Afghanistan National Youth Policy (draft 2013)

Afghanistan is one of world’s youngest and fastest growing populations at an annual rate of population change of 3.1 per cent (UNFPA, 2012a). According to the Central Statistics Organization (CSO) in 2011 68 per cent of Afghanistan’s population of around 26.5 million people was under the age of 25, with people between the ages of 15 to 24 years accounting for 40 per cent of the total population. The aim of developing the Afghanistan National Youth Policy is to bring together all the relevant governmental and non-governmental stakeholders – in particular youth – to systematically address youth issues, and to design and implement short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies and programmes for growth and expansion of talents, skills and potential of young women and men in economic, social, cultural and political areas of the country.