Under-Secretary for National Council Affairs for Al-Ittihad: Action plan and initiatives to promote a culture of political participation for youth

Dina Johnny (Dubai)
The Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs signed a partnership agreement with the Federal Youth Foundation, to consolidate cooperation in the development and implementation of a series of initiatives and projects aimed at consolidating political and development awareness among young people, enhancing their contribution to parliamentary work, and employing their proposals and visions and benefiting from them in setting future and development plans.
Tariq Lootah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs, said in a statement to Al-Ittihad: We are working on developing an action plan with a timetable, initiatives and indicators to evaluate performance in spreading a culture of political participation for youth. He pointed out that the ministry aims to raise the percentage of political participation of young people, which reached 35% in the previous session of the National Council elections, noting that the signing of the memorandum of understanding with the Federal Youth Authority contributes to achieving the goal with high efficiency.
He said that the ministry had previously held a youth seminar related to strengthening the political participation of young people, in cooperation with universities and with various federal agencies, and following good and tangible results were monitored, in addition to the institution’s awareness of the importance of the field of political participation, the Federal Youth Authority showed great interest. With this strategic objective of the Ministry of National Council Affairs, following which it was decided to form a working group and develop an action plan with clear initiatives and performance indicators.
He pointed out that the UAE always seeks to make the applied indicators competitive globally, as well as with regard to political participation, noting that the voting and candidacy of young people is important, and the general turnout is important for the success of any electoral process.
The partnership announcement was witnessed by Her Excellency Shamma Al Mazrouei, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Tariq Hilal Lootah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs, Saeed Al Nazari, Director General of the Federal Youth Authority, and Sami Muhammad bin Uday, Assistant Undersecretary for the Support Services Sector at the Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs, In addition to a number of directors of departments and officials of both parties.