Theresa Tolulope Gbenro

Theresa Tolulope Gbenro is an award-winning social impact consultant with almost a decade experience. She is the Director Monitoring and Evaluation at the Youth Sustainable Development Network (YSDN), finalist of the Future Africa Award and an ELOY 2024 Nominee.

Tolulope’s work spans climate action, renewable energy, women empowerment and youth governance. She is also a recipient of the 2022/2023 Nigerian Youth Futures Fund Leadership Grant and a 2023 International Climate Policy Competition Winner. She is also a UNICEF GEN U 9ja YPAT member, a member of the AYM4COP working group of YOUNGO.

She is an alumna of Enactus, MCN, Hult Prize, Leap Africa among other organisations. Tolulope holds a B.Sc in Industrial Physics-Applied Geophysics from Covenant University and has undergone specialised training in Climate Negotiation from IDEP. She is also a published author and has been featured on numerous media platforms for her contributions.

Why did you want to be involved in the YAL project as YAB?

From my experience, I understand the importance of youth-led funding in moving from conversations to sustainable project implementation and the intricacies involved in selecting grantees. I believe young people deserve a seat at the table and deserve to be competently represented at the table.

How do you see the future of the AU-EU Labs? 

The future of the AU-EU Labs amplifies meaningful youth engagement by involving youth leadership in co-creation that promotes power shifting by empowering over 110 youth-led organisations within the AU&EU impacting over 10,000 young people while focusing on capacity building and empowering underrepresented youths.