Bohol hosts youth-inclusive global work-policies dialogs 

Rey Anthony H. Chiu 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, March 22, 2013 (PIA) – The Philippines hosts a series of international dialogs on youth employment development planning as youth unemployment crisis stir nations. 

The presence of existing examples of successful initiatives of how a National Youth Policy is translated in the local levels, where local youth councils develop their own initiatives that address key youth issues including unemployment, shared conference organizers during a press conference at Soledad Suites, Monday March 18. 

Triggered by a Partnership-Building Meeting in December, the dialogs flowed into Training on Local Youth Employment Development Planning and then proceeded to Inter-Generational Dialog-Networking Seminar with Local Government Officials and Youth People which will also usher in the Local Youth Employment Summit and finally the Partnership Evaluation Meeting, organizers said. 

Most recently, nations have been alarmed over the increasing number of young people entering labor markets annually, but a slim few of them land in jobs, International Labor Organization noted. 

Observers traced the underlying issues contributing to the unemployment crisis to the lack of work opportunities, slipping quality of educational training and lack or absence of linkages from the youth sector to labor markets. 

Over the prevailing issues, organizers envision providing a clear framework which shall clarify components that must be addressed to achieve increased youth employment. The need for youth employment interventions embraced by national and local policies on employment and growth is now becoming an opened avenue and youth participation in decision making widens this up, organizers from Youth for Sustainable Development Assembly (YSDA) said. 

YSDA wishes to be identified as a platform which supports youth involvement in sustainable development at varying levels of engagements: from local communities to national plenary by policy recommendations and consultations, and even breaches national boundaries with its network with international organizations. 

Participating in Bohol conferences are youth leaders and young politicians from Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Bulgaria, Vietnam, China and the Philippines. 

In the Philippines, YSDA brings in partner international organization’s emerging young leaders to work hand in hand with their Filipino leaders and members of the community in a cultural and youth development agenda sharing towards a global mission to build a global community through local action and services. 

In Bohol, where the Philippine conferences happened, the international youth leaders and young politicians trained on local youth employment development planning last week, where a systematic adoption of national policies is reflected in a local youth employment development plan, which members present to their country’s leaders and politicians to get their support for more national policies that strengthen local employment initiatives, YSDA said. 

To be able to do that, dialogues–networking seminar with local government and key leaders in a country and the youth opened up a venue for exchange of different successful initiatives that mainstream youth councils and local government partnerships to increase youth participation and lessen sectoral unemployment. (HD/ed)