Attachments
Rationale
Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (GEEWG) are human rights imperatives for effective humanitarian action. This principle is enshrined in international humanitarian, human rights, and refugee law, and in UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) from 1325 (2000) to 2242 (2015). It is also reflected in recent global agreements, such as those from the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) (2015), the Sendai Disaster Risk Reduction Framework (2015), the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015), the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies Roadmap (2015), and the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants (2016). In 2017, a Policy on GEEWG in Humanitarian Action was developed by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, which harnesses progressive thinking on humanitarian preparedness and response, peace building, and development, to be transformative, inclusive and uncompromising towards achieving the goals of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian action. An Accountability Framework was also developed to monitor implementation of the commitments in the Gender Policy to ensure that the Gender Policy is translated into action, and contains clear indicators to help the IASC hold itself accountable, focusing on the collective actions, as set out in the Gender Policy (See Appendix A: Lines of Authority and Accountability of the different IASC bodies). In the Philippines, the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and its corresponding Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG) aims to strongly advance GEEWG in the processes and mechanisms employed during preparedness, humanitarian response and early recovery through a Gender in Humanitarian Action Community of Practice (GIHA COP).
The World Economic Forum on its 2023 Global Gender Gap Report has placed the Philippines at the 16th ranking in terms of achieving gender parity in the areas of economic opportunities, education, health and political leadership. The advancement of gender equality in the country is supported by landmark laws and issuances that recognize the importance of meaningful women’s representation, participation, leadership and access to equal opportunities, and mechanisms such as the Gender and Development (GAD) budget, the Harmonised GAD Guidelines for project development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and the Women’s priority legislative agenda through the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) . The presence of GAD focal points across all levels of government also serves as an important resource for aligning DRRM actions with specific gender outcomes, as well as the representation of the PCW in all four thematic pillars of DRRM (disaster prevention and mitigation, disaster preparedness, disaster response and disaster rehabilitation and recovery). In relation to this, the Philippine Government, through its most recent National Disaster Risk Management Plan (NDRRMP) 2020-2030, also provides an opportunity for more inclusive and gender-transformative DRRM, with its emphasis on resilience, collection and utilization of sex, age, and disability disaggregated data (SADDD) and risk information, resilient livelihood, public health investment, ecosystem-based actions, meaningful participation, and the reiteration of gender-responsiveness as a key indicator across program cycles. Despite these strong commitments toward GEEWG, effective implementation and localization remains limited and challenged, especially with the high exposure of the Country to various hazards compounded by physical and social vulnerabilities. For this reason, the Philippines HCT and ICCG shall continue to support the effective implementation and localization of GEEWG through the GIHA COP.