UP graduate students tops int’l dev contest

Lorenzo Benitez

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UP graduate students tops int’l dev contest
A team of 3 students from UP Diliman bested 44 other finalists to win the Geneva Challenge in Switzerland

MANILA, Philippines – A team of 3 graduate students from the University of the Philippines-Diliman won an international competition on development policy in Switzerland last week.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, high patron of the contest, commended the winning team of Frances Cruz, Janina Tan, and Yvan Yonaha for their work.

The Advancing Development Goals International Contest for Graduate Students, more commonly known as the Geneva Challenge, is hosted each year by the Graduate School of International and Development Studies. Of the 45 finalists were students from leading global universities, including the London School of Economics and Columbia University.

In line with the competition’s annual theme of return migration, the team from UP developed a policy focused on harnessing mobile technology to assist migrants returning to the Philippines.

The Integrated Return Migrant Application is a mobile app that provides centralized information to returning migrants on services available to them by the public and private sector. 

Such services cover everything from programs to boost financial literacy, to psychological counselling. The app also could also allow the government better collect data on the needs of returning OFWs. 

The trio emphasized the untapped potential of 21st Century technology as a source of empowerment for returning migrants. Their policy proposal ultimately exemplifies the innovative ideas to be found among many of the nation’s youth. – Rappler.com

Lorenzo Benitez is a Rappler intern. He is an incoming Cornell University student.

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