Message on the DFA’s Launch of the Learning Management System in celebration of the 2020 National Women’s Month

Before National Women’s Month comes to an end, we wish to salute the women and men of the Department especially the frontliners in our Foreign Service Posts and all our personnel who continue to respond to the call of duty to provide critical services to our fellow Filipinos.

This year’s celebration of women and their valuable role in society and nation-building have been overshadowed by the global pandemic that is COVID-19. It is very important, however, that in a challenging time such as this, the government continues to promote the welfare of its people, respond to their varying needs, and be better prepared to face future disruptions.

To achieve this, we must learn to not let our guard down in looking at every situation using a gender lens. The World Health Organization attests that exploitation of women and children as well as domestic violence increase during calamities and crises.

It is therefore critical that we equip ourselves with the competencies to be more gender-sensitive and gender-responsive to the needs of our fellow Filipinos and other stakeholders. 

The Department of Foreign Affairs, being at the forefront of extending services to Filipinos here and abroad, has developed a strategy to capacitate its personnel to be more gender-sensitive through GAD-competency building. In situations like this where we are forced to work from home, it is with pleasure that we introduce the Department’s Learning Management System whose first course is Gender Sensitivity Training. 

This online Gender Sensitivity Training Course, developed by the UP Social Action for Research and Development Foundation Inc. and Buri Technologies Inc., in partnership with the GAD Secretariat and the GAD Focal Point Officers, aims to equip learners with the competencies required in identifying and addressing gender issues in the course of their work. It discusses basic gender concepts, gender roles, gender mainstreaming, and gender analysis, among others, to sensitize all of the Department’s personnel to the goals of gender equality and women empowerment.

We would also like to take this opportunity to share with you a trailer for the DFA Gender Statistics with 2019 as the baseline year. We will be generating these statistics every year in order to measure the effectiveness of our programs, projects and activities.

One of the data sets illustrates a gender gap among DFA personnel occupying third-level positions (FSO IV to Career Minister). In order to address this, it is also our pleasure to announce that the Department will be providing seven scholarship grants to Cornell University’s “Women in Leadership” course this year and hopefully in the years to come. This measure is also in response to the Civil Service Commission’s challenge for “affirmative action” to put more women in leadership roles in government.

With the Learning Management System, gender statistics and these online courses, we hope that together, we will become agents of change towards a more sustainable gender equality and empowerment for all in the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

A pleasant, safe, and healthy week to all.

Thank you!   

J. Eduardo Malaya                                                    Antonio A. Morales

Undersecretary for Administration                              Assistant Secretary, HRMO

Chairperson of the GAD Focal Point System             Head of the GAD Secretariat

Executive Committee

Please click on the PHOTOS or LINKS below for the trailers of the following DFA videos:

1) DFA Online Gender Sensitivity Training: [LINK]

2) DFA Gender Statistics: [LINK]