Fatou has five years’ experience in the climate activism space. She is the founder of Clean Earth Gambia, a youth-led NGO focused on gender, climate change, conservation, and environmental awareness. She also serves as the Policy Operations lead for Women and Gender in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Youth Constituency ( YOUNGO), where she has been leading policy submissions on gender and climate change since COP23. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in environment, development and policy at the University of Sussex, as a Chevening scholar.
Fatou has trained over 500 school children on climate change, and provided training to communities, youth and youth organizations on pressing environment challenges. In 2019, she was part of the group of young people that supported the publication of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ‘Youth in Motion for Climate Action’ document, a compilation of youth initiatives in agriculture aiming to address the impacts of climate change. That year, she was also one of the young people who facilitated youth engagement during Africa Climate Week. Fatou has received a number of recognitions and awards for her work in creating awareness about the environment. She was recently listed as one of the Top 100 Young African Conservation Leaders in 2021 by a collection of international NGOs including WWF, the World Scout Movement, the African Alliance of YMCAs and the African Wildlife Fund.
Fatou is one of the 30 young people selected by the United Nations Youth Envoy office to support the organization of the first ever United Nations Youth Climate Summit in 2019. She has served as a moderator, speaker and resource person for several national and global programs on environmental issues and climate change, including: the UN ECOSOC Forum in 2018 and 2019; COP23 and COP24; the Global Landscapes Forum’s 2018 Bonn conference, Action for Climate Empowerment Youth Forum 2018, and more.