Building partnerships and strengthening diverse coalitions among all stakeholders are some of the goals related to SDG 17 to ensure the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda.

In a move to bring youth and universities closer to major urban challenges, ICLEI South America Network announced two new partnerships to strengthen youth engagement in sustainability agendas, during the opening of XVI National Meeting of the CB27 Forum, in Florianópolis, on Sunday (14th).

“The nature of the agendas that ICLEI works with are long-term, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, with a horizon towards 2030, and the Paris Agreement, in 2050, therefore future generations need to be involved with a leading role,” commented the executive secretary of ICLEI South America, Rodrigo Perpétuo, on the motivation for starting a line of action focused on the leaders of the future. “Local governments must pay attention to youth, today, as the centre of the concept of sustainability is to allow future generations to enjoy conditions at least equal to those we have today, so neglecting this audience means breaking with the concept of sustainability”.

As part of its commitment to supporting the development of future leaders, the partnership with the German organisation Plant-for-the-Planet provides environmental education activities and collective planting for municipal schools for all ICLEI Network members in South America. Focusing on children aged 7 to 12, Plant-for-the-Planet carries out educational actions – called academies – to train climate justice ambassadors, raising children's awareness of the climate change agenda in a playful way, and carrying out collective planting to support the solution of the problem in their communities.

“Our work will only be possible in partnership with the municipalities, as they are the ones who concentrate the largest number of students, through the municipal education network, and also with local urban afforestation policies,” said Evelyn Araripe, President and Executive Director of Plant-for-the-Planet Brazil. “ICLEI adds its decades of experience working with local governments, as there is no point in us duplicating efforts on something we can do together,” she concluded.

In 2018, at a meeting facilitated by the CB27 Forum, Plant-for-the-Planet Brasil has established partnerships with the Municipal Governments of Curitiba and Salvador, committing to the establishment of 40 academies and the planting of up to 10,000 trees in each city. With the new partnership, ICLEI will now offer Plant-for-the-Planet's expertise to all governments in its Network within its 2019 Solutions Package.

On this occasion, the partnership between ICLEI and the was also announced. Youth Climate Leaders (YCL), an international organisation that promotes the empowerment and preparation of young people in international climate discussions, in order to stimulate leadership skills and an integrated vision for sustainability agendas in professional practice.

As part of this collaboration, ICLEI is offering a fellowship for the “Leadership Development in Climate Change for the 21st Century Course” in Brazil for one of its collaborators, and also contributes to the curation of the Immersion programme's schedule, which will take a delegation of young people to Germany and India from August onwards.

According to Cassia Moraes, founder and CEO of YCL, the theme for this year's international immersion is “cities and climate. “I believe that cities and states are emerging as hubs for climate action. Our idea is to see this partnership as a catalyst for the ‘localisation’ plan, because as a global network, we see local hubs as a way for our alumni to return to their cities and act on local projects, while always remaining connected to our global network, both of partners and other members.”