JPN and PHL join hands for community level juvenile rehabilitation, empowerment, and reintegration

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and A Child’s Trust is Ours to Nurture, Inc. (ACTION), a non-profit organization dedicated to upholding the rights of children, including Children In Conflict with the Law (CICL) and Children At Risk (CAR), launches a new project with the Philippine government, represented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC), that seeks to rehabilitate, empower, and reintegrate juvenile offenders.

The “Project aiming to establish the Community-Based Juvenile Intervention Facilitator (CBJIF) System for CICL and CAR” will collaborate with the local government units (LGUs) in 56 barangays in Malabon and Navotas in the National Capital Region (NCR) and in Olongapo in Region 3, to ensure that the necessary support is given to CICL and CAR to help them reintegrate into society as responsible and productive members.

In 2021, the Philippine National Police (PNP) registered 11,716 CICL cases, while local social welfare and development offices recorded 10,087 CAR cases in the previous year. PNP data from 2012 to 2015 further reveal that 60% of these cases include “crimes against property” such as theft and robbery; 36% are “crimes against persons” like rape, murder, and physical injuries; while the rest are violations on laws against drugs, gambling, and illegal possession of firearms.

The project advocates for a diversion and intervention program that will address factors such as abuse, trauma, and social environment that put children at risk of engaging or being influenced to engage in juvenile delinquency. Interventions may include counseling, skills training, and education to enable CICL and CAR to be reintegrated seamlessly to the community as law-abiding and productive members.

The JICA-ACTION-DSWD-JJWC signed the agreement document on January 15th at DSWD, marking the start of the project implementation phase. As outlined in said document, JICA will oversee the overall project implementation, which will be carried out by ACTION given its rich experience in this field. Since its founding by Mr. YOKOTA Hajime in 1994, ACTION has received numerous awards for its excellent work in children’s welfare, including the 2010 Japan Foundation Prize for Global Citizenship and the 2023 Outstanding Auxiliary Social Welfare and Development Agency award from the DSWD. Additionally, as a member of the JJWC, ACTION has contributed to various initiatives in policy development and advocacy, such as the adoption of the Life Skill Intervention Toolkit and Socio-Emotional Learning Module by JJWC in 2024.

JICA has worked closely with ACTION since 2012, collaborating through the consecutive Technical Cooperation for Grassroots Projects (TCGP) and the ongoing JICA volunteer program, with two volunteers currently assisting ACTION in Malabon and Olongapo. This partnership reflects a shared dedication to empowering vulnerable children across the Philippines.

For its part, JJWC will provide key data, maps, documents, and other materials that will help the proponents better understand the CICL and CAR situation in the Philippines. The project is planned to run from February 2025 to August 2027.

To ensure long-term impacts, the project intends to develop the implementation framework for the CBJIF system and train more than 20 LGU frontliners in rolling out the intervention and diversion plans, targeting a group of 30 CICL and 90 CAR for its pilot implementation.

“This Technical Cooperation for Grassroot Project of ours aims to support children, especially CICL or CAR, with the concept of ‘No-One-Left-Behind’ or inclusive society. Life’s circumstances may lead children’s paths astray, but, in such cases, it should be our shared responsibility to support their rehabilitation, empowerment, and reintegration to the society”, said JICA Chief Representative SAKAMOTO Takema.

The project is expected to develop the capability of LGU social workers, in handling juvenile delinquency cases and empower them to create or improve their own Comprehensive Local Juvenile Intervention Program.