Youth Go Green PreCOP27 National Caravan Across Africa, communities, countries, and entire ecosystems are paying the price of global climate inaction. We are witnessing theeco-system collapse at a scale never seen before and the depletion of natural resources – the soil, water, and air humankind needs to survive – beyond the point of possible regeneration. But it doesn’t need to be this way. In Uganda in particular, climate change is causing unprecedented disasters that have resulted in colossal losses and damages including loss of lives.
In November 2022 COP27will take place in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, and Oxfam will strive to ensure that political and financial commitments are met to meetthe high ambitions expressed in the last COP26 in Glasgow. Oxfam will push for a more inclusive and gender-transformative process in which action to respond to this existential threat happens when and where needed, which sees big emitters taking on their fair share of the burden by cutting emissions and helping pay for the climate response.
This initiative will align with the objectives of the Oxfam advocacy strategy and contribute to the achievement of that, especially by ensuring that the voices of those most impacted by climate change are heard, through mobilizations, media, digital and financial support.
The Caravan in Uganda is part of the Africapre-cop27 caravan that will facilitate citizens’ participation in policy spaces at national, regional and global levels to show howwomen and youth are leading their communities to become more resilient; where farmers are adapting their practices to protect food security and biodiversity; how indigenous groups are protecting eco-systems from collapse and how communities are finding ways to deal with the impacts of a crisis they are in no way responsible for.
The people who are most impacted yet least responsible have something to say about it and governments across the world have a duty of care to listen and act.  The Caravans to COP27 will support these groups in Uganda to be heard and push for action on adaptation and mitigation.

Overall change objective:
Ensure the inclusion and engagement of communities most affected by climate change (women, youth, indigenous peoples) in the UNFCCC negotiation process (for instance on adaptation, loss and damage, agriculture etc.)

What?
The Caravan to COP27 aims to connect people in Uganda and beyond. It is a movement of people (youth, women, and CSO actors). It’s a call for climate justice, justice for those least responsible, and most affected by climate change who are also the source of climate solutions and resilience leaders. The Caravan wants to see justice for those who suffer because of global climate inaction. The Caravan to COP27 is a way to mobilize, engage, connect and gatherperspectives and ideasof indigenous peoples, women, youth, farmers, grassroots communities, and natural resource movements.  It’s away to engage and influence local and national decision-makers. It’s a way to bring the voices of those impacted by climate change like childrenand youth into the COP27 and will host a side event to share these perspectives.
How?
By supporting civil society to participate to get involved; supporting voices in the run-up to COP (eg. through the caravan); capacity building; lobbying with allieslike Women, Youth and Gender Constituency, and the African feminist taskforce for women and youth delegates to be part of government delegations to be heard by the parties engaged in the negotiation process.

The multi-stakeholders-organized Caravan running underthe concept of African climate caravans will ensure that community members/citizens are present at the meeting and have an opportunity to influence the discussions around the declaration. Oxfam is playing a facilitator role as we are building andstrengthening existing movements across the continent by bringing them into this initiative and using our networks and influence to amplify their voices.
Children, Youth, and Women’s involvement
The climate crisis has exposed children, youth, and womenon every continent to a greater risk of more destructive climate hazards, from heatwaves and droughts to floods, and landslides as well as an increase in pollution levels. The youth have been identified to lead this process and they are participating in providing interactive activities with all the young people across the Caravan journey to make sure that the voices of young people and women are heard at the Climate Change Summit (COP27) in Egypt.
This youth-led initiative is a huge and comprehensive collective effort to advance environmental education and climate action for future generations. It is against this background that Oxfam in Uganda has identified Youth Go Green as a partner to organize and lead the Uganda Climate Caravan (UCC) with various activities during its journey. In essence, the Caravan roving the country would encourage young people to be fully engaged in the climate discussions and pave way for COP27 scheduled for November in Sharm El Sheikh.
The Caravan’s agenda is to:
Focus on hearing and amplifying people’s experiences, sharing solutions, learning from good practices, and influencing local and national governments. Specifically, the goals of the Caravans are to:
 Mobilize local communities -including youth movements for climate justice and demand increased mobilization from African governments at COP27to address climate challenges in Africa.
 Highlight the impacts of climate change on African communities and their environment
 Highlight climate solutions integrated withtheir traditional and local knowledge.
 Create a learning community of a) good practices and nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation, b) training of youth on climate negotiations in order to prepare them for participation in COY17 and COP27
 Increase African citizen pressure on national governments and on international negotiations at COP27 to better take into account their realities, priorities, and aspirations.
Youth Go Green will lead the caravan through the following activities;
1.Caravan routing from Kampala to Mbale through Palisa
2. Hold Climate marches in Palisa and Mbale
3. Engage youth in tree planting drive
4. Organise a Climate Change pre - Cop27 Dialogue.
5. Hold a pre- COP 27 Lobby meeting with Key stakeholders includingnational Negotiators


Methodology
The Caravans are being designed and led by national Caravan Steering Committees made up of people knowledgeable about diverse communities' experience of climate impacts and who are responding with solutions. TheCaravans will first travel within each country. In October, the national caravans will last up to 10 days.

In Uganda, along the route of eastern Uganda, they will stop at places where the impacts of climate change can be experienced and where solutions thatare being led by communities can be found. They will build awareness of communities' perspectives and open opportunities to influence local authorities and central government. An equipped van will be led a team of young people traveling from Kampala, Jinja, via Pailsa up to Mbale city where the final caravan activities will climax.

In Sharm Al Sheik the Caravans will host a side event at the COP27 to engagedecision-makers and allies and encourage the sharing of experiences, ideas, and knowledgecollected through the Caravans.