ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Youth Affairs Usman Dar has said that for the first time in the history of Pakistan, our government is working on National Youth Development Index (NYDI) to introduce a culture of youth development in the Country under the aegis of National Youth Development Programme (NYDP).
While presiding over a meeting in Islamabad on Thursday with a delegation led by the Secretary Statistics Division to explore a way forward in this regard, Usman Dar said that the launch of NYDI would be a revolutionary step for the socio-economic development of youth, as it would gauge level of youth development not only at provincial/regional level but also at the district and tehsil levels.
It was agreed in the meeting that a tehsil-level national youth development survey would be conducted to capture data on youth education, health, employment, engagement and wellbeing.
Meanwhile, Usman Dar also held a meeting with a team of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to work out possible avenues of mutual collaboration for the development of NYDP, a flagship initiative of the government for the creation of youth development culture in the Country.
The NYDP would be a policy formulation body for various interventions aimed at socio-economic development of youth in the Country.
“Pakistan is the second youngest Country in South Asia after Afghanistan with 64% of its population below the age of 29. Therefore, it is high time to invest aggressively to educate, empower and engage this vibrant segment of society for the development of Pakistan,” Usman Dar emphasized.