Daily Times

In Pakistan, it is often said that youth is the foundation of a country and fortunately, the majority of population in this country consists of young individuals. But yet, these young voices are never listened.

Time has come include youth in the basic leadership procedures and this acknowledgment and engagement would result in a more inclusive pattern of politics and leadership.

Just recently, we at the first national youth summit endeavored to bring all the youngsters of Pakistan together, where we sat and examined the fate of our nation and promised to hold hands and cooperate for this extraordinary nation Pakistan close by the parliamentarians. I recently met with 165 young leaders from across Pakistan and was amazed to note that all of them, both men and women, were passionate about playing their role towards the betterment of this country. Every other individual had some kinds of initiatives of their own, ranging from education to youth development. They had so much to share and talk about and looking at their energies, I was happy but at the same time, it worried because of obvious reasons.

What have we as a nation done for all the young people to channelise their energy and talent in the right direction? What opportunities have we created for them in the past one decade? Do we have enough jobs for them? Do we even listen to what they express about?

There are a lot of questions that we should ask ourselves and we are supposed to find answers to those questions as well and that too now. There was a time when we used to lecture young people and sorry to jot down that we will not be practical anymore if we are not serious about handing over the country to the young people. It has been 70 years now that we sit on every platform and do nothing but discuss the past and the mistakes we have made. We need to move on and in order to do so, we now have to work on the solutions and focus on how we get their voices heard.

What have we as a nation done to encourage young people to channelise their energy and talent in the right direction? What opportunities have we created for them in the past one decade? Do we have enough jobs for them? Do we even listen to what they have to say?

There is a need to give young people a voice in decision-making. Successful youth participation is tied in with making open doors for youngsters to be associated with impacting, forming, outlining and adding to the strategy and the advancement of administration and projects. These open doors are made through building up a scope of formal and casual systems for youth participation from youth advisory groups to focus groups, from on-going meeting work to supporting youth-driven ventures. There are numerous explanations for incorporating youngsters in basic leadership and youth cooperation implies better choices and expanded productivity, whereas research also demonstrates that arrangements and projects planned after discussion with users will probably be successful.

Giving youngsters a place in basic leadership constructs a more extensive base for national contribution and makes more grounded and comprehensive groups. Youth investment is vital in the advancement of dynamic citizenship since it adjusts social rights of youngsters with their obligations and research proves that youngsters, who are bolstered to take part in basic leadership, will probably have expanded certainty and self-conviction, practice positive and vocational decisions and have more prominent inclusion and obligations later-on.

Encouraging youngsters in basic leadership can enhance mentalities towards comprehension about youngsters and make a more noteworthy familiarity with youth issues. And how do we go about it? So, allocation of adequate resources, offering real roles to the young people, valuing their contributions, giving recognition at every single step and involving them from the beginning till the end of the decision-making process and ensuring that participation and other opportunities are accessible, can be the effective means.

The write is Executive Director of Center for Sustainability Research and Practice, University of Lahore. He tweets at @nk_achakzai.

Published in Daily Times, February 24^th 2018.