engaging & empowering citizens for a sustainable future
Youth Deradicalization:
The Northwestern Frontier Province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and FATA epitomise the consequences of socio-economic backwardness; poor governance, high population growth, poor education and skill-development infrastructure, and little awareness among the parents of how to protect their children from radicalisation
These poor social conditions are then exploited by right wing religio-political groups and radical segments of the society through mosques, madrasas and at times through public schools in rural areas, leaving the youth in particular vulnerable to an uninformed, skewed and dangerous intellectual discourse. read more>>
Empowering Women:
Pakistani society is largely governed by a conservative and feudalistic mindset. Despite some progress in the past few years, particularly symbolic acts such as increase in the number of seats for women in national, provincial and local parliaments, women and girls in Pakistan remain one of the most vulnerable and discriminated-against group.
Officially only about 37 of the female population is literate. Additionally, because of lack of technical training, women face discrimination at workplace as well, usually earning far less compared to their male colleagues.
Civic Education:
Pakistan has a chequered history of frequent military coups and extremely fragile and compromising civilian government which has hindered the growth of a pluralistic, democratic and a tolerant society in Pakistan. Such ad-hoc-ism has adversely affected all the social sectors and has gravely depoliticised the citizens. Politics for general masses and particularly youth has become a synonym for corrupt social practices and there is a state of apathy towards the socio-economic and political environment in Pakistan. Especially the youth, that is a historic harbinger of a social change in all societies, has suffered the maximum in an utter state of waywardness. read more>>
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Youth in FATA:
One of the most challenging and hard pressing issues in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is promoting and ensuring durable peace, security, stability and development. While the culture, in FATA is traditionally dominated by a conservative and feudal mindset, poor governance and socio-economic injustices & forces of religious extremism have thrown up new challenges for the state and people living in FATA, thereby highlighting the urgency for sustained and comprehensive peace promotion tools.
In this context, there seems to be a greater realization today that education and capacity building initiatives should form an integral part of policy making for the region.
Realizing the urgency of the matter, PEAD together with IWPR has launched a project for youth in FATA titled “Open Minds”.