YO 3: Mindanao Governance for the Youth 2018
Kasfala Hall, Capitol Grounds, Sarangani Province
Project
Description:
The project aims to provide a venue to gather
Moro and Indigenous Peoples (IP) youth representatives all over Mindanao to
interface and discuss cultural development, environmental issues, leadership
and good governance.
The project is a three-day (3 Days) event to be
participated by 60-80 Moro and IP youth representatives (30-40 young men and
30-40 young women ages 18-30 years old in Mindanao.
Project
Rationale:
‘Governance’ refers to the processes through
which a state exercises power and the relationships between the state and
citizens. The state has the responsibility to perform a core set of duties that
allow society to function and exist. In doing so, it forges a relationship with
its citizens.
‘Participatory governance’ is one of many
strategies of governance and refers to the processes and deliberations that
citizens are engaged in when discussing the distribution of public resources
and broader decision-making.
‘Accountability’ is the assumption of
responsibility for actions by decision-makers, the engagement by civil society
in holding these decision-makers to account for their actions, and
decision-makers’ responsibility to respond constructively to those holding them
to account. Young people, as citizens, have a relationship with the state and
as such are entitled to hold the state – and its decision-makers – accountable
for their duties and performance.
They should be included in decision-making
processes, particularly on issues that affect their lives directly (e.g. the
need to invest in quality education), as well as on broader issues that affect
their communities (e.g. fighting corruption or ill-use of state resources,
which has a bearing on all aspects of public life and service delivery).
While other power-holders and decisionmakers
are also critical for promoting accountability, this report will focus on the
relationship between young people and the state.
Young people’s participation refers to the way
in which they voice their views and concerns, exercise their rights, and engage
in dialogue with and influence decision-makers – that is, the way they engage
as active citizens.
As articulated above, this involvement has
intrinsic value in terms of respecting young people’s right to participate in
decisions that affect them. But it also has instrumental value in the sense of
the knowledge and credibility that young people bring to governance dialogues
and their development as active citizens, today, and as participative adults
later in life.