ISLAMABAD: Around 50 people from more than 15 countries came together on Sunday to deliberate on applying youth potential to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic and looming global threats and challenges to sustainability, such as climate change.

Young people from Azerbaijan, Botswana, Cameroon, China, Egypt, Ghana, Greece, Jordan, Kenya, Norway, Pakistan, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe participated in webinar titled ‘Role and Challenges of Youth in Global Crisis – Covid-19’, organised by the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (Comsats).

Moderated by Kenyan youth leader Nafula Wafula, who is also vice chairperson for policy and advocacy at the Commonwealth Youth Council, the event provided participants with a platform to express their ideas and resolve to live up to the needs of current global challenges.

In his opening remarks on the occasion, Comsats Executive Director Dr S.M. Junaid Zaidi offered Comsats as an effective platform for the youth to come together and apply their faculties to play their role to resolve global challenges, only one of which is the current pandemic.

“With the right approaches, the [coronavirus] crisis can be turned into an opportunity to further growth towards sustainability. Youth can play an important role in finding innovative solutions to emerging global threats such as [the coronavirus] pandemic,” Dr Zaidi said.

The coordinator of this activity, Assistant Director (Programmes) Qaiser Nawab highlighted the role of youth in bringing necessary change in society given they are provided necessary resources and opportunities. He urged global youth to come forward with different innovative ideas to serve humanity.

The event also marked China’s National Youth Day anddiscussed the successthe country had in containing the spread of Covid-19 as a nation, as well as how the country’s youth played an exemplary role in creating awareness about disease prevention and control.

A few Chinese students who volunteered for community service during the pandemic shared their experiences with the participants and emphasised making joint global efforts to cater to the needs of the public.

During other discussions, it was suggested that technological education should be incorporated in curricula from the grassroots level to build youth capacity in relevant spheres. Participants believed that an early shift to digital tools and methods can help address the rising youth unemployment challenges. Youth’s involvement was deemed an important element along with civic education, democracy and local development in the building of societies.

Online education and learning during the pandemic was discussed as a big challenge for countries with IT resources constraints, such as Tanzania, that are facing serious issues in continuing education in times of pandemic. Government-backed youth-led initiatives in Ghana relating to digital campaigning for raising awareness and reducing social stigma associated with Covid-19 were also appreciated.

Participants also presented various solutions to cope with the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic. Sharing experiences, knowledge and best practices relating to mitigation strategies and coping mechanisms online were also regarded important to generate an integrated response.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2020