Presenting “Mapping Child and Youth Engagement in Climate Change Governance” at Bold Ideas for Brighter Futures Conference

Authored by Dahdaleh Graduate Student Scholar Chelsea Williams

From May 18–20, 2026, I had the opportunity to attend and present at “Bold Ideas for Brighter Futures: The 2nd Global Conference on Child and Adolescent Mental Health”  in Cape Town, South Africa. The conference was supported by Stellenbosch University, the Institute for Life Course Health Research, UNICEF, and the Karolinska Institute. The conference brought together students, researchers, practitioners, youth delegates, policymakers, and advocates working across child and adolescent mental health.

As part of the conference, I presented my PhD research in the session “Climate Change, Nature, and Child and Adolescent Mental Health” on May 19, 2026. My presentation was titled “Mapping Child and Youth Engagement in Climate Change Governance: A Scoping Review of Access, Agency, and Wellbeing.” The review examines how children and youth are engaged in climate change governance, with attention to who is able to access these spaces, how much agency young people have within them, and how participation affects their wellbeing. I was grateful to present alongside distinguished researchers working on related climate change topics in child and adolescent health. Topics included climate change in refugee settings in Uganda, mental health impacts in Bangladesh, and nature-based prescriptions in South Africa. This session was especially valuable because it allowed me to situate my work on participatory child and youth governance within a broader discussion about climate change, nature, and child and adolescent mental health.

The conference was also an important learning opportunity because of its strong commitment to meaningful youth engagement. Youth delegates were not only present as participants, but were involved though a youth advisory board to support the design and delivery of the conference. Over the nine months leading up to the event, these advisors contributed as decision-makers in shaping how the conference was organized, co-panelists, speakers, and facilitators. This reflected a central finding from my own research: initiatives concerning young people are stronger, more legitimate, and more responsive when young people are meaningfully involved from the beginning.

In addition to the main conference sessions, I attended several pre-sessions and networking events, including sessions focused on research funding, knowledge translation, and research collaborations. These sessions provided useful insights into current priorities in global child and adolescent mental health research, which helps me situate where my research can fit within the discourse on climate change, participation, and youth wellbeing.

One of the most powerful moments of the conference was the presentation of “A Youth Manifesto for Child and Adolescent Mental Health”. It was developed by the Bold Ideas for Brighter Futures Youth Advisory board, and represented the voices of 221 young people aged 10–35. The manifesto had 5 demands for researchers, institutions, and policymakers: build inclusive and scalable systems; ensure “nothing about us without us”; innovate with care; measure what matters; and leave no one behind in emergency and crisis settings. Conference attendees all put the manifesto in the air (picture attached), and were invited to sign the manifesto in support. Overall, the conference was an inspiring and energizing experience that strengthened my commitment to youth-centered, rights-based, and participatory approaches to climate change and child and adolescent mental health research.

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