Building Sustainability

Children are nature.

The triple planetary crisis of rising temperatures, pollution and biodiversity loss poses devastating challenges for the many young people living in the world’s under-resourced communities, most in areas that suffer the worst impacts of this multi-crisis.

ChildFund works with children and communities to build resilience to environmental shocks, protect the natural world they depend on, and ensure that environmental solutions work for those who face the most risk.

Children are among the most vulnerable to floods, droughts, storms, pollution and the loss of wildlife and ecosystems. These threats disproportionately affect their health, education, safety and food security.

But children are also powerful agents of change as environmental stewards, advocates and community mobilizers. Centering them in sustainability programming leads to more relevant, durable outcomes.

ChildFund's work spans three interconnected areas:

• reducing vulnerability to extreme weather events by increasing children’s, families’ and communities’ knowledge and skills to absorb, adapt to and recover from environmental shocks.
• developing solutions that protect both people and nature, leveraging locally led, sustainable practices within the systems that matter most for children’s health and futures.
• deepening children's engagement with and understanding of the natural world so they can help shape decisions about their environment.

Sustainability is not a standalone approach at ChildFund — it is integrated across our work in health, education, livelihoods and protection programming, as well as throughout the operations of ChildFund itself.