Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh has placed meaningful youth engagement at the heart of its efforts to shape national reform priorities. Fifteen youth workshops were held in public and private universities across the country, bringing together students and young professionals from diverse socio-economic and geographic backgrounds.

These engagements created safe and inclusive spaces for dialogue, where participants articulated their aspirations, concerns, and reform demands grounded in lived experience. Across universities, youth consistently emphasised the need for accountable governance, institutional transparency, anti-corruption reforms, inclusive and quality education, political harmony, women’s safety, climate resilience, and employment-oriented skills development.

Shared Reform Priorities from Campuses Across Bangladesh

Despite variations in local context, the consultations revealed strong convergence around several national reform priorities. Participants called for strengthened accountability mechanisms through independent oversight bodies, transparent public finance, and open access to information. Many highlighted the urgency of education reform, stressing improved teacher training, updated curricula, skills-based and technology-integrated learning, and stronger education-to-employment linkages.

Youth voices also strongly underscored anti-corruption and governance reforms, including depoliticised institutions, digital transparency, whistleblower protection, and independent regulatory bodies with real enforcement powers. Several consultations stressed the importance of freedom of speech, press freedom, and tolerance-building initiatives, alongside demands for legal reforms to safeguard civic space.

Concerns around women’s safety and gender equality featured prominently, with calls for stronger accountability mechanisms to address gender-based violence, safer public transport, and women-led oversight bodies. Climate-vulnerable communities and regional universities highlighted the need for climate resilience programmes, decentralised governance, and equitable budget allocations to address regional disparities.

Employment emerged as a cross-cutting issue, with youth advocating for skills-focused education, vocational pathways, digital capacity building, and policies that support micro-industry growth and decent work opportunities—particularly for low-income earners, climate migrants, and marginalised groups

Integrating Youth Demands into the Citizen’s Manifesto

What distinguishes these engagements is not only the breadth of participation, but the way youth perspectives have been directly integrated into the Citizen’s Manifesto. The demands articulated through university consultations informed the Manifesto’s reform priorities, ensuring that youth aspirations are not treated as symbolic inputs, but as substantive contributions shaping the national reform agenda.

By embedding youth-led demands on governance, education, accountability, and social justice into the Manifesto, Citizen’s Platform has reaffirmed its commitment to an inclusive, citizen-driven reform process—one that reflects the voices of those who will inherit and shape Bangladesh’s future.

As the country navigates a critical democratic transition, these youth engagements stand as a testament to the power of informed, organised, and constructive participation. Citizen’s Platform remains committed to sustaining this dialogue, amplifying youth voices, and ensuring that reform processes remain grounded in citizen aspirations—today and in the years to come.