The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), through its banner youth engagement initiative Young Forces for Agricultural Innovation (#Y4AGRI), led by Partnerships Unit (PU), organized a three-day seminar-workshop titled Winning the Future: Giving Voice to Values (GVV). This exercise in youth leadership, designed for SEARCAns aged 40 and younger, aimed to address the challenges in today's volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world.
Organized under the SEARCArunungan para sa SEARCAbataan, a series of internal dialogues by and for the SEARCA youth staff to enable knowledge exchanges, the program was put together by the Technical Coordinator, Prof. Ma. Nieves Confesor, along with resource speakers Dr. Timothy Ting and Dr. Manuel De Vera, and was conducted on 30–31 July and 9 August 2024 at SEARCA.
The first two days consisted of lecture sessions on leadership in the 21st century, exercises on creating futures wheels and leadership lifelines, and discussions and simulations of cases on values and stakeholder engagement. The last day of the course was dedicated to the staff participants developing their public narratives and presenting them to some members of the SEARCA Management Committee, who provided feedback and insights, contributing to the overall success of the seminar-workshop.
Dr. Glenn Gregorio, SEARCA Center Director, acknowledged the presence of the heads of PU, Risk Management and Quality Assurance Unit, Management Information Systems Unit, Human Resource Management Unit, and General Services Unit, and Ms. Corinta Guerta, Technical Advisor to the Director, and thanked all of them for their insights during the public narrative presentations and, ultimately, for allowing their staff to participate in the seminar-workshop. Joining the youth staff from these units were youth and once-youth staff of the Office of the Director, Office of the Deputy Director for Programs, Education and Collective Learning Department- Training for Development Unit, Emerging Innovation for Growth Department, Applied Knowledge Resources Unit, Budget Unit, Accounting Unit, and Treasury Unit.
To conclude the activity, Dr. Gregorio expressed gratitude to Prof. Confesor, Dr. Ting, and Dr. De Vera for providing a learning opportunity to not only the participating staff but also to the SEARCA officials who attended.
"With your talks, I hope they inspire our youth to dream more and aspire to be like you," he said.
(From left to right): Ms. Sharon Malaiba, Head, PU, and Lead, #Y4AGRI; Dr. Glenn Gregorio, SEARCA Center Director; Prof. Ma. Nieves Confesor; Dr. Timothy Ting; Dr. Manuel De Vera; and Mr. Earwin Belen, AIM fellow
Prof. Confesor is a member of the Adjunct Faculty of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), a former Independent Director of the Philippine Veterans Bank, a consultant to the Education Committee, a faculty member of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), and the Secretary of Labor and Employment during the administration of Philippine Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos. Dr. Ting, on the other hand, is also a member of the AIM Adjunct Faculty, the Program Director of AIM Bridging Leadership and Management for Development Managers, and a former Associate Director of the Provincial Leadership and Governance Program (Zuellig Family Foundation and Department of Health). Meanwhile, Dr. De Vera is a faculty member of AIM, currently serves as the Executive Director of AIM's TeaM Energy Center for Bridging Leadership, and was formerly affiliated with various national government offices.
The SEARCArunungan para sa SEARCAbataan on GVV is one of the many activities lined up by PU for the SEARCA Youth Ambassadors Platform (SAYAP), the Center's internal youth empowerment platform for young SEARCA staff. SAYAP is designed to enhance youth leadership and engagement in SEARCA initiatives in agricultural and rural development.