JICA invites young Filipinos to community dev’t training in Japan

This is a press release.

MANILA, Philippines – The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has opened its training program on community development to young Filipino professionals in a move to encourage more young people to participate in nation building.

The training course Community Development through Collaboration among local government, non-government organizations, and community-based organizations is part of JICA’s Knowledge Co-Creation Program (KCCP) Young Leaders that aims to promote goodwill and knowledge sharing with developing countries by learning from one another.

“Japan’s economic success did not happen overnight. We also learned from other countries throughout our industrialization history. With this program, we’d like to share our successes and failures so recipients of the training courses will find useful experiences that they can apply to their respective fields and organizations,” said Aya Kano, JICA Senior Representative.

The training course will run from January 8 to 24, 2019 and applications are open until October 31, 2018.

The training is open to young Filipino professionals engaged in community development and promotion.

Participants will visit agricultural cooperatives in Japan and learn their rural development history from different organizations. They will also visit Aichi Prefecture and study their irrigation and infrastructure projects. Aichi Prefecture is a manufacturing hub in Japan and is known for its various industrial sites from traditional ceramics and textiles to cutting edge ones such as automobiles and aerospace.

Under the course, participants will learn best practices for civic cooperation, local development, and marketing and branding of agriculture products.

“Having committed to using the learnings in the KCCP Young Leaders course as a reference in the performance of my responsibilities at work, the knowledge I gained in the course is very useful. Overall, I would say that I became more confident in the performance of my responsibilities after my training in Japan,” said ex-trainee, Kareen Suarez of the National Economic and Development Authority.

JICA added that the KCCP Young Leaders is an opportunity for young people to build their capacity in their respective development field and contribute to the Philippines’ poverty alleviation efforts.

A study of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that about 60% of the country’s workforce is young with an age range of 15-34 years old. This means they have strong potential that can be tapped to affect development.

JICA’s Young Leaders training program has benefited about 3,000 young Filipinos as of 2017.

Details about the program are available here. – Rappler.com