"Recognize data justice as climate justice"

Speech by Mercy Lukio, a resident of Sofia, an informal settlement in Homa Bay County in Kenya, at GCA's Intergenerational Dialogue on Youth as Leaders in Locally Led Adaptation on 9 July 2025. Mercy was trained as a co-researcher for the People's Adaptation Planning process in her County.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Mercy Lukio, and I come from Sofia settlement in Homa Bay Municipality. I’m proud to speak on behalf of the community youth who have not only witnessed climate change firsthand but who are actively shaping how we respond to it.

Let me begin with some hard truths: Only 14% of Homa Bay residents have access to piped water, even though we sit on the edge of Lake Victoria, one of Africa’s largest freshwater sources. People in informal settlements like mine often pay Ksh. 600 to 1,200 per month for water—five times more than what piped water users pay.

And less than 7% of the municipality is connected to the sewer system.

That’s the poverty penalty.

Governor, what specific measures is your administration implementing to reduce this climate-driven poverty penalty where the poorest pay the most for the least? How is this poverty penalty which renders me even more vulnerable to climate change being addressed in Homa Bay?

We pay more for less, and we live with the consequences floods, disease, lost income, and time poverty. This is the daily climate injustice that youth in Homa Bay have grown up with.

But instead of waiting for solutions to arrive, we became part of building them.

As youth co-researchers, we were trained to map, enumerate, and analyze conditions in settlements like Sofia, Shauri Yako, and Makongeni. What began as a planning process turned into something far more powerful: a platform for young people to lead local adaptation from the ground up.

We used tools like KoboCollect, mapping, and household surveys to collect data on housing, service access, tenure, and climate exposure. In Sofia alone where over 1,800 households live under constant flood threat we captured data that had never existed in government systems before. Ambassadors, this is a powerful example of youth-generated data reshaping public planning. How are your countries championing community-based data and integrating it into your global climate and development programs?

This wasn’t a simulation. It was real data, collected by real youth, used to shape Homa Bay’s Local Physical and Land Use Development Plan the first climate-resilient, locally led municipal plan in Kenya.

And I must thank the Governor and the entire County leadership for backing a process that truly put communities—especially youth at the center.

But this momentum needs to grow. We cannot let this be a one-off event. Because while our efforts are expanding, the financing is shrinking.

To the panelist, How are we ensuring that community youth who do the groundwork for climate resilience like we did here receive consistent support and direct access to finance for adaptation projects?

We’re doing climate work that should be funded but instead, we’re often volunteering just to be heard.

So, here’s what I believe must happen:

1. Institutionalize youth roles in planning not as add-ons, but as part of county systems. We’ve shown we can deliver now give us formal space and fair compensation.

2. Invest in youth-led adaptation, not just as future leaders, but as today’s implementers. From water kiosks and eco-toilets to early warning systems and climate-smart housing our ideas are grounded, practical, and ready.

   Prof. Verkooijen, how is GCA helping ensure that youth-led processes like this one move from pilots to permanent, scalable solutions within national adaptation frameworks?

3. Recognize data justice as climate justice. Many of our communities were invisible before this process. Now we’ve mapped over 21,000 households across Homa Bay. That’s not just data that’s power.

The truth is: we can’t adapt to what we don’t measure. We can’t build resilience in places we refuse to see. And we can’t expect youth to drive solutions without equipping us with the resources, the training, and the dignity we deserve.

So my message today is simple:

Youth are not just responding to climate change, we are reimagining how adaptation is done.

We are researchers, communicators, builders, and planners.

If we can lead this work without stable funding, imagine what we could do with real investment.

Thank you.