NYC holds consultation dialogue to help craft national youth dev't. plan

• Source: http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/3301474344994/nyc-holds-consultation-dialogue-to-help-craft-national-youth-dev-t-plan
• Tuesday, September 20, 2016

By Julius B. Embile (MAL/JBE-PIA5)

LEGAZPI CITY (PIA) – The National Youth Commission (NYC) held a consultation workshop in Legazpi City for partner agencies and youth advocates in the Bicol region to provide inputs in crafting the Philippine Youth Development Program (PYDP) 2017-2022.

The plan will be the guide of the National Youth Commission (NYC) and other stakeholders to ensure youth development throughout the country.

The consultation workshop in Legazpi City is part of the commission’s nationwide series of consultation activities, in order to formulate the best solutions on the concerns of the youth.

The solutions formulated on the consultation workshops would be incorporated in the PYDP from year 2017 until 2022. The issues tackled during the workshop were the concerns faced by the youth in mainly terms of health, education, employment or economy, citizen involvement, and governance.

As defined by the United Nations, those between the ages of 15 to 30 years are classified as youth, but are further clustered in to three groups: children youth (15-17), core youth (18-25), and young adults (26-30). From 2014 until last year, NYC researched on the current standing of statistics involving all three youth cluster groups in order to identify the Youth Development Index (YDI) of the country.

According to the data based on the recent Philippine Youth Index Report (PYIR), the Philippines had experience a considerable slump of its YDI, from a score of 0.562 in 2013 to 0.554 in 2014, and based on the parameters of participation, education, employment, and health. As of the overall regional rankings, Region 5 is currently ranked tenth in the country in terms of its YDI.

For the Bicol region specifically, the region had its most considerable decline in youth development in the field of education with a 0.057 score decline. Right now, region-5 is eleventh in the rankings on overall youth educational development.

Data also shows that Bicol is falling behind in terms of employments and livelihood for the youth. As per the PYIR, the Bicol region is ranked 14th in reference to youth employment with comparative scores of 0.548 in 2013 and 0.521 in 2014.

In order to identify the reasons for the decreased youth development rate, the commission conducted the National Youth Assessment Study (NYAS), a research survey initiated every five years involving the younger members of the citizenry. For NYAS 2016, more than 2,700 youth from different sectors and communities nationwide served as survey respondents.

As initially translated from the result of the NYAS, the possible prime reason for the decline of the youth’s development rate is their modern day views. In matters of health, for instance, 31% of the respondents are sexually active and claims that it is alright to have sexual intercourse outside of marriage.

Such perception, according to experts consulted by the NYC, raises a ‘red flag’ as it becomes the root of other concerns such as population growth and teenage pregnancy. Vices and substance abuse also raised concerns as survey showed 21% of the youth smokes tobacco and 26.3% admits to have used illegal substances.

It was also stated by the experts that these issues call for action for regions like Bicol, which is currently ranked fifth in terms of youth population. Data break-down also showed that 27% of the overall population in the Bicol region is within the ‘youth’ category, wherein 52% are male and 48% are female.

“We present you these concerns so that we, youth advocates and partner organizations alike, could work together to come up with the best solution,” said Nadia Delfin of NYC’s Area Management Unit in Bicol.

During the consultation workshop, all in attendance contributed ideas and proposals in addressing the issues of youth development and guidance. All approaches proposed, including the use of social media and promotional concerts, differed as all in participation are from varied field of expertise, but all are focused in advocating the welfare of the youth.