POP Festival 2021 - Africa and the Middle East

Two days in the POP Festival 2021, specifically June 5 and 6 will be dedicated to the youth and regional voices in Africa and the Middle East. With more than 10 featured sessions, the two days will bring together public leaders, researchers, youth, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders. We will have sessions ranging from project presentations to panel and dialogues on food and water security, addressing climate crisis and regional environmental threats, climate education, women empowerment, building sustainable cities, and so on.

The following are the goals of the POP Festival 2021 in Africa and the Middle East:

Identify community actions and solutions being implemented in the Africa and Middle East region.
Support networking and cross-learning of climate actions, solutions, and challenges faced in the region and how to overcome them.

Amplify the voices of young people and communities from across the region and inspire them to take action and promote local leadership for peace and sustainability.

The session will witness experts exploring the current state of Africa’s food systems, and how the gaps with respect to food security can be effectively addressed while also promoting livelihood, socio-economic growth, tackling malnutrition, and restoring ecosystems within the region.

The panelists will explore areas such as policy, innovation, economic strategies, grassroots action, and youth-leadership, as effective tools to address the inefficiencies and to create the pathway for successfully achieving food security in the region.

Speaker/Panel Discussion	Format
Professor TJ Higgins, Honorary Fellow at CSIRO Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia (confirmed)	Address
Professor Dina Mandour, Cairo University, Egypt (10 minutes)	Address
Dr. Richard Munang, Africa Regional Climate Change Coordinator, UNEP (10 minutes)	Address
Dialogue with Representatives from Africa ( 20 mins) Jussa Kudherezera, Coordinator, Manica Youth Assembly	Dialogue
Nguintchou Dieudonne,United voices to Serve Forest and Environment, Cameroon	Address

This session will showcase and exhibit projects by youth in Nigeria and Zululand. The exhibits will be in the form of posters, video, and powerpoint presentation.

Speaker/Session	Format
Mandisa Makhathini, A comparative analysis of climate mobility of drought prone SADC countries, Zululand	Poster Presentation
Paul Ayomide, Founder of Aquaworld, Nigeria	Presentation
Gerald Imo, Innovative use of social media as tool for effective climate, EarthDay, Nigeria	Presentation
Gerald Imo, EarthDay, Nigeria	Presentation

Acute and chronic water scarcity has been impacting billions of people in Africa aggravating issues like poverty, hunger, loss of education and health. Therefore, there is a need to look into the issue of the water crisis closely so that efforts can be made to mitigate the situation. This session aims to discuss the issues of water accessibility and availability in various water deprived areas. It will attempt to portray sustainable solutions including holistic water resource approaches adopted by the communities and interventions developed locally.

Speaker/Panel Discussion	Format
Jessica Castro, Grants & Contracts Manager, Co-Chair, Climate Action Community of Practice Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health	Address
Benson Kandeh, Eco-Waters, Sierra Leone (10 mins)	Address
Jamilla Sealy, Former Regional Chairperson, Caribbean Youth Environment Network (CYEN) first youth seat, Global Water Partnership, Barbados (10 mins)	Address
Mandisa Makhathini, PhD Student, University of Zululand (10 mins)	Address
Questions and Concluding (15 mins)

The 8850 kilometers-long Sargassum belt extending from West Africa to the Caribbean Sea in the Gulf of Mexico is the world’s largest microalgal bloom. This session will explore this new normal of altered ecosystems and ocean biochemistry caused by man-made factors, discuss its implications and attempt to draw up approaches that can potentially address this complex, multi-faceted issue.

Speaker/Session	Format
Alejandro Bravo, Quintana Roo	Address
Esteban Amaro, Quintana Roo	Address
Tinjong Louis Njoya, Cameroon (15 mins)	Presentation/ Discussion

This open platform aims to bring together youth from different countries in Africa to voice their concerns on some of the most pertinent climate-related issues affecting their regions today. The youth will focus on an array of pertinent issues ranging from drought and floods to unsustainable environments, low income conditions, and so on, and propose solutions that they believe can be implemented by different stakeholders. The discussion will also aim at bringing to light the interconnected nature of these issues and the transformative role of effective policy-making and ground-level implementation by leaders and officials.

Speaker/Session	Format
Seyi Adebote, Nigeria	Dialogue
Gitaka Nyawira, Kenya	Dialogue
Levy Nyirenda, POP Africa, Zambia	Dialogue
Afronelly Wonne, Social Actor and Environmentalist, Nigeria	Dialogue
Meda Hope, POP Youth Mentor and Ambassador for Africa, Uganda	Dialogue
Chibeze, Strategic Youth Network*	Dialogue
Oluwatoyosi Bakare*	Dialogue
Mfendem Kehgam Larissa, Environmentalist, USFE organization	Dialogue
Jovis Nguefack, PHD Student, University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon	Dialogue
Samuel C. Okorie, POP NIgeria Initiative, Nigeria	Dialogue
Mphathesithe Mkhize, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa	Dialogue

The session will be focused on understanding the science behind the effect of microplastics and nanoplastics on our ocean and the biodiversity. It will also explore the impact of microplastics on the health of animals and humans. Additionally, the session will look at different solutions that can be adopted to effectively mitigate the issues caused due to microplastics.

Speaker/Session	Format
Charles Rolsky, Plastic Oceans, Microplastics and oceans, Mexico (15 mins)	Address
Dr. Arlene Blum, Executive Director, Green Science Policy Institute and Research Associate in Chemistry, UC Berkeley	Address OR Video
Richard Thompson*
Dr. Erik Solheim, Former Executive Director, UNEP and Patron, WSDF (15 mins)	Address
Madhvi Chittoor, Founder of Madhvi4EcoEthics (10 minutes)
Drishya Pathak, POP Movement, PFCM and MIcroplastics in the human body (10 mins)	Address

Education is an integral part of global response to climate change and environmental degradation as it can propel informed decision-making, play a significant role in increasing adaptation and mitigation capacities of local communities, and empower people to adopt sustainable lifestyles. This session will explore these facets and discuss the need and potential impacts of such an education in African countries towards building resilience and adaptation to climate change in the region.

Speaker/Session	Format
H.E. Fekadu Beyene, Former Minister of Ethiopia ( 15 mins)	Keynote Address
Samuel C. Okorie, POP Nigeria Initiative, Nigeria	Address
Funmilola Ademola Aliu, GECCI, Nigeria	Address
Dr. Belko Abdoul Aziz Diallo, WASCAL	Address

The Blue Circle forum aims to bring young people from around the globe on the same ‘virtual’ table to discuss and brainstorm key actions, solutions and policies that can be implemented as a response to tackle the global plastic and ocean crisis.

This year the workshop will focus on the theme of ‘furthering marine crisis awareness and ocean literacy in schools.’ Through the workshop the participants and Blue Circle Youth leaders will work closely together to create strategies for programs/clubs that can be incorporated within schools to advance ocean awareness and literacy. Our proposed outcome is to have participants register their schools with the Ervis Foundation, so that we can work together to launch the programs/clubs within their schools.

Speaker/Session

Format

Conducted by:

Priyanka Prakash, Ervis Foundation
Blue Circle Youth Leaders:
- Haaziq Kazi
- Ved Sanyal
- Aarav Bhansali
- Preyasi Desai
- Heer Desai
- Siddh Sanghavi
- Prakrti Prakash

Workshop

By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas. The growing urban population has a direct impact on air and water quality, water availability, waste-disposal, energy consumption, carbon emissions and so on, not to mention the impact on biodiversity with growing loss of flora and fauna.

The Middle East has been considered to have one of the fastest growing young populations and is also leading in rapid urbanization. Some of the most modern cities of the Middle East are greatly aspired for their high standard of living, top-class infrastructure, availability of resources, and abundance of opportunities. But, with environmental protection becoming a fundamental pillar of development, is it possible to enable rapid urbanization and modernization, while also ensuring a positive and sustainable impact on the planet? The session discusses this.

Speaker/Session	Format
Neeshad Shafi, Environmentalist & Co-Founder of Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar	Keynote Address
Mrs. Habiba Al Mar’ashi, Co-founder and Chairperson of Emirates Environmental Group (EEG)	Keynote Address
Suganthi Gunasekhar, Springdales, Dubai	Townhall

This session will focus on the importance of decision making at different levels and examine women's choices and roles with respect to achieving the SDGs, climate goals, energy-efficiency (clean energy choices) and issues of gender equity.

Speaker/Session	Format
Dr. Saroj Pachauri, Public Health Specialist (10mins)*	Keynote Address
Madhubala Nath, Gender Specialist, India	Panel
Olusola Oresanya, Senior Country Technical Coordinator, Malaria Consortium, Africa	Panel
Shailly Kedia, Fellow, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, India	Panel
Dr. Norma Patricia Munoz, POP Honorary Mentor, Mexico	Panel
Kehkashan Basu, Founder President, Green Hope Foundation, UAE/Canada	Panel

Time	Speaker/Session	Format
2:00 EST/ 6:00 GMT	Dr. Rahavan Seetharaman, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank	Leadership by Inspiration

Time	Speaker/Session	Format
13:00 EST/ 17:00 GMT	Silvia Bautista Cantu, Youth Leader, EarthX	Moderated Panel
	Khadija Stewart, Youth Leader, Earth X
	La Tisha Parkinson, Trinidad and Tobago

Africa and the Middle East – June 5-6, 2021

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Speaker/Workshop	Format
KERRYN VAUGHAN, AUSTRALIA	Workshop

Speaker/Session	Format
Mark Minneboo, Plastic Oceans, Mexico	Workshop

Speaker/Session	Format
Ansh Patel, FXB Climate Advocates, USA	Workshop
Om Desai, FXB Climate Advocates, USA
Siddhant Desai, FXB Climate Advocates, USA