The Ministry of Youth Affairs (MOYA) and the ILO have agreed to conduct an assessment of the Ministry’s “National Internship Programme to Enhance Employability”. This internship programme currently offers internships to 30,000 young people who receive a monthly stipend of Rs. 10,000. The Ministry of Youth is annually spending US 40 million on this initiative. This was announced on 2 February in a meeting between Mr Nazar Hussain Mahar, Federal Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Mr Donglin Li, Country Director of the ILO Country Office for Pakistan. They both agreed on following collaborations:

• ILO to provide technical assistance to carry out a comprehensive tracer study to assess the impact of the National Internship Programme;
• ILO jointly with the MOYA will develop a programme using ILO’s entrepreneurship methodology and international experience to promote employment opportunity and youth entrepreneurship; and
• ILO will also support the MOYA to organize job fairs and annual award events to acknowledge young entrepreneurs from across the country and to encourage the spirit of youth entrepreneurship in public.

This collaboration will help the Ministry benefit from ILO’s global experience on the promotion of entrepreneurship and replicate some of those models in Pakistan. Federal Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs, said in the meeting that Pakistan's population profile has changed the proportion of working age population is increasing and offering a window of opportunity and also challenges to turn this demographic transition into a ‘demographic dividend’, therefore, he said, the Ministry feels the need to urgently promote entrepreneurship among the youth in Pakistan with the technical assistance of the ILO.

Mr Li stated that Pakistan’s Decent Work Country Programme was signed in 2005 and youth employment is a priority for ILO’s agenda. He said that in the present global employment crisis, the ILO’s Global Jobs Pact, adopted in June 2009, also offers guidelines to national and international policies aimed at stimulating economic recovery, generating jobs and providing protection to working people and their families. In this regard youth employment and entrepreneurship become increasingly important to achieve the goal of Decent Work for All. Mr Li hoped that the youth programme in MOYA will make big progress this year with the ILO’s technical assistance.

For further information please contact:

Mr Saifullah Chaudhry
ILO-Islamabad
Tel: +92 51 2276456-8
Email