Speaker: Wahyu Triwahyudi

Victoria University of Wellington

In many developing countries, the involvement of youth in rural community-based climate change adaptation (CCA) is critical as they are the generation who will live with the impacts of climate change in the future. Their participation has also been considered as an important aspect of CCA since they have a unique capacity to perceive the risks of climate change. Therefore, youth participation has become an important part of CCA implementation in communities where they live.

However, the state of youth participation in rural community-based CCA remain under-explored and there is a need to further investigate the issue on how youth need to respond and adapt to climate change. To improve the understanding of the process and factors that spur and limit youth participation, my research aims to explore youth experience in participating in community-based CCA projects in order to develop a framework that can support enhanced youth participation in rural community-based CCA in Indonesia. I will carry out fieldwork in two climate change-impacted villages involving interviews, group discussions, participatory diagramming and participant observation to understand how social status and youth-adult partnerships influence the ability of youth to participate in CCA activities. Intersectional analysis will be applied to scrutinize how different identities create inequality among youth and influence their ability to participate in community-based CCA.

Before joining SGEES to pursue PhD in Development Studies, Wahyu worked for development organisations in Indonesia, particularly on community-based development projects in rural areas. He holds a Master degree in environmental science from Indiana University and has interests to work in promoting youth participation in development sector in Indonesia.