TAYAR Marks International Youth Day With New Programme to Strengthen Youth Resilience in Pakistan
TAYAR (Training Adolescents and Youth for Action and Resilience) launched a new initiative on International Youth Day 2026 to bolster youth-led disaster risk reduction, preparedness, and resilience across Pakistan. The event gathered significant stakeholders, including the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Higher Education Commission (HEC), National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF), Pakistan Girl Guides Association (PGGA), Pakistan Boy Scouts Association (PBSA), School of Leadership Foundation (SoLF), and youth representatives.
The gathering explored how young individuals could assume more structured and meaningful roles in building resilient communities, under the theme “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations.” The program emphasized connecting initiatives like TAYAR, the National Volunteer Corps, and specialized disaster risk reduction programs within a unified national framework.
Key discussions focused on:
- Equipping youth with practical life skills, crisis preparedness, volunteerism, and community leadership.
- Introducing the National Standardized Disaster Risk Reduction Manual for Volunteers, offering a hands-on framework for developing university students, faculty, and youth leaders as Master Trainers.
- Trained youth will disseminate essential disaster preparedness and risk reduction knowledge to fellow students, schools, and communities through cascade learning.
The launch also featured the first Training of GYM Focal Persons, Captains, and Vice Captains, empowering 41 participants with insights into Pakistan’s disaster risk reduction framework, national governance, digital early warning systems, and anticipatory action.
Nine additional boot camps are scheduled for the coming months to extend the training to all 137 partner universities nationwide. Trained participants will join the Prime Minister’s National Volunteers Corps (NVC) and, through campus DRR societies and cascade learning, reach an estimated 28,000 young people across Pakistan.
Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, emphasized the significance of empowering youth as active partners in national development, community resilience, and public service. Lt. General Inam Haider Malik, Chairman of NDMA, highlighted the importance of community preparedness in bolstering Pakistan's disaster resilience.