Employment of 10,000 youth in ARMM mulled

COTABATO CITY – The new administration of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is pushing for the empowerment of the youth sector in the region via employment or migration scheme it crafted in a two-day workshop here.

“The concern of the youth should be the concern of everyone” said ARMM’s Labor and Employment regional secretary Myra Alih) during the Inception Workshop on Millennium Development Goals concerning Youth, Employment and Migration (MDG-YEM) held at Hotel Castro on February 15-16.

Officials of ARMM and the provincial government of Maguindanao conducted the the 2-day workshop, which was participated in by youth organizations from the province who helped draft an action plan on varied alternatives to provide them decent local and overseas jobs.

Alih stressed that despite the problems faced by Filipino youth especially in Maguindanao such as poverty, armed conflicts, child exploitation in combat and child labor, the ARMM governance led by acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong would “never give up” on empowering the youth.

In different occasions, the 40-year old Adiong, the youngest ARMM chief executive, has emphasized the need to make the youth “productive citizens.”

THE MDG-YEM is a project funded by foreign donors International Organization for Migration (IOM), International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) through the initiative of DOLE-ARMM.

It is also assisted by other government agencies in ARMM including Department of Education (DepEd), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), National Youth Commission (NYC), National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

The program started on July 2009 and would run for a three (3) year period. In Maguindanao, the program was already launched last October 26, 2009 at ORG Compound wherein problems and concerns of the youth residing in the area were initially tackled.

A total of 10,000 poor and vulnerable young men and women aging 15-24 years old are targeted to be the beneficiaries of the said project. They must be high school graduate of an out-of school youth, in-school youth, OFW or youth left behind by OFW parents.

Aside from Maguindanao, three (3) other -provinces are recipients of the MDG-YEM. These are Agusan del Sur, Antique and Masbate.

Fatima Cherry Pangilamen, YEM Focal Person and Provincial Head, Maguindanao, DOLE-ARMM, said the initial funding for the MDG-YEM in Maguindanao is approximately 80 million pesos.

The project seeks to enable youth to be productive and competitive. This is through promotion of the entry and retention of youth in local job markets, creation of opportunities for sustainable livelihood, improvement of access to and retention in secondary education and harnessing remittances to contribute to the development of employment alternatives for youth.

“Through the YEM window, the MDG Achievement Fund, seeks to support interventions that promote sustainable productive employment and decent work for young people either at national or local level, including through a better management of the positive and negative effects of migration and by enhancing local capacities to develop, implement and monitor effective policies and programs in this domain” Pangilamen added. (Haj Kabalu/bpi-armm)