he DENR National Gender and Development Focal Point System (GADFPS) has initiated the review of the agency’s six-year strategic plan for proposed enrichments to align planned programs and activities of the environment and natural resources (ENR) sector with the current state of the country as it continues to face impacts and effects of climate change, health and gender issues.
With the hands-on facilitation of the national virtual meeting on August 6, 2020, DENR Undersecretary for Climate Change and the Chairperson of the DENR National GADFPS, Atty. Analiza Rebuelta -Teh, met the GAD Focal Persons and Planning Officers of the different central, bureaus, attached agencies and regional offices of the DENR. Providing inputs were In-house GAD Consultant, Shalimar Vitan (Concerns in the GAD Strategic Plan, and Feedback/Comments to the 2021 Draft GAD Plans and Budgets), DENR Climate Change Service Director and concurrent DENR GAD Office Director, Elenida dR. Basug (Linking ENR with Climate Change, Gender and Health in GAD Strategic and Annual Plans), ERDB Chief, Dr. Marilyn Lalican (Proposed Data sets for Baseline Data Gathering), and GAD External Consultant, Wilma Rojas (Laying Down the Proposed Enrichments to the GAD Strategic Plan).
Earlier, seven-series of webinars on the priority programs of the DENR as these are linked to climate change, gender and health, were conducted from July 8, 2020 to August 12, 2020. Webinars were conducted on “Pursuing Climate-, Gender-, and Health-responsive Programs in the following sectors: biodiversity, forestry, solid waste and hazardous wastes, air quality, water sector, land, and mineral resources development. DENR Undersecretary Teh explained the context of the webinars as to better understanding the links, and identifying entry points in mainstreaming, and emphasized the need to seriously consider going beyond mainstreaming gender in the priority programs of the DENR.
She apprised participants on the potentials of women as “game changers” and “active stakeholders”;
that women can be agents of change for resilient development, and that women-focused investments on resilience remain limited.
The webinars were ably co-facilitated by DENR Assistant Secretary for Climate Change and concurrent Director of Biodiversity Management Bureau, Ricardo Calderon, and the Director of DENR Climate Change Service, and the concurrent Director of DENR GAD Office, Elenida dR. Basug.
Invited DENR and non-DENR resource persons were experts from their field of specialization. They were as follows:
Sectors as linked to Climate Change:
1. BMB Division Chief, Ms. Armida Andres – biodiversity
2. FMB Director Lourdes Wagan – forest
3. EMB Region 1 Director Maria Dorica Naz-Hipe – solid and hazardous wastes
4. EMB Assistant Director Vizminda Osorio – air quality
5. NWRB Executive Director Sevillo David, Jr.- water resources
6. EMB Region 3 Division Chief, Engr. Raldy Pagador- water quality
7. LMB Director Emelyne Talabis – land management
8. DENR CARAGA Director for Mines Glenn Noble – mineral resources development
Sectors as linked to Gender and Development:
9. GAD Expert Katherine Vinegas- biodiversity management, mineral resources development
10. GAD Expert Wilma Rojas – forest management
11. Environmental Planner, and Socio-gender Consultant Grace Sapuay – solid and hazardous waste management, air quality management
12. DENR CAR Regional Executive Director Ralph Pablo – land management
Sectors as linked to Health:
13. Dr. Geminn Louis Apostol – solid and hazardous waste management, air quality management, and mineral resources development
14. Dr. Helen Sigua – forest management, water quality management, and land management
The participants were provided with a briefer, “Beyond Gender Mainstreaming: Linking Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), Climate Change, Health and Gender (Guide to Planning for Gender and Development in the ENR Sector) produced by the Office of the DENR Undersecretary for Climate Change and its Climate Change Service, to aid the participants through their enhancement process.
Deadline for submission of the revised/enhanced GAD Strategic Plans per sector is on August 21, 2020 for consolidation as an Updated DENR National Strategic Plan (2020-2025), and the GAD Plans and Budgets for 2021 by August 27, 2020 before these will be submitted to the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) within September 2020. ###
