Kathmandu: Consortium of South Asian Think-Tanks (COSATT) in cooperation with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) organized an international conference on ‘Youth Protests in South and Southeast Asia’ on January 14-16, 2026 in Kathmandu. Speakers were from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Indonesia, India and Nepal, while a lot of Gen Z participants from Nepal also actively participated. The speakers highlighted the reasons behind all these youth protests across countries were pretty much the same: youth unemployment, political wrangling, corruption and lack of opportunities.
They also said that democratically elected leaders should not become tyrants and should not forget the fact that their primary responsibility was to provide good governance. The main focus should be to strengthen the country’s institutions, not just their party. Dr. Nishchal N. Pandey, Convener of COSATT and Director of KAS Andreas Klein spoke on the occasion.
