Olumide Idowu (also known as Mr. Climate), is a Nigerian
youth
Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. You ...
campaigner and
climate change activist
Individual action on climate change can include personal choices in many areas, such as diet, travel, household energy use, consumption of goods and services, and family size. Individuals can also engage in local and political advocacy around issu ...
.
He is the co-founder of the International Climate Change Development Initiative (ICCDI Africa), Climate Wednesday and Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition.
Olumide was an
Atlas Corps fellow, State
International Visitor Leadership Program The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is a professional exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The mission of IVLP is to offer current and emerging international leader ...
(IVLP)
alumni
Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...
, social
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
and communications officer for
Association for the Development of Education in Africa
The Association for the Development of Education in Africa, previously known as "Donors to African Education", is a "network and partnership" established by a World Bank initiative in 1988. It groups Ministries of Education, international Developme ...
Triennale 2017 in
Senegal
Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤠(Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤠ðž ...
, and the senior communication director for African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC).
He was the Organizing Committee Member for 7th Global Platform on
Disaster Risk Reduction
Disaster risk reduction (DRR) sometimes called disaster risk management (DRM) is a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the risks of disaster. It aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing w ...
(DRR) in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n Youth Champion for the
(UNISDR) and received the 2015 Save the Children
Award
An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration.
An awar ...
of Contribution toward (in)
Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...
in Nigeria.
Olumide is the Youth Focal Point Nigeria
UNDP
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
Small Grant Program, youth lead author for
Global Environment Outlook
Global Environment Outlook (GEO) is a series of reports on the environment issued periodically by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The GEO project was initiated in response to the environmental reporting requirements of UN Agenda ...
(GEO) of the UN Environment and executive coordinator for African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC).
He is also a member of different local and international organizations.
His core focus includes
youth empowerment
Youth empowerment is a process where children and young people are encouraged to take charge of their lives. They do this by addressing their situation and then take action in order to improve their access to resources and transform their consciou ...
,
Environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
, Climate Change, communication,
Monitoring & Evaluation and Sustainable Development issues.
Early life and education
Idowu was born to a Nigerian
agriculturist
An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the U ...
.
He studied
Statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...
at the
University of Abuja
The University of Abuja is a tertiary institution in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. It was established in January 1988 (under Decree No. 110 of 1992 as amended) as a dual-mode university with the mandate to run conventional and distance learning ...
, Nigeria where he obtained a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
(B.Sc.) in 2010.
Career
Olumide became a member of the executive board and Africa Regional director of International Youth Federation (IYF) in 2016.
In 2018, Olumide worked as the Nigeria country manager for Climate Scorecard, an initiative of Global Citizens’ Initiative (TGCI) and EarthAction. In this role, he produced a monthly country News Brief called Action Alert highlighting activities that impeded the
Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, Climate change a ...
implementation, solutions and relevant stakeholders to drive needed action. In the same year, he worked on a mobile app for citizen reporting on
Waste Management
Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal.
This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...
and Disaster Risk reduction.
He was the senior communications director, African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC) and became the executive coordinator in January, 2022.
Additionally, he was the
Advocacy
Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...
and Campaign Specialist of Save the Children Nigeria, project coordinator of TUNZA Nigeria, and Research and Reporting Analyst of
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
n NGO Network.
Olumide is the Youth Focal Point in Nigeria for UNDP Small Grant Program, and the Youth Lead Author Global Environmental Outlook (GEO6).
Activism
Olumide Idowu started his climate
activism
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...
journey with the
AIESEC
AIESEC is an international youth-run, non-governmental and not-for-profit organization that provides young people with leadership development, cross-cultural internships, and global volunteer exchange experiences. The organization focuses on emp ...
and Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition in his undergraduate days which prompted his participation in the open hearings of the
National Assembly (Nigeria)
The National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a bicameral legislature established under section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution. It consists of a Senate with 109 members and a 360-member House of Representatives. The body, modeled ...
. In 2013, he founded the Climate Wednesday initiative held on Wednesdays to educate people about climate change and its
adaptation
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...
strategies.
He co-founded the International Climate Change Development Initiative (ICCDI Africa) in 2016 with the aim to build a climate smart generation through creative dialogues and innovations. He has worked on solution-led initiatives focused on
open defecation
Open defecation is the human practice of defecating outdoors ("in the open") rather than into a toilet. People may choose fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, or other open spaces for defecation. They do so either because they do ...
, women's health, waste management, and
oil spill
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...
cleanup amongst others in
Lagos
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...
and
Rivers state
Rivers State, also known as Rivers, is a state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed in 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include: Imo to the north, Abia and Akwa Ib ...
Nigeria.
Awards and nominations
Olumide was recognized with the 2015 Save the Children Award of Contribution toward Sustainable Development in Nigeria.
He was nominated for the State International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) by the
US Embassy
The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...
in Nigeria, and African Youth Champion for the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).
Publications
*The role of youth in realizing their vision for change.
*
Grassroot
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
s demand for Nigeria in the post-2015 development agenda.
*Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture and Food.
*
Agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
and Youth Development in Africa.
References
{{Reflist
Living people
Founders of charities
Nigerian environmentalists
University of Abuja alumni
1987 births
Nigerian activists
Organization founders