Young people from Ghana continue to impact our world with award winning ideas. Kwasi Gyeabour won third place at the World Bank 2009 International Essay Competition for his essay "Greening the Ghanaian Youth". The competition was held as part of the ABCDE Conference in Seoul, Korea on June 22-24, 2009. The ABCDE Conference is one of the world's best known series of conferences on development for many of the world's development thinkers to present their ideas.
In his essay Kwasi proposes many brilliant solutions to dealing with environmental problems in Ghana including igniting a citizen-led Green Revolution with a Green Scout Movement, a Community Recycling Initiative and Online Green Social Networking as some of the drivers of this revolution. Other private sector led initiatives he proposes include the setting up a Green Mutual Sector Fund and The Climatic Change and Relief Center (CSRC). Other ideas he shares include an Inter-School Climate Change Solutions Fair
Jefferson Agbai also from Ghana came second in 2006 with topic Empowering the Ghanaian Youth Towards Financial Independence.
About the Competition
The 2009 Essay Competition attracted 2,469 submissions from over 150 countries with 56 submissions coming from Ghana. Essay contestants were asked to answer two questions: 1) How does climate change affect you? And 2) How can you tackle climate change through youth-led solutions?
Share Your Thoughts on Kwasi's Ideas
I would love to hear what you think about Kwasi's ideas? Do you know other Ghanaians who are working hard on environmental issues? What are your thoughts on "Greening Ghana"? Click on comments below to join the discussion.
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3 comments:
I would love to hear what you think about Kwasi's ideas? Do you know other Ghanaians who are working hard on environmental issues? What are your thoughts on "Greening Ghana"?
I love the essay, really well researched. The first line made me go 'yep, yep.'
"Climate change is a big issue for my country, even though current government policy only outlines it, there’s no implementation of these outlines".
I am really guilty though, I am not 'Green' at all, i don't read about it, do anything about it, but every now and then i get extremely worried about the situation.
His proposals would undoubtedly be difficult to implement, no matter how practical they sound. I sincerely hope he gives it a shot, at least one of them. I like the Green Social Networking idea. I would join a network like that any day as an easy way to pick up some 'Green' tips and educate myself.
In all, good stuff from Kwasi!
@ Boakyewaa
Great comment, I agree that many of us young people from Ghana don't give much thought to the environment apart from complaining about the filth in Accra and organizing or participating in clean up campaigns. I'm equally guilty but I would not mind volunteering sometime to work on some of these problems. The Green Social Network would be an easy start. I wonder if there is anyway to connect with Kwasi and find out how we can provide support
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