The Government of Pakistan, through the Prime Minister Youth Programme, in partnership with UNICEF and Generation Unlimited, has launched Pur Azm Pakistan, a national platform designed to expand access to skills, employment, entrepreneurship, and economic opportunities for the country’s young population. The launch took place in Islamabad on June 4, 2026, and was attended by government officials, private sector leaders, development partners, and young people whose participation in the event reflected the platform’s ambition to bring all of these stakeholders into a coordinated national system rather than a fragmented set of parallel programmes. The launch also marked the establishment of Friends of GenU Pakistan, a platform connecting businesses committed to investing in the future of Pakistan’s youth through skills development, entrepreneurship, innovation, and work-based learning partnerships.
The scale of the challenge Pur Azm Pakistan is designed to address is considerable. Pakistan is home to one of the world’s largest youth populations, with nearly 67 percent of its population under the age of 30, yet an estimated 32 million young people are currently not in education, employment, or training. This concentration of youth outside structured pathways to economic participation represents both a significant national challenge and a substantial missed opportunity, given that the same demographic distribution that creates the challenge also creates the potential for a powerful demographic dividend if even a fraction of those 32 million young people can be connected to meaningful skills development and employment pathways. Pur Azm’s design, which brings together government, the private sector, development partners, and young people around a shared infrastructure, is oriented toward creating that connection at a scale that individual programmes operating in isolation cannot achieve.
Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, Chairman of the Prime Minister Youth Programme, described the platform as a coordinated national system connecting education, skills, and employment, and framed its launch as a reflection of the government’s commitment to ensuring that every young person can access meaningful pathways to opportunity and contribute to national growth. Pernille Ironside, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, characterised Pur Azm as a transformative step toward building the systems and partnerships needed to expand skills and economic opportunity for all young people, with particular emphasis on those facing the greatest barriers, including girls and young people from underserved communities. Kevin Frey, Chief Executive Officer of Generation Unlimited, positioned the initiative as a model for how government, business, and young people can work together to build a scalable system that positions Pakistan as a global leader in unlocking youth potential for inclusive economic growth.
The launch event featured a Learn-to-Earn Marketplace that showcased youth-led enterprises, innovations, and entrepreneurship solutions from across Pakistan, giving young founders and creators a platform to demonstrate the talent and potential that Pur Azm is designed to support and scale. A high-level dialogue titled Bridging Ambition and Opportunity brought together policymakers, private sector leaders, and young people to explore pathways to digital employment, green economy opportunities, skills reform, and entrepreneurship, addressing the structural and policy dimensions of connecting Pakistan’s youth to economic opportunity alongside the programme and platform dimensions that Pur Azm directly provides.
Friends of GenU Pakistan, established alongside the Pur Azm launch, creates a formal mechanism through which businesses can commit to and coordinate their investments in youth skills and employment, moving corporate engagement with Pakistan’s youth development agenda from ad hoc corporate social responsibility activities into a structured partnership framework with shared objectives and accountability. Together, Pur Azm Pakistan and Friends of GenU Pakistan represent a more coordinated and ambitious approach to the challenge of connecting Pakistan’s young population to the skills, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities that will determine whether the country’s demographic profile becomes the economic asset it has the potential to be or remains an underutilised and increasingly urgent national challenge.
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