Popular thinking is not always accurate. A misleading assumption is the focus of non profits and ngos or even big biz car is on entrepreneurship. Most SMEs operate at subsistence level and do not create jobs. Portraying Pakistani youth as "digital natives"
& being innately entrepreneurial distracts from the real problem of the economy: a lack of quality wage jobs. For all those decks that start with half the pop being under 25 & the number of smart phone users are wildly out of touch with reality if u tout that as the opportunity
This is the aid agency and google effect. When Google came to sell advertising in this country they made the first of these decks that every sad marketeer in this country latched on to. The dream being sold is not one that converts as easily as a google advertisement.
In fact, job creation in PK has not kept up with educational achievement & more training $s will not fix that. Educated youth are more likely to be unemployed or find their skills underused. The problem is not the youth, it's the structure of the economy & aid $s being misspent
By ignoring structural causes and focusing on "youth", many donor/govt programs miss the point. Jobs are precarious, economically risky, unstable and ungoverned by adequate govt and legal protection. Since the govt doesn't care aid money has been wildly mis directed.
Given we spend more on toys than we do on education, the incentives of those in power have been critically flawed. Govt and well meaning donors should shift their attention to long term structural change interventions, e.g.
industrialisation, infrastructure, agricultural transformation or broad based education. These won't provide the much desired quick wins - but it'll be a more efficient allocation of resources and likely more impact ful for the youth.
Don't believe the current narrative of the big cos & advertising companies & the googles & fbs of the world that they are going to some how unlock the potential of the youth in PK. At best they see them as a dumb consumer of video content and thus a vehicle/sales channel.
$4$ Google builds tech in other nations to support the view of inclusion here they do 0. Not like we've helped our cause but the internal lobby is also very strong, this whole next billion users charade is a plot led by their brown guys to mis direct u to believe they r helping
It's first about extracting dollars for views and if the tides ever turn and they come to PK and some policy shift happens to include PK on the same footing as India perhaps things will be different. Even in India they are having a tough time with the regulators.
We can do with all these guys for now if we decide to help our selves with the right govt level policies and don't get played by the mirage that was digital Pakistan. We need to move fwd with made in Pakistan talent who can build for Pakistan based on our issues. Vs regional eg
Time for introspection on how we use this youth bulge to our benefit vs others using it to our detriment. With great un employment comes greater risk of civil unrest. Unless we plan ahead and figure out how to productively use our youth we will only create more issues 4 oursleves
Data is what you make of it. Don't be misdirected. Large numbers sound exciting but context around them is key. Look beyond the glossy sheen of the numbers think about the implication. What are we doing to deploy our youth? Who is in charge of their productivity? How do we win?
Been unable to identify any concrete items from govt that would lead me to believe there is a plan & trust me tiger force is not the answer because they won't differentiate when they go hungry. @rebootdude @raza_matin @jehan_ara @SaadGH @faizansiddiqi @ZMoosaPK @JDIQ @YusufJan
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