Climate Advocacy

After the competitive selection, I successfully completed the Youth Advocacy Guide training organized by UNICEF experts on 21-25 August 2024 and joined the community of 50 Young Climate Champions of Uzbekistan and became part of the Young Climate Champions, the project co-organized by the Ministry of Preschool and School Education, UNICEF, and Zamin Foundation. Then throughout the academic year, as Young Climate Champions, we worked to raise climate awareness among the youth and children of Uzbekistan and organized 36 eco-events and mobilized 1463 youth in my region. With the YCC community, we organized in total 260 eco-events where we mobilized 17,428 youth, planted 3,200 trees, and collected and sorted 13 tons of waste. During this academic year, I completed emergency-readiness training by the Institute of Civil Protection at the Academy of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Uzbekistan. I was a part of YCC in the first cohort as a participant.

Play video: Young Climate Champions: Cohort 1 Training

Play video: Young Climate Champions: Emergency-Readiness Training

In the second cohort of YCC, I was invited to join the organizing team to help with the organization and mentoring of the next YCCs. This time I worked in the republican coordination of the YCC program, where I was a participant first. I participated in the organizational part of the Training of Trainers (ToT) and the YCC training camp for 52 new eco champions: planning of the sessions, guiding them throughout the program, logistics, and ensuring the security of participants. I also was a mentor of new climate champions there, trained them on blogging, developed their digital storytelling skills, and taught them how to inspire and reach more people. In addition, I served as a Social Media Manager of both the Young Climate Champions and Eco School of Uzbekistan, where I produced engaging videos, reels and posts about climate and youth climate initiatives, reaching a total of more than 1,000,000 people, increasing the visibility of climate-related content across the country. Most interestingly, I was the only person who worked in all these 3 spheres, whereas everyone else worked in one of them only, while also being the only organizer who came as a participant. In the second cohort, the YCC mobilized 17,831 youth and children through 180 events, planted 1,909 trees, sorted and collected 18 tons of waste, and trained 13 mentors. In this process, I participated in the republican coordination of the project, where I gained huge experience in the project management sphere.

Play video: Young Climate Champions: Training of Trainers, Cohort 2

Play video: Young Climate Champions: Cohort 2 Training

Play video: Young Climate Champions: Cohort 2 Closing Ceremony

Together with YCCs, we organized the first-ever Local Conference of Youth in Uzbekistan in 2025 in Nukus, Karakalpakstan, bringing the most capable youth from all corners of the country into one place in order to develop the National Youth Statement, which we then presented to the Senate of Uzbekistan and during the COY20 and COP30 in Belem, Brazil, contributing to the development of the NDC 3.0 of Uzbekistan and the Global Youth Statement. In this conference, around 100 delegates were chosen and participated out of 1,661 strong candidates from all over the country. I was the only person there who was part of both the organizational part of the conference and the program coordination and statement development. I was one of the contributors to the NYS of our country, and I also gave a speech about Climate Diplomacy, sharing my experience in this sphere during the LCOY to the youth of Uzbekistan.

During the LCOY in Uzbekistan 2025, we also organized a Model Conference of the Parties in order to simulate real climate conferences. During the MCOP, delegates negotiated on climate solutions and developed the resolution paper. They strengthened their climate-diplomatic and negotiation skills. The purpose of the MCOP was to let the delegates get into the shoes of real diplomats.

Play video: Local Conference of Youth in Uzbekistan

Through the collaboration of the Ministry of Preschool and School Education, UNDP, Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, and Zamin Foundation, the Young Green Ambassadors program was organized. In this program, 70 young people from the 7 most affected regions in Uzbekistan participated in order to develop their climate-related projects and initiatives. During the program, I served as an organizer, helping with the organizational part of the program, and also served as a mentor, where I helped young people to develop their eco-events further and on a bigger scale.

Play video: Young Green Ambassadors

With the Ministry of Preschool and School Education, we organized the Eco-Schools Camp for 62 new mentors in order to train new mentors to work with eco-schools efficiently. They will go to their regions and will promote our project in their regions and serve as mentors in order to boost our efficiency and network of Eco-Schools in Uzbekistan. As of now, Eco-Schools has covered many schools and students, specifically: 694 schools have joined our project, and 430,000+ students, 11,000+ eco-activists, and 1,000+ teachers have been covered by the project. Furthermore, 80+ national events have been organized, 9 regional/international conferences have been organized, and 50+ online meetings have been organized. Under the Eco-Schools Uzbekistan project, we also organized the “Young Farmers” project, where we covered 200 schools and 18,000+ students; 34,000kg (12,285kg of cucumber, 11,858kg of tomato, 4,538kg of flowers, 4,369kg of seedlings, 3,584kg of onion products, 2,389kg of strawberry, and 598kg of others) were grown; and 200+ teachers were encouraged. YCC is also organized under the Eco-Schools Uzbekistan project.

Play video: Eco-Schools Uzbekistan Summer Educational Camp

In the third cohort of the YCC, I was again involved in the organizational part of the program, of the training camp. This time I was involved even more deeply as I interned at the Ministry of Preschool and School Education. I felt the organizational process from inside. Even though I interned at the International Relations Department, I helped organize the third cohort of the program to understand the process from inside.

Play video: Young Climate Champions: Cohort 3 Training

Together with YCCs, we organized the first-ever Regional Conference of Youth Central Asia in Uzbekistan in Samarkand. In this sub-regional conference, a total of 84 delegates from 9 countries participated. We developed the Regional Youth Statement there, which was then presented to the Senate and to the UN’s Youth Affairs and which will be used to write the Global Youth Statement in Antalya, Türkiye. I was assigned there as an organizer from the Ministry of Preschool and School Education, being responsible for the organizational parts of the conference. I was responsible for the flow of the conference, who would speak what after whom and what would happen when, and was also responsible for the conference venue, making it suitable for the conference. Also, I coordinated the logistical part of the conference. I actively took part in writing the statement; I contributed to that. I also served as a facilitator during the conference and the writing of the statement.

Play video: Sub-Regional Conference of Youth in Central Asia

Overall, during my climate advocacy journey, I have achieved or helped to achieve these things: completed 2 trainings, organized 5 climate-related republican camps, organized the biggest and first-ever LCOY conference in Uzbekistan, organized the first-ever sub-regional RCOY conference in Uzbekistan, mobilized 35,259 youth and children in 440 eco events, planted 5,109 trees, sorted and collected 31 tons of waste, trained 89 mentors, trained 102 new eco champions, and covered 694 schools, 430,000+ students, 11,000+ eco-activists, and 1,000+ teachers.

Since I joined the YCC community in August 2024, I have been officially volunteering at UNICEF, at the Ministry of Preschool and School Education, and at the Zamin Foundation to raise climate awareness among the youth and children of Uzbekistan.