Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday said that young people must be made key stakeholders in national decision-making and development discourse, as decisions taken today would have the greatest impact on the future of the country’s youth.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Youth Ideation Lab, the Minister said meaningful youth participation was essential to developing practical and innovative solutions to Pakistan’s social and developmental challenges. This effort will support Bano Shaheen, an initiative aimed at mobilising one million young people across Pakistan to contribute to positive social change.
Ahsan Iqbal said the Lab aimed 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 propose practical and implementable solutions.
He said Pakistan had overcome several major challenges, including terrorism and energy shortages, but significant social challenges remained, including population growth, malnutrition, health issues and around 25 million out-of-school children.
The Minister said URAAN Pakistan also aimed to improve people’s lives and strengthen social indicators, adding that the government and youth would have to work together to address challenges, particularly those linked to social attitudes and behaviours.
He also called on the media to move beyond political talk shows and focus more on national development and public issues, stressing the need for serious and constructive dialogue on the country’s real challenges and their solutions.
The Minister said the Youth Ideation Lab would provide a platform for young people from across Pakistan to collectively work on actionable solutions to the social challenges facing the country through innovative and collaborative approaches. He said the initiative would encourage young people to move beyond identifying problems and actively participate in designing solutions.
To translate these ideas into community action under Bano Shaheen, the existing network of 159 Young Peace and Development Corps (YPDC) chapters across all regions of Pakistan will engage young people and work towards forming 65 teams per chapter. As part of Bano Shaheen’s wider ambition to mobilise one million youth, this chapter-led effort aims to mobilise 100,000 university students to go into their communities and conduct activities that bring about positive social change.
The Youth Ideation Lab has been designed around methodologies used by leading 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, which help break down complex problems, identify root causes and develop solutions through a holistic and collaborative process.
The Lab will also provide a continuous platform for innovation and policy engagement through monthly innovation sprints, TED-style talks, policy labs and “Dragons’ Den” style pitches. These activities will enable young participants to develop ideas, test solutions, engage with experts and present innovative proposals.
By linking these opportunities with the reach of the YPDC chapters under Bano Shaheen, the initiative aims to place young people at the centre of problem-solving, empowering them with the tools, methodologies and platforms required to contribute meaningfully to Pakistan’s development process.
Ahsan Iqbal said the government intended to use the Youth Ideation Lab as a mechanism for engaging the younger generation, alongside the wider mobilisation under Bano Shaheen, in shaping the country’s future. He said the objective was to develop a forward-looking vision for Pakistan by drawing upon the creativity, ideas and aspirations of its young population.
He said that work would be undertaken through the Ideation Lab over the coming year to develop a vision for Pakistan 2047, providing young people with a direct role in imagining and shaping the country’s long-term development trajectory.
