Malawi is a country that is vulnerable to extreme climate events such as cyclones, flooding, and droughts. The negative social impacts of these events have made resilience building a national priority. Acknowledging the importance of collaborative efforts in resilience building, ICEREF team realized the need to complement formal secondary school curriculum with practical school-led interventions. This is a new approach which is truly transformational leading from learning to collaboration and active participation.

The ICEREF project is a youth and community empowerment initiative that prepares for and supports school-led climate change interventions. ICEREF will build understandings and skills related to climate change mitigation and adaptation interventions amongst students and teachers. Throughout the course of the project, the capacity of participating schools will be developed. At the same time, lessons learned and good practices that emerge will be disseminated through an outreach program to communities. The young people taking part in the ICEREF project will be given the opportunity to collaborate and take action with their colleagues, and also be involved in 1.5 MAX Global Schools Climate Summit where they will meet and work virtually with other young people from around the world.

This demonstrator project will point to a practical approach to developing a responsive youth generation which is a core ambition of Malawi Vision 2063. The schools covered are Lufilya CDSS, Maghemo Secondary and Mpata CDSS