Our collective action towards a climate-smart future is vital to achieve sustainable development as partnership and collaboration can earn its attainment — Abimbola Abikoye
On the 13th of August 2022, Revamp Rave Network ended its Second Cohort Programme on Climate Change during a valedictory event themed "Collective Action Towards a Climate-smart Future". The event hosted 200 participants from six continents and twenty-eight tutors who had given their pro bono expertise in educating the participants. In addition, it saw Dr Bankole Oloruntoba, the President of Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre, as the chief guest.
The event also had in attendance Prof Fagbohun Olarenwaju, SAN, a Professor of Environmental Law currently working with the Federal Government on the Nigerian Climate Change Act, Evgeniia Kostiania, the Global Lead of UN Ocean Decade_Early Career Ocean Professional, Hamzat Lawal of Connected Development and Mrs Erimma Orie the Associate Editor of International Journal of Climate Change Strategy and Management.
The event kickstarted with Mr Babatunde Enitan of Mushin to The World Foundation giving the opening remark. In his statement, he spoke about how young people are crucial to solving the climate crisis, but most importantly, how the participant, who is now more informed than every other young people who do not have access to this information, can leverage the knowledge gathered from the cohort to influence others further. He mentioned how they could champion the climate change cause and do so relentlessly as the journey ahead is challenging, but the fight for sustainability must be won.
The founder of Revamp Rave Network, Abimbola Abikoye, was next to speak after the opening remark. In her welcome address, she thanked everyone for coming to the event and appreciated the time and effort the tutors and experts put into ensuring the goals of the cohort were achieved. She encouraged the participants to keep up the momentum and leverage the opportunities the cohort has given. She highlighted the numerous opportunities they can leverage to push forward and scale their impact and advocacy. Finally, she encouraged them to deploy action with the knowledge to help the world achieve its Paris Agreement target.
The communications lead of Revamp Rave Network explained the highlight from the cohort. In giving the highlight, Godiya Zambwa mentioned how the organisation had conducted its 14 weeks of training and the impact that has been made so far. In listing out the achievements, Godiya said that the application process saw 800 participants apply for the second cohort. Among the 800 applicants, 200 were selected by a six-man committee to review the application submitted. As a result, the 200 participants from different countries across the six continents participated in the 14 weeks cohort, and ten of the 200 participants will emerge winners of the internship scholarship slot.
Azeez Salawu, the Founder/CEO of Community Action for Food Security and moderator of the event, called on the next speaker, Dr Bankole Oloruntoba, to give the Keynote speech for the day. Dr Bankole started his speech by congratulating the organisation for a successful programme. He expressed how impressed about how laudable and impactful the programme has been, given the information laid down.
Dr Bankole Oloruntoba ran through how climate change issues have continued to exist in the last three decades and how it is not leaving us soon. However, there are ways climate change can be solved through prevention, mitigation and adaptation. Thus, he charged participants to be impactful in their engagement and active participation in building a climate-smart future. He advised participants on how to deploy the best strategy in sustaining their fight for sustainability; Dr Bankole gave information on connecting their social impact and solutions to optimising finance opportunities to stay relevant.
He explained that knowledge must meet the capacity for finance and innovation to be deployed. Hence, young people must pay attention to the government structures and policies that guide climate interest areas. In ending, continuous motivation to fight and hope for a better future must be upheld for meaningful change to be realised.
Evgeniia delivered the first goodwill message of the UN Ocean Science Decade_Ecop programme. She started by expressing her excitement about the programme as she was at the opening ceremony. She mentioned that participants must seek more capacity through learning to become great advocates. She said that the programme has only paved the way for harnessing the knowledge gathered from the cohort. Nevertheless, participants should synergise efforts and work together while maintaining the relationships the program has provided. She went further to talk about what the ECOP programme stands for. They look forward to receiving two of the ten participants interning with Early Career Ocean Professionals. She ended by wishing all the participants well.
After the goodwill message, three 0f the 28 tutors, Albert Kure, the African Regional Coordinator for Thought for Food Foundation (TFF), Dr Muritala, a water policy expert and Prof Morenikeji, Chair of the Pangolin Working Group, gave their testimonies on the programme was a success and glad they were a part of the ground-breaking event.
Prof Fagbohun, SAN a Professor of Environmental Law, gave the second goodwill message. He commended the founder and the entire Revamp Rave team for the efforts put into curating the programme and completing it. He spoke to the participants about the importance of the programme that they had just concluded. He mentioned, "A few years down the line, they will understand the importance of the programme and be thankful to have been a part of it". He spoke further about how climate change continues to be an existential threat to all and is an interrelated subject. Subjects such as droughts linked to food insecurity, water crisis and the different war-torn areas influencing further climate change impact and vice versa. Hence, we must not be distracted but remain focused on our crusades for climate justice.
After the second goodwill by Prof Fagbohun, 4 of the 200 participants were called on to give testimonials on how impactful the 14 weeks programme has been. Sara Brandon, an environmental science and food security from Lebanon, started the session. She thanked everyone and spoke about how she benefited from the programme. She expressed her gratitude as she has learned so much from the progress. Atamba Saviour from Uganda, Serah Akojenu from Nigeria and Promise Mannet from Malawi also expressed their appreciation and how much they have learned from the cohort.
The third goodwill message was given by Dr Erimma, who gave a remark on how the participants have learnt a lot from the process, given the lists of courses and tutors who were a part of it. She mentioned that she is sure about the knowledge gathered and that the knowledge should be deployed to achieve the NDC target in the participant's various communities. The youth have a responsibility to help birth climate innovation. Climate change is real, and we must keep up the momentum for the future of the next generation to come.
After the goodwill messages, 10 participants from the 200 were unveiled as winners of the three-month internship scholarship opportunity. The 10 participants were Loretta Nwajiaku and Bate Garba, both from Nigeria, who would be interning with Early Career Ocean Professional; Promise Mannet and William Kazambe from Malawi, who were posted to Thought for Food Foundation; Serah Akojenu and Nwamaka Uzonnah from Nigeria were posted to EnviroNews; Ayinla Mwamadi from Malawi and Winnie from Zimbabwe were posted to WasteXchange Nigeria; and Toheeb Bolaji from Nigeria and Lwazi Mlamboi from Eswantini were posted to CleanTech Republik.
Also, the five most outstanding participants were awarded for their active participation and diligence throughout the 14 weeks the cohort lasted.
The event ended with the closing remarks by one of the participants Atamba Saviour from Uganda. In his remark, he thanked everyone for coming and for the platform created by the organising organisation.