Spain has approved a USD 6 million joint programme of IOM, the
International Labour Organization (ILO),  UN Children's Fund
(UNICEF) and UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to improve access to decent
work for young people through better policies and programmes
addressing youth employment and migration.

"This project will provide timely support to the government's
efforts to mitigate the impact of the global recession – the
return of growing numbers of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and
the decline in remittances," says IOM Regional Programme Officer
Ida Mae Fernandez.

The three-year project will begin in the first half of 2009 and
will be rolled out in four provinces – Agusan del Sur,
Antique, Masbate and Maguindanao – all of which are
characterized by high levels of poverty, migration pressures and
large young populations.

IOM's role in the programme will be to contribute to the
capacity of the National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO)
through establishing four one-stop-shop resource centers attached
to local Department of Labor and Employment offices – one in
each of the target provinces.

The centres will bring the services of the NRCO, launched in
Manila in 2007, to a local level. They will serve as a central
repository for youth, employment and migration-specific resources
and services and will cater to the needs of young migrants and
their families.

Government partners in the programme will include the Department
of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Department of Education
(DepEd), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority
(TESDA), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the National
Youth Commission (NYC) and the National Commission on the Role of
Filipino Women (NCRFW).

For more information please contact:

Joanna Dabao

IOM Manila

Tel. +63.2.8481260

E-mail: "mailto:jdabao@iom.int">jdabao@iom.int