Exploring the perception and observation of youth on leadership: A case study of Dhaka City, Bangladesh

The youth across the globe has reached a remarkable 1.8 billion out of 7.3 billion, and most of them live in developing countries like Bangladesh. Some 47.6 million or 30 percent of the total 158.5 million people in Bangladesh are youths, and it will be between 10 and 19 percent by 2050. This means that Bangladesh needs to invest right now in the human capital of its youths if it wants to reap the benefits of a large demographic dividend (GOB, 2015). Considering the facts, it is urgent to invest heavily on them for their quality education and effective leadership for economic, environmental and social gains. Based on understanding the importance of the youth, this study explores the perception of youth in Dhaka city about leadership, their needs for developing their leadership capacity and focus on their key priorities that they want to work on. Researcher hopes that the findings of this study would have important implications for youth related policies and programmes. It would also assist the planner, policy makers, implementer and stakeholders towards adopting more effective strategy for the leadership development of youths in Bangladesh.