Pakistan has a largest group of youth between 10-24 years of age with nearly 54.2 million individuals forming 34percent of its total population and by 2025 the number of this age group is expected to increase to 64.8 million. It was announced at the concluding session of the first three-day moot of National Youth Task Force (NYTF) on Saturday.
The three-day event followed a systematic approach, where on the first day NYTF members were given an orientation about the youth situation and their role as youth ambassadors. This moot, which brought the NYTF members together for the first time, served as the first phase towards concerted efforts to ensure meaningful youth participation at the policy level.
As a follow up to National Youth Summit 2008, World Population Foundation (WPF), Pakistan had pledged to form NYTF comprising of young boys and girls to lead the process initiated at the Summit. After scrutinising hundreds of applications selected 17 young individuals, from all four provinces of the country, including, AJK and the tribal areas to take up the prestigious task of following up with relevant Government organisations for the implementation of NYSOSs recommendations.
The policy briefings served as effective tool to equip NYTF with relevant knowledge to successfully speak out their concerns on the third and final day, when the young ambassadors engaged in a dialogue with policy makers at the government ministers.