African Development Bank Advances Youth-Led Climate Solutions with YouthADAPT Programme Expansion
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has wrapped up a pivotal stakeholder workshop aimed at bolstering youth-driven climate adaptation solutions across Africa. Held on February 24–25, 2026, the event brought together business leaders, policymakers, and development partners to refine the roadmap for the Bank’s YouthADAPT initiative as it enters its fourth cycle.
YouthADAPT, a flagship programme under the AfDB, empowers youth-owned enterprises to develop innovative climate adaptation solutions. Funded by the Youth Entrepreneurship Multi-Donor Trust Fund (YEI MDTF) and the Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF), the initiative has already supported 39 enterprises across 20 African countries between 2021 and 2025. These efforts have generated approximately 11,000 direct and indirect jobs, with women-owned businesses making up 63% of the portfolio.
The workshop marked a critical juncture for the programme, with participants reflecting on lessons from its first three cycles and charting a path forward. Key discussions centred on moving beyond grant funding alone, enhancing post-award support, and improving market and investor linkages to create a sustainable financing model for early-stage climate enterprises.
Opening the event, Al-Hamndou Dorsouma, AfDB Manager for Climate and Green Growth, emphasized the strategic importance of youth-led innovation in addressing Africa’s climate challenges. “Africa is the world’s youngest continent, yet it is also the most climate-vulnerable. Innovation is the bridge between these two realities,” Dorsouma said. He highlighted how young Africans are building scalable solutions in areas like water management, food systems, energy access, and circular economies.
Edith Ofwona Adera, YouthADAPT Coordinator, stressed the need for a more resilient framework to empower young innovators. “This programme has reached a point of reflection and evolution,” she noted. “We must leverage lessons learned to build lasting solutions that amplify youth-led climate adaptation efforts.”
Participants also underscored the importance of placing entrepreneurs at the heart of the programme’s design. Ensuring that support meets their financing, capacity-building, and market-access needs was a recurring theme. Discussions highlighted the need for a stronger entrepreneurial ecosystem, including earlier investor engagement, enhanced venture-builder support, and stronger local partnerships.
Mary Kashangiki, Manager for Early-Stage Finance at Financial Sector Deepening Africa, emphasised the value of collaboration and learning. “Integrating lessons from YouthADAPT into broader climate innovation financing initiatives will strengthen our collective impact,” she said.
The workshop also revisited findings from a pre-event survey, which identified risks to the programme’s effectiveness, such as weak transitions to private finance post-completion and designs that fail to reflect local market realities. To address these challenges, participants recommended introducing a clearer capital transition pathway. This approach could combine catalytic grants with milestone-linked tranches, returnable or revenue-based instruments, and investor advisory mechanisms to reduce long-term grant dependency while making enterprises more bankable.
As the workshop concluded, stakeholders agreed on next steps, including consolidating findings into a design-ready package, conducting targeted follow-up consultations, and collaborating with implementation partners to shape a scalable, partnership-driven delivery model for YouthADAPT’s fourth cycle.
YouthADAPT continues to play a vital role in fostering inclusive climate entrepreneurship across Africa, empowering young innovators to tackle the continent’s most pressing climate challenges.
— Reported by Nexio News
