Youth Voices Shape the Eco-Leaders Guide for Young Changemakers in the Mekong Region

We believe meaningful change happens when young people are equipped with tools to understand complexity and lead with confidence. This vision came to life in a one-year long collaboration between WWF Myanmar, and Systainability Asia, along with a remarkable team of youth from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam, to co-developed the Greater Mekong Youth Eco-Leader Guide – a practical resource to support youth leaders and educators in advancing sustainability with their schools and communities , The guide addresses three urgent issues: the sustainable management of freshwater ecosystems, climate change, and the shift toward renewable energy. The guide is now available online through WWF’s Eco-Leader platform

Co-Creation with Youth - Empowering the Young Changemakers

What makes this guide unique is its youth-centered design process. Facilitated and authored by our team - Robert Steele and Watkana Thongrueng (Nong) — the guide took shape through an iterative design thinking cycle of dialogues, workshops, testing, and feedback.

The Eco-Leader Guide is more than a publication – it is a step toward building a community of empowered eco-leaders across the Mekong region and beyond. We hope it inspires educators and youth practitioners, not just in the Mekong, but anywhere in the world, to embrace systems thinking, nurture leadership, and foster a culture of sustainable change.

We encourage you to explore the guide and adapt it to your own context.

👉 Explore the guide here: Eco-Leader Guide