Synergised efforts needed for betterment of youth, says report

Findings say coordination among stakeholders imperative for results

ISLAMABAD: The prevalent scenario of standalone policies for youth with minimal integration and poor linkages across sectors does not provide a framework for coordinated efforts. As a result, stakeholders need to work in synergy to secure pathways for the betterment of the youth.

This was the crux of a Population Council report on ‘Youth in Pakistan – Priorities, Realities and the Policy Responses’.

It also suggests forming a task force to develop intersectional thinking to launch scaled-up initiatives and initiate discourse between the public and private sectors.

Moreover, the report states that a task force on demographic dividends should be a time-bound endeavour, as it is implemented in other countries.

In addition, the report claims that the dearth of easily available data on the various efforts of stakeholders’ efforts in fostering youth is a telling sign, that there must be a sizeable improvement required in synchronisation of efforts to collectively invest in areas where the youth need our support.

The report highlights that at present, no federal ministry or another national level organisation has been mandated to spearhead efforts for youth after the devolution of the subject.

Despite the development of youth policies on the provincial level; which is essentially on the pattern of the 2008 national policy, however, they indicate a very broad approach and fail to chalk out a clear strategy.

The report also states that the scope of the policies and programmes of the government remains limited to the assistance with youth, education and economic development, while all other important areas, such as health, reproductive health, family planning, sports, and particularly politics are neglected as well.

Youth must be provided careful guidance to utilise their political power for positive gains in terms of their wellbeing, it suggests, as 48 per cent of the total voters in the 2013 elections were between the ages of 18 to 30.

The report enumerates that out of the 54 Commonwealth countries, Pakistan currently ranks 22nd against the Commonwealth Youth Development Index (YDI), with a score of 0.63.

The YDI is a composite index based on 15 indicators under five key domains of education, health and wellbeing, employment, civic participation, and political participation.

“Young girls living in poor rural households are the worst off by any measure of vulnerability, as they face a triple whammy of poverty, discrimination, and marginalisation”, said, Population Council Country Director Zeba Sathar. “They are definitely the group to whom the maximum attention and resources should be directed”.

According to the latest projections of the council, young people aged 10 to 24 years comprise 32 per cent of the country’s population.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2016.