Youth for Inclusive Climate Resilience (YICR)

Project Overview

The Youth for Inclusive Climate Resilience (YICR) project is FoD’s dedicated climate justice initiative aimed at ensuring that LGBTIQ+ youth and other vulnerable young people are not left behind in Botswana’s climate response. The project recognizes that climate change intensifies existing inequalities, including access to health, safe spaces, livelihoods, and mental wellbeing.

What the Project Does

1. Participation in Climate Governance & Policy Engagement

FoD actively participates in climate-related meetings, national dialogues, workshops, and stakeholder platforms, ensuring that youth voices and LGBTQ+ perspectives are represented in environmental decision-making.
This includes involvement in:

  • National climate adaptation and resilience meetings

  • District-level disaster risk management consultations

  • Youth climate forums and policy review spaces

  • Civil society environment and sustainable development working groups

FoD’s presence ensures inclusive recommendations, visibility of marginalized groups, and integration of human rights into climate frameworks.

2. Community Climate Education & Youth Mobilization

FoD runs youth-focused climate education sessions in partnership with local community structures, youth clubs, and health service providers.
Activities include:

  • Awareness campaigns on climate change and health

  • Dialogues on climate-driven mental health stress

  • Youth workshops on environmental rights and resilience

  • Training youth to understand climate risks and engage in advocacy

These activities target LGBTIQ+ youth and the broader community, promoting solidarity and shared resilience.

3. Climate & Mental Health Integration

FoD integrates climate anxiety, stress, and emotional wellbeing into its psychosocial support services.
Interventions include:

  • Group discussions on the mental impact of extreme heat, displacement, unemployment

  • Counselling support to youth affected by environmental shocks

  • Story-sharing circles on resilience, loss, and environmental grief

This makes FoD one of the few youth organizations in Botswana connecting climate crisis and mental health.

4. Strengthening Partnerships for Climate Justice

FoD collaborates with civil society organizations working on sustainability, environmental rights, disaster preparedness, and youth development.
This ensures:

  • Joint advocacy on climate justice

  • Shared community platforms

  • Coordinated climate action at district and national level

  • Integration of marginalized voices in national planning

5. Climate Justice Through the Lens of Human Rights

The project emphasizes that climate change is a justice issue.
We advocate for:

  • Fair access to services during climate shocks

  • Protection of vulnerable youth in emergencies

  • Inclusion of LGBTIQ+ needs in shelters, emergency plans, and relief distribution

  • Policies that do not discriminate during disasters

Through this work, FoD positions climate justice as a core part of youth rights in Botswana.