National Policy Forum on Harnessing Youth Potential in Pakistan

Lack of formal and informal educational opportunities, early marriages, teen age pregnancies and drop out from educational institutions are the major factors which were spoiling adolescents potential. It is need of the hour to formulate a comprehensive strategic plan to save the future of youngsters.
This was stated by the Country Representative World Population Foundation –Pakistan Qadeer Baig while presenting deliberations in the in-augural session of Two Days National Policy Forum on Enhancing Adolescent’s potential in Pakistan Review (1997-2008) on Saturday. International Non Governmental and National Non Governmental NGOs from all over the country participated in the event. He highlighted the psychological, cognitive, emotional and other problems being faced by the targeted groups from childhood to adulthood.

Pakistan currently has the largest group of young people (age: 10 – 24) with nearly 54.2 million individuals i.e. 34% of its total population. In 2025, the number of this age group will increase to 64.8 Million. This young group of population is involved in risky behaviours and is more vulnerable to devastating realities of the society. Some of the shocking facts and figures that highlight adolescents’ issues in Pakistan are as follow:

1. 85,000 people from the age of 20-44 are infected with HIV in Pakistan.
2. 71 % 5 million drug addicts in Pakistan are between 25 to30 years. The number is rising by 7 % every year.
3. 1200 young people start smoking every day.
4. 2,321 children below the age of 18 were sexually abused in 2007.
5. Suicides and attempted suicide cases increased from 2712 in 2005 to 3919 in 2006, mostly by young people.
6.  137 young people were affectees of corporal punishment in 2007.
7. Only 11 % of males and 4% of females have a part in the decision making process of marriage.

The forum was a joint effort of World Population Foundation and Plan Pakistan. Plan Pakistan is designing adolescents focused programme in Pakistan. Dr. Irfan, Health Advisor Plan-Pakistan sharing his view on the forum said that Plan-Pakistan is striving to bring about a positive and lasting change in the lives of families and adolescents in Pakistan in order to harness adolescents’ potential for a prospering society. Talking further about the forum, he said, already plenty of work has been done on the issues of adolescents by various organizations but still we stand far behind to achieve the millennium goals. For that Plan aims to review the existing work and build on our future strategies in order to fill in the gaps.   

WPF has been working to improve the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights-SRHR for last 11 years in Pakistan, focusing on women and adolescents and implementing its programmes in all four provinces of Pakistan. WPF’s leading role in designing and management of SRHR projects for adolescents brought Plan Pakistan and WPF together to organize the forum. The basic objective of this forum was to review the existing SRHR related programmes focusing on adolescents for harnessing their potential in Pakistan as well as to formulate future strategies by filling the existing gap. 
On first day of the forum, a panel discussion was held with representatives from NGOs and UN Agencies, such as, Cyma Ashraf, WPF, Mannan Rana, UNICEF, Nadia Vander Linde, UNFPA, Rehana Rashdi, PAVHNA and Zehra Kamal, Rozan. The discussion was facilitated by Ms. Mariam Jamal, Communication Officer, WPF. The discussants reviewed the adolescents focused programmes being implemented in Pakistan during last decade i.e. 1998 to 2007, shared their experiences and learnings and formulated recommendations for future strategies to be implemented in the next decade i.e. 2008 to 2018.

Some of the recommendations drawn stated that this is very critical to involve adolescents while designing programmes for them since only they can reflect on their issues more effectively. There is a need of a holistic communication strategy on National level that could address all the issues of adolescents and raise awareness on massive scale. It was also highlighted that providing information to adolescents to protect them from risky behaviours is not enough, rather there is a need of a strong referral mechanisms of non-judgmental and sensitive institutes in terms of health care services. Throughout the forum, it was stressed upon intensively that all the efforts should be put together to advocate for the formulation of Youth Policy.

Second day, recommendations were drawn keeping in mind the diverse needs of adolescents belonging to different age groups. The first group between the age of 9 to 13require programmes parent lead and community lead protection system and child friendly centers where adolescents are provided with services they require. The other group of 14 to16 needs counseling centers and youth networks to initiate programmes that they could design based on their needs. Last but not least, the group of 17-19 needs youth friendly centers and right information. The unanimous recommendation of all groups was to develop and impart age specific, SRHR embedded curriculum for our young people.

As a way forward, the recommendations drawn at the end of the forum will be analyzed soon and then incorporated in a report that will be published and shared with stakeholders soon to design a plan of action.