Message to 100 Young Leaders: Data can be fun and powerful

27 August 2018, Nairobi: Unlike most other weeks, this Monday, I couldn't wait to wake up. I was excited to be part of the Youth Workshop of the Global Landscape Forum as a speaker on the topic "The Policy Perspective". Organized by the Center for International Forestry Research in collaboration with UN Environment's Africa Office, the 2-day event attracted 100 young leaders - women and men - from across Africa in the field of ecosystem restoration. They came to learn new skills and share their entrepreneurial ideas.

Do you agree? Data can be dynamic, fun and powerful! That was the key message of my presentation at this workshop. With the assistance of my colleague Camille Proulx, I started my 10-minute talk (TED Talk?) with a 200-year history data show on the change in carbon emission (per person) and income (gross national income per person), from the Industrial Revolution, through the two world wars, all the way to the year 2014. The relationship is clear. The more (carbon emissions) a country had, the richer it was.

Presentation showcasing a 25-year trend of how forest coverage had changed among African countries

Apart from the economic lens, we can also look at climate change from a social perspective. When I showed the link between babies per woman with carbon emissions per person, it was received very well by the audience. While it's wrong to say that one causes the other, it happens that higher carbon-emitting countries have fewer babies per woman. The explanation was simple: when countries emit more and get rich, women tend to be more educated, economically empowered, have more access to contraceptives and control over their own lives. 

When the discussion was brought back to ecosystem restoration, I could see increased interest (eyes opened wider) from the young women and men. I showed a 25-year trend (1990 to 2015) of how forest coverage (Sustainable Development Goal indicator 15.1.1) had changed among African countries. Again, the fact that lower-income countries (such as Uganda) tend to export charcoal (forest products) to richer neighbors (such as Kenya, a middle-income country) was applauded by the audience, as it pointed to the need to address both the demand and supply sides of ecosystem restoration. 

My colleague Camille Proulx and I were challenging the young leaders on their worldview

During two 45-minute interactive sessions with these young leaders, Camille and I challenged their worldview, tested their logical thinking and had heated discussions with them on various topics. We were impressed by their curiosity and aspirations for the work of the United Nations, as well as their open-minded attitude in learning new things. For instance, they embraced our message with enthusiasm when we challenged them not to divide the world into the binary of "developed West" and "developing rest", but to pay attention to the fact that 50% African countries belong either high- or middle-income categories, as per the World Bank's country classification by income. Interestingly enough, in Africa, income and forest area have a strong negative relationship. Low-income countries have the highest average forest size, followed by lower-middle, higher-middle and high-income countries.

Everyone picked their favorite Sustainable Development Goal and posed for photos

The highlight was our photo and selfie time at the end, when these young women and men picked their favorite Sustainable Development Goal and posed for pictures. A few of them were "fighting" for Goal 5, it seems our new generation have high aspirations to gender equality! Yes let's make it happen!