PH chairs CSW68
FOR the first time since 1995, the Philippines is once again chairing the 68th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW), currently being held in New York City, under the leadership of the Philippines’ permanent representative to the United Nations, Antonio Lagdameo, with the support of the Philippine Commission on Women, Department of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, National Economic and Development Authority, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and Presidential Communications Office (PCO).
The two-week annual conference, running from March 11 to 22 this year, has for its priority theme “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective,” which cuts across all sectors and provides numerous avenues to push for the agenda for women’s empowerment and gender equality.
The Philippine delegation is headed by Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman who, delivering the country statement last Monday, underscored the Philippines’ achievements in promoting the rights of women and girls and affirmed the country’s commitment to genderresponsive governance. She also presented the Philippines’ intervention at the ministerial round table on “mobilizing financing for gender equality” and will also chair the Interactive Dialogue on “social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls,” among other sessions and bilateral meetings where she will represent the Philippines.
Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga will be chairing on March 14 the interactive dialogue with youth representatives on the priority theme where Sabine Marie Romero, president and founder of Capital1 Solar Energy, Inc., has been nominated to speak on behalf of the Filipino youth. Secretary Yulo-Loyzaga will also speak at the launch of the Gender Action Plan to support the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 on March 18. She is also a speaker at the side event on Gender Equality and Climate Action, which will be hosted by the International Development Law on March 19.
The undersecretary for social welfare and development, Emeline Aglipay-Villar, will deliver the Philippine intervention during the interactive panel on the priority theme that will also be held on March 18. National Anti-Poverty Commission Undersecretary Girlie Amarillo will also speak at the International Organization for Migration-sponsored event on March 19. House representatives Geraldine Roman and Anne Matibag, for their part, will meet with their counterparts from the European Parliament Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender on March 19.
Aside from organization work for CSW68, the Philippines is hosting three events on the sidelines of the conference. On Monday, March 18, the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (Tesda) and Coca-cola Philippines will host a side event titled “Women in TVET: Unlocking Digital Empowerment,” which aims to highlight digital programs for women that are transformative when built within an ecosystem of “business skills building, access to capital, coaching + mentoring and network-building.”
The PCO will host “Going DigitALL: Women’s Empowerment through Digitalization” on Tuesday, March 19. This side event takes a closer look at whether digital transformation in government systems and processes indeed contributes to reinforcing institutions to promote gender equality while making resources, both public and private, available for programs that uplift the lives and welfare of women and girls.
Meanwhile, the Department of Science and Technology will host “Mind the GaP (Gender and Poverty): A forum on gender mainstreaming in science, technology, and innovation for the economic empowerment of women and girls” in Manila on March 22 through a hybrid format. The side event aims to, among others, recognize and discuss that poverty is a human rights issue and present strategies to protect and fulfill the rights of poor women towards achieving gender equality and empowerment of women.
Prior to CSW68, a regional consultation was conducted by the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific last February, where countries and civil society organizations discussed common concerns and arrived at suggested actions related to 1) developing economic and social policies to address gendered poverty; 2) fiscal space and mobilizing financing for strategies to end women’s poverty; and 3) new development strategies: towards caring, green economies.
Through the main organization of the work and side events of the CSW68, women all over the world are hopeful that governments, civil society, the private sector, media and the academe will arrive at solutions that will end women’s poverty by “investing in policies and programs, including education, family planning, fair and equal ages, and expanded social benefits, that address gender inequalities and boosting women’s agency and leadership.”
Cherbett Karen Maralit, a Lee Kuan Yew fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2017, is the Presidential Communications Office’s undersecretary for operation, administration, finance and GOCCs, and vice chairman of the PCO GAD focal point system.