Discussions, deliberations and brainstorming continued on the second day of the Doha Islamic Youth Forum at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha yesterday. 
The second day focused on the youth’s role in sustainable development, with sessions and workshops revolving around this theme and the participants discussing topics such as the role of youth initiatives in achieving sustainable development, empowering youth in the field of education and training, and sustainable development and youth challenges. 
The forum is being attended by youth delegates from 56 Islamic countries, including 20 young representatives from Qatar. The forum, which comes within the framework of the ‘Doha OIC Capital 2019’ initiative, is being held through co-operation between the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Islamic Co-operation Youth Forum, under the supervision and organisation of the Qatar Centre for Cultural and Heritage Events.
Marking the formal start to the day’s proceedings, an introductory session on the theme of ‘Youth and wagering on sustainable development’ saw the participants present papers on topics such as youth and sustainable development, strengthening youth development capacities in Qatar, and youth being the true wealth of the nation. 
The participants underlined the need for helping the youth get trained and educated and called for affirmative steps to mobilise them towards the objectives of sustainable growth and development in the Islamic world.  
Addressing the session, Dr Mohamed Saif al-Kuwari, director, Environmental and Municipal Studies Institute at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, highlighted the role of youth in achieving sustainable development as a global demand, noting that the United Nations has identified 17 goals for development that cover all aspects of life and that these goals address the global challenges, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, peace and justice, decent work and 
economic growth.
Al-Kuwari stressed that these goals would only be achieved through the role played by promising young people and the commitment of countries to work towards achieving these goals according to programmes and well-studied plans by 2030.
Further, he underlined the importance of the forum and such events in taking advantage of various experiences, contributing to the shaping of future 
policies with a youth vision.
Abdul Hadi al-Shawi, director, Technical Office of the Permanent Population Committee in Qatar, presented a paper titled ‘Strengthening the development capacities of youth in Qatar’, in which he underlined that Qatar works to motivate young people to participate actively in sustainable development as a process that enhances the capacities of young people, expand their choices and enable them to obtain more opportunities in a global system that is based on knowledge-based globalisation.
He noted that the state’s attention to young people has emerged through the integration of the youth dimension into the first National Development Strategy (2011-2016) and the second (2018-2022) in many development sectors, and in the Population Policy (2017-2022), stressing that the Population Policy of Qatar aims to expand participation opportunities of the youth of both s genders in the society and in public life. 
Qatar is also keen on empowering the youth in the sectors of education, employment, health and other areas of life by harnessing the country’s modern and diverse infrastructure, adopting programmes and providing multiple resources to empower young people in various vital fields.
On future trends to expand Qatari youth participation in development, al-Shawi said a number of achievements have been made in the field of youth empowerment, but the changes in the reality of youth require the formulation of a number of interventions, including the establishment of a central body especially for youth to take over the coordination process of preparing and implementing a national youth development policy. This policy shall include cross-sectoral youth development programmes and the development of a comprehensive and integrated policy framework that ensures roles for the youth in all aspects of social life.
On his part, Arif Abdedjalil, commissioner for Peace and Security at the African Youth Union Commission, presented a paper titled “Youth is the real wealth of the nation’, which dealt with the role of young people in various activities and in all fields, especially in areas related to the fight against extremism and violence and maintaining world peace and security.
Three workshops were also held on the second day of Doha Islamic Youth Forum, based on the day’s theme. The participants contemplated the scope and possibilities of youngsters’ involvement in ensuring sustainable development. The workshops discussed various issues and challenges being faced by the Islamic world in making youth part of the development process as well as the measures to be taken to tap the potential of young generations in helping the Muslim world reach new heights in education and other sectors. 
The forum will address the theme of youth and social media on the third day. Workshops will be held on the impact of social media on youth cultural practices, the contribution of social media to social responsibility and youth and the safe use of social media. Amna Mohamed, Khawla Mortadawi and Shiraz Ahmed will present papers in the introductory session. 
(With inputs from QNA)
Related Story