Youth and female should get focus in 8th FYP: SANEM

Dhaka (Dec 5, 2020): Amid the backdrop of the ongoing pandemic, the government should focus on capacity building of the youth and female while implementing the 8th five year plan to ensure sustainable development and recovery from pandemic, said South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) on Saturday.

The observation was made at a webinar on expected reflections of youth and gender issues in the five-year plans in light of the pandemic.

Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha, research director of SANEM moderated the event chaired by Farah Kabir, country director of Action Aid Bangladesh. Planning Minister MA Mannan graced the event as chief guest.

The think-tank pointed out five sectors -- education, employment and income, health, poverty and social safety net and gender-- where policy address is needed for the youth and female.

SANEM said investing more on the human capital development, particularly on the youth will be crucial to utilize demographic dividend. 

Failure to comprehend and incorporate pandemic related challenges faced by the youths in the policy discussions will compromise broader development goals, it added.

According to the paper presented in the webinar organised by SANEM, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed for measures like virtual education is widening the already existent digital device, regional disparity along with income group related ones.

Virtual education requires a certain level of economic capacity. In Bangladesh, 62% of the households do not have internet access at home, it said.

The government should focus on redesigning syllabus and reduce the inequality, it added.

SANEM predicted that the unemployment rate of young people in the country will rise to 25% due to pandemic, up from 10.7% before Covid-19.

Almost 30% of the youth population was not in employment, education or training in 2017. Among them, 97.8% and 98.7% males and females respectively did not have any access to training, showed the report.

The government should focus on increasing employment opportunities in informal sector and also ensure higher participation of female labour force to address the employment of the youth, suggested the think-tank. 

SANEM predicted, with a negative income shock of 25%, the overall poverty rate will be 40.9%, which means another 20.4% population will fall into poverty.

To address the rising vulnerability and poverty, the policymakers must rethink the necessity of strong social protection programmes, it added.

SANEM pointed out that with problems in education and income, female population of the country might become victims in so many levels including violence to child marriage 

Bangladesh ranks lower in economic participation (129), health and survival (125), and educational attainment (111) sub indicators compared to the neighboring countries in the gender gap report.

The think-tank also called for increasing public expenditure in education, health, and social safety net and strengthening institutional capacity to implement the 8th five years plan.