South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), in collaboration with ActionAid Bangladesh, has organized a webinar titled “Reflection of Youth’s Perspective in the 8^th Five Year Plan” on Saturday, 25^th September 2021. The webinar was chaired by Dr Selim Raihan, Professor of Economics, University of Dhaka and Executive Director of SANEM, and moderated by Ms Israt Hossain, Senior Research Associate, SANEM. Ms Nasima Begum, Member (Secretary), Socio-Economic Infrastructure Division and General Economic Division (In-Charge), Planning Commission was the special guest of the program. Mr Nazmul http://www.aipa.com.au/levitra-online/ Ahsan, Manager, Young People, ActionAid Bangladesh, Ms Falguni Reza, Joint Director, Research, Institute of Informatics and Development (IID), Ms Samanjar Chowdhury, Operations Lead, BRAC Youth Platform, Ms Esha Farooqe, Assistant Director of Operations, JAAGO Foundation, Ms Morium Nesa, Manager, Women Rights & Gender Equity, ActionAid Bangladesh were the esteemed panelists of the webinar. Senior Research Associate of SANEM, Ms Eshrat Sharmin presented the research findings in the webinar.

Presenting the review paper Ms Eshrat Sharmin said, 8^th Five Year plan will play a crucial role in fulfilling the country’s long-term development goals. It is a well thought and well-crafted document that is coherent with the previous two Five-Year plans. However, the implementation of this plan remains rather a daunting issue at this moment due to the socio-economic impact of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Bangladesh will fail to capitalize on the demographic dividend if the challenges faced by the youth population is not dealt with accordingly. youth-focused unique challenges require tailored solutions, now more than ever due to the pandemic, including appropriate labour market interventions, such as unemployment insurance, along with gender-responsive social protection system focusing on mother and child programs, affordable care facilities, labour market interventions e.g. maternity benefits, affordable healthcare insurance, sexual and reproductive healthcare goods, and services, among others.

There are three major challenges regarding the livelihood of the youth. First, employment growth has been much slower than GDP growth. Second, employment in manufacturing and construction was contracted between 2013 and 2016-17. Third, the concentration of employed youths in the informal sector further increased. Realisation of the 8FYP in the health sector will require gradual increase of public expenditure in health, developing institutional capacity, ensuring safe and affordable vaccine for all, developing strategies to deal with future pandemics, and lifecycle-based disease prevention. Regarding livelihood, the country needs to implement the National Social Security Strategy, introduce unemployment insurance programmes, expand existing stipend programs to prevent dropout, child marriage, and child labour, reduce the inclusion and exclusion errors, roll out the National Household Database. To ensure gender parity, works need to be done on ending gender-based violence, ending child marriage, ensuring SRHR program to the remote region with risk of early pregnancies, increasing female labor force participation. In the education sector, the dropout rate needs to be reduced, the government should address pre-existing inequality that widened inequality in education and special attention is needed on TVET.

Assistant Director of Operations, JAAGO Foundation, Ms Esha Farooqe said, the fourth industrial revolution had already disrupted the labor market and created a demand for skilled labour. The impact of COVID-19 has added a new dimension to the current scenario. Furthermore, there is a disparity between our education system and the labour market. We need system up-gradation, skill development, adapting the 4IR system in TVET. Numerous startups are struggling because the education system is not being able to connect them to the relevant stakeholders. We need more e-learning platforms. Along with that, a resilient and advanced internet infrastructure is needed. The stigmatized mindset of parents regarding technical and vocational education also needs to be changed.

Manager of Young People, ActionAid Bangladesh, Mr Nazmul Ahsan said, the 8FYP has given us an excellent direction and guideline but it needs to be implemented properly. Otherwise Bangladesh will fail to take advantage of the demographic dividend. To evaluate the implementation process, we need reliable data. We need a dynamic data management system. The government should give adequate importance to the data presented by the civil society. Strong monitoring system should be in place. We need more budget allocation in the health and educations sector and also ensure that these benefits reach the marginalized people of the country. The budget for the youth ministry is very meager. Skill development programs cannot be implemented with such amount of investment. We should also try to reduce the digital divide among our youth.

Joint Director of Research, Institute of Informatics and Development (IID), Ms Falguni Reza also emphasized on allocating enough budget to implement the policies taken under the 8^th five-year plan. She said, we need to develop an ecosystem that incorporates the voice of everyone. The youth should be sensitized about the policies taken for them. We also need policy auditing. For that data availability should be ensured.

Operations Lead of BRAC Youth Platform Ms Samanjar Chowdhury said, growth in employment does not reflect the progress in our GDP growth. we are creating job seekers but enough jobs are not being created to meet the demand. University graduates are not skilled enough to meet the demand of the labour market. Initiatives should be taken to develop their skillset. We should also be careful about taking ambitious projects, rather we should set realistic goals and try to achieve those.

Marium Nesa, Manager, Women Rights and Gender Equity, ActionAid Bangladesh reiterated the necessity of coordinated effort to realize the 8FYP. She further stressed that youth development should be inclusive and include an intersectional youth population. She further stated the importance to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) of the youth and adequate information regarding SRHR and gender equity.

The special guest of the event, Member (Secretary) of Socio-economic Infrastructure Division, and General Economic Division, Nasima Begum stated that Government is keen to realize the 8th FYP and taking continuous strategies and actions to attain the relevant targets of the aforementioned plan. She acknowledged the necessity of reliable, segregated and updated data to conduct the national planning and policy-making and shared the enthusiasm from the Government policymakers. She further stressed the Government’s effort in inclusive development and utilizing the youth potential in that process. Although the preparation period of the plan document started prior the pandemic, the Plan document, being a living one, consists of reflection of the pandemic mitigation strategies and will be updated and monitored further periodically as needed. Due to the pandemic, child marriage and dropout rate has increased which needs coordinated effort from all the stakeholders, along with the Government. She also shared her concerns about the recent incidents of losses experienced by the youth from the E-commerce sector.

Dr Raihan shared that Bangladesh is going through the demographic window of opportunity, which requires precise steps to realize the dividend. In order to do so, apart from the economic policy, social policies are necessary. Moreover, realization of the 8FYP requires transparent monitoring and accountability process including all the relevant stakeholders. To ensure such accountability, apart from the Government, civil society, and academia, among other stakeholders should be involved. Youth’s volunteer movements and gender parity will contribute to effective implementation of this Plan document. Therefore, while undertaking programs and policies, pandemic reality has to be taken into account and education, health, and social safety net sectors has to be prioritized. Lastly, constructive discussion and engagement of academia and development partners in the policy landscape will ensure realization of the broader development goals of the nation.

Download the presentation of the webinar.