MARAWI CITY—As part of its commitment to continually strengthen the capacities of its officials and employees, the Bangsamoro Youth Commission (BYC) engaged in a four-day learning exchange with public policy-making experts in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on June 6-9, 2023.

The learning exchange and academic visit involved experiences sharing, lectures, academic visits, and case digests and studies on policy development, politics, and governance.

The International Institute of Public Policy and Management (Institut Antarabangsama Polisi Awam dan Pengurusan or INPUMA) of Universiti Malaya (University of Malaysia) organized the said activity.

BYC Chairperson Marjanie Mimbantas Macasalong said the learning exchange caters to the needs of the workforce of the Commission to acquire competencies that would help in effectively fulfilling its mandate as a youth policy-making institution in the Bangsamoro region.

“This learning exchange aims to provide the workforce of BYC to engage with public policy experts in Malaysia and improve competencies in ensuring participatory, effective, efficient, and progressive sectoral policy development processes,” Macasalong said.

Macasalong further said that gaining competencies from international experts is among their institutional strategies for its continuous institution-building direction.

INPUMA Director Dr. Khadijah Md Khalid said the program aims to guide the participants to a better understanding of the public policy-making process to lay the foundation for the development of sound and effective policies for the youth in Bangsamoro.

Several topics and themes were discussed that included experiences in developing and implementing public policies in Malaysia, principles of evidence-based policy-making, policy advocacy and communication, interrelationships between civil society, youth and policy, hate speech, and disinformation, among others.

BYC is the primary policy-making body of the Bangsamoro Government for the youth. It also functions as a coordinating and monitoring body on youth-related programs of the regional government.

In May this year, BYC went to the National Youth Commission for a similar benchmarking activity to learn their best practices and processes. (BIO/PIA Lanao del Sur)