City officials requested the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) to submit within 15 days upon receipt of a resolution to the city council the updated composition of the Gender and Development (GAD) focal point persons of the city.
Under Resolution No. 607, series of 2020, signed by Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong, city legislators stated that the local government recognizes the vital roles of the GAD focal points in the gender mainstreaming in all spheres of public policies and programs and towards the same, it creates and strengthens and updates its gender focal point system (GFPS) to keep up with the times in its response to the gender issues at hand.
Earlier, the Philippine Commission on Women issued Memorandum Circular No. 211-01 that provided for the guidelines for the creation, strengthening and institutionalization of the GAD focal point system.
Republics Act (RA) 7192 or An Act Promoting the Integration of Women as Full and Equal Partners of Men in Development and Nation Building and for other Purposes, and RA 9710 or An Act Providing for the Magna Carta of Women otherwise known as the Magna Carta for Women, mandate the creation of the GAD focal point system in all departments, including their attached agencies, offices, bureaus, state universities and colleges, government-owned and controlled corporations, local government units and other government instrumentalities.
The GAD focal point system shall ensure that the government agencies and local governments shall adopt the gender-responsive and rights-based approach in policy-making, program and project development and service delivery for the betterment of the greater majority of the populace.
The council added that the GFPS, through the designated GAD focal point persons, will spearhead the agency’s review and enhancement of policies, programs and projects, and services so that the same are able to effectively and efficiently address the differentiated needs of the men and women employees and their clientele.
Also pending before the Council is a proposed ordinance for the updating of the city’s Gender and Equality Code that will pave the way for the enhanced implementation of GAD in the different offices of the city government that translate to the effective and efficient delivery of services to the people seeking assistance or transacting business with the concerned offices.
GAD is development perspective that recognizes the unequal status and situation of women and men in society. Women and men have different development needs and interests which is institutionalized and perpetuated by cultural, social, economic and political norms, systems and structures.
Moreover, GAD is participatory and empowering, equitable, sustainable, free from violence, respectful of human rights, supportive of self determination and actualization of human potentials and that it seeks to achieve gender equality as a fundamental value that should be reflected in development choices and contents that women are active agents of development not just positive recipients of development. By Dexter A. See
