Young people must move beyond attending environmental and climate meetings as spectators and demand meaningful representation in decision-making processes, environmental and climate action expert Dr Sithandweyinkosi Nkomo has said.
Dr Nkomo said young people should understand how environmental decisions are made at local and national level and use government engagements to push for concrete commitments on issues affecting their communities.
She was speaking during a session on youth leadership in environmental and climate governance at the Youth Environmental Natural Resources Convention, organised by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELO) on Friday under the theme, “Youth Leadership, Climate Justice, Sustainable Future”.
Dr Nkomo urged young people to develop clear demands for government and other decision-makers, including youth quotas, dedicated youth structures, funding and mechanisms to monitor authorities and hold them accountable.
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She said engagements with the Ministry of Environment and other government institutions should go beyond giving young people an opportunity to speak and should result in measurable commitments.
“What is it that as young people you want to see happening when it comes to participation?” Nkomo asked.
She said youth demands could include guaranteed representation through quotas, the establishment of youth bodies, support for inclusive coalitions, accountability mechanisms such as social audits and funding for youth-led monitoring initiatives.
“For you as young people, organise around your demands. What do you want? Is it representation? Is it finance? Is it self-dominance? How do you then find yourself there?” she said.
Dr Nkomo identified capacity building as an immediate priority, saying young people needed a strong understanding of environmental and climate issues to participate effectively in decision-making spaces.
She urged young environmental advocates to familiarise themselves with government departments, environmental laws, environmental impact assessments (EIAs), nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and other processes that shape climate governance.
She also challenged young people to map environmental decision-making structures in their communities and identify the institutions and individuals responsible for addressing environmental problems.
Nkomo proposed a phased approach, with young people spending the first three months mapping decision-making spaces before pushing for participation protocols, youth quotas and dedicated budget allocations.
Within three to six months, she said, youth groups should begin conducting youth-led reviews, piloting community scorecards and publishing their findings.
She said monitoring everyday environmental problems could provide young people with evidence to engage authorities and demand action.
Nkomo cited recurring sewer bursts as an example of how young people could document environmental problems in their communities and use the evidence to hold authorities accountable.
“You guys can track, for example, what is the frequency of sewer pipe bursting in my neighbourhood? It burst this week. What is the story? They fixed it. It happened again,” she said.
She said evidence gathered through such monitoring could then be used to engage institutions such as the Ministry of Environment, the Environmental Management Agency and environmental civil society organisations.
Dr Nkomo warned that simply giving young people seats at decision-making tables would be meaningless if they lacked the knowledge and confidence to contribute effectively.
“You have been given a seat at the table. You have no idea what this table is talking about,” she said.
Meaningful youth participation, she argued, required young people to move beyond being invited to meetings and become “core designers, core decision makers, and being co-accountable” for decisions.
“If the sewer system issues continue in my local area and I am an environmental advocate, I am equally responsible for the chaos that is happening in my local area,” she said.
Dr Nkomo said this approach would help prevent youth participation from becoming tokenistic and instead create a generation of young people capable of influencing decisions while taking responsibility for environmental outcomes.
She linked meaningful youth participation to intergenerational justice, saying young people had a right to inherit an environment that was as healthy and productive as that enjoyed by previous generations.
“By the time you are my age, are you going to enjoy the same environment as myself?” she asked.
Nkomo said climate change was already reshaping young people’s experiences, with floods and cyclones increasingly becoming part of their lived reality.
“Your child has the right to enjoy the environment the same way you did, the same way your predecessor did,” she said.
She said Africa’s large youth population presented an opportunity for the continent to strengthen its response to climate change and other environmental challenges.
“You guys bring innovation, you bring local knowledge, you bring long-term perspectives,” Dr Nkomo said, adding that young people had the technological and creative capacity to develop solutions to environmental problems.
She called on Zimbabwean and African youth to use their numbers, knowledge and innovative capacity to demand a greater role in environmental governance.
Dr Nkomo urged participants to use the coming months to strengthen their knowledge of environmental and climate issues so that, when opportunities to participate arise, they are equipped to influence decisions, demand accountability and contribute meaningfully to environmental governance.
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