Gov’t extends grants to Clark ecozone locators with women-friendly practices

The Philippines, where factory workers are majority women, will extend a grant to 10 export manufacturing companies in Clark Freeport Zone that will score high on women-friendly workplaces and practices.

Health Undersecretary Dr. Paulyn Jean B. Rosell said at the launch of the APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economic Policy Toolkit at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) that Clark Freeport firms will get an initial assessment on their women-friendly practices to qualify for the grant.

According to Rosell, the DOH together with the Departments of Labor and Employment and Trade and Industry will come up with a scorecard to assess the volunteer companies readiness if they are gender fair or have women-friendly practices and policies.

Companies with score of 90 or higher are classified as green, companies scoring 70 to 89 are yellow while those below 70 are red. Ten companies with green rating will receive a grant of 500,000 each.

Ubial said the Department of Health has already allocated from its budget 10 million for this grant for the pilot companies to enhance their programs and document the changes and impact from the implementation of the Policy Toolkit on their work productivity and business improvements, among others.

The Toolkit seeks to address issues to improve women’s health in APEC economies across five categories: Workplace health and safety; health access and awareness; worklife balance; sexual and reproductive health; and gender-based violence.

Ubial added that the program’s implementation will start in in January next year and will be implemented by the chosen within a six-month period. Results of the documentation will be presented and shared in the next APEC meeting.

A review of Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Literature cited a study carried out by HERhealth in 34 export manufacturing factories in China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Vietnam, which showed that more than 80 percent of the factory workers in these countries are women.