Op-Eds from Board Member Adil Najam

Earlier this month, CBI board member Adil Najam launched the Pakistan National Human Development Report (NHDR) for which he was a co-lead author. The report focuses on Youth in Pakistan. One major conclusion was the importance of listening to and learning from their voices.

The report and its related documents can be downloaded here.  

Accompanying the release of this report, Adil also authored two op-eds for online publications: The News and Dawn.

“Pakistan’s Youth Movement” (The News)

The fact of the matter is that the youth of Pakistan are heard shouting so often because they do not feel that their voice is being heard, and they don’t believe that it will be heard unless they shout. The less they feel heard, the more they shout. Sometimes they scream. One lesson that the Pakistan National Human Development Report underlines is: Please, please, listen to our youth. They have much to say – and much that is worth listening to. 

To read the full piece, click here.

“To Be Young in Pakistan” (Dawn)

We tried to imagine what the youth of Pakistan would look like if we could reduce all of them to a representative sample of 100 young people... 30 of the 100 would not be able to read or write. Only six would have 12 years or more of education and 29 would have none. 94 of the 100 would have no access to a library. 52 would own a mobile phone, but only 15 would have access to the internet. Of the 100, only one would have a car. 12, a motorcycle. 10, a bicycle. Only 38 out of the 100 youth will say they play sports frequently. Sadder still, only seven out of 100 will have access to sports facilities. On the other hand, 70 of the 100 young Pakistanis would say they feel safe. 89 would say they feel happy. 67 would say their life is better than their parents’. And 48 would say that Pakistan’s future is bright (as opposed to 36 who believe it would be bleak). 

To read the full piece, click here.