The representatives from civil Society Organizations (CSOs), youth leaders, and Shirakat – Partnership for Development emphasized the role of youth in promoting participatory and accountable governance and urged government to ensure initiatives to increase youth participation.
These views were expressed by the program manager of Partnership Samina Javed, the representative building of Yazhan Building Miss Arooj Haider, and Toseef Haider of Partnership at event to mark four years of NCA’s and Shirakat’s collaboration on youth empowerment under the European Union-funded ‘Power to the Youth’ project at the Rawalpindi Press Club.
The participants emphasized the importance of the role of the youth in good governance, saying that Pakistan faces serious governance challenges such as political instability, unstable policies, weak institutions, corruption, and lack of accountability which worsens.
The UN principles of good governance call for the inclusion, accountability and participation of community governance systems. “With 64% of Pakistan’s population under the age of 29, youth participation in governance is essential, providing economic and social benefits,” he said, pointing to research showing that youth in developing countries Initiatives taken by the leadership have reduced the perception of corruption by 15% in the last decade.
Miss Urooj Haider, representative of Vision Building, said that according to the Pakistan Youth Development Index (PYDI), only 20% of Pakistan’s youth are empowered to make public decisions.
