THE ORO YOUTH DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Social innovation for youth empowerment
Public
governance is a shared responsibility. It is not only the work of people in
office but also a shared duty of all citizens – the young or the young at
heart. Bringing the best out of our community is everyone’s personal business.
The
Oro Youth Council is a citizen-led and agenda-based body composed of
representatives from 6 youth sectors namely the in school youth, out of school
youth, youth with special needs, faith based youth, youth movements and Moro
and IP youth. 17 youth councilors compose the governing body with 3
representatives per sector with the exception of the Moro and IP youth which
has two representatives. Each sector also has its own sectoral council composed
of one secretary general and four organizational representative. In sum, The
leadership body is composed of 47 individuals. They are elected through the Oro
Youth Leaders Assembly composed of leaders from different accredited
organizations and sectors of the city.
This convergence with the theme: “Nagkahiusang
kagayanong kabatan-onan alang sa matinud-anon ug hapsay nga pangagamhanan” is a product of a commitment born among
youth groups to engage good governance not only in the streets and in the communities
but also to the very seat of local power itself.
This is in response against the pervasive
culture of corruption from both public and private sector and inspired by the
general aspiration of concerned Kagayanons to put an end to pervasive corruption
and years of mismanagement.
With the local elections looming, a
coalition of concerned citizens crafted a people’s agenda, which highlighted
the importance of youth engagement in governance. This was also one of the
concerns surfaced in the survey conducted by the Research and Social Outreach
Cluster of Xavier University in preparation for its local governance engagement.
The coalition named Kagayanon for Good Governance committed to organize a
parallel people’s campaign to who ever would adopt such agenda. With 3 mayoral
candidates, it was the Moreno team who enthusiastically and fittingly
subscribed to the agenda and the trans-partisan peoples’ campaign
commenced. After a hard-fought campaign,
the election of a new mayor after 15 years brought a sense of hope and openness.
Proceeding from this new open space for
civic engagement, a series of focused group discussions were then conducted
facilitated by the Kagayanon for Good Governance Youth and the Kristohanong
Katilingban sa Pagpakabana Social Involvement Office of Xavier University to further
hone a general youth agenda, which now included the creation of a concrete
and independent plan to engage the youth in governance regardless of political
color.
This was then presented to mayor-elect
Oscar Moreno last June 22, 2013 in Xavier University during the Youth and
Internally Displaced Persons Forum. The mayor committed to the realization of
the idea through the manifesto he signed together with the different youth
leaders of the city. The Kagayanon for Good Governance Youth also reiterated
this proposal during the City Hall strategic planning seminar in Marco Hotel
last October of 2013. After the strategic planning, the
preparatory committee was then created which was composed of the Community
Improvement Division – Oro Youth Center, The City Social Welfare and Development
Office, The Human Resource Management Office, The National Youth Commission and
the Kagayanon for Good Governance Youth to organize the convergence.
Now, this is the initiatory convergence
to concretize the commitment made.
Its primary purpose is to
articulate a city youth development agenda, which shall serve as the common
denominator and rallying point of the different youth organizations. It is then
through the Oro Youth Council that the multitude of youth initiatives scattered
around the city be streamlined and anchored in the said development agenda. It
would articulate success indicators that guide youth organizations in their
effort. It also lays out a collaboration strategy that brings private and
public entities to work together in common community and policy advocacies. It
also outlines capacity building programs that enable organizations to
effectively engage government and capacitate their own organization.
More
importantly, the Oro Youth Council members also sit in the different local
committees such as the Local School Board among others where they can directly
collaborate with government in the implementation of the programs in line with
the agenda and stand to monitor and account such implementation.
In
the long term, the youth council hopes to build a culture of political maturity
among the youth. A culture that is characterized by an empowered and
politically educated youth that discusses social issues on or off-line and
implement creative solutions in their spheres regularly; a youth that does not
blame nor disengage but owns the process of building our nation starting with
our locality and our spheres of influences.
The
health and quality of our public institutions is the primary enabler of
inclusive development. However, institutions decay when the citizenry is
apathetic, cynical or disengaged. So it is the realization of the Oro Youth
Council that improving our public institutions requires the active and critical
participation of the citizens and the young in particular. It is through this
body, which we hope to contribute concretely to the cause of good governance.
Change
starts in us as the saying goes. But change should be translated to systems in
order to prosper and last. The youth of Cagayan de Oro, realizing its sake in
the future and the capacity and power it holds, commits to building a city and
a system that could help enable a more progressive, just, humane and equitable
society and a government that is more transparent, accountable and
participatory in all of its affairs. We hope that the Cagayan de Oro
operational model becomes an inspiration to the whole nation that even in the
absence of the Sangguniang Kabataan, we can still socially innovate in order to
harness youth energy towards engaged citizenship.
