Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – August 22, 2026

Our representative, Semana Francois, took the stage at the UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar today, delivering a powerful message on behalf of the Here For Hope Foundation through the Earth Focus Network. Against the backdrop of a conference mobilizing 196 countries to combat land degradation and desertification, Francois challenged the global financing community to rethink how it supports youth-led restoration efforts.

“Many youth-led organizations have innovative ideas on land restoration and climate resilience, but they are often not yet investment-ready,” Francois stated. “The question we must answer is this: How can the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) support them not only with grants, but with the organizational capacity building, financial management, technical skills, mentorship, and proposal development they need to grow into credible partners capable of managing larger landscape investments?”

A Critical Moment for Youth and Restoration

With a staggering $278 billion annual funding gap for land restoration identified at COP17, the need to unlock the potential of youth-led innovation has never been more urgent . Francois emphasized that young people are on the frontlines of ecosystem degradation yet remain underrepresented in the financial mechanisms designed to address it.

The session resonated with the core themes of COP17’s “Restoring Land, Restoring Hope” agenda and the ongoing International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists . It aligns with the GEF’s own programming objectives under the UNCCD, which emphasize capacity development and stakeholder engagement as pathways to achieving a sustainable future for land.

The Path Forward: From Vision to Credible Partnership

Francois articulated a vision that goes beyond traditional grant-making. He called for dedicated capacity-building tracks that equip young leaders with financial literacy and project management skills, structured mentorship programs that connect youth organizations with senior-level experts and consultants, hands-on proposal development support to translate innovative ideas into bankable investment projects, and clear pathways for youth organizations to graduate from small grant recipients to implementing partners for large-scale landscape investments.

These elements are not hypothetical—similar capacity-building models are already showing results. A Young Professionals Programme in Grenada, for instance, has established a pool of junior climate finance consultants through mentorship and hands-on proposal writing sessions, creating direct pathways for youth engagement in GEF-supported projects.

A Call to Action

Francois’s intervention echoes the demands of the youth and civil society representatives who have advocated throughout COP17 for more substantive roles in official processes . As the conference continues through August 28, his message serves as a clear call to action for CIF, GEF, and other financiers: invest not just in youth ideas, but in youth capacity, and you will cultivate the next generation of landscape restoration leaders.

The Here For Hope Foundation remains committed to ensuring that youth-led innovation is not sidelined by a lack of investment readiness. Through the Earth Focus Network, we will continue to work with partners to build the bridges that connect young visionaries with the resources they need to restore hope—and restore our lands.

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