Gender and Development (GAD) is an approach that aims to promote gender equality and address the specific needs and concerns of both women and men in development initiatives. 

It recognizes that gender roles, norms, and inequalities can significantly impact access to resources, opportunities, and outcomes in various aspects of life, including education, healthcare, economic participation, and political representation.

The GAD approach seeks to challenge and transform existing social and cultural norms contributing to gender disparities. It emphasizes the importance of considering gender perspectives in policies, programs, and projects to ensure that they are inclusive and beneficial for all members of society, regardless of gender identity.

Key Principles of GAD

1. Promoting Gender Equality: This involves striving for equal rights, opportunities, and treatment for people of all genders. 

2. Addressing Gender-Based Discrimination and Violence: GAD seeks to eliminate discrimination and violence based on gender and to provide support and resources for survivors.

3. Empowering Women and Girls: GAD aims to strengthen the capacities and agency of women and girls, enabling them to participate fully in social, economic, and political life.

4. Recognizing Diversity: GAD acknowledges that gender intersects with other social identities (such as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, etc.) and that individuals may experience unique challenges and advantages based on these intersections.

5. Participatory and Inclusive Approaches: GAD encourages the active involvement of all stakeholders, including women, men, and non-binary individuals, in the development process.

6. Data and Evidence-Based Interventions: GAD advocates for the collection and analysis of gender-disaggregated data to inform policies and programs.

GAD Framework

GAD applies gender analysis to uncover the ways in which men and women work together, presenting results in neutral terms of economics and competence. 

GAD focuses on two major frameworks, Gender Roles and Social Relations Analysis. 

• Gender roles focus on the social construction of identities within the household, it also reveals the expectations from ‘maleness and femaleness’ in their relative access to resources. 

• Social relations analysis exposes the social dimensions of hierarchical power relations embedded in social institutions; also it’s determining influence on ‘the relative position of men and women in society. In an attempt to create gender equality, (denoting women having the same opportunities as men, including the ability to participate in the public sphere) GAD policies aim to redefine traditional gender role expectations.

Philippine Plan for GAD

The Philippine Plan for Gender and Development, 1995–2025, is a national plan that addresses, provides for, and pursues full equality and development for men and women. Approved and adopted by former President Fidel V. Ramos as Executive No. 273, on September 8, 1995, it is the successor of the Philippine Development Plan for Women, 1989–1992, adopted by Executive No. 348 on February 17, 1989. 

GAD Policies

• Executive Order No. 273
  Approving and Adopting the Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive Development (PPGD) 1995–2025

• Republic Act No. 8760
  General Appropriations Act (GAA) On Programs and Projects Related to Gender and Development (GAD)

• Republic Act No. 9710
  An Act Providing for the Magna Carta of Women

• Memorandum Circular No. 2011-01 Guidelines for the creation, strengthening, and institutionalization of the Gender and Development (GAD) Focal Point System 

• Revised Guidelines for the Preparation of the Gender and Development (GAD) Agenda