The Cordillera Regional Gender and Development Committee (RGADC-CAR) which is tasked with initiating, coordinating, and monitoring gender mainstreaming initiatives, conducted a workshop to craft its own gender and development (GAD) agenda to address the unique challenges and opportunities of gender mainstreaming in the region.
The workshop conducted on Aug. 22 to 23at the RDC Hall, NEDA-Cordillera Compound aims to develop a GAD agenda that will serve as the strategic framework in gender mainstreaming, women’s empowerment and gender equality. RGADC-CAR member-agencies will also use it as their basis in identifying programs, activities and projects to be undertaken and crafting of monitoring and evaluation framework.
Part of the workshop included a review of GAD concepts and mandates, an overview of the GAD agenda, situation assessment and environment scanning (where we are now and where we want to be).
Frances Noelle G. Escalera of the Professional Regulation Commission-Cordillera led the situation assessment and environmental scanning on the first day. She said among the benefits of conducting the needs assessment and environmental scan is to improve the alignment, integration, and effectiveness of systems level efforts; identify gaps in existing services and assess resource capacity; identify risk and protective factors.
The findings will help inform the policy and program decision-making and help see how the gaps in services, resources, and practices compare with other jurisdictions in the region, Escalera added.
On the second day of said workshop, Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) resource pool and former NEDA-Cordillera director Rimando facilitated the crafting of the GAD vision, mission and goals formulation.
Rimando discussed the steps in formulating the GAD vision, mission, and goals. She also explained the seven steps in formulating the GAD agenda starting from organizing the planning team until the translation of outcomes into programs, projects, and activities.
The proposed vision, mission, and goals, which were formulated by the group, will be reviewed by the Regional GAD Committee. – Maria Aprila W. Cruz
