In UNDP Pakistan, inclusion of Youth is being recognized as an important feature in order to move from Good to Great (G2G). Following the Annual Retreat of 2011, the Young Professional Officers (YPOs) have lead the establishment of the first-ever youth body with the name of "Youth Caucus".
This will play a pioneering role in establishing a good practice to mainstream youth in programming cycles at the advent of the upcoming UNDAF rollout and One Programme II (OP2).
The core mission of "Youth Caucus" is the provision of advice to UNDP CO in the four programmatic areas including Poverty Reduction, Democratic Governance, Environment and Climate Change and Crisis Prevention & Recovery. To achieve this goal, the caucus has the following functionality:
- Provide a research and knowledge management platform to gather information on youth engagement and mainstreaming initiatives at national and international level;
- Connect with national stakeholders on youth including government agencies, UN agencies, international agencies, youth-led/youth-focused NGOs and youth forums;
- Provide input on youth engagement for upcoming UNDAF rollout while keeping in view the One UN approach;
- Represent UNDP's youth focus at national and international advocacy and policy forums;
- Keep track of the existing youth focused activities in UNDP Pakistan's four programme areas.