Picture this: Every year in Kenya, between 500,000 to 800,000 young people enter the job market joining the ranks of job seekers full of ambition and ready to work. That’s nearly a million new dreams knocking on the door of opportunity.
Now imagine if with the right skills those dreams became the driving force behind Africa’s most ambitious green transformation.
This is the bold, grounded vision that the Alliance for Greening Skills and Opportunities (AGSO) Kenya is working tirelessly to make a reality.
The Perfect Storm Meets Perfect Timing
Kenya stands at an extraordinary crossroads. With 75% of its population aged between 18 and 35, the country possesses what economists call a “demographic dividend”. A generation primed to fuel unprecedented economic growth. Yet paradoxically, 67% of these young people face unemployment (FKE, 2023), creating what could be either a social powder keg or the greatest opportunity in the nation’s history.
The choice is clear: harness this youthful energy for a green economy revolution, or watch potential slip away. This is Kenya’s defining moment, and AGSO is writing the playbook for how to seize it.
The story of AGSO reads like a modern-day tale of collaboration conquering complexity. In May 2024, over 2,000 stakeholders from 38 counties converged for the Inaugural National Green Jobs and Skills Development Workshop held in Nairobi co-hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry alongside public and private partners. It was a moment of collective awakening that exposed both Kenya’s immense green potential and the structural barriers holding it back.
The challenges that emerged were: skills-mismatches that left green jobs unfilled while the youth remained unemployed, data gaps that made evidence-based planning impossible, fragmented policies and a coordination vacuum that scattered efforts across sectors. Most critically, there was no central mechanism to align the incredible energy and resources already flowing toward green development. From this recognition, AGSO was born as the missing piece that could transform Kenya’s green economy from aspiration to reality.
AGSO operates on a simple but revolutionary premise: the challenges facing Kenya’s green transition are too complex for any single actor to solve alone. Government has policy power but needs private sector innovation. Academia has research expertise but needs industry partnerships. Youth organizations understand community needs but require institutional support. Development partners bring resources but need local knowledge.
What if they all worked together?
AGSO serves as the neutral ground where these diverse actors converge, creating a collaborative ecosystem that amplifies everyone’s strengths while addressing everyone’s limitations. Inspired by successful global models like GAVI and aligned with international frameworks including the Green Jobs for Youth Pact and the UNEP International Green Skills Accelerator, AGSO is uniquely tailored to Kenya’s context and challenges.
The Alliance’s leadership structure embodies its collaborative spirit. Co-chaired by three key ministries namely, Environment, Climate Change and Forestry; Education; and Labour and Social Protection the interim board brings together government, academia, industry, youth organizations, civil society, and development partners around one table.
It’s a strategic design where every major decision incorporates diverse perspectives, ensuring that solutions work for everyone from policy makers to farmers in rural counties, from tech entrepreneurs in innovation hubs to artisans in local cooperatives. Supporting this board is a Steering Committee and Secretariat currently hosted by Jacob’s Ladder Africa, providing the operational backbone that keeps collaboration focused and productive.
AGSO’s work flows from three core principles that serve as both compass and conscience:
Inclusivity ensures that Kenya’s green transition creates opportunities for everyone, with special attention to youth and women who have historically faced the greatest barriers to economic participation thereby unlocking the full potential of Kenya’s human capital.
Collaboration recognizes that the most innovative solutions emerge when diverse minds work together. AGSO doesn’t just bring stakeholders to the same table, it creates space for them to build something greater than the sum of their parts.
Sustainability weaves environmental stewardship into every initiative, ensuring that job creation enhances rather than undermines Kenya’s natural heritage. This principle transforms environmental protection from a constraint on development into a driver of innovation and opportunity.
Five Strategic Pillars: Building the Green Economy Foundation
AGSO’s approach is comprehensive yet focused, addressing the full spectrum of green skills development through five strategic objectives:
Collective Agenda Setting builds consensus among stakeholders who might otherwise work at cross-purposes. When government, private sector, academia, and civil society align their strategies, the impact multiplies exponentially.
Knowledge Sharing creates a central repository that democratizes access to green skills data, policies, and best practices. No more reinventing wheels or working with outdated information. Now every stakeholder will have access to the latest insights and innovations.
Awareness Creation deploys strategic storytelling and media campaigns that shift mindsets and inspire action. Green jobs stop being abstract concepts and become tangible opportunities that young Kenyans can see themselves pursuing.
Monitoring and Evaluation ensures accountability through robust data frameworks that track real impact, understanding what works so successful approaches can be scaled across the country.
Resource Mobilization builds partnerships that unlock the human, financial, and technical resources needed to transform pilot projects into national movements because good ideas without adequate resources remain just ideas.
With Kenya’s green economy projected to create up to 1.9 million new jobs by 2030 (ILO/KEPSA, 2022) across renewable energy, sustainable transport, circular economy solutions, and nature-based innovations, aligning skills with opportunity has never been more urgent. The question is no longer if Kenya can build a green, inclusive economy, but how quickly we can unite to make it happen.
The future is green. The future is now. And it belongs to those bold enough to build it.
Join the movement. Shape the future. Be part of Kenya’s green revolution.
If you are interested in becoming a member of AGSO click the link here: https://agso-kenya.org/membership/eligibility
