OBYA CONDUCTS PROVINCIAL YOUTH SUMMIT

OBYA Executive Director Salic Sharief, Jr.

COTABATO CITY --- The Office on the Bangsamoro Youth Affairs (OBYA) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has conducted recently series of youth summit to the component provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Sulu.

OBYA Executive Director Salic Sharief, Jr. said they stage these events so the youth sector could have a venue to air out their issues and concerns. He added the only province left was Tawi-Tawi but the conduct of the summit has been scheduled.

“This November, we have been doing proper profiling of our youth organizations, youth volunteers, out of school youths, special youth groups such as drug dependents, arrested, persons with disabilities, extremists and those who have surrendered to authorities,” said Sharief.

Sharief said they are very aggressive in terms of profiling so that in the years to come, they would be able to match programs appropriate on the needs of the youth.

Furthermore, Sharief said they have been conducting series of focus group discussions (FGD) to deeply interact with the “emerging leaders of this generation”.

“We are having at last three to four rounds of FGD to communities so that during the provincial summit, the issue were already clarified and easily consolidated. We invite youth from other provinces as we go from one province to another. That way, they interact and better understand each other through communication,” said Sharief.

Sharief shared few sentiments of the youths in some rounds of the summit where previously, some said “they won’t listen to us, they only use us, and the concerned agencies don’t actually help us”, he said.

“The purpose of this summit is to have a venue to consolidate their concerns, identify their strengths, challenges, and suggest programs they think would suit them.” He added.

Sharief said OBYA is planning to conduct a “regional youth summit” this December in close coordination with the Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA) ARMM.

“Our intention is not to do a standalone program because we recognize the need to coordinate with other concerned agencies, and RLA has already started this endeavour in the past.
We are more than happy that they are willing to facilitate the upcoming regional youth summit,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sharief added that out of the regional summit, they are on track in formulating a “bangsamoro youth development and peace building plan” for the years 2017-2022.

“This would serve as our guide to all the programs we are going to implement in the coming years. We are certainly having a clear direction and rest assured we are going to highlight progressive programs for the youth. There must be sense of ownership for them during the formulation of the plan,” he said. (GILMHAR A. LAO – MINDANAO EXPOSE’)