The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) conducted a three-day training on Basic Gender Analysis (GA) & Use of GA Tools for R&D Management and Implementation. The training held on June 16 to 18, 2021 was for PCAARRD’s technical staff.
The training is part of the capacity building activities under the DOST-PCAARRD funded and implemented project, “Enhancement of Gender and Development (GAD) Integration Towards a More Inclusive R&D in AANR.” The project is led by the Socio-Economics Research Division’s (SERD) Gender and Development and Special Projects Unit.
The resource persons for the training were GAD experts Ms. Monette Santos and Dr. Blesshe Querijero. Santos is a member of the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) National GAD Resource Pool. Querijero is also a member of the Batch 1 of the PCW National GAD Resource Pool and former DOST-wide GAD Mainstreaming Coordinator from 2007 to 2013. A total of 27 participants from the different divisions attended.
SERD Director Dr. Ernesto Brown’s message highlighted that multiple studies have shown that integrating gender dimension in the research process makes development projects and interventions more impactful and sustainable. He added that he hopes participants will “absorb and understand the principles of gender mainstreaming that includes equal participation and inclusion, attending to gender difference and inequalities, recognizing that gender mainstreaming is non-exclusive and that it is not only a women’s issue, and principle of coherence because gender equality is not the only goal, gender equality is important because this can contribute to the bigger goals, one of which, is a more just and sustainable society.”
During the first day, Santos led the discussion on the basic GAD concepts and principles, and policies imperative in gender mainstreaming. She emphasized that GAD is not “war of the sexes,” but that both women and men are victims of gender inequality. Santos also introduced the use and examples of the Harmonized Gender and Development Guidelines (HGDG).
The following day focused on two GA frameworks namely: the Harvard Analytical Framework (HAF) and the Moser Framework, which were extensively discussed by Querijero. On the last day, the participants applied their learnings from the previous days, such as answering the HGDG and improving the project proposals of their respective case studies.
Supervising Research Specialist and SERD Assistant Director Princess Ani said in her Closing message that staff’s participation shows the commitment of the various divisions in the Council’s gender mainstreaming efforts. Ani highlighted that, “the challenge remains on how we can constantly look in the gender dimension of all our initiatives; that GAD is not only incidental or an afterthought, but gender to be part of our research design agenda.” She ended her message by saying that she hopes that the participants will serve as advocates for GAD awareness and the heightening of the GAD concept integration and appreciation to PCAARRD’s network.
The Council partnered with the Socio-Economic Research and Data Analytics Center in organizing the same training the Council’s network of researchers for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The following trainings are scheduled on June 23-25 for Luzon; July 5-7 for the Visayas; and July 12-14, 2021 for Mindanao.