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Youth4Pacific
Pre-COP Gathering
Workshops
23rd - 24th September 2021 | Virtual Gathering
Participants will engage in 12 Movement Workshops facilitated by partners and organisations who work with Youth in the Pacific and share in the Youth4Pacific vision of a just, inclusive and sustainable response to the threat of climate change.
(Click on Workshop number for description)
Climate Forced-Displacement: The self-determination of Pacific Island Communities and the role of Youth & Elders. Facilitated by Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Grassroot Climate Justice Activists and Feminist Says: No climate Justice without Social-Economic, Climate and Ecological Justice. Facilitated by DIVA for Equality
Youth, Climate, and Art. Facilitated by Jo-Jikum
Active Citizens - sharing stories of change. Facilitated by Active Citizens Pacific
Pacific Insurance and Climate Adapatation Programme? Facilitated by United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)
The Road to the ICJ: The Pacific Youth Campaign to seek Climate Justice at the World's Highest Court! Facilitated by Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change
Youth and Nature-based Solutions. Facilitated by International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Intergenerational Equity, Intersectionality & Climate Justice. Facilitated by Alliance for Future Generations [Fiji]
Where Are My Mats? Intergenerational learning in the context of Climate-Induced Relocation in Fiji. Facilitated by Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC)
Integrating Human Rights at the Center of Youth Climate Action Facilitated by United Nations Office of the Commissioner of Human Rights
Climate-Related Mobility in the Pacific: What does the future look like and how can we work together as a region? Facilitated by UN International Office for Migration (IOM)
Bua Will Rise - Community Relocation Realities and Responses: Bua Youth. Facilitated by Bua Urban Youth (BUY)
Workshops
Workshop 1:
Climate Forced-Displacement: The self-determination of Pacific Island Communities and the role of Youth & Elders
This workshop will explore the self-determination of Pacific Island communities and the factors that contribute to their decisions in addressing climate-forced displacement. We will learn about the current work that is happening in the Pacific by local groups involving youths and elders on sensitive issues such as loss and damage and climate-forced displacement and create a working statement for COP26 advocacy.
Facilitated by:
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Workshop 2:
Grassroot Climate Justice Activists and Feminist Says: No climate Justice without Social-Economic,Climate and Ecological Justice
We will hear from 5 fierce experienced youth climate activists and feminist activists from different districts of Fiji with diverse areas of expertise. They represent young people in all their diversity and across intersectional complexities including age, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, indigenous and ethnic identities, occupation, and more.
The session will provide a space for young people to share individual work and experiences in combating the issues of climate change and how the Action Coalition plays a specific role in pushing for the inclusivity of all groups in the work towards Climate Justice. Youth-Led Networks, civil society and Feminist organizations will discuss deep understandings of Develop the capacities of our NYGAs and other youth activists on principles of feminist leadership and activism, and good practices for promoting safe and inclusive spaces (including disability-inclusive processes).
This session will take a catalytic approach with Youth activists in speaking both on
advancements and gaps and obstacles in the inclusion of young people in all their diversity,
struggles on the bodies and continuously negotiating in the decision-making process of
climate justice. The session aims to identify key local, national, regional, and global strategies
to advance Young People and diversity in gender, human rights, development theory and
practice.
Facilitated by:
Diverse Voices and Action (DIVA) for Equality
Workshop 1
Workshop 2
Workshop 3
Workshop 4
Workshop 4:
Active Citizens - sharing stories of change
Active Citizens is a global movement for a better world. From urban communities in theNew Zealand to remote villages in Fiji Active Citizens participants have launched more than 11,000 community-led social action projects in 77 countries worldwide. In turn, they are changing lives and helping make the world a better place for us all.
With positive social action happening all around the world there are many stories of change to tell. To give a flavour of what’s happening, this workshop shares stories of movements created in the Pacific. The workshop is focused on building trust and understanding, so come enjoy time learning and join us to empower change. Remember change can not only happen to us, but through us.
Facilitated by:
Active Citizens Pacific
Workshop 5
Workshop 5:
Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme
Strengthening the disaster resilience of Pacific Small Islands Developing States through innovative and inclusive Climate Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance (CDRFI) Products.
Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) are highly vulnerable and exposed to natural disasters. However, they have limited capacity to manage the risks and overcome the significant economic losses after a disaster. The Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme aims to improve the financial resilience of PSIDS towards climate change and natural hazards by designing and implementing innovative and inclusive Climate Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance instruments such as parametric insurance – with a robust interface to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Facilitated by:
United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)
Workshop 6:
The Road to International Court of Justice: The Pacific Youth Campaign to seek Climate Justice at the World's Highest Court!
This workshop is a deep dive in the Pacific youth and CSOs campaign to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJAO) on climate change and human rights. It will look at the legal and political foundations of an advisory opinion campaign on climate change and deliberate on how it can serve as a legal catalyst in motivating greater climate action that can help alleviate the climate crisis.
Facilitated by:
Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change
Workshop 6
Workshop 7
Workshop 8:
Intergenerational Equity, Intersectionality & Climate Justice
This session will cover climate justice from an intergenerational and intersectional lens, drawing from the policy and community-led actions of the Alliance for Future Generations - Fiji. It will explore some of the challenges, lessons learnt and opportunities from young leaders who have spearheaded climate action initiatives, built strategic partnerships & alliances, and have organically built from bottom-up a nationwide movement of young people working tirelessly to promote a fairer, equitable, and sustainable planet.
Facilitated by:
Alliance for Future Generations [Fiji]
Workshop 8
Workshop 9:
Where Are My Mats?
Intergenerational learning in the context of Climate Induced Relocation in Fiji
In the Pacific mats are used for beddings and floor coverings, or protective surface inside or
outdoors for working or lying on. Where are my Mats? In this workshop it is providing some
references to the complexity of climate induced migration when ones home or vanua are no
longer habitable or no longer safe to live on Mats express relational pathways between kin groups and mediate between the material and the spiritual. It embodies the ‘female qualities’ associated with women, such as providing nurture and protection in all aspects of life and death, mats are material expressions of Fijian society and the structuring principles it is founded on and sustained by.
This workshop will specifically be focusing on sharing the learning from communities who have
been relocated or partially relocated due to climate change in Fiji. As climate induced migration
becomes another everyday conversation, the complexity of this process is clear designing,
assigning responsible govt. leads and stakeholders but most importantly centered and driven by the communities.
Our Pacific history informs us of our own migration stories, our regional leaders and stakeholders are designing roadmaps and frameworks through policies to guide climate migration processes that would ultimately protect the dignity of people. How can young people and children actively engage in these processes?
Facilitated by:
Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC)
Workshop 9
Workshop 10
Workshop 10:
Integrating human rights at the center of youth climate action
The session will provide an overview to how human rights interlink with the Paris Agreement, climate action and practical steps that youth in the Pacific can utilize to strengthen the protection and promotion of human rights in the context of climate change. The session will share examples of Pacific youth work on advancing human rights and their stories of how climate change is impacting rights in the Pacific.
Facilitated by:
United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner
Commissioner (UNOCHR)
Workshop 12:
Bua Will Rise - Community Relocation Realities and Responses
Bua Urban Youth network will highlight the relocation experiences of communities in Cogea, Wainunu and Banikea, Lekutu in Bua due to climate induced cyclones that destroyed their villages during TC Yasa and TC Ana in late 2020, early 2021. The sessions will reflect on the vulnerabilities faced by communities due to anthropogenic threats of climate change as well as the resilience in using traditional governance and methodologies to relocate.
Facilitated by:
Bua Urban Youth (BUY)
Workshop 11
Workshop 12
Workshop 11:
Climate-related mobility in the Pacific: What does the future look like and how can we work together as a region?
Climate change and disasters have had far reaching impacts on human security in Pacific Islands, above all in smaller Pacific Island Countries. Future projections of global warming indicate that such trends are likely to continue. Climate change and disasters interact drivers of mobility, leading to voluntary migration or forced displacement, with varied degrees of permanence. While many Pacific Islanders may be forced to move, some populations may also proactively seek migration options as a means to adapt to climate change. To mitigate risks of displacement, governments and communities are considering planned relocation as a coping strategy.
Facilitated by:
UN International Office for Migration (IOM)
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