Safety and health at work

Training-Workshop on the Promotion of OSH Advocacy among Youth Organizations

The ILO SafeYouth@Work brought youth champions to strengthen their capacity to advocate and to implement OSH. The training is linked with the Philippine government’s vision of one million advocates for OSH.

As a follow-through step in developing Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) awareness among selected Filipino youth organizations as potential OSH champions among the youth, the ILO SafeYouth@Work Project gathered the organization heads and advocacy or communication officers of nine youth organizations with geographical presence in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao in the “Training-Workshop on the Promotion of OSH Advocacy among Youth Organizations”.

The training-workshop highlighted the value of improving the capacities of the youth themselves to formulate feasible and concrete advocacy plans on OSH, with the aim of sharpening the organizations’ knowledge of basic OSH concepts and strengthening capacity to implement OSH advocacy activities within their respective organizations, networks and communities.

Experts from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), particularly the Bureau of Working Conditions, Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns, and the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC), joined panelists on the first day discussing issues and challenges on OSH faced by young workers. They were joined by representatives from a BPO workers’ group and agricultural workers’ union. Visits to designated work sites forming part of the activity gave the participants the opportunity to witness first-hand OSH challenges in the construction and services sector.

The second day of the training introduced the participants to different tools for effective advocacy that target the youth. The participants also underwent sessions on case analysis and strategic thinking as a way of guiding them on which issue areas should be focused on for advocacy work. Meanwhile, the sessions on effective message development using multi-media and tools on measuring advocacy and policy change as presented by resource persons with expertise in youth-led advocacy provided the participants sufficient guidance in deciding on strategies for youth-focused OSH advocacy. Using the learning from these sessions, each youth organization also formulated their organizational OSH advocacy plans which sought to address a specific OSH issue in their organization, schools or communities.

Mr German Eser, representing Executive Director Noel Binag of the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) delivered the closing message for the training activity and shared how the advocacy plans of the youth organizations are closely linked to the OSHC’s ongoing campaign on “Vision 1 Million OSH Advocates.”

Funded by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL), the SafeYouth@Work Project works at the national OSH system level to achieve its overall objective – to improve the working conditions of workers aged 15-24 years and develop a culture of prevention. One of the aims of the project is to improve the capacities of tripartite constituents, including young workers, to promote and enforce compliance of OSH laws and regulations, particularly regarding young workers.



Funding is provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL-26690-14-75-K-11.

This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government. One hundred percentage of the total costs of the project or programme is financed with Federal funds, for a total of 11,443,156 dollars.