about us

The YouSustain Conference seeks to create a platform for young people, developmental agencies, and researchers to have an intellectual discourse on how best young people can be supported to contribute to urban sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa through ecopreneurship. The conference specifically seeks to:

Provide a networking opportunity for young people involved in ecopreneural businesses to share knowledge and potentially collaborate for green business development.
Create a platform for young people to showcase their green businesses, products, and services, and gain exposure and visibility for their work to explore avenues for upscaling.
Explore how solutions for sustainability in sub-Saharan African cities can be transformed into viable youth-led ventures and identify enabling factors and potential barriers to their establishment and growth.

Achieving sustainability in urban cities is a struggle for most countries in Africa. Although the challenges of achieving sustainability in some of these cities are unique, shared challenges are ubiquitous across the continent such as low institutional capacity, poor infrastructural facilities, and environmental degradation. At the forefront of these challenges are young people because they represent the majority of the region’s population. While African cities strive to overcome the hurdles, governments in the developed world are partnering with international development agencies and other stakeholders to create avenues for young people to establish business enterprises that draw on the nexus between entrepreneurship and sustainability known as ecopreneurship. Such business principles generate income and sit at the heart of sustainability through efficient resource use and a significant cutback on environmental degradation.

Opportunities for young Africans to venture into ecopreneurship are dire due to the socio-cultural practices and a lack of financial and technical support for them as they venture into business. Hence, the YouSustain Conference seeks to create a platform for young people, developmental agencies, and researchers to have an intellectual discourse on how best young people can be supported to contribute to urban sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa through ecopreneurship.

thematic areas

The thematic areas to be covered during the conference will include but not limited to the following:

Waste management & circular economy

Agriculture in urban and peri-urban areas, climate-smart agriculture, and sustainable food systems

Climate adaptation and climate policy

Urban planning and governance

Urban transportation and innovation

Sustainable energy transitions

Education for sustainable development and environmental stewardship

Climate-related hazards and nature-based solutions

Conservation and regeneration of urban areas and the implementation of green infrastructure

Water supply, sanitation and hygiene

partners

Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) is a youth-led gender-balanced advocacy group that focuses largely on environmental sustainability and community development. GAYO operates under three main thematic areas, climate change, circular economy, and disaster risk reduction. GAYO has branches in Kenya, Uganda, and Botswana with its headquarters in Ghana.

The University of Ghana, the premier university in Ghana, was founded as the University College of the Gold Coast by Ordinance on August 11, 1948, for the purpose of providing and promoting university education, learning, and research. Our mission is to create an enabling environment that makes the University of Ghana increasingly relevant to national and global development through cutting-edge research as well as high-quality teaching and learning.

The Center for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies (C3SS) is a key research and learning institution under the College of Basic and Applied Science of the University of Ghana. The core research areas of the Center is shrouded around the nexus between climate change issues and economics, biodiversity and health, food security, sustainable resource management, green economy, environment and renewable energy.

Youth Climate Council Ghana (YCC) is an institutional mechanism for the youth climate movement in Ghana. YCC is a formal mechanism to collect and bring the opinions of youth CSOs, young people, and the public into national climate-related decision-making processes. The YCC is an independent youth group sourced from existing youth-climate NGOs and given the political power to make input into all national climate policies as an equal stakeholder.

GAYO Eco-Club Campus Chapters (GECCC) is a non-profit student-based group, founded by Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) in 2020 to engage youth on environmental sustainability issues through community action and awareness creation. Our goal is to empower and educate young people about environmental sustainability and engage them in community action to address environmental issues through our activities.

sponsors

The Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA) is a global coalition launched at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) to respond to the urgent challenges faced by vulnerable communities from climate change. Its membership is made up of researchers, funders, policymakers, development bodies, and community-based organizations committed to action-oriented research for adaptation that supports climate-resilient futures.

frequently asked questions

Yes. Non-Ghanaians of African origin/descent are eligible to apply. Please keep in mind that the language of communication for the conference is English and thus applicants must have proficiency or working knowledge of the English language.
The conference is open to young people, students, experts, practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and developmental agencies with keen interests in young people’s role in promoting sustainability in sub-Saharan African cities.
Essentially, the conference organizers will only support the accommodation of foreign presenters. The organizers however will not be able to pay for the flight tickets and Visa application fees to and from the conference participant’s home country to Ghana. Please note that the support with accommodation is for foreign participants who will make a presentation at the conference and not for those who are only attending the conference as participants. By Kind courtesy of our sponsors, the organizers will support local (Ghanaian) presenters with financial assistance to help with their transport to and from the conference venue.
Yes. The conference organizers shall provide a certificate of participation for both the oral and posters at the conference. Green products exhibitors shall also be provided with a certificate of participation.
Yes. The conference will have a hybrid format. Both in-person and virtual.

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