Wealth of ideas: Thawra and future of innovation

Positive energy makes the world go around. That spirit powered the Tharwa Forum, a three-day ideation lab held in September 2025. 

The name “Tharwa” (Arabic for “wealth”) reflects His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik’s belief that youth are the nation’s real wealth and recalls how the the late His Majesty Sultan Qaboos saw a balanced relationship between heritage, aspirations and energy. Ninety-nine volunteers from civil society, business and government gathered to design innovative youth programmes and influence future national planning.

Open dialogue characterised the forum. Participants debated youth-focused research, volunteering, dialogues and appreciation events. Senior officials joined discussions, illustrating why target groups must be involved in policy design. Oman’s youth programme sits amid a demographic context in which young people represent a large and growing share of humanity. According to the United Nations, there are 1.2 billion people aged 15-24 (16 per cent of the world’s population), and the number will rise to nearly 1.3 billion by 2030. Harnessing this demographic dividend requires robust youth-led innovation.

A leading global model for youth ideation is the Youth Innovation Lab (YIL) programme developed by Save the Children. Its programmatic guide stresses that successful labs are built on a human-centred design process rooted in six principles: empathy, a bias for action, radical collaboration, rapid prototyping, visualisation and adherence to process. These principles encourage participants to get out of the classroom, identify real problems, build prototypes and iterate. YILs emphasise psychological safety, clear boundaries, supportive relationships, autonomy and opportunities to belong. Facilitators are trained to create an environment where young people can test ideas without fear, learn leadership skills and see themselves as change agents. The guide notes that youth innovation labs are not micro-enterprise programmes; rather than promising to launch businesses, they build leadership, problem-solving and community engagement skills. Participants still finish the programme having learned to solve problems using design thinking, engage more with their communities and earn respect, outcomes that help them secure support for future ventures.

Several international initiatives show how structured ideation coupled with follow-up support can produce scalable solutions. Youth Co:Lab, a partnership between UNDP and Citi Foundation, has become Asia-Pacific’s largest social-innovation platform. In India alone, six national dialogues have reached over 19,000 participants and supported 2,600 youth-led teams. Its 2024-25 edition focuses on disability-inclusive innovation; the programme aims to back 30-35 early-stage startups with mentorship and seed grants. Co-designing challenges with disabled entrepreneurs ensures solutions are inclusive from the outset.

The World Food Forum’s Youth Innovation Lab uses competitions, incubation and masterclasses to develop sustainable food solutions. It hosts research challenges and startup competitions, incubating projects and providing masterclasses from experts so participants can “identify out-of-the-box, actionable solutions” to transform agrifood systems and address climate change. The lab emphasises that ideation must lead to incubation and networking if solutions are to survive beyond the event.

Earlier labs demonstrate the model’s scale: the 2022 UNLEASH India lab convened 1,000 participants from more than 100 nationalities, producing 175 solutions across seven thematic tracks. The 2024 Amazon lab in Brazil included 80 per cent participants from Indigenous and traditional communities, ensuring solutions reflected local needs.

In the Caribbean, the DIA Urban Labs run by the Trust for the Americas transform community centres into innovation hubs. 

Applying global lessons to Oman’s Tharwa Forum

These programmes show that ideation labs succeed when they combine structured design processes with inclusive participation, psychological safety and follow-up support. For the Tharwa Forum, incorporating such practices could amplify impact:

1. Adopt design thinking: Train facilitators and participants in human-centred design principles — empathy, prototyping and collaboration — so ideas are tested and iterated quickly.

2. Ensure safe, inclusive spaces: Like YIL and UNLEASH, prioritise gender equity, accessibility and the involvement of marginalised youth, including those with disabilities.

3. Provide mentorship and follow-through: Create post-forum prototyping or incubation programmes, similar to Youth Co:Lab and UNLEASH, offering mentorship, small grants and connections to partners.

4. Engage community and industry: Involve local businesses, research institutions and government to ensure ideas address real needs and have pathways to implementation. DIA Labs’ community partnerships and hackathons illustrate how local challenges can be solved collectively.

5. Measure and share results: Track the number of ideas developed, partnerships formed and initiatives launched, and share these stories to attract wider support. Global programmes report participant numbers, ventures created and funds awarded, which builds credibility and draws resources.

By further enriching Oman’s cultural values with evidence-based practices from successful youth innovation programmes, the Tharwa Forum can become more than a one-off event. It can seed a generation of forward-thinking youth capable of balancing cultural heritage with bold new ideas, turning youth energy into national wealth.