The first celebration of National Women’s month under the ew leadership focuses on strengthening the partnership between men and women in working for the country’s economic, social and political developments.
Early in the current administration, all government agencies and local government units, including barangays, were directed to fully implement the Magna Carta of Women. The goal of this year’s celebration is commitment of Malasakit at Pagbababago or true compassion and change. This is captured through the theme; WE Make Change Work for Women.”
Elements of the theme
- WE stands for Women’ Empowerment – empowering women enables them to confidently and meaningfully engage with appropriate institutions to ensure that they contribute to and benefit from development and changes. Thus, women’s empowerment will make the change that we are espousing or any development effort responsive of women’s concerns.
- Make Change Work = MCW = Magna Carta of Women – making change work for women necessitates strengthening the implementation of the MCW at all levels. It means putting in place functional mechanisms as well as implementing and making known to citizens, programs and services that address strategic gender needs of women.
- Change – also means Compassionate and Harmonized Actions and Networks for Gender Equality.
- We / us or “kami / tayo” in Filipino – This means all of us, in our various capacities whether as government officials and employees, members of the private sector, the academe, non-government organizations, or as private individuals can be partners for a change that is gender-responsive. It emphasizes our collective effort, collaboration and participation to ensure that women will not be left behind in the pursuit of change.
The theme emphasizes that women should be active drivers in bringing about positive changes.
Ongoing activities since January include:
Informing and engaging women as stakeholders of government programs and services
- Production and Distribution of IEC Materials (January to March 2017) Access to information is provided for by the Magna Carta. Government agencies and LGUs are encouraged to produce and distribute their own information materials featuring their Gender and Development programs and services that can be accessed by women stakeholders.
- Serbisyo Para kay Juana (March 8 or per discretion of sponsoring agency) – the activity enjoins agencies, LGUs and other organizations that offer direct services and other transactions with the public to offer treats like freebies, discounts, or distribution of IEC materials on March 8 which is the International Women’s Day (IWD) or any chosen dates within March.
- Libreng Sakay to all women and girls at LRT 2 and MRT stations on March 8, 2017; from 7:00-9:00 AM and 5:00-7:00 PM) (Light Rail Transit Authority, Metro Rail Transit Corportaion and Department of Transportation)
- GRABCAR P50.00 discount valid for two rides on March 8, 2017; to and from GSIS Theatre in Pasay City | Promo Code: PCWMNLFORUM (Grab Philippines)
- Online Advocacy: #BilangBabae I am a #PartnerForChange (March 1-20) – a PCW initiative through social media enjoining women netizens to share their idea of change and how they see themselves contributing to achieve that change. All they have to do is post a photo of themselves via Facebook using the hashtag: #BilangBabae and #partnerforchange.
PCW will randomly select from pre-evaluated posts recipients of special prizes as simple token of appreciation for joining the online initiative. Please like and follow PCW’s official Facebook account (https://www.facebook.com/PCWgovph/) for details and updates.
More Women’s Month celebration activities will be discussed in Part 2 of this article.