By: Momodou Gajigo
More than 200 young Gambians from every region of the country packed the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center in Bijilo this week for the 5th Local Conference of Youth on Climate Change, insisting they must help write the next chapter of the nation’s climate response rather than merely inherit its consequences.
The two-day gathering, known as LCOY The Gambia 2026, opened under the theme “Empowering Youth to Shape The Gambia’s Climate Future Through Innovation, Action and Partnership.” Delegates include innovators, researchers, community organizers and technical specialists who have come together to confront coastal erosion, erratic rainfall, flooding and the steady loss of forests and mangroves.
National Coordinator Mustapha Jarju set the tone in his opening remarks, rejecting any suggestion that young people are spectators. “Youth are not merely passive witnesses to the climate crisis. We are active architects of solutions,” he said. Jarju told the hall that the conference would produce a National Youth Statement on Climate Change so that young people’s priorities can feed directly into national climate and development policy.
Support for that ambition has come, in part, from the West Africa Coastal Areas Management Program. WACA Project Director Dr Muhammed Lamin Sanyang said the project has contributed about US$50,000 — more than D3.5 million — to LCOY over several years. “For us, LCOY is much more than an annual youth conference. It is an important platform for young Gambians to learn, connect, share ideas and challenge decision makers,” he said.
Sanyang also pointed to concrete follow-through. WACA backed three Gambian youths at COP30 in Brazil and helped launch a Climate Empowerment Program with Plan for the Planet, the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and the National Environment Agency. That program has already reached about 600 primary school pupils with lessons in climate awareness and environmental stewardship.
The government, too, framed youth as central rather than peripheral.
Speaking for the Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources, Deputy Permanent Secretary Ndey Fatou Jobe told delegates: “You are not a liability, but an asset to recovery.” She said The Gambia’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution, NDC 3.0, had been validated after consultations across the regions. Government-backed schemes such as WACA, LIFE-EA and the Climate Youth Corps, she added, are opening pathways in climate-smart agriculture, waste management, coastal resilience and locally led adaptation.
Jobe linked those efforts to a broader argument. “Climate action is not only about environmental protection, but national development and economic transformation,” she said.
Organizers expect the meeting to produce a set of recommendations on how to deepen youth participation in climate governance and how to shape national priorities before COP31. For the young people filling the conference center, the test will be whether those words travel from Bijilo into policy rooms that still too often treat them as an afterthought.
