The Youth Leadership Academy (YLA) Impact Report 2025

The Youth Leadership Academy (YLA) was designed by Plan International with support from The Rockefeller Foundation to close persistent gaps preventing young people, particularly young women, from meaningfully participating in gender-responsive climate action. Implemented across five countries—India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam—the program successfully equipped 40 Youth Ambassadors with leadership capabilities, technical knowledge, advocacy skills, and seed funding to drive tangible community impact. Over an 18-month journey, participants engaged in a rigorous learning experience featuring a 5-module climate & gender curriculum, 5 rounds of tailored mentoring, 8 youth-led seed-grant projects, and multiple regional and global advocacy opportunities.

The program demonstrated exceptionally strong quantitative performance, with 100% of participants increasing their technical knowledge on gender-responsive climate action. Additionally, significant growth was achieved in participant confidence (87%), project management capabilities (87%), and leadership strength (80%). In terms of widespread outreach, digital campaigns generated 1.89 million in reach by November 2025, while offline youth projects engaged over 6,100 direct beneficiaries, prioritizing girls, marginalized youth, persons with disabilities, and woman-led households. YLA also successfully connected youth with key climate policy spaces—including APMCDRR, AsiaXchange, COP29, and COP30—effectively strengthening youth leadership pipelines across the Asia-Pacific region.

View the full report at the following link.