Karen Tuason was one of our inspiring Young Speakers at the Global Landscapes Forum’s youth session in Warsaw 2013.
Ahead of the youth activities at December’s Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) in Peru, which will focus on building youth skills and knowledge to become leaders and effectively contribute to discussions, we catch up with Karen to find out how his career path has changed and his advice for upcoming youth leaders and participants in the 2014 GLF. Register to attend the youth session here.
I recently went to a remote Philippine village which was one of the most affected areas of Typhoon Haiyan. The emergency aid phase has just ended and the landless farm workers there are trying to find alternative means of survival.
I did some research about the opportunities available for farm workers in that village to build alternative livelihoods in order to ensure short and medium-term food security as they set up sustainable foundations for food security. At the moment they depend on seasonal farm wages as they work for the Mayor of that town who owns most of the lands in the village. The farm workers need support in livelihood diversification; otherwise they will keep becoming even more vulnerable as they will be left with no options for survival besides exploitative jobs and multiple high-interest loans.
My research findings suggest that community organizing is relevant not only to achieve cohesiveness and advocating pathways for sustainable livelihoods such as access to land, but also to build alternative livelihoods – in strengthening their capacity for claim-taking from the government as well as for linking with the civil society and the private sector for support services, entrepreneurial capacities, technology and microfinance, among others.
Fortunately, I have successfully been qualified for a master degree and will be graduating in Wageningen (Netherlands) on Wednesday.
Certainly, my participation at last year’s GLF helped me to prepare for this. It made me more confident: despite the struggles that countries like the Philippines face, the international community is there to help. It encourages me even more as a young development worker to carry on.
It made me more conscious to always take a look at where the youth is. In my research especially, I became more reflective to not only look at what there is in the community but also at what is missing. For example, most of the victims of human trafficking after the Typhoon are young women who could not find good income sources in rural villages where landlessness and poverty persist.
When I return to the Philippines next week, I will be working as monitoring officer in a livelihood and disaster-recovery program (with Task Force Mapalad) in the Typhoon-affected villages.
The GLF helped me a lot to get in contact with different stakeholders and to expand my network (that will be very useful in gathering support – in various ways – for the work I will engage in). Of course, I will make sure as well that the youths are at the forefront of this endeavour. In the near future I will look at the possibility of having a specific program focused on youth farmers of these villages.
My message to the 2014 GLF participants would be: maximize the platform to convey the issues of your country’s rural youth to a broader public. The event is one of the best opportunities for networking! Discuss issues with fellow speakers and participants. It is also an excellent learning event where you could exchange best practices and lessons on promoting agriculture among the youth.
This belongs to a blog series profiling youth leadership in landscapes. Tell us your youth story – submit blogs to landscapes.youth@gmail.com
