe you could tell us briefly what that means and a little bit about the challenges and the obstacles that you face in your region in terms of bringing the voice of youth to bring action as Eddie said absolutely the issue is lack of action much I feel very privileged to be here and like Rose mentioned I think even coming here was a matter of choice and I've had the privilege to be able to just take a flight get my visa and come here and that is not a choice everybody has so I back in India I've been working I start I'm a lawyer by training so you know when as as law students we always like look at what is wrong with the society and try to come up with solutions using law or policies itself and when I started off I worked with an NGO and we should represent these vulnerable communities you know people government state decisions and people are forced to move climate changes people are forced to move but many a times we don't always recognize the human rights impacts of what this you know forced displacement actually means and and some many a times we also look at like okay let's rehabilitate them and what next because I think just back in April I was working in the south of India and because of a cyclone the community was set up in a school as the rehabilitation center seven years later they still stay there no that's been their house but this also means that children who were supposed to go to that school and not studying anymore right so it's also about kind of actions that we tend to take you know it's one thing that there is in action but then are we taking the right kind of action to support the people who are migrating and you know thinking beyond the you know normal thinking so one article I read I'm sure many of you have heard of the Sundarbans right so it spoke about how women are forced into prostitution because of migration it's simple you know climate changes there's so many floods people move especially to urban cities for like again better opportunities but also because they're forced now as young people many you know in India people marry young you know people at the age of 25 they're married they have kids men tend to be skilled you know they can go to an urban area get a job in a factory but then if it's like a single lady or a woman who wants to contribute because standards of living in a city is very difficult a very high so women end up becoming prostitutes to support their own family and this is not something we want out of you know anybody migrating you know as a consequence of migration itself so in terms of how we perceive migration especially for young people because when we look out for opportunities we still have a lot of barriers on you know getting those opportunities or act make you know having access to them itself but it is also about how do we ensure that we are not contributing to any problem that is already existing right because we have as much as we are victims we should also not become perpetrators so there's always a barrier in terms of the kind of actions we take and that is where we bring in like you know the concept of we speak about intergenerational equity are we giving the same planet to our future generations we are young people right we maybe the previous generations did not make a conscious choice but because we are also victims we are making that conscious choice of ensuring that the planet is better for our future you know children and future generations so there's so many difficulties that come with that we cannot do things the way it was done so migration as much as we go out and look out for opportunities I think there's significantly huge barriers and young people can come up with solutions and again as mentioning we must be code designers in the solutions but I think we also need the support to ensure and the fact that we are empowered to be able to make the choices that we can make and make better choices for the planet itself excellent thank you very much he my body thank you very much we're going to focus on your last bit in the next round of questions and I want to pick up from there in just a moment but I do want to point out something that you said that echoed something Eddie said about the rights in the human rights aspects here we need to put the human rights of individuals at the center of this discourse and the specific vulnerability to rights violations and to lack of respect and fulfillment of the rights of young people and it's not just during the displacement or migration process but afterwards what you said about the schoolhouse still being used seven years later as a shelter for people displacing the students who are supposed to be learning there we need to look at the impact of those actions and think about the rights and the various rights that are not being respected and fulfilled I like your point that we need to make sure that our actions don't further aggravate or violate rights as we act thank you very much we'll be coming back to you very soon but let me invite our fifth and final panelist up to speak Dahlia Dahlia Fernanda Marquez Agnes and she is the founder or la querida como estas founder of juventud unida en acción and let me post the same question to you about the challenges and barriers you face and maybe tell the others a little bit about yourself and what you're working on as well thank you thank you so much so first of all I want to thanks to the coordination of this international dialogue for giving me the opportunity to be here raising the voices of the young people from Latin America and from my country I have to say that young people in Latin America is facing the consequences of climate change daily we are suffering flutes loss of biodiversity that is really really bad in Latin America because we have six mega diverse countries there and also extreme drugs that at the same times affect the production systems for food and food security that's affects our economies lifehoods and forced young people to move between the borders of their countries but at the same time outside the borders of the countries in that sense the organization that I am representing here who went to the United Nations or youth United Nations have been working on research with youth migrants in lack we have been focused especially in Colombia Venezuela some countries in Central America we asked them what are the the challenges they face in the migration processes so first of all they face the insecurity typical insecurity of our region at the same time is something that the young people from Venezuela rise is the increase men or of requirements to have mobility between countries now they are facing more requirements to move out Venezuela to other countries in the region and that forced them to ask to irregular groups to facilitate them and to support them to move from Venezuela to other countries mostly of time taking a risk putting their life on risk being vulnerable in front of those irregular groups and I want to rise one example is the Darien jungle by now this year more than 200,000 people have been going through that jungle 350,000 more than 350,000 right now exactly already this year that's terrible much more than last year which was a record year exactly and 21% of those are children and youth people so that is something that we need really really have to to take into consideration also the lack of information the lack of support for for this process young people use is forced to leave their home and they go to the first place that came to their minds without any lack any kind of information about the country where they are going to any kind of support about what they are going to do how to get access to health services education job etc they also have to face the xenophobia we need to try to work on that because even in Latin America we have xenophobia a lot of xenophobia there and I want to put the focus on the lack of psychosocial support in Latin America less than 100% of the budget is invested in mental health support and young people young migrants do the consequences of climate change have to deal with the trauma of the disaster that they live in their home and the tribe the trauma of living their homes and being totally alone in these new countries and they don't have any kind of support but young people is working to try to approach this I have really good examples that I want to share with you during this panel and also the other challenge we face is the human traffic thank you Dahlia thank you very much of course your presentation really resonates with me because I said on the other side of the Darien gap and all of the people who come through and it is shocking to see how many young people are part of these extraordinarily vulnerable flows and of course the transit it's through an ecological preserve the Darien gap is a jungle it is not a migration route it is a jungle and it needs to be preserved but when people are crossing it they are tremendously vulnerable not only to the natural elements but of course your last point about the the engagement of human smugglers and traffickers taking advantage of the tremendous desperation of people go and what you said before others people don't leave in a in a highly irregular manner unless they feel they have no other choice unless they feel that's their best opportunity to survive and that is precisely what we're seeing through the Darien gap right now which is just tremendous misery because people feel they have no other opportunity and that is tremendously upsetting and heartbreaking and more than 21 percent as you said our children and youth you echoed very well what Kulud said about the trauma and lack of psychosocial or mental health support both for having left your own country but also the challenges of integration in a new country and you're right to focus on both sets of challenges as very real for well-being so now we're going to turn to solutions and Hima Hima Vati you started us on that name if you don't mind I'm going to start with you and I'm going to actually I'm sorry to those who wrote the script for this I've already violated one of the rules that I was instructed to I'm about to willingly violate the second one right now I'm going to ask you a double question okay you ready and I'm going to ask the same question to each of you because I think they're very related and it'll help focus your responses so we're turning now your ideas for solutions and specific actions that can be taken by each of you and others like you around the world and what I want to ask you specific and each of you think about it but Hima Vati I'm going to start with you so heads up and and then I'll be jumping around the rest of the panel so you won't know what order I'm coming to you at then I'll decide after she speaks so specifically what strategies or policies do you believe can effectively address the impact of climate change on mobility while specifically supporting your aspirations as youth leaders and facilitating youth access to basic services including psychological and mental health services which I think need to be understood as a fundamental right and in that how can you as youth leaders and others around the world play an influential role in shaping and implementing climate migration related strategies and I want you to get specific on that I want to hear from each of you at least one concrete action one concrete solution and in that I'd like you to think about climate change climate action innovation and human mobility collectively in thinking about your solutions I think part of the reason we're also excited to hear from you is that you're full of new ideas you're not constrained by the way things were done in the past you're all willing to break out of the silos break out of the expected ways to propose innovative solutions so him about to let me turn to you to hear from you how do you think youth specifically and you in particular what can you do to take action while supporting on climate mobility in the context of climate mobility excuse me and what do you need from the rest of us to be more empowered thank you as much as many at times we always speak about youth empowerment particularly for policies I'm a huge believer of good policies because you know one good policy can benefit millions of people but what we need to start with as much as we start with young people is building the capacity of the policy makers because many a times we have policy makers making policies without understanding the issues itself zero knowledge zero understanding of the consequences of the policies that they're making and we need to help them understand or build their capacity to be able to connect you know why are people moving because of climate change do they really understand that is it because they don't feel safe is it because of their livelihood is it because you know they don't have access to food or water people don't know this cause they only understand the symptoms they don't know the cause so when policy makers start on that understanding the cause of why people are moving their solutions start being better so for me as much as you encourage and empower young people please empower policy makers to make better policies excellent please so all of you in the room policy makers we're going to be coming to you very soon so that's a heads up and a direct challenge from Himavati and a call for your actions so be ready we're going to turn to you in just a few minutes thank you very much for that Rose may I turn to you now and ask you the same thing what would you recommend in terms of actual concrete action that you can take and what do you need in order to be able to do so I think I would say every region needs a kind of complex declaration on migration environments and climate change and speaking about that and policies from my perspective we have like very beautiful policies most times but they stop at that stage beautiful papers and that is it and I think if every region has a declaration migration environment and climate change focusing on protecting climate migrants focusing on you know harnessing migration and planned resettlement as an adaptation option but then it should go people should not put policies in place without action plans and without resources actually implement and without capacity as you're talking about to implement those policies and with that of course I can forget the action plan has to put youth at the center like a youth committee to hold the leaders accountable also do their part in implementing as you said implementing the youth perspectives the youth commitments you know just him I said something like it's very similar with what is happening in the IDPR was in people went and started sleeping in a school and then they were displaced again by floods in the camp where they were they're displaced again by floods and they stayed there and the rainy season has started they worried they may be displaced again and they can't go back where they they were because they don't know what will happen they make and the memories are very bad it's not just displacement they're family members loved ones died there so they can't go back there and that connects to the psychosocial supports so resources I can't talk about resources enough like having policies and programs but without resources it would just leave us in beautiful rooms like this and with no actual action so let's mobilize resources let's lobby for resources and I think if a certain country started implementing an actionable practical actionable program I think the rest will learn from them great thank you Rose thank you very much I think your call not just to action but for resources to implement whatever is agreed I love your statement about the Kampala declaration I'd love to see a Kampala declaration on climate change and mobility everywhere in the world but exactly as you say a real emphasis on implementation and making it real thank you very much I'm going to come to you now and specifically ask you about strategies policies and resources as Rose just said that can effectively address the impact of climate change on human mobility and specifically meeting the aspirations of youth and ensuring your your well-being when I first here heard the question that when you said it the first time and you said the word aspirations I was like wow that's a big word for me to try to transfer the aspirations as a young person but I'll try to give you two perhaps strategies that I think they are relevant and they can actually encapsulate the vision of young people and how we want more climate action in the context of human mobility I think especially in the North African region what I see that is there is a huge gap in terms of data and information now whenever I read a report or an article especially about climate change and human mobility there's also this tendency of giving just general information and recently I joined the panel in a conference in a forum about women in climate and we highlighted how even in Tunisia in one specific country the disparities and the differences from one state to another are huge so the person migrating from the north for specific reasons is not the same does not have the same purposes as a person migrating from the south even the climate conditions are not the same the climate effects that are that they are faced with are not the same so we cannot provide data that is general and expect that we will have efficient results out of it I think it's about time that we we start giving micro and macro information this data will allow us as young people to understand the necessities of each region because in one region like North Africa or East Africa or any region in Africa they have similarities but yet they have huge differences so I think it's really important that we highlight these these challenges in each region so we have to be specific so that we understand the reasons behind human mobility for a young person migrating from the north or from the south and that will allow us also to understand what are the challenges that our regions are faced with because if I understand what's going on in my region through these data research or through these policy papers I can understand how I can contribute to these challenges and it will allow me also to understand why other people are migrating and perhaps create this maybe I would feel perhaps empathetic more towards the needs of other people so that when I speak up about them I understand what they are going through even though as Rose mentioned earlier we cannot be in their shoes but we try to reflect as much experiences as we can the second solution I know this might be too ideal to think about right now but I think it's really time to include climate education and we cannot raise generations that they don't know what's going on in the world I think we need to create this culture of having the climate action in mind since an early stage so that when a person grows up they understand what's the meaning of floods but what's the meaning of droughts what's the country is facing in terms of climate action and raise this culture of contributing to the environment and to the climate so that even when they are confronted with climate action events they know that they had the idea before and they are prepared for it and we do not fall into the psychological traumas that we mentioned earlier excellent thank you so much for highlighting the data needs very specific data needs and recognizing the diversity of experiences in different regions of the world and therefore the implications of that thank you very much Calood and emphasizing the need for capacity building and education of the next generation to be well aware of what's coming Eddie I'm going to turn to you now if you don't mind and if you could focus on strategies policies that you think can effectively address the impact of climate change on human mobility while specifically meeting the aspirations of youth any concrete actions you would like to propose yeah this is the question that usually gets me a little bit more of excitement I look a lot with policy and government institution so on the first side I will say that our three main phases that I will integrate into policy development for integrating youth perspective into climate mobility the first is unrelated to engagement youth people engagement second is youth people support and third is improvement of the taken actions so let's start first one with engagement I would like to acknowledge how important is to be present here in this not only in this panel but only for the different representatives that are hearing the stories and the perspective that we are bringing into the conversation that's a really fruitful exchange that we hope that could be taken into consideration for whatever actions you're going to take after leaving this space but also these kind of exchanges are necessary not only where we are having the conversation but what happened after it as Rose mentioned before so that's where youth people support is necessary we're talking about political support we're talking about financial support we're talking about technical support as well we need that support in order to take the ideas from their conversations to the real action and the third one related to the improvement is related to okay we did something how we can escalate it how we can do it better how we can integrate more perspective more different populations or histories of people that are being left behind so once we do those three things into policy development we're gonna have a pretty interesting exchange of generations as well and taking that into consideration I think that research and innovation played a crucial role in this perspective first as I say was mentioned before the data needs that we have right now we have we know about climate mobility well how much do we know about youth into climate mobility affected by climate change specifically we have information gap right now that we need to fill in that gap with only billfield when we integrate the different generations into that conversation and innovation play a crucial role I mentioned because there's a lot of things that we can do migration by itself has shown us how culture development but also national development is possible we're not talking about we know that sometimes it becomes difficult for countries from the political perspective well but we have an opportunity in front of us an opportunity that right now if we take the right decisions we will have excellent results when we are trying to include but also ensure and guarantee the youth people that is being displaced due to climate issues are effectively integrated into the society and the economy thank you very much I think the key word from all the good things that you just said is about the engagement and making sure the engagement is meaningful and that you have the capacity to engage effectively and that your views are actually taken into consideration in the policies that follow which leads me perfectly to our audience and now all of you you've heard a lot from our panelists and it's time to engage you and to get you kicked off we're gonna do a mentor meter anybody know what a mentor meter is and then we'll call on individual delegations my my colleague the moderator over here will take the list of people who want to speak but first we're gonna do an online poll you ready everybody I'm gonna ask a question and I would like each of you colleagues Neha how do we get them to actually show it will pop up on the screen yes okay you'll see it on the screen so here's your challenge everybody and this is for each of you in your seats to please download this bar code onto your phones we want to hear from each of you in this room and all I'm asking you for is one word per person one word and we want to see what those words look like and the specific question that I want to ask you is can you please each and every one of you just define in just one word what you see as the role of youth in placing climate change and human mobility at the center of global policy discussions what is the one word for the role of youth please put your answers here and we're gonna develop a cloud look at this keep going I'm gonna give you another minute I want to see more look at this wow look at that keep going I'm seeing some really big big powerful words popping up in the center here I'm seeing power action essential central inspiration voice leadership necessary hope visionary look at that activism leading these are all very powerful and strong action words about the role of youth I think a round of applause for our panelists who are bringing us the energy the promise the potential of the future you have a lot to say you've inspired all of that up on the screen I hope you can all see it you are the future you are the now roses not just the future it's the now you are essential you're powerful you're crucial your voices matter you can make a difference thank you very much thanks to all of you we're not done because now we're turning to the floor and I'm gonna turn back to our overall moderator to take some questions now remember folks what we're asking you for is questions to the panelists please not read your prepared statements obviously we care about your views we care about the views of your country your organization but right now we want this to be interactive over to you I'm going to contradict you immediately feel free I'm feeling I think I might have made that up so absolutely your questions are encouraged in fact what would be best is we don't want you to get in trouble you know you've got to make your statements we've got to hear you so should we listen to perhaps the statements and then a question does that feel you feel free you guys all right with that are you folks okay with it perfect so without any further ado I think let's start things off with Venezuela Venezuela if you can just hold up your little card so we know where you are in the room and then you can make your statement and ask your question Venezuela please thank you very much to the moderator and to the panelists my country of course would like to greet you all also to all the delegations that participate in this panel we've been very attentive to the information given by the panelists in previous sessions we highlighted the value of young people in climate issues thinking that they are active actors important for our society with big and interesting ideas that can contribute very importantly to face climate change we observe we have a concern because of all the situation they are living and all the call of action from our young panelists about several aspects especially trauma associated to displacement and psychosocial effect it's clear that this effect is there it's a direct effect and sometimes it's not well known and this is one of the reasons our country is promoting the right to people to stay in their country of origin and in terms of our specific situation forced action sometimes had a very important consequence in young people we also agree that taking care of the future of our young people is also to reject some of the economy decisions that are taken that degrade our biosystems bio ecosystems and it's not good for population that live in those places so we urge delegations to assume an engagement in front of that reality because young people are those that will that take the decision to migrate temporarily or permanently and we must and we should create the needed situation with the means and sustainable policies that has been highlighted from the panelists my country in order to empower young Venezuelans and people from abroad provide technical capacitation for the future and also for national development wherever they are in the world this recently Venezuela launched a new project for professional schools in order to grant access to education and also bearing in mind the SDGs our in our country young people are trained in environmental issues and also ecology we have specific groups in forest they are very important for preventing and for climate action we also promote activities in order to increase the awareness of the correct use of natural resources and importance of green zones and natural zones for an balanced ecologically way of living finally I would like to close my intervention by saying the negative impact of some economic non-sustainable practices which are not good for the ecology and that force this place displacement of people my country works to follow all the agreements in the framework of UN against climate change strengthening the state capacities and also at the regional level thank you very much to the moderator for understanding and also for being ready to hear our statements the part that I thought was really interesting in that is can we grow forever can the economy grow forever and at what ecological cost that's what I heard from there but moderator would you like me to take that to them right now or hear from anybody else please go ahead okay what do you think what do you think can economy grow forever and obviously the delegate from Venezuela was very touched by what you said about the psychological impact and she talked about generational trauma which I think reflects very well what you said Dalia do you think do you think about what she just said yeah well he's a I highlight whatever in Spanish you can speak Spanish if you want it's okay and also the concern that the young people from Venezuela express in the consultation we made about the increase men of different requirements to have the liberty to move from Venezuela to several countries for for me that is unbelievable we are Latin American people that also face several barriers to move to the global north so it's unbelievable how now we are creating barriers in the global sort also to to force the young people that are living their homes not because they won it is because they are forced it because the disaster the climate change different situations that and challenges that they are facing in their communities so this seems like a lack of empathy the with the most vulnerable people they are trying to find a better place to the full development and also I want to call all the policymakers here to take migration as an advantage and not as a problem there are thousands of young people prepared solutions with a lot of knowledge experiences that wants to improve their knowledge chair their experiences and goes to other countries to support and to be helpful for the for the increase men and and the development of the economies but seems like we are leaving them behind and forced them to stay surviving facing different challenges so please think about migration as an advantage something good you can take all those amazing young people and give them the opportunity to go to your countries to work to to study to do something good they have the experience of being victims of disaster and for sure they have amazing solutions and also those experience can be helpful to prevent the same situation in your countries thank you I want to pick up on a couple of things that you said as well as that the representative of the government of Venezuela said I think we can all agree that we would like to see a situation where countries are resilient and people can live safe and dignified lives at home and not feel they need to move in order to have their rights protected but we also recognize that there are situations in which people feel that their opportunities will be better elsewhere and we want to empower that ability to move in a safe legal and regular way and to be welcomed in another country where they can make an enormous contribution so that countries development as well as back to their individual families and home countries thank you very much rose please jump in yes thank you so reflecting on what the delegates mentioned made me also remember that like over 80% of the migrant migration that happened for example in Africa is within the country's borders and the neighboring countries looking at the dynamics between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa we have so many issues happening there we have thousands of Sub-Saharan African migrants droning in the Mediterranean dying there and there's also kind of like of a trend I don't know how to say this but there's kind of a trend of a fight against some specific groups of migrants whereas some migrants receive their honor to be welcomed legal roots are open for them some are not I'm studying in the UK and there's a big program on the small boats it's not that I encourage small boats but there is no one who would risk their life to go on a small boat if they didn't have to so who determines who deserves to be welcomed and supported and then the rest are left to die on the sea it's something for the policymakers to think about some I think you mentioned about access to information many young people do not know do not have access to know which one are the safe routes and how can they get there regularly that information is still lacking and well is it is it is it I'm just thinking what is the role of the developed countries with their historic responsibility to the greenhouse gas emissions what role do they play in protecting climate migrants rather leaving them to die on the seas and trying to cross the deserts but also within for example Africa actually most of the migrants that died die within Africa trying to cross the deserts because they don't have access to legal roots to sufferance they don't know the options so they end up starving along the roads and and I mean not in the deserts so there's so much need for collaboration it's a governmental collaboration within our own regions but also across the international borders and yeah and then can countries grow forever it's a very big debate like from from a Gannon perspective I don't think we are that is a very big concern for us at the moment because we still have a very long way to go I will I'll get if it's alright with you mother Rachel the list is growing okay go ahead he will come back to you next but please go ahead take me next to the Islamic Republic of Iran where are you please make your statement and ask your question actually I don't have any question yes of the in the morning session I asked for a floor but I don't know what happened but today from the beginning of the session I raised and asked for the floor and you have it now I'm I appreciate it and actually I was looking for a better and more professional thank you very much on the base of the 50 years of the experiences on migration and asylum secure in Islamic Republic of Iran it's actually started from the 1972 that Iraqi courts arriving in Iran because of the difficulties with Iraqi territory therefore on that basis I wanted to share and echo some words with you about what's happening in my country as a neighboring country of Afghanistan actually on that base younger ones in the family looking for move therefore what we can say about are we ready for that actually I benefiting from the panelists it's good to talk about finding a words for the younger generations that wants to be involved but let me explaining about the situation that happening in my country right now we have around five around seven thousands fifty thousand students registered in the schools in the government the schools of Islamic Republic of Iran and it's include the refugees and non-documented ones everybody free of charge more on that around fifty eight thousand university a student registered easily 10% of the population of the Switzerland the country that we have in it right now is in registering in Iranian schools in this situation the local community of my country suffering with the short resources and in infrastructures which is weakening because of the because of the mass influx and it's amazing that we receiving only one to two percent of the whole costs of the refugees and the other ones Afghan citizens and also we have the minor refugees from the Iraq also still remaining in the territory it's in the situation that we are suffering because of the unilateral coercive measures and sanction that imposed to us and we actually looking for the further assistance of the international community thank you very much thank you for your contribution moving on to Gambia Gambia is over there please turn on your mic do you have a question for us or just a statement I have questions please so should I go with the question first and then if you would like to for us to get through the room quicker I would encourage you just to ask a question thank you well thank you the panelists for your presentations my question goes to Rose from Uganda we had you loud and clear policies to be in place programs and to mobilize resources what strategy is in place between the government of Uganda and youths in addressing climate change and migration matters which you think can be shared with other states thank you and we go to Rose now for addressing the question of the delegate of Gambia okay thank you so much for the question and as much as I know we don't have a youth strategy yet but the government of Uganda is quite very good I should say proudly say when it comes to migration issues and welcoming refugees I think we're quite advanced in so many countries need to learn from from Uganda I can proudly say that because we have a if an open refugee policy and when it comes to hostility and people welcoming we are a poor country in terms of GDP but we're very rich in terms of resources which are tapped also rich in terms of our culture welcoming people but on climate change that is why I was kind of lamenting regarding implementation but we have the policies by the implementation there's a very big gap and when we talk to the governments they say we don't have the resources and there's just so many challenges from trying to eradicate poverty on health and infrastructure and then climate to be honest sometimes like even when a country like Uganda most of us are the frontline of the climate crisis sometimes when you look at the priorities the priorities are different so there's that big gap and I've personally been requesting and trying to ask our leaders for that youth policy we have the climate we have the law but we don't have the strategy for youth engagement and thank you for reminding me to continue reminding them about that and one action that we've been also advocating for is a youth coalition like a youth a youth forum that brings together young Ugandans on working on climate change and youth organizations and an environment together into a national level coalition so I think that is something also that other countries can pick on. Thank you Rose and maybe before you go to the next one I just want to thank the representative of the government of Iran for his statement and contribution I'm not sure if he's still with us but I'll pass it on when we move next to Mexico. Thank you we will speak in Spanish. Thank you Michelle thanks to the panelist it was very inspiring. Based on your ideas and your testimonies I feel forced to go back to the main question how to have more success in order to see the motivation to live a country it can be violent climate change however it's clear that when there's no other alternative when there's no other option and moving as states we are there to help so that these movements are safe elderly and regular and I would like to talk about channels for regular migration my question is based in your experience your needs and aspirations to use the word that Michelle was using which would be for you the channels for a regular migration that would give you access to this kind of opportunities you are looking for if you are in the situation that you have to live your country and you have to move. Thank you very much that's a very pertinent question and I would like to suggest this. If you don't you were about to come to you before and I think the delegate of Mexico said very well obviously we need to look at the causes what's compelling the effects of climate change than compelling people to move but he rightfully said that once people feel that they need to move how can we ensure that that takes place through safe regular and orderly mechanisms what are the legal channels that you want to see available to make sure and that's the best way to preserve people's dignity but I know you were going to respond before so let me turn to you first very quickly. Okay maybe I'll just quickly respond to this and also from experience many a times people have a choice to do something legally and illegally right and it's also a matter of convenience or what is easier for me now if the legal process it's about having policies that are inclusive for everybody to be benefited out of that policy so when you have a policy that addresses migration but that is non-inclusive or not actually I'm a victim I'm say and this is something a lot of people in India sometimes face documentation right I cannot benefit from the policy if I don't have the documents now is the policy inclusive enough to consider recognize me as a victim and provide me the benefits out of for why the policy was met now if it's gonna be a you know tedious process a very difficult for process and I have to continually prove to somebody that I'm a victim to be benefiting from that policy I'm not gonna go through that so it's a matter of choice when you know people choose whether to do something legally or illegally so it's important for policy makers to understand how to make those policies very very inclusive itself and I just wanted to mention one thing about you know can economies grow forever but it's it's sim it's a matter of perspective on what we consider economic growth right we have grown to understand and value trees more than you know considering them separate from our ecosystem itself do we consider you know for everybody like you close your eyes imagine cities most of you will imagine skyscrapers not trees right so it's it's really about perspective when we consider growth and I hope we can consider the forest station a forest station as economic growth as much as building infrastructure completely agree about sustainable growth thank you very much to our moderator we move now to New Zealand our colleagues in New Zealand have an intervention thank you so much to all the panelists today for this constructive and and inspiring conversation it gives us a lot to think about for Aotearoa New Zealand we we observe the impacts of climate mobility right through our region and we are highly conscious that the youth of today and tomorrow will be the ones who bear these impacts so I wanted to ask a further question about data because at the moment we are we are currently conducting a multi-year piece of research to better understand migration trends in the Pacific which will as discussed build the capacity of our policy so to the panelists from your communities have you seen any standout or exemplary examples of data gathering that incorporate youth experiences and perspectives that we can learn lessons from and take inspiration from thank you again moderator who do you want to answer this question am I turned to Calude if you don't mind because you're the one who first brought up the data question for us and I suspect you have some suggestions or perhaps some examples to share thank you very much for your intervention and for the question I think we do have some standing out examples but I'm not sure how much they reflect the challenges that youth face in terms of climate change and human mobility the direct nexus between both topics is not very available I would say and that's where why I raised the issue of the existing gaps but I think in terms of migration there is a huge data available I think even for the whole region there is a variety of data available and I think Tunisia is standing out from from the other countries because we do have a very interesting I would say route for outgoing and incoming migrants so I think that's why I believe we have a variety of data and it's very available and I'm happy of course to share with you the available resources but I definitely emphasize on more research perhaps or more specific research in terms of the real challenges that make youth tend to migrate and how youth are confronted with the question of should I stay or go when a climate change event occurs so I think that's the real challenge right now and why not allow young people to be the contributors of such research so that we go from the different regional dynamics and that can reflect actually the accurate challenges that young people face thank you very much thank you moderator if you permit me even though we're slightly over I might I might go to the initiative of change international just for one more comment or question absolutely please do thank you so much to the panelist and I am recognizing also the importance of youth voices I'm humbled to be here I speak as a white European youths climate activist representing initiatives of change and creative leadership a platform for young people to reconceptualize leadership and encourage transformation beginning with the self so this informs and also limits my views regarding the challenges of migration and the climate crisis for youth in my region so Europe I see governments shifting to the right I see the psychological impacts of losing one's home and moving as has been mentioned so solace Dalje the emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change and I see also continued inequalities at the intersection between the climate crisis and migration so environmental debt is still highest in the global north and yet the global south suffers most so we as young people want to be part of a society of care that recognizes also the responsibilities that we hold and many young people are mobilizing to imagine worlds otherwise and need support again it's been said before we need holistic approaches so this is as much a crisis of how we treat each other as of how we treat nature we need to be included in discussions on solutions to be able to co-create and to be taken seriously and we need language which recognizes the urgency so moving from climate change to climate crisis or social ecological crisis and from sustainability to regeneration and we also need a redistribution of power so asking ourselves who's making the decisions on whose behalf um so my my questions to the panel are really um how are the youth engaging of the youth and where are you now looking for added support thank you. Who are you going to maybe let's take Eddie if you don't mind and share a bit about how youth are engaging it could engage most effectively you talked about engagement go ahead okay so um first we have the youth engagement within the political sphere and then we have the youth engagement within the youth platforms so first one talking about the the political scenarios there's a huge opportunity to keep engaging people youth people through national consultations rating youth advisory panels having youth for example in the Dominican Republic we have the sample of the youth councils or specific government institutions so that helps that when a policy is being designed youth perspective are integrated and not limited to one seat at the table we know what it means to be present at these conversations and we really appreciate it but if we do not keep that um always if we just do it to comply with the checkbox of oh yeah there was a youth representative it's not gonna mean nothing because it is not in the DNA of the policy development so I will say those are good examples that I have seen through Latin America and the Caribbean countries but also one point that I would like to highlight is the one related to um youth being involved within youth spaces so sometimes there are huge limitations to have um intersectionality in the youth movements so we have to make sure that once we're talking about youth which youth are we talking about we're talking about youth in cities are we talking about youth in rural areas are we talking about youth um that is less or more vulnerable to the effects of climate change so having taken into consideration those intersectionality are necessary because we are youth but we are pretty diverse and that diversity needs to be taken into consideration in these spaces. Thank you Eddie. Thank you so much so as we draw this panel to a close moderator I wonder if in a few minutes are you able to perhaps give us a sense of what you take from this room not only from your outstanding panelists but also the comments and contributions you've had in in a minute or two. I'd be very happy to because I think there was a great coherence between what you said and the comments and the questions that were raised in the room and I have eight very quick takeaways very quick the first is the need for data that is clearly disaggregated by region and is context specific and that data needs to include research innovation and access to information for individuals for example about access to legal pathways and what may be available. Secondly you mentioned all of you the need for capacity building for various different actors capacity building for policymakers to really understand what that data means and therefore the implications for decisions but also capacity building for the next generation in terms of education and really being aware about the implications of of climate change. Third was the importance of not just statements and political declarations but action plans and then the concrete resources to actually implement them so mobilizing not just the will to act in a political declaration but the means to act and actually give effect to those actions. You all stressed and all of you and thank you so much from everybody in the room as well that we need to make sure not only that youth is at the table but that youth has a voice and that youth are considered in the policies that your needs your rights your perspectives are actually at the heart of action it's not just enough to check the box the seat at the table and then coming to the importance of that engagement you need to be empowered at political financial technical levels to be able to contribute most effectively ensure that that voice is meaningful. I heard a clear concern about rising xenophobia and discrimination particularly against particular groups that has to be part of all of our concern and then the need for adequate legal channels to migrate safely regularly in an orderly way and for the means to access them like documentation and my final point and this came from all of you is the need for inclusive collaboration not just between states but bringing in diverse voices including LGBTQI communities and a very inclusive definition of who needs to be at the table. Thank you so very much to all of our panelists. I want to give a long round of applause if you might to our voices so as we know we have our next and final panel coming up however as we get ready for a quick technical change I want to offer you a five-minute phone break that means you can check your emails your whatsapps your tiktoks if you need to but please don't leave the room please do not leave the room this break will only be for five minutes off you go you can go on Instagram