UN MDG Conference for Youth Leaders of Leyte and Samar

By DON ELISEO LUCERO-PRISNO III
September 20, 2008

A youth leadership conference was held at the LNU House in Tacloban City on 11 September 2008 to discuss the United Nations Millennium Development Goals before youth leaders of Leyte and Samar.  The conference with the theme New Dimensions of Youth Leadership: An International Youth Conference on Innovative Paradigms in Development-Oriented Leadership was spearheaded by the Balud Project through its leadership program, Building Alliances and Leaders through Understanding and Development (BALUD), in cooperation with Imperial BlueCube and the Leyte Normal University.  The aims of the conference were to introduce the UN MDGs and share new learnings of managing youth and youth-oriented organizations from international perspectives before youth leaders of Region VIII who normally have no opportunities to attend similar conferences in the capital or abroad.  The participants were young leaders from colleges and universities, community-based groups and professional organizations.

The conference presented a string of award-winning speakers lead by Dr Don Eliseo Lucero-Prisno III of Cardiff University who is the 2008 British Council Shine International Student Awardee and 2005 World Science Forum Winner.  He provided the introduction to the conference with his lecture on Millennium Development Goals and the need for youth organizations to help in fastracking the achievement of the MDGs.

Rutchelle Enriquez, 2001 Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines (TOSP) and a delegate to the Asia Pacific Leadership Program of East West in Hawaii inspired the audience with her talk on how young leaders should start from small beginnings.  Two ECE students from De La Salle University, Jayson Reggie Obos (Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Grand Award Winner and Bryan Asis (Most Outstanding Student of De La Salle University) gave presentations on the role of the youth in climate change and new learnings in management for project success, respectively.

Some of the sessions focused on financing.  The international speakers from Imperial College London were Neha Obhrai (UK) who discussed social development and finance while Ambarish Dash (India) and Steven Chambers (UK, Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Grand Award Winner) talked on venture philanthropy.  Other Imperial student speakers, Emma Thompson (UK/USA), Adam Aziz (UK/Libya) and Kristina Östman (Sweden), were joined by Lisa Carter (UK) from University College London in a panel discussion on the challenges of young leaders in the context of globalization and other social innovations.

A special development lecture was delivered by Dr. Evelyn Cruzada, a member of the UNESCO Technical Working Group on Lifelong Learning Program for Sustainable Development and President of the Leyte Normal University.  She gave a talk entitled, Addressing the MDG Challenge of Universal Primary Education: The Role of the Academe.  She emphasized in her presentation the need for more concerted efforts in achieving this MDG.

The conference also provided a unique and tangible example of how youth organizations can move MDGs through partnerships.  This was through the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between the Balud Project, Imperial BlueCube, Leyte Normal University for the benefit of the Balud Elementary School in Basey, Samar, Philippines.  The University will provide assistance in the areas of teacher training and curriculum development being a Center of Excellence of Teacher Education while the two organizations will finance the scheme.  The signing was witnessed by the pupils of the Balud Elementary School themselves.

Challenging real Philippine social cases were provided to the youth participants of the conference where they discussed possible projects to address these social ills.  The case studies were on promotion of human rights specially of the LGBT group, tackling rampant vote-buying during elections and pre-marital sex in the context of teenage pregnancy and population growth.  Their presentations were evaluated by panellists composed of the conference speakers.  The eventual outcome of the gathering is a continuous dialogue and interaction between international and local youth leaders to advance projects and programs that will benefit their local communities in the context of the achievement of the UN MDGs.  The Balud Project and Imperial BlueCube promised to fund sound project proposals that will come out from the future plans of the participants present.

The conference also provided opportunities for social networking as they were entertained by the University of the Philippines An Balangaw and dances presented by the Balud Elementary School Dance Group.  The Balud Organization of UP Tacloban composed the organizing committee of the conference headed by its President Julie Jean Abude.  More information on the conference are available on www.baludproject.org.