HKH-Arctic Youth Leadership Forum Exchange

Background

Globally, mountain regions such as the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) and the Arctic are among the most climate-vulnerable regions experiencing accelerated warming, biodiversity loss, and increasing socio-economic pressures. These changes are affecting ecosystems, livelihoods, and cultures, while also amplifying the urgency for inclusive and innovative climate action.

Youth in both regions are emerging as critical agents of change, contributing new perspectives, local knowledge, and solutions to address the triple planetary crisis. However, despite their growing engagement, youth remain underrepresented in global climate and biodiversity governance processes and often face barriers to participation, including limited access to decision-making spaces, capacity gaps, and insufficient institutional support.

The HKH-Arctic Youth Leadership Forum, launched in October 2025, was established as a cross-regional platform to strengthen youth leadership, foster collaboration, and amplify mountain and polar voices in global forums. The initiative connects emerging youth leaders from both regions working on climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development challenges.

The first cross-regional exchange took place in Iceland, providing an opportunity for Arctic focused learning and collaboration. This second exchange visit to Kathmandu marks the completion of the Forum’s initial in-person engagements, creating space for deeper engagement, capacity building, and consolidation of youth-led projects across the HKH and Arctic regions.

Objectives

The objectives of the cross-learning event are as follows:

• Facilitate structured cross-regional and intergenerational exchange between youth from the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) and the Arctic, and ICIMOD senior experts, resulting in shared knowledge, strengthened leadership approaches, and actionable partnerships for climate solutions.
• Strengthen the capacity of youth leaders to engage effectively in global climate and biodiversity processes, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, leading to enhanced participation, advocacy, and policy influence.
• Support the development, alignment, and scaling of youth-led climate initiatives, improving their technical quality, application of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) principles, and visibility at regional and global levels.
• Enhance knowledge and application of mountain-specific climate solutions and innovation, including through exposure to institutional practices (e.g., ICIMOD’s LML), resulting in replicable, context-relevant actions and increased visibility of youth engagement efforts.

Participants

12 youth champions from the Hindu Kush Himalaya and the Arctic regions.

Expected outputs

This cross-learning event is expected to deliver the following outputs:

• Strengthened cross-regional collaboration and exchange among HKH and Arctic youth, fostering a shared understanding of priorities and challenges.
• Enhanced capacity of youth leaders to engage in global climate governance, including improved understanding of UNFCCC processes.
• Refined youth-led projects with clearer alignment, collaboration opportunities, and collective messaging.
• Documented outcomes and communication materials, including stories, media content, and reflections highlighting youth leadership, mountain issues and the HKH-Arctic Youth Leadership program.
• Intergenerational insights supporting stronger collaboration between youth and senior representatives.
• Increased integration of GESI principles into youth-led projects.
• Contribution to global advocacy efforts, with clearer articulation of mountain perspectives and youth priorities.
• Successful completion of the HKH-Arctic Youth Leadership Forum’s cycle of in-person cross-regional engagements, consolidating learning, collaboration, and relationships across the cohort.

Programme of activities

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