Key officials from the Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSC) visited the Islamic City of Marawi in the Province of Lanao del Sur, Philippines, to complete the fieldwork and monitoring mission as required by the Future Movers Project (FMP). The visit was held from May 4-6, 2022.

The delegation included the CPSC Director General, Prof. G.L.D Wickramasinghe, the Projects and Consultancy Officer, Ms. Arlene Cruz and the Research Officer, Mr. Rae Emmanuel Echaveria. Also joining the team is the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and the Assistant Professor in the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), Ms. Emely Amoloza.

The visit commenced with a tour of the eight (8) Technical and Vocational institutes (TVIs) that took part in the Future Movers Project. The team personally inspected all the participant institutes and interviewed their school heads/ managers. Afterwards, the team conducted interviews with the trainers and trainees to document the impact of the Future Movers’ Project in achieving employability and empowerment in Marawi City.

The team conducted focus-group discussions with the stakeholders to know their sentiments about the project, as well as the challenges they faced during the implementation. They were also able to meet the Provincial Director of TESDA-Lanao del Sur, Ms. Aleida Nameera P. Mangata. She was able to provide background information regarding the situation of employability and skills training in the city.

The team was able to complete the three-day mission and was able to document the impact of the project to the local communities. They were also able to personally observe the effects of the conflict on the socio-economic landscape of Marawi.

In addition to the aforementioned activities, a visit to two TVET institutions was also held in Marawi coinciding with the FMP M&E activities. The visit to these institutions was conducted to initially check potential TVIs to be part of the next CPSC-ASSIST emPower Project crafted with a similar objective: contributing to the socio-economic development of Marawi City and in the Philippines by empowering the internally-displaced persons (IDP) and underprivileged youth to become highly-skilled and employable technicians.

Launched in February 2020, the Future Movers Project involved the cooperation of several sectors in order to achieve the proposed impact of “up-skilling” and “right-skilling” of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and youths by honing their capability to be employed while adopting a “modular approach to learning” with the aim of replicating the lessons in the future. CPSC, as a part of a consortium composed of Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST), German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GPCCI) and TÜV Rheinland Philippines Inc., implemented the project with the aim of significantly contributing in rebuilding Marawi City- a predominantly Muslim City located in Northern Mindanao, Philippines which was caught in the middle of an armed conflict in 2017.

Prof. G.L.D Wickramasinghe (standing) giving a brief speech to the TVI heads during the focus group discussion

The CPSC Team with the TVI heads at the “ground zero”of Marawi City.

The CPSc Monitoring Team, Ms. Emely Amoloza (left) and Mr. Rae Echaveria (right) interviewing a participant of the FMP Project