Gender and Development Corner

Magna Carta of Women (Republic Act No. 9710)

The Magna Carta of Women defines the Gender and Development (GAD) Program as the development perspective and process that is participatory and empowering, equitable, sustainable, free from violence, respectful of human rights, and supportive of self-determination and the actualization of human potential. It seeks to achieve gender equality as a fundamental value reflected in development choices, recognising women as active agents of development rather than passive recipients.

Gender is an important consideration in development. It is a way of looking at how social norms and power structures affect the lives and opportunities available to different groups of women and men. Understanding that women and men experience poverty differently and face different barriers in accessing services, economic resources, and political opportunities helps the municipality target its interventions.

How Gender and Development started

GAD emerged in the 1980s as an alternative to the earlier Women in Development (WID) approach. Unlike WID, GAD is concerned not specifically with women but with the way a society assigns roles, responsibilities, and expectations to both women and men. It applies gender analysis across two main frameworks — gender roles and social relations analysis — to design interventions that move toward gender equality.

Gender mainstreaming

The LGU pursues gender mainstreaming as a strategy for making women's and men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects — so that women and men benefit equally — and for assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action.