Manila—On February 17, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) launched new partnerships that will provide free technical-vocational skills and employability training for nearly 4,000 unemployed, out-of-school youth.
USAID Mission Director Ryan Washburn and PBEd Board of Trustees Chairman Ramon del Rosario Jr. formalized the collaboration with seven private sector companies and one university from the Greater Manila Area and Cagayan de Oro. The partnership will contribute more than Php42 million worth of support to co-sponsor the training needs of youth aged 18-30 under the YouthWorks PH project.
“The skills that the out-of-school youth learn will develop them into productive employees or entrepreneurs, community change makers, and leaders who will contribute to helping steer the country’s economic recovery from the impacts of the pandemic,” said Mission Director Washburn. “As the Philippines’ enduring friend, partner, and ally, the United States remains committed to partnering with Philippine stakeholders to sustain and accelerate inclusive growth, especially for the country’s youth.”
“This partnership launch builds on YouthWorks PH’s existing suite of skills training resources in pandemic-resilient industries. Importantly, the partnerships we are forging today will also fill gaps in vital and growing sectors, such as the automotive sector and ICT,” said del Rosario.
YouthWorks PH is USAID’s private sector-driven employability initiative with PBEd and is a technical-vocational training program for youth who are currently not studying, training, or employed. The project provides free skills training, allowances, and mentoring in sectors such as construction, services and hospitality, retail, manufacturing, and logistics. Youth participants are also placed in on-the-job training slots, with the promise of employment with the partner companies once they complete the program and qualify.
The companies that joined the list of YouthWorks PH partners include Asiapro, a recognized provider of customized managed services solutions for different industries, which will provide Php40 million worth of training support to 3,000 youth in the construction industry. Universidad de Manila also signed on to provide skills training and certification programs to the youth.
Other partners include Blogapalooza, Inc., the Philippines’ premier influencer marketing company, which will give 25 youth training slots in marketing and graphic design; Greencars Mindanao Corp. with Crossroads Training Institute, which will offer automotive servicing courses to 50 youth of Cagayan de Oro City; Luljetta’s Place, which will open at least 15 slots in kitchen and front desk services, housekeeping, and administrative positions in the Greater Manila Area; Messy Bessy Cleaners and HOUSE (Helping Ourselves Through Sustainable Enterprises) Foundation with 15 slots in social enterprise work; and Alrose Group of Companies, a franchisee of at least 16 Filipino fast food chains in Cagayan de Oro City and Iligan City which will offer at least 30 in-company training slots.
To date, the USAID-PBEd partnership has already reached nearly 4,000 unemployed and out-of-school youths, and has opened up more than 13,000 training positions in different industries nationwide.

Manila —The United States government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing an additional Php51.1 million ($1 million) in humanitarian assistance to help communities affected by Typhoon Odette, bringing total U.S. support for this response to more than Php1.08 billion ($21.2 million).

With this new assistance, USAID will strengthen its partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to provide additional logistics support to communities hit by Typhoon Odette.

“As friends, partners, and allies, we will continue to support the Philippines in its post-typhoon recovery,” said U.S. Embassy in the Philippines Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Heather Variava. “This additional assistance will help deliver food and other essential items to communities devastated by the typhoon.”

In coordination with the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), USAID and WFP will deploy an additional 300 trucks to transport food and other supplies to typhoon-affected areas. This partnership will also support OCD in delivering relief supplies to remote municipalities and barangays.

Sarah Charles, Assistant to the Administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, announced this additional support at a virtual UN briefing on February 2.

This new funding builds on the U.S. government’s assistance of Php1 billion ($20.2 million) announced in December to provide food; water, sanitation, and hygiene programs; shelter assistance; and logistics support to typhoon-affected communities. As of January 28, USAID and WFP have already provided more than 300 trucks to transport approximately 350,000 household food rations, as well as hygiene kits, kitchen sets, and shelter kits to communities devastated by Typhoon Odette.

USAID works year-round to help communities in the Philippines prepare for and respond to natural disasters. Through existing programs, in response to Typhoon Odette, USAID’s partners have transported relief supplies, helped manage evacuation shelters, deployed mobile operations vehicles to support emergency telecommunications, and provided heavy-duty plastic sheeting to meet the shelter needs of 4,800 families.

The United States will continue to partner with the Philippines to respond to natural disasters and support Filipinos in their recovery efforts. Since 2010, USAID has provided more than Php17.5 billion ($342 million) in disaster relief and recovery aid, and boosted the disaster risk reduction capacity of over 100 cities and municipalities in the Philippines.

USAID Philippines Acting Deputy Mission Director Jeff Goebel joined Acting Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Emmanuel Rey Caintic and representatives from the private sector and civil society to discuss ways to make the internet more accessible for all Filipinos.

“USAID is working toward a future where digital technology promotes inclusive growth, fosters resilient and democratic societies, and empowers all, including the most vulnerable,” said Acting Deputy Mission Director Goebel. “Closing the digital divide requires global cooperation, leadership, and innovation in finance and technology. This is a need that is even more crucial today as we continue to face the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

While the cost of one gigabyte (1GB) of mobile data in the Philippines has become more affordable over the past five years, 1GB mobile broadband remains unaffordable for about 40 percent of the population. Only about half of the country’s population use the internet due to high prices of data services and devices, and limited network coverage in the countryside.

“Our main challenge is the coverage of quality and affordable internet services, especially in remote locations. With wider coverage, Filipinos will be able to access information and participate in rebuilding the Philippine economy,” said DICT Acting Secretary Caintic in his keynote message.

Participants noted that promoting infrastructure sharing, improving national data collection efforts, and encouraging interconnection and peering, among others, could help address these challenges.

Technologies and strategies to maximize bandwidth and optimize energy consumption are key to keeping costs low. Strategic partnerships with government agencies such as the Department of Education and civil society organizations to bring education programs to remote areas can also help bridge the digital divide.

Through its Better Connectivity and Access (BEACON) project, USAID helps improve the Philippines’ ICT and logistics infrastructure; strengthen the regulatory, business, and innovation environment; and bolster cybersecurity. To help bridge the digital divide, USAID also assists the government in automation and digitization efforts, and supports community networks to expand low-cost internet access for underserved communities.

School leaders developed and implemented their projects after attending USAID’s “Instructional Leadership Training: Strengthening Learning Conditions for Early Literacy.” The training focused on developing literacy leaders who can foster conditions for integrating social and emotional learning, gender equity and social inclusion, and developmentally appropriate practices to support quality literacy instruction.

USAID officials, DepEd representatives, educators from DepEd Regions 5 and 6, and other key partners and stakeholders attended the conference where teachers and administrators shared their results.

“As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries and the 60th anniversary of USAID in the Philippines, the U.S. government, through USAID, remains committed to supporting DepEd in its goal to provide children and youth with the necessary skills for their growth and development,” said USAID Philippines Acting Mission Director Sean E. Callahan.

The event featured a virtual poster and video exhibition of project initiatives, a virtual area featuring USAID-supported early grade learning materials, and read-aloud events featuring books in Filipino, English, and mother-tongue languages developed with USAID support. The conference also included discussions on literacy leadership, home partners’ literacy programs, school climate, and gender equality and social inclusion.

“The initiatives of the USAID Advancing Basic Education (ABC+) project on early grade reading proficiency and on knowledge-sharing for capacity building provides significant contributions to DepEd’s directive on decisively addressing the challenge of quality on basic education,” said DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno A. Malaluan. “I look forward to the documentation of the presentations and the proceedings of this learning conference to be a readily available reference material for a range of good practices in early grade literacy in basic education.”

Since 2019, USAID, through its ABC+ project, has trained more than 10,000 teachers, school heads, supervisors, and principals, and provided 9 million early grade learning materials.

For the past 60 years, USAID has worked with the Philippine government and local organizations to achieve shared development goals, investing more than Php247.5 billion ($5.1 billion) to support the Philippines.

Created as part of USAID’s Fish Right project, Fish Tiangge is an online marketplace that can connect 6,000 fisherfolks with buyers from more than 300,000 households in three of the Philippines’ most important areas for marine biodiversity: South Negros and Visayan Sea in the Visayas region, and the Calamianes Group of Islands in Palawan.  

First launched by Silliman University in Dumaguete City in early April, the publicly-accessible platform enables buyers to purchase fish directly from sellers, and dedicated pedicab drivers deliver orders.  Silliman University monitors Fish Tiangge to ensure that no prohibited fish products are sold and that fish are sourced from fishers registered in their localities.

“By connecting fishers and consumers online, the U.S. government is helping to protect fisherfolk income and prevent a food crisis, while ensuring that conservation measures are not compromised in areas that are hard-hit by COVID-19,” said U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim.  “We will continue to work with local partners to help Filipinos manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic while protecting the Philippines’ marine environment.”

Fish Tiangge supports ongoing Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) efforts to connect fishers with markets and consumers in an efficient, cost-effective manner.  Thanks to USAID’s partnership with BFAR’s Kadiwa market system, these mobile fish markets are the start of a new, nationwide online supply chain of safe, legally-sourced seafood. 

“We want to help our fishers keep their markets open and viable in the face of mobility restrictions under the COVID-19 emergency,” Silliman University president Ben Malayang III said.  “Enabling fisherfolk to secure their incomes in times of severe stresses is crucial to both their long-term well-being and their support for compliant, sustainable fisheries.”

USAID’s Fish Right program is a five-year partnership between the U.S. and Philippine governments to address biodiversity threats, improve marine ecosystem governance, and increase fish biomass in South Negros, the Calamianes Island Group, and Visayan Sea.  The increase in biomass will benefit more than two million people living in these fishing communities. 

The Fish Right program is being implemented by the University of Rhode Island, in partnership with local universities and non-government organizations. (USEmbassyPh)

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The U.S. government has approved an additional Php269 million ($5.3 million) in health and humanitarian assistance to help support the Philippines in the fight against COVID-19, bringing total U.S. assistance to the Philippines to more than Php470 million ($9.3 million).

This newest tranche of U.S. assistance will support laboratory and specimen-transport systems and intensify case-finding and disease surveillance. The funding also will assist Filipino and international technical experts in risk communication, infection prevention and control efforts, handwashing and hygiene promotion, and community-level preparedness and response.

The U.S. government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is collaborating with the Philippine government to implement internationally-recognized prevention, control, and response strategies to protect against infectious diseases.

Previously, the United States announced Php203 million ($4 million) in health funding to support the Philippine government’s efforts to prepare laboratory systems to combat the virus, as well as a donation of 1,300 cots to Philippine medical facilities.

Thus far, U.S. assistance has:

· Boosted Testing Capacity: U.S.-supported efforts to augment the Philippines Department of Health (DOH)’s testing capacity by upgrading laboratories, provide laboratory supplies, and strengthen specimen transport systems have contributed to an increase in the country’s testing capacity from 200 to approximately 3,000 tests per day.

· Intensified Infection Control: USAID’s online learning modules are boosting capacities in more than 100 hospitals across the country with the most up-to-date COVID-19 infection prevention and control information and skills. This assistance also helps individuals, families, and frontline community and hospital heath care workers to protect themselves from infection.

· Enhanced Risk Preparedness and Crisis Communications: USAID is supporting DOH communications platforms, including the Healthy Pilipinas Facebook page for accurate COVID-19 information. USAID is also supporting the DOH to rapidly translate and communicate the latest COVID-19 guidelines and policies for improved implementation of COVID-19 response.

· Strengthened Supply Chain Management: USAID assisted the DOH to develop and launch a nationwide commodity and logistics tracking tool that offers real-time data on stores of life-saving COVID-19 commodities, in turn improving the availability and appropriate management and delivery to the areas of greatest need.

· Expanded WASH Access and Data Collection: USAID is expanding community access to water, sanitation, hygiene services, and commodities to prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. Funding also aids Filipino and international technical experts in data collection to enhance COVID-19 response and preparedness, including support for two surveillance experts who are assisting the DOH Epidemiology Bureau with Analysis and reporting of COVID-19 cases.

The United States has invested more than $4.5 billion in total assistance to the Philippines over the past 20 years, including $582 million to support the public health system. USEmbassyManila)