Questions/Answers

Gender justice is critical in the development process of agricultural communities. As a response, the Philippine government made a concrete step towards the advancement and promotion of egalitarian rights for all through Gender and Development (GAD) initiatives. To this end, one of the major thrusts of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), a government-owned and controlled corporation catering the largest agricultural sector, is to ensure that all research-for-development (R4D) efforts, as well as administrative services, should be anchored on the Philippine Plan for Gender Responsive Development. PhilRice’s main GAD initiative is to include GAD statements and project objectives addressing specific gender issues in its studies/projects/programs and all its units/divisions/branches. PhilRice also promotes equality between women and men through gender mainstreaming. This responds to the practical and strategic needs of both internal and external clients. For this, PhilRice uses the Harmonized Gender and Development Guidelines (HGDG) and the Gender Mainstreaming Evaluation Framework (GMEF) to assess its work towards gender justice. Lastly, PhilRice GAD, anchored with the Philippine Commission on Women's initiative, conducts the research entitled Estado ni Juana to document and the true state of women in the agriculture sector. From this study, concrete policies towards gender justice will be formulated.

The PhilRice's Gender and Development initiative is directly linked to the 5th United Nations Public Service Awards category which is the promotion of gender responsive public services to achieve the SDGs. Through the GAD Focal Point System (GFPS), the GAD initiative ensures the equitable access to information and agriculture resources on rice-based farm among men and women, farmer organizations, processors, and small-holder entrepreneurs towards gendered development. GFPS also enhances work efficiency and increases competency of all staff towards gender-responsive Rice Science for Development by making the process gender-sensitive and -responsive.

PhilRice promotes gender equality and ensures a decent work and economic growth through the inclusion of GAD statements addressing specific gender issues towards holistic development, and other gender mainstreaming initiatives. PhilRice also contributes to the movement to end poverty, hunger, and ensure healthy lives through catering the practical and strategic needs of the internal and external clients. Lastly, PhilRice also promotes sustainable consumption and production patterns through the research on the Estado ni Juana (Women's Situation) which specifically looks at the woman as a rice farmer and farm manager.

The Philippine government “recognizes the role of women in nation-building and ensures the fundamental equality before the law of women and men”, as manifested in Republic Act (RA) 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women. This law “promotes women empowerment through pursuing equal opportunities for women and men and ensures equal access to resources and to development results and outcome”. Moreover, GAD initiatives were institutionalized through RA 7192 or the Women in Development and Nation-Building Act. It requires that all development efforts must have the participation of women at all levels of program/project development and implementation. Nevertheless, in the area of rice farming, gender equality remains a very contested issue, rendering the gender-responsiveness a divisive discourse. That is why, in its own way, PhilRice's GAD initiative is an attempt to respond to this issue with simple, specific, and clearly identified gender targets present in each program, activity, project, study (PAPS), offices, divisions, and branch stations. Further, Estado ni Juana (Women's situation) is a major breakthrough where the experiences, realities, and state of the women, in relation to their role and ties within the household, farm enterprise, and community, are studied as basis for policies, mechanisms, partnerships, and future PAPS.

All GAD efforts and initial success can be attributed to the early champions of women empowerment in various fields of endeavour. However, issues have evolved. So, must the way to address inequality. PhilRice GAD initiative attempts to improve the way such empowerment is undertaken. The Philippines being archipelagic, and there is a great deal of variation of issues and situations, location- and issue-specific gender responsiveness mechanism is very appropriate. That is why all PhilRice programs, activities, projects, studies, divisions, offices, and branch stations of PhilRice are tasked to address different gender issues and situations as found in their specific locations.

Speaking of the Philippine situation, PhilRice GAD initiative is a breakthrough in research-for-development being gender responsiveness, location- and issue-specific. Different location, various culture, and changing norms all affect gender relations and status vis-à-vis human livelihood system. Experiences and human impact of different gender issues affect the well-being and empowerment of the vulnerable sector. Thus, PhilRice GAD initiative addresses these issues simultaneously and individually. PhilRice's GAD initiative recognizes that in every research, development, and administrative work there is always a unique gender issue and the solution is also within its context.

While inchoate insofar as its wide usage is concerned at this stage, the initiative has been taken as an implementation framework for PhilRice’s rice research-for-development. All R4D programs, projects, studies, and activities; and administrative processes must proactively address gender issues towards the full attainment of gender justice. With this potential, there is no reason to doubt that this will be promoted to other organizations. On the other hand, there had been series of training on gender mainstreaming. As a ripple effect, those who have been trained are now implementing the learnings in their respective fields of work.

This initiative had had some hurdles, especially when it was started years ago. For one, it had to deal with limited resources - financial, human, and material. However, values such as commitment, cooperation, and perseverance made the initial implementation successful. With the one million pesos budget, activities such as capacity enhancement for the internal clients and Estado ni Juana study for the external clients had become successful banner projects. These activities changed mindset of internal clients in serving the external clients and had created an environment with more client-friendly, locally-specific, and issue-specific gender response for the whole institute.

Economic sustainability is achieved through this strategy. Having local solutions to local issues promotes and facilitates combined decision-making that opens up to more options and added opportunities for a sustainable economic growth and decent work for both men and women farmers. The PhilRice GAD initiative recognizes that this combined decision-making and hands-on work both in the household and the farm enterprise brings about lesser burden to women; more strategic saving and spending; and innovative farm enterprises. The PhilRice GAD initiative is more focused on the practical and strategic needs of the external clients. This is possible through the PhilRice GAD Focal Point System facilitation of all capacity enhancement activities, policy making, improving mechanisms, and making the research for development's environment be more gender responsive.

Yes

The policies, mechanisms, people, and programs, activities, projects, and studies (PAPS) have undergone the internal Gender Mainstreaming Evaluation Framework (GMEF). GMEF is the major gender analysis tool used for the evaluation of the gender responsiveness of private and public organizations. The GMEF questionnaire served as a guide in computing the score of Philippine Rice Research (PhilRice) gender and development (GAD) initiatives. Each score has an equivalent level from Foundation Formation to Replication and Innovation. In addition, each of the PAPS had been evaluated using the Harmonized Gender and Development Guidelines to determine the attributable budget for the accomplishment report.

Gender Mainstreaming Evaluation Framework (GMEF) looks at four entry points namely policy, people, enabling mechanism, and program, activity, project, and study. GMEF focuses on the official statements and pronouncements of support for gender mainstreaming issued by the agency. It also evaluates the performance of the sponsors, change agents, targets, and advocates. It further identifies the systems and mechanisms installed in the agencies and the funds allocated for gender and development activities. Lastly, GMEF, like Harmonized Gender and Development Guidelines, looks at how the gender mainstreaming efforts are reflected in the programs, activities, projects, and studies.

There was a huge change in the way PhilRice GAD initiative has been done and planned to be done. This was mainly because of the Gender Mainstreaming Evaluation Framework (GMEF) and Harmonized Gender and Development Guidelines (HGDG) scores received through the years. Recently, PhilRice GAD initiative had received a GMEF Level 2 (Installation of Strategic Mechanisms) and HGDG Level 3 (Gender Sensitive). The PhilRice GAD initiative aims to achieve yet higher level. Thus, the GAD Focal Point System is committed for the mainstreaming efforts, research on GAD responsive rice production environment, and advocacy work.

A direct collaboration with partners and inclusion of the beneficiaries to craft the PhilRice GAD had been implemented. In the recent works of designing PhilRice GAD agenda - backbone of the mainstreaming efforts- partner agencies such as Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) and Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had been tapped. Branch stations and local communities, through the existing programs, activities, projects, and studies were also be consulted for their locality-specific gender experiences. In addition, the Estado ni Juana, from the real and actual voices of both men and women working in the household and farm enterprise, will further enlighten the PhilRice GAD initiative with the true state of men's and women's role, experiences, resources, and capabilities as they are related in rice farming. In implementing the PhilRice GAD initiatives, partner agencies' and beneficiaries' voices improve the policies, processes, people's performances, and enabling mechanisms. A localized, directed, and continuous monitoring and evaluation will be further used to engage the partner agencies and beneficiaries and capture the evolving gender situations.

The PhilRice gender and development (GAD) initiative has so much learnings to share. First, the gender issue in the Philippines is evolving from noticeable limitations to subtle interpersonal restrictions. Relationships, social arrangements, and information sourcing are becoming gendered. Thus, the PhilRice GAD initiative should focus more on the interaction of the genders and create a policy that reinforce a capacity-based segregation. Second, gender issues in the Philippines seemed to be a matter of what angle is a person looking at. Thus, the PhilRice GAD initiative should be more multi-dimensional through a multi-disciplinary approach.