EAA, Silatech, Unicef to equip youth for sustainable initiatives

Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, Silatech, and Unicef's Generation Unlimited (GenU) announced Sunday the signing of an agreement to train and mobilise 565,670 young people to access education, tackle climate change, and become community volunteers and entrepreneurs driving sustainable development efforts across Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.

Announced against the backdrop of the Summit of the Future at UNGA, in response to urgent calls for a new consensus to tackle global challenges, the new three-year, $33mn partnership with equal contributions from Unicef, EAA and Silatech, will support access to education and empower young volunteers and entrepreneurs with the training, resources and mentorship they need to take climate action.

In this context, a high-level roundtable was convened to discuss ways to provide educational and employment opportunities for youth in their communities through strategic and local partnerships to support the economies of their countries and empower youth with methods to protect the environment and address climate change.

The session was chaired by HE Permanent Representative of Qatar to the UN Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif al-Thani, and featured participation from HE Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater, alongside numerous ministers, distinguished figures, representatives from the UN, youth advocates.

The session was attended by Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN in New York, Bob Rae, Minister of Youth and Sports of Lebanon, Dr Georges Kallas, Minister of Education of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Farah Abdulkadir Mohamed, and also included contributions from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in France, the Islamic Development Bank, Microsoft, the African Development Bank, Unicef and Accenture.

During the roundtable held on the sidelines of the "Summit of the Future," CEO of the Education Above All Foundation, Fahad al-Sulaiti stated, "This partnership is a testament to the power of collaborative efforts in providing quality education for children and empowering youth to develop green skills in real life. We aim to address issues in local communities and lead sustainable initiatives, in addition to presenting innovative solutions that contribute to expanding the beneficiary scope through impactful and quality projects, thus achieving sustainable development and enhancing the outcomes of the Future Summit."

Silatech CEO Hassan al-Mulla remarked, "This collaboration with Education Above All Foundation and Generation Unlimited marks a vital milestone for us all. It embeds our ambition for sustainable impact through the extension of value chain by investing in youth at an early stage to ensure their readiness for the job market and through investing in the green economy for a sustainable future for generations to come. At Silatech, we believe in the power of partnership to transform lives, and we remain committed to economically empowering young people across the Middle East and North Africa. Through this project, we are investing in their future by providing them with the necessary skills and placing them into economic opportunities to drive positive change in their communities and beyond."

The Green Visions and Thriving Futures' programme reflects a growing recognition that the path to net-zero and climate resilience depends on whether today's young people gain the skills and knowledge to drive the green transition.

"Green skills and access to green opportunities at scale through holistic, integrated solutions, enabled by global public-private-youth cooperation are essential for moving towards a climate-resilient future," said UNICEF's Generation Unlimited CEO, Kevin Frey. "This new partnership is about creating actionable strategies to prepare young people for the opportunities of tomorrow, opportunities that don't just sustain economies, but also our planet."

The new programme will support 370,000 young people across Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt in greening actions to protect biodiversity, manage waste and conserve water in local communities, with 60,000 participating in a climate action curriculum in preparatory schools. Another objective of the programme is to support an additional cohort of 195,670 youth in Egypt to transition from learning to earning, through placement in jobs or self-employment in sectors such as information technology, healthcare, engineering, and agriculture. This includes 22,500 young people who will develop specific skills in climate action, participate in greening initiatives, and secure green jobs.

With a focus on equipping young people with essential green skills and connecting them to opportunities in the green economy, this new partnership will empower the next generation to confront the urgent challenges of the climate crisis. By linking environmental sustainability with job creation, the partnership aims to demonstrate that economic development and climate adaptation can work hand in hand, creating a foundation for a world that thrives both economically and environmentally.

Unicef and EAA Foundation have partnered for over ten years, helping to remove barriers to education for more than five mn previously out-of-school children. The activity announced Sunday is part of the expansion of the partnership to support children and young peoples' broader developmental needs.

Silatech's support for Unicef began in November 2022 as the main strategic partner of the One mn Opportunities (1Mio) initiative from Unicef Brazil and Generation Unlimited, providing vulnerable young people in Brazil with opportunities to develop their skills and access decent livelihoods.