UNICEF Children and youth as agents of change for climate resilience

Sida's overall assessment is that the project has demonstrated significant capacity for adaptive management and successfully introduced a new institutional structure piloting an educational approach that has significant potential to improve children and young people's understanding of environmental and climate issues. UNICEF's strong relationship with key institutional counterparts such as the Ministry for Education and Science and the Bureau for Development of Education have helped the project stay on track during changes in leadership at the Ministry and a reorientation of the educational reform process. The key result achieved by UNICEF in 2023 relates to the launch of the Experiential Learning Network (ELN) in 2023, which was met with intense interest and demand from teachers and participation of students, leading to 4683 children participating in workshops at one of the ELN member-organizations as of November 2024, from 144 schools throughout the country and cutting across the primary and secondary school system. A total of 7 partner organizations, including 6 existing Macedonian scientific/educational institutions and one civil society organization are currently providing this educational service based on a curriculum and instruction materials developed within this project, and using equipment procured by UNICEF with Sida funding. Additionally, 759 science teachers from 190 schools throughout the country were trained by their peers to implement the newly developed experiential learning programme in their classrooms. According to UNICEF, 50,000 students in total benefited from this intervention. A project evaluation was carried during the summer of 2024, which had found that it was highly relevant and effective in its ability to reach its goals, while engaging a broad array of competent partners and creating a solid basis for future sustainability. It however found that a second phase would be necessary in order to ensure scale-up of the results and strengthen sustainability. The evaluation had found no deficiencies in the way the project was set up and implemented, and recommended a scaling up and broadening of activities in the future in order to ensure that the initiated reforms are solidified in both policy and practice. Other results: The revision of the curricula for students from 6th, 7th and 8th grade was carried out, however an intervention in the textbooks was not possible this time around, as the new Minister for Education rolled back the previous educational reform process, which had envisioned an inclusive textbook development process, to the old closed approach. Nevertheless, the Ministry recognizes the newly developed curricula by UNICEF and envisions the use of supplementary materials to cover the topics not included in the textbooks. As a direct result of the programme, a total of 20 curricula in total have been revised (including 10 VET curricula, whose revision was carried out under the sub-regional project on air quality, but using the guidelines from a Green Skills Analysis produced within this project). This has directly benefited a cumulative total of ~162,000 children as of 31 December 2023. During previous project years, UNICEF have: - supported the development of education documents and policies that now incorporate contemporary and scientifically proven approaches to education about environmental impact and climate change in North Macedonia, horizontally integrating environment and climate change education across different disciplines. - provided teachers with the professional development opportunities that improve their capacities in environmental education in pre-school and primary school . As a result, nearly 6000 teachers were supported with practical tools, guides, trainings and educational resources that facilitate their practical work. - supported the development of over 200 high quality resources for students and teachers, including videos, virtual experiments, educational activities, and digital games. All of these resources were tested among teachers as part of 93 professional learning communities. As a result, in the reporting period, thousands of practical activities and experiments were organized across the country, allowing 35.722 children from kindergartens and primary schools to understand complex environment and climate-related concepts through interesting hands-on activities tailored to their age. - The programme also established the Experiental Learning Network - comprised of the following six national institutions: Botanical Garden Skopje, Hydrobiological Institute Ohrid, Educational Centre Negrevo, Narodna Tehnika, Macedonian Ecological Society and the National Park Galichica. The Experiential Learning Network (ELN) has potential to provide institutional support to the teaching quality in schools, and convene young people through practical engagement and skills building opportunities. Within the reporting period the six institutions comprising the ELN developed a joint educational programme aligned with curricula and adopted by the Bureau for the Development of Education. In this process the ELN members, education and environment authorities, and environmental CSOs, formed strong partnerships and brought to practice multiple synergies and collaborations. - In partnership with the Fund for Innovation and Technological Development, UNICEF created space for young people through 6 UPSHIFT cycles to develop 30 social innovations to solve environmental challenges in their communities and supported these innovative ideas with seed-funding, mentorship and coaching. 103,513 USD state co-funding was mobilised for this activity cluster. Overall the assessment is that the project has largely succeeded in achieving its objectives.

 The overall vision of the project is:   A comprehensive and purposeful environmental education is in place, ensuring that teachers: a) are provided with the resources and capacities to deliver engaging content and activities to students; and b) are supported by mechanisms for professional development and peer learning. Students have a wide variety of platforms and tools for experiential, hands-on learning in the natural sciences, but also have access to venues, programmes and opportunities to practice and foster agency, social innovation and entrepreneurship. Ultimately this system creates public demand for solutions to the environmental and climate change challenges and supports young people to actively engage in responding to the increasing risks. There are two specific objectives: Outcome 1. Foundations for relevant and consistent environmental education are established Strengthening the system and services offered to students, parents and teachers to nurture knowledge and skills for problem solving and environmental sustainability. Outcome 2. Children, young boys and girls, are better equipped to actively contribute to and enhance their community’s response to environmental impact and climate change. Empowering children and youth to acquire knowledge, develop skills and actively seek out opportunities and solutions for combating environmental impact and climate change. In doing so, young people will also develop transferable skills to innovate, adapt and overcome challenges in their environment as well as in their own professional development. By providing the four critical aspects of agency - voice, space, audience and influence, children will be empowered to follow through on issues pertinent to their future in a responsible, informed and systemic manner. UNICEF Office in North Macedonia intends to use formal and non-formal learning to empower children and youth to be agents of change. UNICEF through the project activities intends to increase public participation by ensuring that the voice of young people is heard and taken into consideration by developing skills for critical thinking about living in a healthy environment, sustainable development and awareness on climate change and making responsible choices in everyday life.