Africa Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge

The Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge (YouthADAPT) is an annual competition and awards program launched by the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Climate Investment Funds (CIF). The program supports youth-led enterprises offering innovative climate adaptation and resilience solutions. Each winner receives a $100,000 grant and tailored business development support through a 12-month accelerator program to scale their solutions. In 2025, GCA has refined the YouthADAPT offering to go beyond grant support by linking enterprises with domestic debt and equity funders. Through partnerships with banks and innovation Deal Rooms, YouthADAPT winners will have the opportunity to pitch their ventures to private sector investors, unlocking additional financing to accelerate growth and ensure long-term sustainability of their adaptation solutions. Since its launch in 2021, the Challenge has run three successful cycles, supporting 41 enterprises across 20 African countries, with over 50% representation of female-led businesses.

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Overview
Project goals
Timeline
Finance
Partners & Donors
Contacts
Related articles & resources

Adaptation Need

To scale up youth-led innovation in climate adaptation by strengthening enterprise capacity to design, finance, and implement climate-smart solutions, while providing seed funding and facilitating access to private sector investment to accelerate market entry and long-term sustainability of adaptation enterprises.

GCA’s Added Value

GCA supports winning youth-led enterprises with $100,000 in grant funding and tailored business support through a 12-month accelerator program. This approach strengthens enterprise capacity, fosters sustainable job creation, and mainstreams gender by ensuring 50% participation of women-led enterprises. The program combines mentorship from industry experts, targeted training in climate-resilient practices, and access to investor and peer networks, enabling enterprises to scale their adaptation solutions, enhance community resilience, and train smallholder farmers—particularly women and youth—in climate-smart approaches.

Total Investment Value Influenced

N/A

Beneficiaries

250,000

IFI Implementation period

2021 - 2025

Program

Youth Jobs and Entrepreneurship

Partners

African Development Bank

Status

In progress

Countries

Algeria

Botswana

Cameroon

DRC

Egypt

Ghana

Kenya

Malawi

Mali

Nigeria

Rwanda

Senegal

Uganda

Zambia

Central African Republic

Côte d'Ivoire

SDG contribution

08 - Decent work and economic growth

09 - Industry, Innovation, Technology and Infrastructure

13 - Climate action

Project goals

Mainstreaming Adaptation and Resilience

Capacity Building & Training: develop training materials and deliver training workshops to equip selected youth-led startups with practical skills in entrepreneurship and climate adaptation mainstreaming.

Mentorship & Coaching: provide professional mentorship, empowering them to execute their business plans, create jobs, and support continental efforts towards climate resilience.

Grant funding: provide grant support of up to USD 100,000 to support their short-term growth and facilitating linkages with potential investors for longer term growth.

Outcomes

Created over 8,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Trained more than 25,000 small-holder farmers on climate adaptation
128% increase in revenue
20% expanded into new markets
$8,100,000 raised in equity and grant funding
Five Deal rooms organized in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Nigeria

Timeline

GCA Support Status

Technical Assistance Preparation

GCA Support Implementation

December, 2021

GCA Support Completion

Monitoring

Finance

Project Investment Value

IFI partners

African Development Bank

Contacts

General media inquiries

info@gca.org

Request for information

jobs_entrepreneurship@gca.org