PM Youth Programme to collaborate with UNDP

Islamabad: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar and a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) delegation led the organisation's regional director for Asia-Pacific region Haoliang Xu discussed various avenues of mutual cooperation for the socio-economic development of Pakistani youths including the launch of National Youth Development Framework (NYDF) here.

Usman Dar briefed the visitors about the NYDF, a vision document of the PTI government for launching youth-focused initiatives in education, employment and engagement (3Es). He also shed light on the establishment of the National Youth Council for the first time in Pakistan. The proposed National Youth Development Index (NYDI) survey, and the constitutional framework for the National Youth Development Programme (NYDP)/Kamyab Jawan Programme also came under discussion.

The PM special assistant acknowledged the UNDP’s technical assistance in the development of all these programmes. He said the PTI government was fully committed to developing an effective ecosystem for the launch of coordinated interventions with different ministries for socio-economic empowerment of youth which comprise almost 68% of Pakistan’s population.

He said under the Kamyab Jawan SME Lending programme, the government had planned to offer loans on low interest to startup companies for low-cost housing, tourism, climate change and communication projects to create a lot of employment opportunities for youths in the country.

Usman Dar thanked the UNDP regional director and his Pakistani team for their commitment to supporting Pakistan in different initiatives meant for the youths' socio-economic development.