POLICY MAKING FOR YOUTHS IN THE PHILIPPINES
An innovative program by UNICEF in the Philippines shows the way on how enhance youths focused innovative partnerships but also on how to have youths, especially those most disadvantaged at the core of policy making.
Figuring out the best recipe to build forward better is the greatest contemporary challenge for policy makers around the world.
In the Philippines as well as in other lower middle economies and developing nations, this vital test is compounded by the urgency to ensure that youth are going to be included in these efforts.
While focusing on the immediate task of creating new jobs for them it is going to be the defining priority, it is also essential to think holistically through a continuum that starts with inclusive and quality driven educational and health services and continues with additional provisions able to meet the evolving needs of the youth as they grow.
Institutionally speaking the Philippines already counts, at least on the paper, with the promising governance “infrastructures”, something that should not be discounted as the foundations have been built for potentially effective policy making.
From informal education to promotion of volunteerism to institutionalization of the JobStart traineeship program through the public employment services offices (PESOs) without overlooking, despite the limited fiscal space caused by the pandemic, what an effective implementation of the Mandanas Ruling could imply for local youth in terms of closer and more effective public services, there is an array of initiatives that have not been fully harnessed.
Yet with proper action taken, these chronic under performers could become the “game changers” the youth of the nation are in desperate need of.
With hope that vaccinations will be ramped up soon and then with the transition to a new normal following through, policy makers must carefully work out a strategy to reinvigorate and strengthen the national youth focused governance.
A good idea where to start would be an inclusive process leading to a new Philippines Youth Development Plan as the ongoing one will expire next year.
Involving external development partners including a European Union eager to step up in the South East Asia, is going to be paramount because immense resources will be needed for the country to pull all the pieces together and come up with a comprehensive strategy that truly makes the national youth the cornerstone of any attempt at building forward better.
Institutions like the National Youth Commission and the Philippines National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency together with the Department of Labor and Employment should be prioritized as focal agencies to boost a “National Youth Mission” that would inspire collective action and synergies to flip the odds that vulnerable youth have to thrive in the country.
In a holistic approach, stakeholders cannot neglect major investments on informal education, an area where the Philippines can already count with some best practices in the region.
The Alternative Learning System or ALS, a stream of informal education that offers out of school adolescents with the opportunity to return back to studies at basic levels but also through the so-called Continuing Education Program — Accreditation and Equivalency (A&E), deserves the attention of policy makers, partner countries and private sector alike.
strengthening it and building on it is going to be, without any doubts, a win-win and it is really paramount not to reinvent the wheel all the times but rather reinforce and compliment what already works.
This has been the approach that UNICEF Philippines, in partnership with ING, the financial services giant, has been using with Power for Youth that is focused on making the ALS even more effective and holistic, “empowering adolescents and young people to transition successfully from childhood to adulthood by providing them with the skills and tools they need so that they can be the future entrepreneurs, the future work force, and the future leaders of their countries”.
As per result, adolescent girls and boys should not only be equipped with 21st century skills but also become civically active and engaged as problem solvers able to identify local issues in need of redressal and at the same time finding out practical solutions.
From financial literacy to geography to holistic leadership development to the delivery of skills enhancing programs that confer micro-credentials, nano-degrees or badges, thanks to the strengths of well-equipped social mobilizers and teachers, Power for Youth is able to offer vital tailored made support that fits into the priorities of 48,186 youth in the country.
Working through the system is essential if the country wants to effectively respond to the continuous crisis that vulnerable youth, including those living with disabilities, are experiencing and this is what Power for Youth does.
It is an attempt at improving the way that ALS works and, as written by Aki Osawa in a policy brief recently published by UNICEF, there are many ways informal and alternative education can improve, including more financial support and more active support to learners.
Involving local governments as Power for Youth is doing in Zamboanga del Norte where the program facilitated the creation of a youth alliance with the local government driving the process, is going to be strategic for long term impact.
It will also be challenging.
Are the very innovative approaches been used by the program going to be internalized by the “system” once it will end in 2022?
Hopefully such success story will continue to expand with more support from donors and perhaps even with more private players chipping in because what works should not be stopped but only expanded to enhance its collective impact.
At the same time fixing a problem should not prevent us to look at the bottom of the problem.
As we just commemorated the International Day Against Child Labour, we should not forget that marginalized and vulnerable children become later on disenfranchised youth that informal education programs desperately try to engage.
In planning about the future is essential to believe that one day the Philippines will boost effective leadership and civic engagement and social innovation programs that will be enjoyed by all children and youth, regardless of their status and as part of their right to enjoy formal education like happens in many places around the world.
That’s would be a real new normal for many disadvantaged kids and youth in the country.
The Author writes on social inclusion, volunteerism, youth development, regional integration and the SDGs in the context of Asia Pacific.
