Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate has been named the African Union Commission Chairperson’s Special Envoy for Youth, according to a report by Pulse Uganda carried by My Afrika Magazine on 20 October 2026. The Vanessa Nakate AU youth envoy appointment brings one of Africa’s most prominent climate justice voices into continental youth representation, just weeks before COP31 opens in Antalya.
Why the Vanessa Nakate AU youth envoy appointment matters
The appointment was made by African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, the former foreign minister of Djibouti who took office in February 2025 after succeeding Moussa Faki Mahamat at the helm of the Commission.
Nakate becomes the third person to hold the continental youth office. Tunisia’s Aya Chebbi was appointed the inaugural envoy in 2018, and Zimbabwe’s Chido Cleopatra Mpemba became the second in November 2021 under then-chairperson Mahamat.
The move follows a formal recruitment drive: the AU opened applications for the 3rd Chairperson’s Youth Envoy in June 2026, seeking a dedicated advocate for the interests, aspirations and concerns of Africa’s youth, with applications closing on 9 July 2026.
Uganda’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Adonia Ayebare, publicly welcomed the appointment, according to the report.
Who is Vanessa Nakate
Nakate’s journey into public life began on the streets of Kampala in January 2019. Inspired by Greta Thunberg’s climate strikes, she protested alongside her siblings and cousins and continued demonstrating weekly. Those early protests grew into a wider campaign demanding that African experiences receive greater attention in the global response to climate change.
She founded the Rise Up Movement to give African climate activists a stronger platform. Her work has also connected international advocacy with practical action at home: her Green Schools Project installs solar panels and clean-energy systems in rural Ugandan schools.
Nakate has addressed leaders at major climate conferences, including COP25 and COP26. In 2020, she attracted international attention after being cropped out of a news photograph featuring other young climate activists at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Her response captured the frustration of campaigners whose communities were affected by climate change but whose voices struggled to receive equal attention, and the Associated Press’s executive editor publicly apologised.
UNICEF appointed her a Goodwill Ambassador in September 2022. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell described Nakate as instrumental in redirecting the conversation on climate change to focus on the people most affected by the crisis: the poor and the marginalised.
She is also the author of A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis, was named in the BBC’s 100 Women of 2020, and featured in the Time100 Next list of 2021.
Key facts
- The Youth Envoy’s office gives young Africans a channel to influence continental decisions and advance the aspirations of the African Youth Charter and Agenda 2063.
- Africa is the world’s youngest continent: by 2050, one in three young people globally is projected to be African.
- About 1 billion children — nearly half of the world’s 2.2 billion children — live in one of the 33 countries classified by UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index as at extremely high risk of the impacts of climate change. The top 10 countries are all in Africa.
Why it matters for climate diplomacy
The appointment places climate justice at the centre of the AU’s youth representation at a moment when Africa’s climate voice is rising. Just days ago, Plan International’s Global Youth Ambassadors published their COP31 youth declaration, calling for climate adaptation, climate education and a just transition to reflect the rights and leadership of children and young people ahead of the summit in Antalya.
Nakate’s own framing has long captured the injustice at the heart of the crisis: as she told the US National Press Club in 2022, “We are facing the same storm … but we are in different boats.” Her move into the AU youth role now gives that perspective a formal channel into continental decision-making.
For an activist who has spent years asking decision-makers to listen, the appointment presents a demanding opportunity: helping ensure that other young Africans are heard, too.
