Filipino youth win World Bank competition

MANILA, Philippines - Three Filipino youth won the World Bank’s 2009 International Essay Competition with their essay, video and photograph entries, besting more than 2,000 submissions from over 150 countries, 90 percent of which come from developing countries.

Victor Marco Emmanuel Ferriols from the University of the Philippines –Visayas won third place with his video “Losing shores, losing more,” and Jernalyn Gayon from the Western Mindanao State University, Zamboanga City won third place for her photograph on how people can sponsor a scholar every month by collecting plastic bottles. Miguel Antonio Garcia from the University of San Carlos, Cebu City was chosen as a finalist in the essay category with his entry, “Stepping Up To The Challenge: The Cebuano Youth in the Climate Change Crisis.”

Eight other essays, videos and a photograph were among the best submitted to the World Bank, making the Philippines the country with the most number of top entries, along with Indonesia.

The other essays that were shortlisted were written by Denise Margaret Matias, Maria Angela Abad, Paul John Gesta, Reah Gonzales, Jan Michael Jose, Vincenzo Molejon, David Michael San Juan and Luthfi Raditya Soekartawi, an Indonesian living in the Philippines.

Ma. Krizia Ledesma was also a finalist with her photo showing children lining up for water with their pails and buckets, as well as Jason Paul Laxamana with his video “Cool Me Up, Please!”

The Essay Competition is an annual, worldwide contest targeting youth aged between 18 to 25 years and managed by the World Bank Office in Paris. This year’s topic was “How does climate change affect you? How do you tackle climate change through youth-led solutions?” This year’s competition was sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the World Bank.

First place went to Sophie Bathhurst of Australia for the essay category, second place went to Cahyadi Widianto of Indonesia for his video “All of MEs” and third place went to Rudolf Bastian Tampubolon of Indonesia for his winning photograph.

The World Bank is focusing on the youth because in 2007, the number of people worldwide aged 12-24 reached 1.3 billion, the largest in history. Nearly half the people of the world today are under 25 years old. Nine out of ten of these young people live in developing countries. More important, the majority of the developing world’s poor are children and youth.

“Youths are key agents of change, but too often the nature and impact of their projects are not recognized or documented sufficiently, and youths face difficulties being heard and engaging more directly in civic life,” a World Bank document on the essay competition said.

The Philippine entries were a valuable indication of how the Filipino youth feel about climate change. Cebu’s Garcia showed that he was not only aware of climate change’s impact on his province, he believes that organized youth can be a corporate watchdog if they know how to measure companies’ emissions and report these to the media.

 “The Youth can serve as an effective force in encouraging people to redo their lifestyles and prod stakeholders to make a concrete plan of action. A well-thought framework, strong research armor and a concerted effort among different youth-led initiatives are key steps to strengthen the youth’s influence in society,” Miguel Antonio Garcia wrote.

Meanwhile, Sen. Manuel Villar lauded the three winners, saying that they are “truly a testament to Filipino talent” and prove that the Filipino youth are aware of social concerns and environment issues such as climate change. “They will do well as future ‘green entrepreneurs’,” he added. – With Christina Mendez, based on materials published by World Bank Philippines at www.worldbank.org.ph.