Mountain Province held a policy dialogue on population and development and reproductive health with local legislators and programme implementers to generate consensus on how to better respond to the needs of the people in the province.
During the dialogue, the participants revisited the Provincial Reproductive Health Code and the contextual framework with which it was enacted in 2007. The Code aims to provide access for affordable, safe and quality reproductive health care and services to the people.
Officials from the Department of Interior and Local Government, Commission on Population, and the Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development, provided technical inputs to allow the local government agencies have a better understanding of population and development and enable them to respond more effectively to the needs of the province’s 10 municipalities. Aside from local legislators, also present during the dialogue were officers from the planning, health and social welfare offices from the provincial and municipal governments.
The policy dialogue is part of Mountain Province’s reproductive health programme supported by the United Nations Population Fund under the 7th Country Programme of Assistance to the Philippines.
Earlier, the province’s Provincial Gender and Development (GAD) Council also led a training on gender-responsive programming for all its municipalities for the effective enforcement of the Magna Carta of Women.
Facilitated by WeDpro, a nonprofit organization that caters to human rights, women and youth empowerment programmes, the five-day workshop was attended by GAD focal points, local legislators, budget officers and health officials from the province.
In the context of indigenous communities, the workshop was able to provide a better perspective of the special needs of indigenous women, the role of men, the linkages to reproductive health and gender-based violence and how local governments could better respond to these issues using culturally-sensitive approaches.
Participants said the training provided them with a better understanding of their specific roles and responsibilities in advancing gender equality and human rights. “Now I know, I am a woman and an advocate of change,” quipped Jenah, one of the participants.
