Youth Engagement
Youth participation in water, sanitation and hygiene sector is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Young people are key stakeholders in the sector – from being directly affected by lack of service provisions in schools (especially girls and women) and in communities, to marginalization in decision-making. The Sanitation and Water for All global partnership aims to include and amplify the voices of young leaders, advocates and professionals in its work and in the sector. This is the objective of SWA Youth Strategy 2022-2025, which also details concrete ways to make this happen. Some examples:
- At global level, SWA ensures progressive inclusion of young people through participation and representation in high-level meetings including COP, SWA’s Sector Ministers’ Meetings.
- At regional level, SWA encourages and supports youth participation in initiatives and forums and events including World Water Forum, LatinoSan, AfricaSan.
- At national level, SWA supports participation in national sector dialogues, review processes, and other national multi-stakeholder sector processes.
These activities are led by young professionals working for our partners, that jointly develop youth-focused strategies to promote their messages and demands through SWA’s channels, events and initiatives.
To complement this work by young professionals, SWA created the role of Youth Champion. Every two years, SWA selects a Youth Champion who promotes water and sanitation more broadly and among different audiences and platforms (e.g., climate, gender, education). The current Youth Champion is Anita Soina, Kenyan environmental activist from the Maasai community.
Youth Strategy
SWA aims to include and amplify the voices of young leaders, advocates and professionals within the partnership and in the sector.
Anita Soina
2023-2024 SWA Youth Champion
Anita Soina is a Kenyan environmental activist from the Maasai community. She is the author of The Green War and the founder of Spice Warriors, a group that advocates for climate change in Kenya.
She has a BA in Public Relations and Corporate Communication and since graduating she has been an active advocate for environmental causes in Kenya and around the world. In 2022 she was the youngest candidate standing for election to the Kenyan national assembly. She has recently created the “The Soina Foundation” to more effectively connect climate change to other societal issues, such as sexual and reproductive health, Education, Sanitation and Health.
Anita is currently the Youth Champion of United Nations-hosted Sanitation and Water for All global partnership, advocating for water, sanitation and hygiene for all.
Anita uses different platforms to mobilize youth, such as the COPs, where she’s been a speaker and panelist (see here her interview with BBC at COP26), the You Lead Summits, and TEDx. Her book, The Green War, Anita talks about her journey and challenges faced by environmental Warriors from the Global south.
Meet SWA 2023-2024 Youth Champion
A conversation with Candice Chirwa on Menstrual Hygiene Day
SWA Youth Champion speaks on Sextortion and Period Poverty at the SDG Media Zone
SWA Youth Champion speaks to Henk Ovink, UN Special Envoy for Water
How SWA is empowering young people
For the first time at a SWA high-level meeting, young leaders had speaking and engagement roles during the 2022 Sector Ministers’ Meeting (SMM) and its preparatory process. In the run-up to the event, SWA’s youth organizations convened to develop a set of very concrete messages and recommendations, which they presented at the SMM through their representatives, Nicole Becker and Kenneth Alfaro Alvarado.
At the 2022 World Water Forum in Dakar, Temple Oraeki, who represented SWA as a young water professional, spoke at several sessions including "Water and Jobs" and"Cultivating Next Generation Leadership to Strengthen Governance, Water and Health Outcomes", where he highlighted the interlinkages between water, sanitation and hygiene and other sectors. He also encouraged intergenerational dialogue between water sector industry experts and young water professionals/students. Additionally, Temple conducted media interviews with several young water professionals and experts to get their take on the most pressing challenges in the sector.
At the LatinoSan 2022 in Bolivia, René Bonilla and Geisel Sánchez, from the Water Youth Network represented SWA as youth representatives. They joined the youth space event where they advocated for youth participation in decision-making processes, and presented the Justice Begins Here campaign.
PAST SWA YOUTH CHAMPIONS
Nicole Becker
2021-2022 SWA Youth Champion
Activist and leader in the fight for climate justice in Argentina, Nicole Becker is one of the main organizers of the international youth climate movement “Fridays For Future”, and one of the founders of "Jóvenes por el Clima Argentina."
In 2019, she was granted a scholarship to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference representing Argentine youth. In 2020, she was chosen by ECLAC as Champion of Escazu to achieve the ratification of the Escazu Agreement in Latin America and the Caribbean. She participated in multiple international events as a youth panellist, including the Forum of Ministers of Environment organized by the UN. Nicole is a columnist on environmental issues for “ElDiarioAR”, an Argentinean news portal, and has her own program in “Futurock.”
She joined the SWA partnership as SWA 2021-2022 Youth Champion in February 2021 and is bringing her expertise and activism to support SWA campaigns, advise on opportunities for youth engagement and advocacy, and conduct interviews with other youth leaders through a dedicated WASH Going On video series. She leads a new generation of champions who are already making a difference in making SDG 6 a reality, using new technologies and networks to demand the prioritization of water and sanitation, and calling for the end of unequal access.
SWA Names its 2021 Youth Champion
WASH Going on with SWA CEO
Launch of the Adaptation Action Coalition Water
WASH Going On with Madhvi Dalal
Clinton Ikechukwu Ezeigwe
2020 SWA Youth Reporter
Clinton Ikechukwu Ezeigwe is a community and civil society activist and heads the operation and campaigns of the Christian Fellowship and Care Foundation in Nigeria. He was a Global Youth Ambassador of “A World At School,” and he also served as a two-term ONE Champion of ONE Campaign in Nigeria. He has 7+ years of practical experience in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) advocacy, campaigns and networking. He has been engaged and involved in volunteering and community development programs, developing and maintaining relationships with a wide range of stakeholders within the private and public sector, as well aspeople from varying multicultural backgrounds. He is adept at using advocacy and campaigns to influence a political agenda related to international development.
Ezeigwe is an active member of the End Water Poverty Task Team, working on SDG 6 and other Global campaigns to ensure that advocacy translates into meaningful and productive policy change, as well as theachievement of the SDGs, ensuring that the voices of citizens are heard.
Ezeigwe has contributed articles on youth participation in WASH and SDGs, advocating for meaningful youth engagement and holding governments and other key decision-makers at different levels accountable for their SDGs commitments.
Reflections from SWA's 2020 Youth Reporter
2020 FMMs: Youth Statement on investing in WASH
Youth Statement on COVID-19 and WASH
Interview of SWA CEO by SWA Youth Reporter
Engage with SWA
Become a partner
Are you a youth organization? Want to join SWA as a partner? As a SWA partner, your organization will be part of a global movement to raise the profile of water, sanitation and hygiene.
Youth Advisory Group
SWA Secretariat regularly consult the SWA Youth Advisory Group on LinkedIn on the inclusion of youth in SWA activities, from our campaigns to our High-level Meetings.