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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
VICTORIA Falls-based Zimbabwean Unicef environment ambassador, Nkosilathi Nyathi (18) continues to lift the country’s flag high on the global scene with his climate change advocacy work.

Recently he participated in a virtual intergenerational dialogue meeting about climate change that was hosted by former Irish president Ms Mary Robinson who chairs “The Elders” leadership group.

The Elders are an independent group of global leaders working together for peace, justice and human rights.

It was founded by former South Africa President Nelson Mandela and the current chair is Ms Robinson, the first woman President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002.

Former United Nations Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-moon and former Mozambique and South Africa First Lady Mrs Graca Machel are co-deputy chairs.

Other members are former presidents of different countries, diplomats and high commissioners.

Nkosi, a Lower Sixth pupil at Inyathi High School in Bubi, shared the platform with other youths-Isabelle (20) a member of Unicef UK’s Youth Advisory Board and Priyanka (14), a Unicef Youth Advocate from Trinidad and Tobago.

Unicef appointed Nkosi as a Youth Climate Advocate last year to drive the environment agenda among youths in Zimbabwe, after seeing his various advocacy and awareness work, particularly after making Victoria Falls’ first biogas digester and raising awareness against water pollution and land degradation in Hwange district.

Ms Robinson wanted youth input for presentation to The Elders’ meetings and selected Nkosi, alongside the other two young guests.

In an interview, Nkosi said speaking on the international fora, physically or virtually, alone is not enough without action on the ground.

He said his vision is to have young people represented at every international fora.

“We had a virtual intergenerational conversation with Mary Robinson where she wanted our ideas. It is part of my advocacy work to advocate for younger people to have a platform on climate agenda and she wanted to get our ideas as young people and amplify them on the bigger platform,” said Nkosi.

He has been attending a number of virtual international events most of them involving high level political world leaders.

Among them are dialogues with former Columbian President Juan Manuel Santos, Norwegian Minister of International Development Mr Dag Inge Ulstein and was also the youngest speaker at a recent high level Ministerial Thematic Forum on Energy.

Nkosi said he has been doing a lot of ground advocacy around the globe and locally he is championing construction of a solar powered water pump at his school in an effort to embrace green technology.

“I have been getting views from other young people through consultations. At my school we are working on a solar pump project. The suggestion came from colleagues at school after seeing a need for a clean renewable project as the current pump is always down because of electricity challenges, so we decided we can tap into available sunlight. We are currently sourcing funds to achieve this and we are calling on anyone who is willing to assist. What I can say is that the world has received my advocacy highly. They may appreciate my advocacy but what we need is action on the ground,” said Nkosi.

He will be attending a Youth for Change conference in Milan, Italy in September where he will be one of the speakers. — @ncubeleon cm