Children Climate Change Activism and Protests in Africa: Reflections and Lessons From Greta Thunberg

Abstract

This article is based on a distinctive study that seeks to analyse the nascent role of teenagers’ activism and protests for climate change action. With the increasing realisation of children's rights to participation, the past few years have marked the rise of the new dispensation of climate activism and protests in which teenagers have occupied the centre stage. We pay specific reference to Greta Thunberg, a Swedish child climate activist, in as much as she can set a framework upon which Africa can draw parallels, lessons and insights for climate activism and protests. Even though the context may be different, the paper attempts to inform vibrant climate action through activism by children and ultimately climate policies, laws and management for environmental sustainability in Africa. We engaged document review and thematic approaches, and it emerged that children climate activism and protests in Africa are not as vibrant as they should be given the prevalence of climate inaction across the continent. Therefore, there is much to learn from Thunberg by pushing national governments and regional organisations to increase the decision-making space of children in the fight against climate change.

Promoting sustainable development goals: Role of higher education institutions in climate and disaster management in Zimbabwe

“…It is worth stressing that student activism is critical to bringing the quality of education and programmes to HEIs and relevant authorities to account for their deeds and misdeeds in handling disasters across the country. For instance, in 2019, in response to the Cyclone Idai disaster, no single HEIs student rose to action to push the universities, national and local governments to curtail the disaster, including alerting the people and restoring livelihoods (Zhanda, Dzvimbo & Chitongo 2021 ). Therefore, there is a need of not solely confining students’ activism to power politics.…”

Locating State Actors in Violence Against Children (Vac) Networks in Kenya: A Complexity Leadership Lens

“…Although determining the existence of such networks was not part of our research design, it is notable that there was no mention of them in all of our engagements with participants; this may indicate that active children's networks indeed do not exist, or perhaps that different stakeholders in VAC, including government actors, regard their leadership as insignificant. Individuals like Greta Thunberg, a young Swedish woman who has been at the forefront of global child activism for climate change since age 15 (Zhanda et al, 2021), and the students who led a pivotal series of demonstrations in 1976 against the use of Afrikaans as an official language in the South African education system (Banda, 2000), are examples of the power of young people's leadership in networking and their influence on government policy and practice. On the whole, our results agree with Embleton et al (2021), who recommended a holistic approach to child protection involving the creation and sustenance of collaborations between state and nonstate child protection efforts (Badoe, 2017;Devaney & Byrne, 2015;O'Leary et al, 2015).…”