First-ever youth portal in Sri Lanka launched

By Shabiya Ali

A multi-organisational partnership has helped to launch Sri Lanka’s first youth portal Youthlink to promote the exchange of ideas and empower the younger population of the country.

Accessible at www.youthlink.lk, the web portal is a pioneering step in the youth development arena of Sri Lanka, as it connects young people of diverse backgrounds onto one platform to discuss and debate heated topics affecting the country and its impact on the population.

Initiated by the World Bank Sri Lanka, the portal was facilitated by a group of organisations and individuals, working towards the development of youth in Sri Lanka, to come together and structure an evidence based platform, with the shared ambition of collaborating and communicating across critical issues faced by the younger generation.

Partner organisations involved in the development of Youthlink include the Ministry of Youth Affairs, United Nations Volunteers (UNV), Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka (FPASL), AIESAC, Connect Lanka, Sarvodaya fusion, and Microsoft among few others more.

The idea of having such a portal materialised out of several deliberations with development partners who are interested in investing and engaging with youth. Youthlink aims at being the ultimate stop for the younger generation looking for opportunities, evidence based research, ideas, discussion and most importantly information and formulation processes of the national youth policy.

The comprehensive portal entails; the Voice forum where opinions, issues and ideas could be expressed, a perspective section which allows finding out on the ongoing project activities, programs, capacity building workshops and similar events conducted for youth by different organisations.

The step-up area helps in career guidance while it also showcase employment opportunities waiting to be picked up, the ‘in action’ segment highlights upcoming events, projects and volunteering opportunities that are of high interest, to the youth while the network arena acts a directory listing all organisations working for youth in Sri Lanka  

A panel discussion that took place at the launch, highlighted that the portal will pull together information on the development needs of Sri Lanka’s youth, by taking into account the different geographic locations, socio-economic backgrounds and ground realities.

While it will also be a platform for young people as well as those working on youth development to voice their concerns and share ideas on solutions for youth development in the country from their unique and informed perspective.

Youthlink ultimately aims at developing a collaborative knowledge sharing platform, on youth development in Sri Lanka, to avoid duplication of efforts and wastage of resources, capturing the voices of youth in need from across the country, increasing transparency and youth engagement in the national youth policy formulation and implementation process while also helping young people make informed decisions about career options and realise their own potential.

National Service Youth Council (NYSC) Chairman/Director General Lalith Piyumal Perera expressed in his speech at the launch, “There are young people who are fighting to be heard, to do something and express the happenings around them, Government institutions like NYSC needs to hear their message, to take corrective actions.”

“With platforms such as Youthlink acting as an amplifier to their voices, we will be able to make a better sound decision for the youth,” he added.

YouthLink will attempt to create the much needed dialogue between the younger generation of Sri Lanka and those individuals, organisations and other entities that are working towards the development and up-lifting of the country’s youth.

It enables strategic contribution to extending and strengthening the expertise of the Sri Lanka youth development sector by providing public access to all gathered knowledge and information while it also makes a recognisable contribution to the rationale of evidence-based policy development and practice in the adolescence development field.

Pix by Lasantha Kumara