Wednesday June 19 , 2013
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PDAP

The Partnership for Development Assistance in the Philippines Inc (formerly known as Philippine Development Assistance Programme, Inc.), started as a consortium of Filipino and Canadian non-government organizations (NGOs). It was founded in 1986 as a non-stock, non-profit organization, to become an effective instrument in reducing poverty and inequity in the Philippines. PDAP prides itself in having 6 member networks with more than 300 community-based members and partner NGOs. PDAP has distinguished itself in promoting and developing rural enterprises for poverty reduction and as a tool in promoting peace in conflict-affected areas.

Gender Equity

The Philippines has one of the sharpest contradictions in gender equality today. Significant in roads in politics including having two woman presidents were achieved while numerous Filipinas continue to lead in national and international discourses and initiatives in the academe, politics and business. But there are also the women who are at the receiving end of domestic violence, trafficking and prostitution, illegal recruitment and unfair employment contracts in other countries.

In general, the society still places many gender problems as trivial and marginal. The legal framework for women seems impressive but the challenges of implementation and cultural shift remains. The interplay of culture and institutions like the government bureaucracy, political offices, and the church makes the discourse on gender issues very animated and usually polarized.

Given this context, PDAP gives due importance to gender equality in the implementation of its programs. During the PPSE and ProPeace implementation, women were actively involved in project designing, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and NGO support and staffing.

In PRIME, PDAP is committed to improving gender equality, integrating gender empowerment, looking after the welfare of both men and women, as well as upholding children's rights.

PRIME puts emphasis on the following interventions and strategies to make certain that gender concerns are dealt with and the marginalized groups including women and children are empowered through the course of the development and promotion of organic agribased micro enterprises:

  • Feasibility studies and business plans of sub-projects will include gender analysis and specific targets in gender empowerment.

  • Women and men will be involved, with due consideration on children’s rights at all levels of project development cycle from planning, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation.

  • The roles of men, women, and children will have to be identified, designed and assigned based on the practical requirements of the MEs, the project participants’ skills, expertise, time, and resources as well as socio-cultural considerations, respecting women’s and children's rights, exercising fairness in assigning roles, and taking into consideration their existing demands and burdens in their households and families.
  • To ensure that women’s participation is improved and their burdens are lessened, they will be given capacity building opportunities just as men are.

  • In scaling-up the selected commodities, interventions should also aim at enhancing equitable distribution of benefits for women, children and men.

  • Women’s participation will be engaged in planning, policy and decision-making in the local development councils (LDCs) and local special bodies (LSBs).

  • PRIME will work with national government agencies and local government units to solicit counterpart support from their Gender and Development (GAD) fund allocation to be used in women’s livelihood projects and/or infrastructure to support the viable operations of community MEs.