The Resilient40 is a network of youth climate and social activists that provides a formal platform for actively guiding and directing the voices and work of young people on climate change across the continent of Africa.

This network of change makers view the climate crisis as an additional motivation for the need for just transformation, while ‘resilience’ encompasses wider issues and agendas; social, community, natural, and global resilience to shocks or change.

The group was established in March 2019, when 40 youths from 11 Africans countries came together in South Africa with their counterparts from the United Kingdom for the 40 under 40 Climate Resilience Conference, aimed at exploring how individuals, societies, and governments can become more resilient in their responses to climate change. The group has since expanded to over 60 members and is representative of 29 African countries, following their second meeting in January 2020 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Resilient 40 is an Africa-UK partnership and it is essential that Africa leads this collaboration. This encompasses the creation of long term solutions to climate impacts while taking into account Africa’s demography, cultural diversity, indigenous knowledge, and how to positively evoke changes that integrate development, the people and their values without imposing changes – even if positive – that may lead to migration, ethnic clashes, environmental conflicts or inequalities. This approach asserts Africans in the centre of defining solutions for Africa by recognizing the need for inclusive participation, governance, strategies and approaches to strengthen climate resilience in Africa.