Publication: Investec website
Author: Unspecified
Image: Unspecified
In this episode our Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Marc Kahn, and Lindsay Hooper, CEO of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, host climate activist, Clover Hogan, and CEO of the Youth Employment Service in South Africa, Ravi Naidoo. Young people care deeply about climate, justice and equality and are seeking agency to deliver a more sustainable future. But they’re facing significant challenges. Together, we explore the question of what we can do help our future leaders.
Key takeaways
- Hope must be active, not passive. Despair is understandable, but the antidote is engagement — from corporate boardrooms to community-led movements.
- Youth agency is the moral and strategic frontier. Today’s young activists are organised, strategic, and redefining influence through creativity and digital power.
- Narratives shape reality. Media framing can legitimise or delegitimise social movements — understanding and challenging this is essential.
- An intergenerational economy is possible. Embedding the rights of future generations into law and governance can drive justice, sustainability, and longevity.
Listen to the podcast
For years, we’ve comforted ourselves with the idea that young people will “save the world.” But is that hope realistic - or an unfair projection? Many young people care deeply about climate, justice and inequality, yet face economic precarity, political disillusionment and shrinking civic space. How can youth today find real agency and meaningful work amid systemic barriers and concentrated power? Hosts Lindsay Hooper and Marc Kahn are joined by Clover Hogan, climate activist and founder of Force of Nature, helping young people turn climate anxiety into action and Ravi Naidoo, CEO of the Youth Employment Service (YES) in South Africa, the world’s largest private-sector-funded youth internship programme. Together, they explore what leadership looks like for a new generation, the myths and realities of youth activism, and how today’s leaders can support young people not just to inherit the future, but to shape it.
Sustainable leadership means making space for young people not just to be heard, but to lead - to shape the decisions that define their own future.”
Photo credit: Minco van der Weide
Ravi Naidoo, CEO of the Youth Employment Service (YES) in South Africa
We need to replace the shareholder value model with an intergenerational value model - an empty chair in the boardroom for the people not yet born.
Chapter notes
- Chapter 1: Waking up from complacency (03:00–18:00)
- Chapter 2: Resilience, media, and the power of youth (18:00–33:30)
- Chapter 3: Disruption, narratives, and the battle for legitimacy (33:30–45:30)
- Chapter 4: Rewriting the System: Intergenerational Value & Collective Action (45:30–58:30)
Amendment to the Gazette