Young People as Changemakers in Climate Change and Health

Project Overview

This project explored the growing intersection of climate change, health, and youth advocacy in South Africa. Developed in partnership with Restless Development, the work set out to better understand how climate change is affecting health and wellbeing, how these issues are currently being addressed in research and policy, and how young people are already engaging this nexus as advocates, organisers, and changemakers.

The project combined a rapid evidence review with a participatory inquiry process designed to centre youth perspectives. Alongside reviewing published and grey literature, the team facilitated a participatory workshop with young people working across climate, health, and advocacy spaces; conducted key informant interviews with young leaders in policy and advocacy; and developed a stakeholder map of actors working in climate and health in South Africa.

Together, these processes created an early scoping picture of a fast-growing field. They highlighted both the urgency of linking climate and health more explicitly in South Africa, and the critical role that young people can play in shaping more grounded, just, and locally responsive approaches to research, policy, and action.

Our Role

Pivot Collective designed and led the research and learning process for this project. Our work included a rapid evidence review on the climate-health nexus in South Africa, with particular attention to the role of young people in advocacy and change-making. We also designed and facilitated the participatory research components of the project, including a day-long workshop with youth participants, key informant interviews, and the collaborative development of a stakeholder map of organisations and institutions working across climate, health, and youth mobilisation.

The workshop drew on creative and participatory methods to support collective reflection and analysis. Participants mapped climate-related health challenges across South Africa’s provinces, shared their own understandings of how climate change is shaping health in different contexts, and reflected on the forms of support, knowledge, and infrastructure needed for young people to act more meaningfully in this space. The interview process then helped deepen and validate these insights, particularly around policy, advocacy, and resourcing.

What We Learned

One of the clearest insights from this work was that climate change and health cannot be meaningfully understood in isolation from broader questions of justice and inequality. Young participants consistently highlighted how historical and structural inequalities shape people’s ability to respond to climate change, and how issues such as poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, and uneven access to information can make it difficult for many young people to participate in climate action, even when they are deeply affected by it.

The project also showed that young people are already playing important roles in climate and health advocacy, but that their participation is constrained by limited access to resources, knowledge, and decision-making spaces. Participants pointed to the need for stronger climate and health literacy, more practical and locally grounded forms of education, and greater support for youth-led advocacy, including the material resources needed to sustain this work over time.

A further learning was the importance of linking research more directly to action. The inquiry surfaced significant gaps in public understanding of the climate–health nexus, limited access to policy and research processes, and a need for more effective knowledge translation that can help young people and communities engage with evidence in usable ways. Across the report, this pointed to the value of community-engaged research, accessible learning processes, and stronger infrastructures for youth-led participation in shaping climate and health responses.