Islamabad:Ministry of Youth Affairs will hold a workshop `Youth & Civil Society’ today (Thursday) to deliberate on the opportunities for utilising the potential of youth in a constructive way.

The participants of the workshop, arranged in collaboration with the Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN), will ponder on implementing strategies regarding the uplift of youth as per stated in the National Youth Policy.

The purpose of the workshop would be to start a process of cross-learning and discussion regarding initiatives, which can be taken up for the development of youth across the country, as per the National Youth Policy and in possible new areas suggested at the workshop.

To this end, the workshop would essentially include two types of opportunities for learning. The first would be presentations from those organisations, which work specifically with youth. Their presentations would be based on best practices, which have been tried and tested, in order for the Ministry of Youth Affairs to replicate them across the country.

Secondly, the workshop would also include discussion or breakout groups, each with a different theme based on and around the National Youth Policy and motivating the youth to strive for excellence; encouraging peace, tolerance and national unity; character-building of youth in Islamic values, good citizenship, respect for basic human values, etc; ensuring income-generation opportunities for youth; encouraging sports and recreational activities; improving youth health; increasing social volunteerism; removing gender imbalances; and meeting the needs of special youth.The news