Project at a glance

• Location: Apo Legislative Junior Secondary School, Abuja (FCT)
• Led by: SWEDIWorld
• Partners: Feminist Futures (technical partner); approved by the FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB)
• Participants: Adolescent girls of the school
• Focus: Climate justice, futures thinking and storytelling; digital safety; menstrual health and dignity
• Status: Pilot completed; plans under way to scale to more public schools in the FCT and beyond

Overview

Girls’ Voices for Climate Just Futures is SWEDIWorld’s school-based programme for adolescent girls. It treats girls not as passive beneficiaries of development but, in the organisation’s words, as “knowledge holders, innovators and active contributors to solutions for the challenges facing their communities”. The pilot was delivered at Apo Legislative Junior Secondary School in Abuja, in collaboration with Feminist Futures and with the approval of the FCT Universal Basic Education Board.

The challenge

Girls are regularly invited into conversations about climate change but rarely into the decisions that follow. They also face barriers that affect their ability to learn and take part: limited access to menstrual health resources, exposure to harassment, including online, and few opportunities to practise leadership. The programme set out to address these together rather than as separate problems.

What the programme did

The pilot ran as a series of weekly sessions from the autumn of 2025, planned over eight weeks. Girls learned to understand climate justice through futures thinking and storytelling as tools for learning and action. By the fourth week (20 October 2025), they had identified signals of change, developed alternative climate scenarios and began world-building exercises to imagine what a climate-just Nigeria could look like from their own experience.

At the fourth session, held on 20 October 2025, a SWEDIWorld Ambassador shared highlights from earlier sessions and several girls presented their homework. Working in small groups, the girls built “Futures Wheels”, choosing signals such as girls in science and technology, climate change and community safety to explore how these trends could shape what happens next in their lives and surroundings. In a follow-up session, another Ambassador took the girls through the effects of climate change on their daily lives and how they are already mitigating them, sparking conversations on adaptation, resilience and taking small actions towards a more sustainable future.

Skills and support provided

• Climate justice knowledge
• Leadership and futures-thinking skills
• Digital safety awareness
• Menstrual health education
• Scholarships and hygiene support

Results to date

The pilot strengthened climate leadership, confidence and menstrual dignity among the girls. Pupils took the microphone to present their own ideas, and participants received certificates of participation at the close of the programme. The initiative drew press attention, including a Vanguard report headlined “CSO empowers Abuja school with development initiative”.

Next steps

With strong outcomes recorded, SWEDIWorld is advancing plans to scale the model across more public schools within the Federal Capital Territory and beyond, working with UBEB, the Department of Climate Change and other institutions, “to empower resilient girls, engaged boys, stronger schools, and climate-aware communities”.

To support, partner with or learn more about this work, write to contact@swediworld.org.

SWEDIWorld delivered climate change education and handwashing hygiene sessions to young adolescent girls and boys, equipping them with practical knowledge for healthier and more climate-aware lives.

Building capacity in the younger generation is central to SWEDIWorld’s approach: young people who understand both the health basics and the climate pressures around them become advocates in their schools, homes and communities.

To support, partner with or learn more about this work, write to contact@swediworld.org.