Interview: Dr Piti Srisangnam on the role of the EYAA in Asean Youth Development

Business News speaks to Dr. Piti Srisangnam, Executive Director, ASEAN Foundation on the role of the eMpowering Youths Across ASEAN programme.

The EYAA, in alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goals and ASEAN initiatives, aims to nurture future change-makers in ASEAN, focusing on arts, culture, and environmental diversity.

This program provides a platform for ASEAN youth to engage in volunteerism and drive positive change. It equips participants with skills like communication, project management, and impact measurement. The in-person Regional Capacity Building Workshop in Bangkok facilitates collaboration among youth volunteers and civil society organizations from diverse backgrounds.

The EYAA and Asean

Examples of projects within EYAA Cohort 3 demonstrate its impact on community resilience. For instance, the “Future of Work” project in Malaysia imparts digital skills to underprivileged youth. The “Danger to Dear (D2D)” project in Malaysia addresses water hyacinth issues in Kinta Nature Park. These initiatives strengthen economic and social development in ASEAN, promoting skills development, resourceful environments, and media for social inclusion.

EYAA’s collaborations with civil society organizations, local governments, and ASEAN stakeholders enhance project sustainability. These projects align with global SDGs, contributing to quality education, climate action, reduced inequality, and clean water and sanitation.

EYAA’s enduring effects lie in empowering ASEAN youth to lead sustainable development, becoming future leaders in sectors that tackle poverty and enhance prosperity in the region.

Here are the some of the questions and answers:

Can you provide examples of challenges addressed by the EYAA program’s sustainable initiatives in Malaysia and the innovative strategies employed to enhance community resilience?

One example of the EYAA project successfully addressing community challenges is the Danger to Dear (D2D) project, which was initiated by SEAD BUILD SDN BHD with youth volunteers from across ASEAN. 

The issue started at Kinta Nature Park, home to one of the largest heron sanctuaries in Malaysia, which has a very high presence of water hyacinth. Agriculture is the major economic generator in this region, but the fertilizer-laced effluent flushes into Kinta Nature Park’s bodies of water and causes a massive bloom of water hyacinth. The water hyacinth uses the nitrate to grow, thus preventing nitrate poisoning of the fish in the water.  However, water hyacinth has reached a critical population, consistently covering at least half of the 4km² surface area of the main lake. The goal of the project is to preserve the water quality of Kinta Nature Park’s main lake by controlling the water hyacinth population and turning the extracted water hyacinth into compost for the degraded former tin mining land surrounding the lake.

The youth volunteers collectively figure out an efficient way of doing this using equipment they purchased, and they document the process into a Standard  Operating Procedure (SOP) wherein they determine the best impact measurement matrices and design impact measurement steps, survey the surrounding community on their capacity, and develop communication materials for both online and offline community engagement sessions.

On Arts and Culture and Environmental Diversity

With your background in International Economics, how do you envision the eMpowering Youths Across ASEAN (EYAA) Programme nurturing future change-makers across ASEAN in domains like Arts and Culture and Environmental Diversity?

The EYAA Programme is grounded in the sustainable development paradigm to end poverty, protect the environment, and ensure prosperity for people, which is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprints, and the ASEAN Work Plan on Youth in the formulation of its strategies and activities. Through EYAA, the ASEAN Foundation and Maybank Foundation (our main partner) are committed to provide ASEAN youth with a platform to learn, contribute, and advocate solutions to social and economic issues through volunteerism and acting as change-makers. 

I believe there are many ways to promote sustainable values across ASEAN, and EYAA encourages ASEAN youth and civil society organisations to partner with us on innovative projects in arts and culture, education, media, and community. They collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds to implement their ideas and advocate solutions to grounded issues in local communities across ASEAN. 

Could you share specific examples of how the EYAA Cohort 3 program equips participants with the skills and knowledge needed to become effective change-makers within their respective communities?

After selecting 120 youth volunteers and ten civil society organisations, EYAA conducts online training to equip them with important skills like communication and public campaigns, design thinking, financial management, impact measurement, and project management. Following this agenda, youths from diverse background discuss with the civil society organisations in a group, learn about some community problems, share ideas and create a plan for the project’s implementation in five ASEAN Countries.  

Before project implementation in each country, the youth volunteers and civil society organisations meet-in-person at the Regional Capacity Building Workshop in Bangkok, Thailand to finalise their project plans together and to get valuable feedback and input from ASEAN stakeholders.

Finally, they implement their project plans in communities across ASEAN, where they learn the value of volunteering and the grassroots needs directly from the project sites.

As someone who regularly shares insights through academic works and radio programs, what unique perspective do you bring to the discussion of how the EYAA programme empowers ASEAN youth to drive positive change?

The important value of the EYAA programme is to promote social volunteering among ASEAN youths. This programme acts as a powerful catalyst for profound change, empowering young volunteers to embark on purposeful community projects that address the urgent challenges encountered by people across the region. EYAA encourages ASEAN youth to learn about those problems directly from communities and to become leaders who are part of the solutions. 

Shaping Long-Term Change in ASEAN through the EYAA:

Drawing from your extensive experience, can you share insights into how the collaborations forged by the EYAA program are contributing to long-term economic development and stability across the ASEAN member states?

EYAA designs the programme by collaborating with youth volunteers from across the ASEAN region with civil society organisations, but we also involve local governments, whose strong support can ensure the projects’ sustainability. In addition, EYAA invites ASEAN stakeholders including the board of trustees of the ASEAN Foundation, ASEAN Secretariat, ministries of ASEAN countries, universities, and Maybank group as our main partners to give valuable input into the project plans. Bringing these groups together can build strong relationships that contribute to the sustainability of the EYAA programme.

The Green Jobs project in Cambodia applies to SDG 13, climate action, as participants in this project came up with creative solutions from Climathon, which enabled four groups of youth volunteers to devise four innovative project ideas centered around climate and the environment: Green Transformer, Greenovators, Upcycle Fashion, and Waste 2 Paper. In preparation for the training, a curriculum on green jobs was developed.

The Tenun.in Belu project in Indonesia applies to SDG 10. reduced inequality, as the launch of a new weaving center marked a fresh journey for 12 weavers from Tenun.in Belu, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.