NYC and UNISCAP partner for youth policy toolbox: winds up national workshop

The National Youth Commission (NYC) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) partnered in the implementation of the Youth Policy Toolbox project that aims to make youth development policies and best practices become more accessible to youth and policymakers.

“We are very lucky that the Philippines, through the NYC is one of the countries in South-East Asia that was included in the pilot testing and application of the toolbox,” says Undersecretary Aiza Seguerra, NYC Chairperson.

The Youth Policy Toolbox project seeks to maximize the utilization of information communication technology in reaching out to the policymakers and youth leaders/organizations.

All relevant information on youth organizations’ profiles, activities, best practices and youth policies that may be replicated by other countries are made available in a website and may be accessed instantaneously.

In the recent national workshop on the application and testing of the Youth Policy Toolbox, there were about 20 participants from the Philippines representing various regions and youth organizations, as well as representatives from local government units.

The idea of the Toolbox is to make information very handy to individuals who need it most. Policymakers will find it easier to draft ordinances at the local level and bills at the national level by just clicking the icon in the Youth Policy Toolbox that will open links to the required data.

“We have finished consultations in Mongolia and Sri Lanka and we will soon consolidate all inputs to make the Toolbox more user friendly. The challenge to ensure the success of the project remains at the level of internet connectivity that, hopefully will be addressed by concerned telecommunications institutions,” says Marco Roncarati, Social Affairs Officer, UNESCAPs.

In his message to the participants of the national workshop held recently at the Heritage Hotel in Pasay City, NYC Chair Seguerra encouraged the participants to ensure that whatever learnings they gathered from the workshop should be cascaded to other youth leaders and policymakers.

For his part, UNESCAP’s Marco Roncarati expressed his gratitude for the creative inputs shared by the participants as he promised that these will be considered in redesigning the Youth Policy Toolbox web page.