GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

Accomplishment:

The project location is within the Muslim community, where most beneficiaries are Maranao people. In their culture, they believe that women should stay at home and take care of the children for the husband.

Despite the culture, the project aimed to increase women's participation and involvement in irrigation-related activities. These include pre-construction and construction activities, capability-building training to enrich their knowledge, attitude and skills in irrigation development, and gender sensitivity awareness.

There were eleven (11) pre-construction conferences conducted and participated by 122 (33%) females and 243 (67%) males, which raised awareness of women's participation in the project construction and implementation. Seven (7) types of trainings were provided for capability building and participated by 956 (33%) females and 1,923 (67%) males. Gender sensitivity training was also conducted for all the IAs to provide updated information on GAD issues, programs, and projects. This was participated by 129 (36%) females and 234 (64%) males.

The INREMP-BMCRRP set a gender target of 30% for the training participants to be women. The project has met these targets except for the Basic Leadership and Development Course, where the women participants have fallen short of the target by a minimal margin of 4%. The result speaks of the culture of Lanao del Sur as a male-controlled society.

During the project's construction phase, 108 meetings and consultations were conducted, consisting of 189 (20.41%) females , allowing them to be heard and aware of the project's status and implementation. Also, 48 (2.94%) females were employed as timekeepers and cooks. On the other hand, minimal participation of women was observed in "Takay" (group works undertaken by IA) since the construction of irrigation facilities requires laborious work.

As a result of the above activities and gender mainstreaming in the projects, women's IA leadership seats increased from 23 to 28 or 21.74% (refer Annex 23. Increment in Female IA Officers). Thus, women are given equal opportunity to be heard in any IA discussions and decision-making. Knowing that Lanao del Sur is a largely patriarchal society, it is worth mentioning that one of the IA presidents is a woman.

Moreover, women's membership in the IA increased from 144 to 181 or 25.69% . The women respondents of the household socioeconomic survey mentioned that they were encouraged to be active members of the IAs because of the new knowledge they gained, which can be useful in their livelihood. In addition, a sense of responsibility is to support the IA because it provides community service. As a result, they believe that their involvement can influence the critical decision-making of the organization.

Likewise, it was observed that during the INREMP-BMCRRP mass turnover of projects last May 31, 2022, women could actively participate in the event, unlike the previous turnover of projects under NIA regular funds, wherein men mostly dominated the events. Males are now lenient in allowing women to participate in irrigation-related activities following the intervention provided by the project concerning gender sensitivity awareness.

The projects benefited 13,489 persons, of which 6,906 (51.20%) were females and 573 (20.39%) women-headed households

The Gender and Development Plan: