Youth Engagement

Pakistan’s public education system, serving the masses, is of low quality resulting in school dropouts or students with low competence and intellectual capacities. Hence the emerging labor force is either with no education and skills or very little thereof, which is not relevant to the job market. In order to engage the emerging labor force there is a need to create at least 1.3 million jobs every year, which seems difficult under present economic scenario. While public sector cannot accommodate everyone the private sector is unable to deliver as well due to decline in economic growth. Perhaps, promoting youth entrepreneurship and self employment is the key to deliver for young people as far as their livelihood is concerned. However, there is little to offer for youth in the market place as our cities are not designed to accommodate commercial activity, resulting in urban conflict for land grab and encroachments. Under these circumstances businesses cannot promote and the future entrepreneurs, the young people, would suffer the most.

The aspirations of young people matter the; therefore, the New Growth Strategy being developed at the Planning Commission envisages active participation of youth in Pakistan’s economic development. In order to deliver for youth there is a need to rethink youth social and economic development and its linkages with the institutional framework defined by community, enterprise, geo-spatial and urban agglomeration, and the organs of state. The Youth Engagement Strategy for Pakistan (YES Pakistan) focuses on issues related to the aforementioned framework so that youth becomes the ultimate beneficiary of the economic development process.