Empowering Mountain Youth Overcome Learned Helplessness

Abstract/Description

Mountain ecosystems, crucial for global sustainability, are disproportionately impacted by climate change and socio-economic pressures, accelerating existing inequalities faced by young women. This abstract, focusing on gender equality perspectives within the context of the International Mountain Conference (IMC), highlights the critical role of young women in sustainable mountain development.
While mountain ecosystems and communities are often marginalized in national and international environmental agendas, young women in these regions face unique challenges. Geographic and social isolation, coupled with limited access to education, jobs, and communication technologies, contributes to a sense of “learned helplessness,” hindering their ability to shape their futures and contribute to their communities. This is particularly acute in regions like Central Asia, Nepal, and Latin America, and even within developed nations such as the United States, where socio-economic barriers further restrict young women’s aspirations. The Mountain Youth Hub (MYH) will address these critical issues at the IMC, emphasizing the intersectional challenges faced by young women in mountain regions. This event will present participatory research findings, e.g., interviews, focus groups, surveys, case studies, collected throughout 2025, that amplify the voices of young women and explore their perspectives on climate change, sustainable livelihoods, and empowerment. Integrating feminist ecological perspectives, the research will examine how gendered power dynamics influence access to resources, decision-making, and opportunities. A multi-faceted framework, addressing food systems, vocational training, and entrepreneurship through research, policy, and communication lenses, will identify systemic barriers and opportunities for empowerment. The event will feature research presentations gathered from young women, including students and Indigenous youth, with expertise in development, communication technology, and mountain sustainability. By fostering peer-to-peer learning and building bridges with stakeholders (policymakers, development organizations, private sector), the MYH aims to co-create actionable strategies to dismantle learned helplessness and empower young women as agents of change. Outputs will include a synthesis report and a roadmap for multi-channel communication strategies to sustain the dialogue and advance the Five Years of Action for Mountain Development.