Burundi Youth Stands for Addressing Climate Change and its Impacts on Human Mobility

Burundi is listed among 20 countries most impacted by disasters and triggered by natural hazards. Even though young people as the majority of the population, are among the most affected, some have decided not to wait for a hero to end this climate crisis and its impact on human mobility but being part of the solution to build back better.

My passion for activism was sparked a few years ago when environmental change became even more than a brutal reality in Burundi. In 2018, heavy rains fell in Bujumbura; we lost friends whose bodies were hardly found. Many people have been on the move in the past due to climate change; over 114,000 people have been displaced by climate disasters, impacting harvests and causing further human mobility like Gatumba camps, Sobel and Rumonge.  Farming communities were also flooded when the Rusizi river and Lake Tanganyika overflowed their banks. All these issues forced over 25,000 people to flee their homes and made me prioritize climate justice at the negotiation table

I am the Founder of the youth-led organization ISHAKA 2250, which is now facilitating migration as an adaptation option by building back better, transforming victims of disasters into champions of climate solutions, by promoting awareness of local solutions that meet local needs and challenges and providing green jobs skills: 12 jobs were created for 36 households most affected by disasters and now they are economically empowered through green entrepreneurship. In addition, over 800.000 trees were planted among which 70% were planted in areas affected by disasters and reduce annually greenhouse gas emissions to contribute to National Determined Contribution as a stakeholder-youth. Some of the 36 households were displaced by the floods, others lost their basic needs but stayed at their homes. The approach is simply to economically empower the affected households and build back better. The households are producing biodegradable packaging for our tree nursery and gain money while using this green initiative.

We will not wake up tomorrow morning and figure out that all the effects of climate change disappeared, but only our collective actions will decide what the future looks like. Young people in Burundi aim at engaging youth as one of the key stakeholders to address climate change impacts, advance youth voices and promote cooperation on human mobility in the context of environmental degradation, climate change and disasters. In this regard, the young people from the youth led organization ISHAKA 2250 tailor international climate related decisions and link between human mobility and the 2030 Agenda into local realities and culture. And this fact of tailoring international agendas to local realities helps the community to be engaged, boosting national contribution that meets the Paris Agreement, the 2030 Agenda and the Kampala Ministerial Declaration on Migration, Environment and Climate Change.

During the International Youth Day 2023 under the theme: Green Skills for Youth – Towards a Sustainable World, young people in our constituency reminded the governments and other key stakeholders that the journey to achieve the SDGs is far from over and to correct the shot, they claimed interconnected solutions to better respond to many possible targets of the 2030 Agenda.

The SDGs are deeply interconnected and one SDG cannot be achieved without consideration of the other. For example, the 7th target of the SDG 10 (SDG 10.7) highlight facilitating orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies, which translates into Goal 10 to reduce inequality within and among countries. This makes it clear that a lack of progress on migration hinders progress on reducing inequalities between countries. In addition to this, at least 10 out of 17 SDGs contain targets and indicators directly related to migration or mobility such as those who refer to the health workforce in developing countries (3.c), mobility of international students (4.b), human trafficking (5.2, 8.7 and 16.2), labour migration (8.7 and 8.8), remittances (10.c) and legal identity (16.9).  Further, SDG target 17.8 calls also for disaggregating data by migratory status.

Many SDG targets can only be fully achieved if migration and migrants are considered. By not doing, progress made may be limited by constraining the comprehensiveness and sustainability of efforts. For example, migrant children make up a large portion of the global migrants, and therefore should be considered when implementing education targets. If governments proactively include migration and migrants during implementation, likelihood of meeting the targets effectively and sustainably will be much greater.

To mark the 2022 International Migrants Day, IOM Burundi collaborated with us to engage other young people including artists to humanize migration through art contest and youth consultations. The campaign aimed at shaping the positive views on migrants and emphasizing the need for youth to understand and care about migration in order to better address different targets of the 2030 Agenda during this ongoing Decade of Action.

In conclusion, we can no longer be engaged in climate change discussions without being engaged in human mobility ones, and vice versa. In the midst of this crisis, Burundian youth decided to be part of the solution. Beyond being victims, they are now champions of related solutions including the young migrants.

Audry RUSANGWA is the founder and CEO at ISHAKA 2250, a Youth-led organization dedicated to engage Youth for the SDGs achievement in Burundi. He is a young climate activist passionate about climate justice, migration and young engagement on the 2030 Agenda. His activism focuses on transforming victims of climate change into actors of climate solutions, and advocate for youth participation and engagement in decision-making processes. Audry was selected as a young delegate representing Burundi at Regional Conference on Migration and Climate Change where he served as the online Moderator during youth sessions and contributed to the development of youth key messages.

This article is part of the "IOM Blog Series: Youth Voices on Migration, Environment and Climate Change"