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I never thought a roundtrip ticket abroad could only cost P1 and a test of honesty.

“Mark, how old are you? Please do not lie.” I received this text message from World Bank (WB) Manila. It confused me. I did not know if it was an implicit question on my natural ability to tell the truth or a subtle insinuation that I looked way older than what I had claimed. Nevertheless, I replied: “26”.

Three weeks after, I found myself in mid-air for 18 hours total, on my way to the capital of the US of A where the seat of power awaits the messianic embrace of Barack Obama.

I was among 18 youth leaders and advocates from around the world privileged to have been invited to the World Bank-International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings held October 7-13, 2008 in Washington DC.

The meetings annually gather close to 10,000 individuals representing various sectors: government, business and private sector, civil society, and media.

The youth sector was the freshest addition, and I was the lone Filipino in the group and had the opportunity to be one of three youth panelists on “Young People Exercising Citizenship.” The other panelists were Onyeka Obasi, President of the Friends of Africa Foundation, and Renata Florentino of the International Youth Parliament, Brazil.

Being in Washington was a humbling experience. I cannot claim that I have made a great impact on the lives of the Filipino youth. There is still a long way to go.

I am certain, however, that there are other Filipino youth advocates and leaders out there more deserving of the slot but whose great works remain unnoticed and unappreciated.

It was largely because of the WB-funded project, “Operationalizing and Popularizing the WDR: Exercising Citizenship in Monitoring Transparency in Local Government Procurement,” that I am handling as project leader on behalf of Silliman University that I was invited to attend. This project ranked first in the world out of eight grantees, and targets two youth classifications as beneficiaries: in-school and out-of-school. For this project, I worked with a Silliman team composed of Dr. Rose Baseleres, Dean of the College of Mass Communication, Stacy Danika Alcantara, Student Government president, and College of Law professor Myrish Cadapan-Antonio.

The special session with the youth reinforced the role that the youth play as future leaders of the world. With 1.5 billion young people between the ages 12 and 24 in the world, WB believes that “the youth represent a tremendous opportunity to accelerate economic growth and reduce poverty worldwide.”

Oftentimes, the youth are neglected in the decision making processes of government. There is little attempt to listen to them and integrate their opinions into the overall action plan of government. There is a need for government leaders, those who belong to the so-called “wiser generation,” to engage the youth in development discourse – not only during election time. It seemed apparent during our discussions that youth issues do not represent priority interests of government.

Common among developing countries is a scenario where the youth suffer from lack of quality education, aggravated by insufficiency of qualified teachers, books, and equipment. We talk of harnessing the potentials of the youth, facilitating smooth transition from school to work, but those youth who are victims of poverty often have to be content with what could be leftovers of a system way left behind. No wonder there is a high dropout rate. While there is no question on the transformative value of education, the failure of available resources to support the promise of education dampens the youth’s interest and leads them to find greater value in the temporary benefits of leaving school in favor of low-paying jobs.

Admittedly, however, to put the blame solely on government is not always fair. Family problems, peer pressure, and vices also come as reasons for the youth’s inability to finish school. Some of our youth project participants revealed that their addiction to drugs and vices and their engagement in pre-marital sex were their only ways of getting attention from their parents.

The greater challenge is to elevate the self-worth of the youth who are victims of poverty and other social circumstances beyond their control. This is a challenge that government should take up. While basketball games, beauty contests, and singing and dance competitions sponsored by local government units please the senses, these activities could also come as an insult to the potential contributions of the youth toward social development and to their ability to be equal players in governmental affairs, unless utilized as tools for dialogue. When we fail to consider them as partners, we deprive the youth of the opportunity to realize their potentials and test how much of a leader they can become. The youth will not be convinced of their ability to make a difference, and will be hard to mobilize, until we make them realize that they have value.

It is just like a bulad (dried fish) to a family. When a poor family fails to appreciate its value, that family can never help someone who is hungry, as it will continue to find humiliation over the thought of sharing something that it even could not convince itself to be sustaining.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.