CorpsAfrica at COP30, putting young Volunteers in the driver’s seat of climate resilience and raising the voice of rural communities in Africa at the Global  Conference of Youth Climate(COY) and the World Leaders Summit in Belem, Brazil

This year marks the fourth participation of CorpsAfrica in the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) on Climate Change and celebrates a significant milestone in the organization’s efforts to position young African Volunteers as leaders in community resilience through the CorpsAfrica Green Initiative. CorpsAfrica has achieved recognition for two years now,  as an official observer under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), further solidifying its role among impactful non-stakeholder organizations addressing climate change issues at the community level.

COP30 was preceded by the 20th Conference of Youth (COY20), held from 6th to 8th November 2025 at Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), Belem. COY is the world’s largest gathering of youth focused on climate change, providing a platform for knowledge-sharing, advocacy, and collaboration.

CorpsAfrica’s delegation at COP30, led by Malamine Badiane, Coordinator of Special Initiatives and Lesedi Gaonewe Volunteer Liaison CorpsAfrica/SA, included eight Volunteers and alumni: Fana Ceesay, from The Gambia, Souad El Malek from Morocco, Gloria Kelego from Kenya, Huzaifa Issahaku from Ghana, Sohna Sanyang from the Gambia, Martin Twesigye from Uganda, Rebaone Maweni, and Zama Confident Mnisi from South Africa, who participated online. Their engagement encompassed climate negotiations, side events, and sharing insights from CorpsAfrica’s green work across its ten countries of operation.

Malamine and Lesedi spoke in several sessions and engaged with high-level personalities and potential partners to present CorpsAfrica Green and share the work done by Volunteers to build community-led climate resilience. 

Overall CorpsAfrica : 

• Hosted 4 side events at COP30 and COY 20
• Participated in 2 side events at COP30 as a guest speaker
• Hosted a 1-week booth for the first  time at the United Nations Convention on Climate Change
• Featured as a knowledge partner for the 4th time at the Global Conference of Youth
• Engaged in discussions with 20+ potential DPs and youth NGOs. 

Panel Discussion at COY 20

For the fourth time as a knowledge partner, we took the opportunity to highlight the achievements of the CorpsAfrica Green Initiative, showcasing how Volunteers live and work with rural communities across 11 African countries. During the panel, Lesedi presented concrete examples of low-cost, community-led climate solutions, including kitchen gardens, improved cookstoves, tree planting, and composting. The presentation emphasized the role of CorpsAfrica in empowering young people to co-create climate solutions that address local challenges while contributing to broader climate resilience goals.

This engagement aimed to enhance visibility for CorpsAfrica’s community-led initiatives and to strengthen connections with Indigenous and forest youth leaders from Latin America, to learn from each other and set the foundation for future collaboration and knowledge exchange between African and Latin American youth on climate action.

Hosting a booth for the first time at the UN Climate Change Conference

For the first time, CorpsAfrica was selected to host a booth for one week (November 10-15) at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which brought together more than 40,000 participants from November 10-21. The booth served as a platform to showcase Green Initiatives and innovative projects led by our Volunteers across all our countries of operation. Throughout the week, we presented practical solutions demonstrating how youth can support communities to drive climate resilience in rural Africa.

Our booth attracted significant interest from NGOs, youth networks, development partners, and government representatives. Many visitors expressed strong appreciation for CorpsAfrica’s unique volunteer model and the concrete results achieved in underserved communities. This visibility not only strengthened our global presence but also generated promising opportunities for collaboration, knowledge exchange, and future resource mobilization. We have documented these leads, and we will be following up on them in the coming weeks.

Guest Speaker at the Global Center on Adaptation Youth for Adaptation Side Event

The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), one of our key collaborators, invited us to serve as a guest speaker during the launch of their Global Youth Call to Action on Adaptation- Recommendations on NDCs and NAPs at COP30. CorpsAfrica Gambia currently acts as an in-country focal point for the GCA, which made this invitation an important recognition of our work on adaptation across Africa. The session brought together high-level participants, including the Minister of Women, Youth, and Sport of the Republic of Kiribati, the Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group, and the Regional Director of GCA Africa. Representing CorpsAfrica, Malamine Badiane focused the intervention on the role of youth in driving adaptation efforts, highlighting the practical, community-based work carried out by CorpsAfrica Volunteers on the ground. This session helped strengthen our relationship with GCA and brought us closer to working together in a more structured way. It also opened the door for us to explore a formal partnership and possibly sign an MOU to support joint adaptation activities in the coming year.

CorpsAfrica Side event at the Children and Youth Pavilion

For the second time at a COP, CorpsAfrica was selected to host a side event at the Children and Youth Pavilion. Our session, titled “From Local Seeds to Global Solutions: African Youth Driving Climate Resilience with the CorpsAfrica Green Initiative,” highlighted how young volunteers are leading climate resilience from the ground up in rural communities.

During the event, Malamine and Lesedi shared practical examples of how volunteers support communities through kitchen gardens, climate-smart agriculture, land restoration, improved cookstoves, and other local adaptation solutions. The session helped participants understand how community-based actions led by youth can create real impact and long-term resilience. This panel was also an important opportunity to position ourselves more in the pavilion and get in contact with key partners that support the Pavilion, including the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF). These connections will help us explore future collaboration and resource opportunities for scaling our green initiatives across Africa.

CorpsAfrica, IRENA, GOGLA, and SNV joint side events

In collaboration with Climate Fresk, Palmeiras Lab, and the Climate Reality Project, we hosted a joint side event in an official UNFCCC room to discuss how to build community climate resilience and share experiences from each organization. During the session, we presented our work in Africa and learned from the approaches used by our partners in other regions. This exchange helped us understand what we can adapt to our context and how to strengthen resilience at the community level.

This event was the first-ever CorpsAfrica side event held inside an official UNFCCC room, which made it an important milestone for our organization. It also opened the door for deeper collaboration between CorpsAfrica, Climate Fresk, and the Climate Reality Project. We explored ways to share resources, support each other’s initiatives, and create opportunities for CorpsAfrica alumni to engage in Climate Fresk workshops and Climate Reality activities. This session set the foundation for stronger partnerships that can help scale climate education and community action across Africa.

Additionally, Malamnine and Lesedi had conversations with :

• Valerie Hickey, Global Director of the World Bank Climate Change Group, to explore the different youth programs the Bank has and how we can engage with them.
• Christina Morelli, Head of Sovereign, a financial institution and corporate international development cooperation based in Italy
• Leyla Hassanova and Marcelina Oliveira UNFCCC Youth Climate Champion
• Raphael De Ry, Founder and CEO at ALLCOT
• Hugo Bordas, Coordinator at Catalyst Now
• Marcos Raba, Executive Director at GNDR
• Adriana Valenzuela, Youth Leadership team at the Global Center on Adaptation