UP grad students top int’l development contest
A group of graduate students from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, clinched the first prize in the Advancing Development Goals International Contest for Graduate Students last Oct. 12. The international competition, known as the Geneva Challenge, is hosted yearly by the Graduate School of International and Development Studies (L’Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement) in Switzerland.
In line with this year’s theme of return migration, team members Frances Cruz, Janina Tan and Yvan Yonaha developed a policy proposal focusing on the use of mobile technology to assist return migrants to the Philippines.
The Integrated Return Migrant Application is a centralized, mobile-based application that provides information on services and programs offered by both the public and private sector to return migrants, such as entrepreneurial seminars, financial literacy training, educational programs and psychological counselling.
The team emphasized the necessity of using various technologies to inform return migrants about their options in their home country. The mobile application could also help government achieve a better understanding of the needs of returning OFWs through statistics collected by the application on return migrants, their regions, and the programs they enrol in, as well as help link and organize programs that are offered by different agencies.
The group’s proposal bested 45 entries, including finalists from the London School of Economics and Columbia University. All finalists were awarded a certificate and cash prizes by the high patron of the contest, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The team is currently looking for interested parties and collaborators who can contribute to the success of the project. They may be contacted at irma.ofw@gmail.com. For updates on the project, please visit facebook.com/irma.ofw.