Climate Change Adaptation Framework and Youth Entrepreneurship in West Africa

This book's purpose is to highlight the development challenges and successes of implementing the Youth Climate Change Adaptation Development Framework in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Over the past decade, Sierra Leone has experienced a series of development challenges, including internal conflict and Ebola outbreaks in most recent times. The dire unemployment situation in Sierra Leone is compounded by the emergence of climate change that negatively impacts all aspects of daily life and wellbeing, and the education and training provided do not prepare young people adequately for the job market. Therefore, building youth resilience to adapt to the impact of climate change and other development problems is a significant development challenge faced by policymakers in Sierra Leone. The government, through funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB), has provided support for the implementation of a Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Project (YEEP) to reinforce the employability of Sierra Leone Youth as well as enhance their entrepreneurship and employment skills through the development of a framework that integrates education and vocational institutions with job market demand and supply. This approach has resulted in strengthening the occupational levels in the youth population segments of the country. 

This book discusses the objectives and outcomes of this project, including curricula for Sustainable Construction, training of counselors and administrators, providing youths with supervisory skills, and developing tools to assess youth development institutions' weaknesses and enhance institutional capacity to deliver climate change adaption for sustainable development programmes. The book can be used by policymakers from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and LDCs in Africa and Asia. It can be used by researchers working on Climate Change, Education, Sustainable Development, emphasising Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development in bothdeveloping and developed countries. It can also be used by practitioners involved in implementing innovations in youth development, employment, entrepreneurship, sustainable livelihoods initiatives, climate change adaptation, and mitigation. These practitioners and researchers would find this book an invaluable resource to support their work in the field.

Dr. Andrew Simmons is a grass-root environmental activist from Enhams, St Vincent and the Grenadines. He is the Head of Mission in Sierra Leone and a Lead International Development Consultant for LATTANZIO Kibs, a management consulting firm offering Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) globally, focused on public sector reform and private sector SME development.