‘Youth Ideation Lab’ launched to develop solutions to Pakistan’s social challenges

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday called for greater youth participation in national decision-making and development, saying decisions taken today would have the greatest impact on the future of the country’s younger generation.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Youth Ideation Lab, Iqbal said meaningful youth participation was essential to developing practical and innovative solutions to Pakistan’s social and developmental challenges.

The initiative is part of Bano Shaheen, a programme aimed at mobilising one million young people across Pakistan to contribute to positive social change.

Iqbal said the Youth Ideation Lab would seek to transform young people from complainants into problem-solvers by harnessing their creativity and potential to address national challenges.

“It is easy to raise slogans, but taking practical steps and delivering results is difficult,” he said, stressing the need for young people to put forward practical and implementable solutions.

The minister said Pakistan had overcome several major challenges, including terrorism and energy shortages, but continued to face significant social challenges such as population growth, malnutrition, health issues and around 25 million out-of-school children.

He said the URAAN Pakistan initiative also aimed to improve people’s lives and strengthen social indicators, adding that the government and young people would have to work together to address the country’s challenges, particularly those linked to social attitudes and behaviour.

Iqbal also called on the media to move beyond political talk shows and give greater attention to national development and public issues.

He stressed the need for serious and constructive dialogue on the country’s challenges and possible solutions.

The Youth Ideation Lab will provide young people from across Pakistan with a platform to work collectively on actionable solutions to social challenges through innovative and collaborative approaches.

The initiative will encourage participants to move beyond identifying problems and take part in designing and testing solutions.

Under Bano Shaheen, the existing network of 159 Young Peace and Development Corps (YPDC) chapters across Pakistan will engage young people and work towards forming 65 teams per chapter.

As part of Bano Shaheen’s wider goal of mobilising one million young people, the chapter-led initiative aims to engage 100,000 university students in community-based activities focused on bringing about positive social change.

The Youth Ideation Lab has been designed around methodologies used by international development organisations and universities to address complex social and institutional challenges. These include Soft Systems Methodology, as well as scrum- and sprint-based approaches to breaking down complex problems, identifying root causes and developing solutions through collaborative processes.

The Lab will also offer a continuing platform for innovation and policy engagement through monthly innovation sprints, TED-style talks, policy labs and “Dragons’ Den”-style pitches.

These activities will allow participants to develop and test ideas, engage with experts and present proposals aimed at addressing social and developmental challenges.

Iqbal said the government intended to use the Youth Ideation Lab, alongside the wider mobilisation under Bano Shaheen, to engage the younger generation in shaping Pakistan’s future.

He said work through the Ideation Lab over the coming year would contribute to developing a vision for Pakistan 2047, giving young people a direct role in shaping the country’s long-term development trajectory.