THE ORO YOUTH AND DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL: Social innovation for youth empowerment

THE ORO YOUTH AND 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.  

They are elected through the Oro Youth Leaders Assembly composed of leaders from different accredited organizations and sectors of the city. 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 representatives. In sum, The leadership body is composed of 47 individuals.

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 OutreachCluster 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-electOscar Moreno last June 22, 2013 in Xavier University during the Youth andInternally 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 by the Community Improvement Division - Oro Youth Center, The City Social Welfare and Development Office, The HumanResource Management Office, The National Youth Commission and the Kagayanon forGood 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 YouthCouncil 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.