Active Citizens to Combat Climate Change

The Active Citizens Programme (ACP) is a global British Council initiative which seeks to deepen the trust and understanding within and between communities through establishing a local network of Active Citizens comprising of young people. Through the programme, these young people are trained to serve as catalysts for promoting intercultural understanding within and among local and international communities as social actors, influencers and leaders.

SPADO in partnership with British Council implemented the project in Swat and Malakand districts with the aim of developing a cohort of young people between the ages of 18-30 and equip them with confidence and a suitable skill set to enable them to address local, social issues in their communities and in the light of their learning understand the global context. Young people are key actors in raising awareness, running educational programmes, promoting sustainable lifestyles, conserving nature and adopting environmentally-friendly practices in their local societies.
The project brought together a significant number of youth leaders from local communities of the selected districts who received the AC programme through a digital/blended learning methodology and implemented social action projects focusing on climate change in selected communities, influence their government stakeholders including local, provincial and national levels to prioritize climate action plans and play a key contributing role.

Following are the major activities carried out during the project:
• The local communities were productively engaged where they positively contributed towards achieving the objectives of the project
• The British Council trained 6 facilitators who then successfully delivered 12 capacity building workshops of four days each
• 253 youth from the local communities were trained through 12 training workshops
• 16 Social Action Projects were successfully completed
• Organized three Community Events one each in the target districts
• Local community influential, leaders, educational institutes and government officials were mobilized, engaged during the SAPs and community events
• Awareness and advocacy on climate change was carried out through various digital platforms
• Greater media coverage was achieved in both print and electronic media