COTABATO CITY – Twenty eight youth organizations participated in a three-day Project Development Bootcamp on Oct. 16 to 18 that made them acquire new skills, enhance their projects, and receive mentorship from project management experts as part of the Ideation Impact Challenge (IIC).
The youth organizations are qualifiers of the IIC from a list of hundreds of applicants who submitted project proposals for “positive community transformation.”
The project, ‘Ideation Impact Challenge: Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, is a call for proposal for the youth who advocate for community peacebuilding and development in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
BYC Chairperson Marjanie Mimbantas Macasalong said the project – being carried out by his office in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and co-funded by the European Union – invites youth organizations, Sanguniang Kabataan (SK), and local youth development councils to pitch in proposals “to help them become more productive members of the society.”
“You are all here because you have the capacity to come together and create new modes of thinking and bring words into actions to promote peace from perspective of the youth,” Chairperson Macasalong added.
BYC is the primary youth development arm of the BARMM through its creation by the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 10.
Macasalong stressed the BYC works on the premise that the creative and innovative ideas of the youth, if supported and recognized, “will bring about profound changes for the cause of economic recovery,” due to the adverse effects of the current pandemic.
Dr. Selva Ramachandran, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Philippines, said the IIC is opening doors of opportunities for Bangsamoro youth in order to develop their skills in development of a project.
“I certainly see the connection of youth on issues that affect themselves, their families and their communities, the flourishing of innovative ideas and solutions and the energy to put these into action,” Dr. Ramachandran said.
The participants underwent sessions on fostering youth-led entrepreneurship, social innovation, and leadership, identifying best practices from learned Bangsamoro civil society organizations, engaging youth leaders and helping them become more productive citizens, providing learning opportunities to develop or enhance youth projects into more viable ones, working with youth to promote tolerance and critical thinking (C4C), and establishing a network where like-minded advocates can find positive support for their work.
The participants will also undergo Baraguna: Mentors’ Convergence and Sindaw: Project Showcase in November. (BYC Public Relations Section)
