Women’s Empowerment, Development and Gender Equality Plan (2013-2016).

This Women’s Empowerment, Development and Gender Equality Plan (2013-2016) is a nationwide multi-sectoral policy document. The Women’s EDGE Plan is the gender equality guiding plan of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011–2016. It concretizes the gender-responsive provisions of the PDP and translating them into strategies and programs to address the gender issues, and serves to guide the achievement of gender-focused goals, defining the responses appropriate for government as the primary duty-bearer, together with civil society partners and claim-holders.
The Women’s EDGE Plan promotes improved nutrition and food security. Strategic gender issue to be addressed for nutrition is high prevalence of malnutrition and iron-deficiency anemia among pregnant women and girls. 2011−2016 outcomes for competitive and sustainable agriculture and fisheries sectors include: to decrease in food subsistence incidence (in percent of population), from 10.8 percent in 2009 to 8.3 percent in 2015. The Women’s EDGE Plan identified strategic gender issues in agriculture, fisheries, and forestry as: women’s limited access to and control over resources and women’s limited participation and representation in decision making. Women in agriculture, fisheries, and forestry have limited access to and control over land, water, and other resources for food security and self-sufficiency. Gender equality outcomes in agriculture, fisheries, and forestry are established in the Women’s EDGE Plan, which include: Improved women’s access to and control over resources; Wage differentials between male and female decreased; Increased women’s participation in decision making; Literacy rates for female farmers and fisherfolk increased; Work participation rate for females increased. The specific strategies include: sex-disaggregated fisherfolk national registration national-wise; etc.
The Women’s EDGE Plan seeks to make agriculture and fisheries more productive and sustainable. Strategic gender issues regarding to gender and environment are identified, including: 1. Lack of integration of gender issues in policies and programs on environmental management, biodiversity conservation, and climate change resiliency; 2. Women’s limited awareness of their status and roles in environment and natural resources (ENR) management and climate change adaption strategies; 3. Women’s limited or lack of access to and control over resources; etc. Gender equality outcome is developed as: Duty-bearers (government agencies and civil society organizations) and claim-holders implemented programs and projects on the environment, biodiversity, and climate change, bringing about positive development in women’s participation, influence, and benefits. Strategic gender equality actions are recommended, including: Gender analysis tools are recommended for use in capacity development activities of the ENR sector; Review policies on the composition of environmental governing boards/bodies; etc.
The Women’s EDGE Plan promotes to reduce rural poverty. Relevant strategic gender equality actions are proposed, including: Develop and intensify communitybased information dissemination on available skills training, technical services, and resources that prospective woman entrepreneurs can avail themselves of; Improved access to quality social protection; etc.
The Plan seeks to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems. Strategic gender equality actions include: Establish/enhance knowledge management and research, development, and extension to integrate women’s roles and gender concerns; increase access of women to agricultural credit; etc.
The Plan seeks to increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters. Relevant strategic gender equality actions include: Provide livelihood skills training to displaced women in calamity-stricken areas; Develop and adopt a standard for gendersensitive design of evacuation centers and temporary shelters that takes into consideration space for nursing/lactating mothers, pregnant women, elderly persons, and those with disabilities; assessment to provide information on the differentiated impact of climate change on women and men in farming and fishing communities; development and dissemination of gendered and accessible knowledge products on climate change risks and impact; etc.