SOUTH II DISTRICT

School ID 128145

GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

The Gender Sensitivity Training is an initial effort to show how gender shapes the
roles of women and men in society, including their role in development, and how it affects
relations between them. It is given to those who have very little gender awareness or none at
all. For people in government to appreciate GAD and eventually become its advocate, they
first have to heighten their awareness of gender concerns and be willing to respond to gender
issues.

Over the years, gender inequality in society is a genuine issue of concern to the
community. As global awareness is believed to be the key to improving the situation of both
men and women, it is also considered to be the most significant means for achieving gender
equality and women's empowerment. The cooperation between international organizations
and national governments on the issue of gender equality is increasing, and the focus is to
advance and improve women's conditions in the society. Women’s and men’s rights,
responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born in what specific
sex. Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of both women and men
are taken into consideration, recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men.

The goal of gender mainstreaming is to achieve gender equality in all fields of society.
It seeks to identify men’s and women’s development issues and needs, as well as development
impacts on men and women at all stages of development, through planning , implementation,
monitoring, and evaluation of development policies and measures and projects, on the
premise that all development policies, measures, and projects have different impacts on men
and women.

To give insights about GAD the speaker discussed a little background of Section 28
of Republic Act No. 10352 or the General Appropriations Act states that “all agencies of the
government shall formulate a Gender and Development (GAD) Plan designed to address
gender issues within their concerned sectors or mandate and implement applicable provisions
under R.A. No. 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women, Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action, the Millennium
Development Goals (2000-2015), the Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive Development
(1995-2025), and the Philippine Development Plan (2011-2016)” which has a priority
concerns on gender responsive governance, human rights and women’s economic
empowerment.

Since women have different needs, the purpose of Gender and Development is to
ensure that women are consulted in the formulation and actual planning process. The use of
the sex-disaggregated data to surface the needs of the different segments of the population like
women and children, young and old, urban and rural, etc. In the goals and objectives, women
concerns should be reflected in the goals of and objectives of the plans and at the same time
in the policies, programs, projects and services of the LGU. In terms of gender capacity, it
also aimed to capacitate the LGU to plan and implement gender responsive. Mechanisms for
implementation and monitoring and resource allocation are also aimed to be determined in
this integration. Highlighted in the speaker discussion was the rationale behind the promotion
of entrepreneurship and promotion of science and technology, education towards
improvement in the status of women. In the discussion, the speaker recommended the
following: (1) the importance of levelling of thinking and mindset, (2) partnership building
wherein the LGU should look for partners that will provide with external assistance to gender
related projects and activities in the LGU and (3) to achieve an enabling environment , it is
important to help the informal sectors so that they will have an access and control over their
resources and thus helping their families and not the notion that women are getting away with
their responsibilities in their respective households.

Finally, the speaker also mentioned that since women constitute half of the population,
failure to give its importance would mean that development cannot be achieved.