In-Country YouthADAPT Challenge Demo Day

Event description

Africa remains the most climate-vulnerable continent, with youth disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. Yet, young people across Africa are leading innovative, locally grounded solutions to build resilience in sectors such as food security and infrastructure.  

To amplify these efforts, the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), under the African Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), launched the YouthADAPT Challenge in 2021. The program is designed to unlock climate finance, policy support, and technical assistance for youth-led adaptation enterprises.  

While the continental YouthADAPT Challenge continues to spotlight Africa’s top youth-led adaptation enterprises on a global stage, the In-Country YouthADAPT Challenge 2025 serves as a flagship initiative led by the GCA that brings the program closer to the ground. This new format combines a demo day and investor matchmaking with tailored support for leading youth-led enterprises pioneering innovative adaptation solutions in food security and infrastructure across five focus countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Nigeria. 

This exclusive Demo Day will showcase some of the country’s most promising youth-led enterprises, each developing innovative and commercially viable solutions to address Africa’s urgent climate challenges. Guests will have the opportunity to engage with businesses pioneering resilience in food systems, infrastructure, and other critical sectors, while exploring new market opportunities across the continent. 

The featured enterprises range from early- to growth-stage, with demonstrated traction and clear pathways to scale. Many are seeking investments between USD 100,000–300,000. In addition, ten selected entrepreneurs will receive a catalytic grant of up to USD 30,000 and six months of mentorship, strengthening their capacity to secure financing and scale their impact. 

The program will include a curated pitch event, where you will meet vetted, high-potential enterprises and engage directly with young entrepreneurs, as well as regional and domestic investors interested in investment opportunities in climate adaptation.  

Objectives
The challenge is designed to link enterprises with private sector domestic debt and equity funders, to ensure the financing flows for these adaptation solutions can be sustained beyond the GCA grants. The goal of the incubation program will be to enhance investment readiness of climate adaptation enterprises at a larger scale. The grant component of the Challenge will be used to ‘crowd in’ domestic investors by de-risking the initial investments; results-based criteria will also be included to incentivize specific actions.

This will inspire and support the commercialization of the climate change adaptation solutions driven by the entrepreneurial drive of African Youth in five countries. The Challenge demonstrates the efficacy and equity of involving youth African entrepreneurs in adaptation action, need to support the missing middle businesses in terms of funding.   

Session Contents
The Demo Day Events will be a 2-day event hosted in five cities across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania. These exclusive events will showcase a pipeline of the countries’ most promising youth-led enterprises, each driving innovative and commercially viable solutions to some of the continent’s most urgent climate challenges. The event will provide an opportunity for at least 50 shortlisted applicants (approximately 10 from each country) to pitch their climate adaptation innovations to a panel of seasoned jurists.  

The event will also feature an investor matchmaking session. During the event, investors will have the opportunity to access a curated pipeline of vetted, high-potential enterprises through a pitch event, and private deal room sessions. It is a platform to engage directly with promising young entrepreneurs, explore tailored investment opportunities, and shape the growth trajectory of enterprises tackling climate risks head-on. In this way, the Demo Day is designed to create real pathways to investment, impact, and partnership for climate adaptation finance. 

Schedule and Agenda
The events will take place across 5 cities in October 2025.