The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Grameenphone (GP) teamed up Monday to establish the alliance "Future Nation" to create 1.0 million economic opportunities over the next three and a half years.
The alliance, launched on National Youth Day, will help endow the youths with employable skills, and it will do so through innovation and partnerships between the various development actors from the public, private and international development sectors and is fully aligned with the 8th Five Year Plan.
Bangladesh is uniquely positioned to potentially benefi¬t from a demographic dividend, as more than 33 per cent of the total population is aged between 18-35 years, according to the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
But reaping the benefits of a demographic dividend is not guaranteed unless there are sufficient, stable employment opportunities for youths, said the UNDP.
Future Nation - an alliance of the private, public and development sectors - is created to accelerate Bangladesh's future economic growth by enhancing the skills and potential of youths by identifying opportunities for development, employment, entrepreneurship, and investment in the post-pandemic situation.
Sudipto Mukerjee, resident representative of the UNDP Bangladesh, and Yasir Azman, chief executive officer of Grameenphone, inked the partnership.
"The private, public and development sectors have to work hand in hand and invest in youths for Bangladesh to achieve the national goal of becoming a developed nation by 2041," Sudipto said at the signing ceremony, according to UNB.
"As Bangladesh adapts to Covid-19, this collaboration with Grameenphone will support Bangladeshi youths to recover from the pandemic and accelerate efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030."
Yasir said Bangladesh has achieved remarkable success over the last 50 years. "And now, to unleash the potential ahead of us and overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic, we must collaborate and help our youths acquire future-ready skills for creating opportunities in the digital space - the need has been accelerated further due to Covid. These thoughts are precisely the objective of the partnership with UNDP."