Life Skill based Education for Youth is prerequisite for harness youth potential in Pakistan.

October 10, 2007, Karachi

The participants of the Life Skill Based Education: National Learning Forum concluded at Karachi attended by 25 major organizations including NGOs, UN agencies, media and Government recommended to enhance the scale of LSBE education programme to reach about 40 Million Pakistani Youth to realize the Demographic dividend available to Pakistan. It was further resolved that government, NGOs and media need to foster effective partnership to educate our youth about life skills so that they can make informed decisions about their reproductive health and rights.

Pakistan is a rich youthful nation having about 40 million people between the ages 10 – 24 but unfortunately majority of this large group is living on the margins of the society that puts them at higher risk to unsafe practices and ruined lives. This group represents the next generation of individuals whose role in the social, political and economic development in this country is of greater importance. The Youth face a number of critical life decisions as they negotiate the transition to adulthood. These projections of youth population dynamics call for enhanced policy and programmatic measures to address young people’s vulnerabilities and empowering them to be agents of change for development and eventually breaking the cycle of poverty in Pakistan.

For past ten years many NGOs in Pakistan have been working for the adolescents advocating their life skills and helping them make informed choices. Related to sexual and reproductive health. World Population Foundation, a pioneering agency working for the rights of youth and adolescents at national level though Life Skills Based Education programme with support from Dutch government. Life Skills is directed at providing young people with core skills, knowledge and attitudes to help them make lifelong, informed decisions, manage their emotions, communicate effectively and practice positive, health-seeking behavior. The life skills programmes executed by about 20 NGOs, UNICEF and UNFPA has educated only 1.3 million out of 40 million adolescents.

World Population Foundation organized a two day National Learning Forum (8th and 9th October 2007), at Beach Luxury Hotel, Karachi. The forum was conducted to share experiences and learning of working with young people in Pakistan through LSBE for ‘in school’ and ‘out of school’ youth. The forum was unique in its nature and took place for the first time in Pakistan, where all Private and Public sector organizations united together on one platform to share their efforts and design further future strategies to scale up LSBE. Major partners of the forum were UNFPA, UNICEF, British Council, Packard Foundation, HANDS, PVDP, IED-AKU, Aga Khan Board, PIDS, Rozan, Pehchan etc. Secretary Planning and Development Mr. Yahya Waliullah was the chief guset at the inaugural session. Media Partners included Geo, Dawn News, TV One, Business Recorder, PTV and others.

At the forum, WPF also launched its first version of LSBE web portal in the forum in recognition of importance of media and technology in forwarding the message to larger masses. The portal is unique in its nature due to the fact that it provides all the information related to Life Skills as well as will work as a platform where young people can interact with the experts to share their problems and get authentic information about different youth issues. Mr. Qadeer Baig, Country Representative of WPF in his remarks stressed upon the need to meaningfully involve the young people in their development initiatives in order to achieve a positive behavioral change in youth of Pakistan and let them become productive citizens of Pakistan.

At the end of the forum certain recommendations were also drawn. Guest speakers addressing the audience laid stress on the development of Public and Private partnership to reach the wider range of youth to harness their potential - realizing the demographic dividend.

The forum agreed on strengthening the networking among NGOs for more collaborative efforts and collective voice. They also laid importance for more coordinated and synergized efforts for more sustainable projects. And most importantly it was concluded to enhance advocacy for the inclusion of LSBE in national curriculum.

The speakers at the forum included Mr. Yahya Waliullah, Secretary Planning & Development, GoS, Dr. Yasmeen Qazi, Senior Country Advisor of Packard Lucile Foundation, Mr. Mashhood Rizvi, Director, British Council for Sindh and Balochistan, Mr. Qadeer Baig, Country Representative, WPF, Ms. Batool Fatima, Programme Head, WPF, Ms. Kamyla Marvi, Country Manager LDM and Mr. Abbas Hussain, Director Teachers Development Centre.