Youth Engagement and Capacity Building for a Peaceful Bahawalpur.


Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO) envisions engaging and mobilizing the potential youth of Bahawalpur through an integrated approach of capacity building and networking in peace building and thus utilizing their potentials in positive and productive way. For smooth implementation of the Umeed Jawan project, SPADO conducted a collaborative workshop with Youth focused organizations in Bahawalpur District, after mapping the organizations/NGOs through a set strategy. The workshop was attended by a large number of participants from several spheres of social life including the civil society organizations, Educational institutions, Concerned Government departments, Non-Governmental Organizations, Religious institutions and Media. A very diverse and rich discussion was held around the problems of Youth of today and broad contours of Engagement, Democratic Conflict Resolution, Governance and Peacebuilding.

The purpose of the workshop was to engage with the local development organizations, development practitioners, Academia, Media and civil society stakeholders of the target district in order to have a consultation on the objectives of “Umeed Jawan” project and also to seek opinions, suggestions, support and engagement in project activities and to discuss prospects of a youth resource center, to be established during the project duration. The Workshop was attended by more than 35 participants from several social spheres ranging from development organizations to lawyers and from University teachers to Religious Scholars along with Young political activists, entrepreneurs, and Young Media personnel. A reasonable number of females were also invited and present at the workshop.

The idea of Youth Resource was upheld, appreciated and supported by the crushing majority of participants. Some participants suggested to also include resource material on Gender, Religion, Culture and character building. Another participant suggested spiritual content to be included in the envisaged resource center.

The participants appreciated SPADO for providing a productive forum for discussion and urged their support and engagement in the project implementation. The participants expressed great rejoice and marked the day as one of the most memorable days of their social life.

There was a consensus on project objectives, the proposed Youth Resource Center and the need of awareness, trainings, skills enhancement and capacity building towards making Youth not only productive, but active and effective citizens, who have the potential to play a significant role in governance processes, peacebuilding issues, conflict resolution and policy level decision making.