Two new World YMCA partnerships: health, environment

Date: 30 November 2020

World YMCA has entered into two new partnership agreements, in two of its four main areas of impact: health and the environment.

“We are expanding our scope to collaborate for bigger impact, while advocating for a more active role for young people in facing the challenges of our times”, said Secretary-General Carlos Sanvee.

In health, its agreement with The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria will focus on malaria education and advocacy; and in the environment, its agreement with the Worldwide Fund for Nature will empower young people to be active agents of climate action.

Under World YMCA’s agreement with Global Fund

… the YMCA Movement will continue to support worldwide work to eradicate malaria. It will do so through advocacy support from World YMCA, and the collaboration and critical financial support from Y’s Men International to the tune of $300,000 over three years.  Many YMCAs are already running malaria prevention projects.

Speaking in Lyon in October 2019 when the partnership was first agreed at the Global Fund’s sixth replenishment conference, Peter Sands, its Executive Director, said: “We welcome the investment made by World YMCA and Y’s Men International to strengthen the Global Fund’s malaria programmes”.

In September 2020, Carlos Sanvee spoke alongside Peter Sands in a Concordia Summit panel on global health, emphasising the importance of the youth voice and of youth-led solutions.

The Global Fund is a partnership designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. It mobilizes and invests more than $4 billion a year to support programs run by local experts in more than 100 countries.

Under World YMCA’s agreement with the Worldwide Fund for Nature
… the two organisations will work together to promote young people’s meaningful participation in sustainable development, as guided by the Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and specifically in the areas of conservation, biodiversity and the WWF’s New Deal for Nature and People.

WWF and World YMCA have already worked together in October 2020 on the Youth led Solutions Summit for Climate Action.

“It is inspiring to see the enthusiasm of young people in the search for solutions to climate change and protecting our planet”, said WWF International Director General Marco Lambertini. “Empowering them to work on these solutions is vital if we are to build a more sustainable future, for people and planet.  I am looking forward to our ongoing collaborations with World YMCA.”

WWF International is the coordinating office for the entire WWF Network. As the world’s leading conservation organization, with over five million supporters worldwide, WWF works in nearly 100 countries supporting conservation and environmental projects.