Key Focus Areas
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Children & Youth Empowerment
We promote children and youth empowerment through leadership development, skills building, information and knowledge exchange. We organize platforms for young people to participate in climate action. We organize young people to participate in climate action, sustainable agriculture, sustainable energy, ecosystems preservation, natural resources governance and environmental management. We also support advocacy and public discourse aimed at promoting climate awareness, education, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and inter-generational information exchange where older generations and indigenous communities can share knowledge with younger generations on climate change, environmental management, natural resources, sustainable health and ecosystems management.
Entrepreneurship and Community Business Development
We support the growth of investment in climate-smart youth-inclusive business models, innovations, technologies and green businesses through the establishment of Community Youth-led Eco-inclusive Business Accelerators which will trigger decent job creation, income generation opportunities and workforce development. We promote the establishment of Climate Innovation Centers and an Agribusiness Incubation Hubs in Zimbabwe. These centres and hubs becomes green projects incubation hubs where young climate and agroforestry entrepreneurs, innovators and start-up ventures can access support to develop their innovative ideas into strong and viable businesses. To make their curricula more responsive to market demands, we create platforms for inter-generational dialogues where the older and experienced generations in local indigenous communities in each country share local Indigenous Knowledge Systems with young climate entrepreneurs and innovators. We also provide mentorship, technical and other resources to ensure that those green businesses, innovations and disruptive ideas are developed into viable and profitable start-ups which drives local economic growth.
Natural Resources Governance and Management
We also promote inclusive and sustainable natural resources governance and management. We work with and strengthen the capacities of local communities to also defend their rights in light of development induced displacements. In addition, we acknowledge that natural resources utilization and extraction may lead to violation of environmental rights, land rights and health rights. We therefore work to promote responsible land investments among local communities and development partners. Our mandate is also to ensure that the rights of local communities are protected and that local communities participate in planning processes so that they can benefit as custodians of local natural resources. We recognize that our country is endowed with over 60 precious resources including platinum and lithium. In this regard, we work to promote just transition.
Climate Change & Sustainable Agriculture
GSI Trust recognizes the dangers caused by climate change and values the participation of children and youth as the major victims of climate change. Climate change pose significant challenges to economic growth, youth employment and food security. Climate change-related shocks slow down our progress in reducing poverty especially among young women and men. It causes hunger and malnutrition which have adverse effects on human capital development. Without appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures, climate change will cause people to live in extreme poverty and hunger. The impact will disproportionately affect those especially in the rural communities who rely on natural resources and climate. Both adaptation to climate change and measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions offer opportunities to create new jobs while increasing the resilience of existing ones. We support climate action and sustainable agriculture. We strive to support and stimulate investment and innovation in emerging products and services which helps to create new jobs and transforming local communities. We also support the growth of innovative climate-technologies and green industries to build community resilience and encourage mitigation and adaptation.
Sustainable Ecosystems & Environmental Health
Ecosystems and the environment are crucial natural social safety nets which helps communities to adapt to climate change shocks. Their protection and strengthening are key to empowering local communities and contributing towards sustainable adaptation and mitigation mechanisms. GSI Trust therefore, promotes, spearheads, and advocates for programmes for environmental protection and ecosystem management programmes among local communities. We work with children, youths and older generation to protect nature while stimulating opportunities for green investments. We also support nature-based solutions, green technologies and investments while building sustainable green enterprises which have a bearing on the promotion of decent job creation, rural wealth, food and nutrition, green businesses and green stewardship. In addition, we promote the protection of fundamental human rights, environmental rights and health rights in natural resources’ rich areas. We work with local communities to safe-guard their rights against the threats posed by development projects.
Nutrition, Health and Education
Climate change and environmental degradation pose significant challenges to economic growth, youth employment and food security. Climate change-related shocks slow down our progress in reducing poverty especially among young women and men. It causes hunger and malnutrition which have adverse effects on human capital development. We therefore promote nutrition and health systems in our target communities. We also support education through promotion of nutrition-specific and nutrition sensitive programmes. We organize young people in school-based nutrition and health clubs which we capacitate and equip with necessary resources to implement activities on their own. We identify and capacitate Youth Leaders and Champions who operates as our volunteers and focal points in various schools and communities. Child (Junior) Parliamentarians and Junior Councilors constututes the majority of our Youth Leaders and Champions. We also provide them with mentorship opportunities to represent others at the global stage.
Livelihoods & Economic Empowerment
We promote livelihoods and economic empowerment for women and youths particularly those in marginalised areas. We support agricultural commodities value creation. We believe that by developing value chains, local communities can be able to earn decent livelihoods, incomes and decent employment opportunities. We also promote youth and women’s participation in decision making processes whilst advocating for their access to land and other productive assets as a way of ensuring social and economic justice, resilience to climate shocks and longer-term climate change.
Innovations and Development
We promote access to, and the use of ICTs by the marginalized rural and peri-urban communities. ICTs are also critical in the promotion of rural agribusiness and are also vital in enabling the easy of doing business in rural areas. We believe that ICTs can be a powerful tool in bridging the gap between rural and urban economies. We also believe that ICTs can help bridge the distance between farmers and extension services officers. In this regard, we make use of the community Radios, combined with mobile phones to engage farmers, rural business people, urban markets, investors and entrepreneurs to provide them with information they need. In addition, we provide farmers with extension services directly through field visits or indirectly through ICTs. We also provide tips on combating new crop diseases and advice on planting and post-harvest practices through SMS and interactive voice response which compliments the impact of the community radio broadcasts. Our aim is to also facilitate the establishment of community listening groups around smallholder farming communities. In doing so, we work hand in glove with the community radio stations and utilize the power of social media to disseminate information to various primary and secondary stakeholders. This further promotes direct engagement with stakeholders for participatory development.