The African continent is experiencing a fast pace of economic development which culminates in an increased demand and pressure on the continent’s natural resources. Representing more than 60% of African population, African Youth are disproportionately affected by the environmental issues plaguing the continent. Desertification, pollution, erosion, overexploitation of natural resources such as forest and water, among others hampers prosperity and economic development. The health of Africa’s natural systems has suffered and over the last four decades, Africa biodiversity resources have witnessed a decline of over 40% occasioning conflicts and migrations. Land degradation in the continent emanates from poor agricultural practices and land-use change with the former contributing to the depletion of soil fertility which translates into declining agricultural productivity.

The challenges described above need to be addressed and in a manner that does not undermine African countries ability to sustain progress. Addressing the aforementioned challenges requires the involvement of youths. African youth have a role in transiting from unwitting perpetrators of environmental degradation to custodians of natural capital. Such a changeover will potentially result in sustainability benefits like green jobs. However, despite the recognition of the important role of the youth in the delivery of green growth, and ultimately sustainable development, not enough has been done to enhance their ability to drive this agenda. Building their capacity would enable them to possess participatory competencies, management competencies, technical competencies and transformational competencies towards green growth and contributing to positive socio-economic transformation of African continent. Therefore, African Network of Young Leaders for Peace and Sustainable Development (ANYL4PSD) implement as part of his online university, a Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) on the New Deal for Nature and People.

The main objective of this MOOC is to train youth leaders so as to strengthen their internal and external capacities, their advocacy and engagement capacities, their monitoring and evaluation capacities for effective implementation of the New Deal for Nature and People and the sound delivery of green economies, sustainable development in Africa. This will be guided by the key strategic pillars of intervention of the theory of change (ToC) that includes Advancing Policy, Capacity Building, Sustainable / Green Entrepreneurship and Networking Platforms.