“ENABLED, involved and patriotic youth realizing their aspirations anchored on integrity and compassion” is the new vision statement of the Philippine Youth Development Plan (PYDP 2017-2022). This statement captures the collective aspiration of and for the Filipino youth. It is the framework, anchor, and direction of all our efforts and initiatives for the youth. It is the articulation of our joint mission for and our commitment to youth development.
“Enabled, involved and patriotic youth realizing their aspirations” is the agency mission statement of the National Youth Commission (NYC). It is also our conceptual definition of youth development. For us at the NYC, the development of young people means and results in “realizing their aspirations”. More than the usual indicators and algorithms based on statistics, it is the realization of young people's aspirations which should be the framework for and measure of development.
NYC chair Aiza Seguerra calls the PYDP the game plan. It is the game plan of the team of duty-bearers composed of different levels of government agencies and units and concerned civil society groups. This game plan requires close coordination and engagement with rights holders led by youth organizations. Strategies are built around the overall goal of enabling young people to fully realize their aspirations.
The game plan requires the duty-bearers to reduce, if not eliminate, the deterrents to the attainment of the youth’s aspirations. Deterrents such as teen pregnancy and risky behavior, stigma and discrimination, violence and counterproductive social and political norms are barriers to the full development of young people, as these may either delay development or prevent it completely.
The PYDP game plan is built around two critical mandates: enable and involve the Filipino youth.
Enable
The pursuit of youth development is essentially about reducing deterrents and increasing capacities. It is never enough for duty-bearers to create and generate opportunities for growth. Youth development will only be achieved if young people are enabled to take full advantage of these opportunities. By enabling the youth, they are provided with means, power, competence, and abilities necessary to live a productive life.
Substantial investment should be made in preparing and equipping the youth with the fundamental and relevant knowledge and skills that they need in order to pursue their aspirations in life. This comes in the form of education in various forms and levels, skills development training, and life skills learning. Equally important is fostering an enabling environment conducive to intellectual, emotional and social development of the young people.
Involve
Genuine youth involvement in the pursuit of development requires a paradigm shift on the part of both duty-bearers and rights-holders. Young people should no longer be viewed as mere recipients or passive beneficiaries of programs. They should be engaged pro-actively in the whole process of service delivery, from conceptualization to implementation. Through this practice, programs for the youth can be vetted by the sector to ensure responsiveness and relevance.
On the part of young people, involvement means recognizing and internalizing their role in the community and in nation-building, by harnessing social responsibility and active citizenship. In the end, the contribution of young people to community development redounds to their own individual growth because they acquire the necessary life skills in the process.
This game plan is a team effort, because youth development is everyone’s business.