“Methodology, certification, training and adapted financial products are the four action levers that we are activating in the service of a just transition.”
“For our part, at Télémaque, we are focusing on the crucial question of connection. To include people, we must remove barriers, which means replacing silos with gateways. Mentoring makes this possible and the feedback we have received for nearly 20 years speaks to what our young people and their mentors get out of it,” says Ericka Cogne. “We want to increase these relationships throughout France. We are present in seven regions — soon to be eight — and are forming partnerships with local associations to extend our ability to act within mid-size cities. We are also developing impact bonds to recognise professional channels and collaborate on how to define young people’s access to mentoring as a right that they could assert.”
Bringing together an ecosystem of stakeholders
To act effectively, it is essential to bring together as many committed players as possible, including, of course, large groups and those in the banking sector in particular. That is why BNP Paribas is a partner of Télémaque and has supported the JuST Institute since its creation. The common theme remains contributing to the emergence of just and inclusive societies, which offer everyone equal opportunities to achieve their potential.
JuST Institute
Created in May 2022, and officially launched at COP 27 in November 2022, the Just Sustainability Transitions (JuST) Institute coordinates the actions of transition funders and provides them with dedicated tools to increase the amounts and quality of sustainable financing benefiting populations most vulnerable to climate change and helping to fight the deterioration of biodiversity. To further these goals, it brings together public and private financial institutions and enterprises, as well as multilateral and international organisations such as BNP Paribas and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which initiated it.
Télémaque
Created in 2005, the association Télémaque facilitates upward social movement from middle school onwards, by supporting dedicated and motivated young people from at-risk regions through mentoring. It gives them the best chance of realising their potential thanks to a double school-company mentoring approach, from throughout secondary education and for those students continuing into vocational training. A pioneer in equal opportunities, Télémaque supports 1,800 young people from modest backgrounds, mainly attending underprivileged schools in seven regions in France. The association Télémaque is part of L’Ascenseur, the first French coalition for equal opportunities, and of the Collectif Mentorat, which brings together several associations with the common objective of developing mentoring in France.
32%approximately, of the global population is at risk of being socially excluded (between 2.33 and 2.43 billion people)(Source: Social Exclusion Concepts, Measurement, and a Global Estimate, World Bank, June 2022.)
12%of students only (all subjects combined for 2019-2020) are children of parents working in manual labour (Source: Interministerial mission “Research and higher education”, 2022.)