THE third coordination meeting of the Steering Committee on Holding Youth Peace Forum was held in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday.
It was attended by Union Minister Lt-Gen Yar Pyae, who is also Chairman of the committee, Union Minister for Information U Maung Maung Ohn, who is the Committee Vice-Chair, National Solidarity and Peacemaking Negotiation Committee (NSPNC) Secretary Lt-Gen Min Naing, committee members, deputy ministers, and permanent secretaries, while social affairs ministers from regions and states joined via videoconferencing.
Speaking at the event, Union Minister Lt-Gen Yar Pyae said the importance of the role of youth in peace will be illustrated through the upcoming Youth Peace Forum. The forum will help identify and nurture qualified youth for nation-building, link peace-building efforts with the role of young people, and highlight that only with peace can the future of youth be bright, and only by nurturing youth can a peaceful environment be created. He added that discussions will also focus on creating a harmonious environment and shaping young people with strong moral character. The creative young people will be identified, and highly capable youth will emerge for the future of the nation through this forum.
Secretary Lt-Gen Min Naing briefed on approval to be sought, a different format of the coming forum that features discussions conducted exclusively by youth, holding of the forum aiming to strengthen the role of young people for the future and proper arrangements for the forum.
Deputy ministers, Nay Pyi Taw Council members, permanent secretaries, directors-general, and regional and state social affairs ministers discussed sectoral tasks, after which Committee Vice-Chair U Maung Maung Ohn discussed essence of forum for the country, message to be sent to the youths as it carries the special emphasis of government for the youths and chance to receive safe and peaceful community through the forum, building of trust between youths and government and between people and government.
The chairman of the steering committee delivered a concluding speech and adjourned the meeting.
The forum places strong emphasis on youth participation in nation-building and aims to integrate the spirit and energy of young people into the country’s peacebuilding processes in the most effective ways.
Through the forum, to clearly understand and recognize the voices of youth and formulate the future youth programmes, studies and discussions will be conducted on factors such as cases that create conflicts and their impact on the peace process, security and protection of youths, gender-based sensitive condition, challenging and solution for public participation in peace process, economic challenges and employment opportunities, access to continued education and educational gaps, opportunities to participate in combating drug abuse, the roles that youth can play in artificial intelligence (AI), cyber, and social media spaces, and the perspectives, and voices of youth in peacemaking. — MNA/KTZH
