FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Philippine Commission on Women defined Gender and Development (GAD) as the development perspective and process that is participatory and empowering, equitable, sustainable, free from violence, respectful of human rights, supportive of self-determination and actualization of human potentials. It reflects a change in focus from women and their exclusion from development initiatives to the RELATIONS OF INEQUALITY BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN.¹

Furthermore, GAD is an approach to development that focuses on social, economic, and cultural forces that determine how differently women and men access and control development resources and benefits. It is a development perspective that reflects a change in focus from women and their exclusion from development initiatives to the RELATIONS OF INEQUALITY BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN.¹

Gender mainstreaming is a process or a strategy to work toward the goal of gender equality. Its main goal is to take into account these differences when designing, implementing, and evaluating policies, programs, and projects, so that they benefit both women and men and do not increase inequality but enhance gender equality.

Gender Mainstreaming recognizes that women and men have different needs and living conditions and circumstances. Situations of men and women also differ according to country, region, age, ethnic, or social origin and other factors. It also recognizes that development activities may ignore these differences that lead to gender biases and unequal impacts among men and women beneficiaries.

The concept of Gender Mainstreaming (GM) was first introduced at the 1985 Nairobi World Conference on Women. It was established as a strategy in international gender equality policy through the Beijing Platform for Action adopted at the 1995 Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, and subsequently adopted as a tool to promote gender equality at all levels.

In 1998, the Council of Europe defined GM as:

"The (re)organization, improvement, development, and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy making."

The GAD budget is the cost of implementing each activity indicated in the GAD plan. The GAD budget may be drawn from the agency’s MOOE, CO, and PS based on the agency’s approved GAA.²

The GAD budget, which is the cost of implementing the GAD plan, shall form part of, and is not in addition to Posts and Offices’ approved budget. As provided in the Magna Carta of Women, “the cost of implementing GAD programs shall be the agency’s GAD budget which shall be at least five percent (5%) of the agency’s total budget appropriations.”²

In determining what can be or cannot be charged to GAD budget, the primary consideration is the gender issue being addressed by the expense or activity. If the gender issue is clear, the expense may be charged to the GAD budget.²

Examples of expenses that CAN be charged to the GAD budget:

• Capacity development on GAD;

• Activities related to the establishment and strengthening of enabling mechanisms that support GAD efforts of agencies;

• Salaries of agency personnel assigned to plan, implement and monitor GAD PAPs on a full-time basis, following government rules in hiring and creating positions;

• Agencies may cost the time spent of GFPS members and of agency personnel doing GAD related work and charge this to the GAD budget;

• Agency programs that address women’s practical and strategic needs (e.g. daycare center, breastfeeding rooms, crisis or counseling rooms for abused women, halfway houses for trafficked women and children, gender-responsive family planning program among others);

• Consultations conducted by agencies to gather inputs for and/or to disseminate the GAD plan and budget;

• Payment of professional fees, honoraria and other services for gender experts or gender specialists engaged by agencies for GAD-related trainings and activities; and

• IEC materials (development, printing and dissemination) that support the GAD PAPs and objectives of the agency.

The guide in completing the GAD Accomplishment Report as well as the template can be accessed here.²

Attribution to the GAD budget of a portion or the whole of the budget of an agency’s major programs or projects is a means toward gradually increasing the gender responsiveness of government programs and budgets.

An agency may attribute a portion or the whole budget of the year of major programs/project during the GAD planning and budgeting phase by subjecting the program documents to gender analysis using the appropriate Harmonized Gender and Development Guidelines (HGDG) design checklists.

The guide in completing the GAD Accomplishment Report as well as the template can be accessed here.²

The guide in Application of the Enhanced Gender Mainstreaming Evaluation Framework (GMEF) as well as the template can be accessed here.³

The guide in using HGDG Checklist can be accessed here.⁵ You can also watch the PCW GAD Webinar Series entitled Beyond Attribution: Use of the HGDG to Mainstream GAD Elements in the Project Development Cycle on their Facebook Live. Click here to watch.⁴