Section 3 - Educating and Partnering for CEDAW

The proposed strategies and interventions were as follows: (1) setting of a
common ground in terms of the national agenda, vision, rules and guidelines
for implementation of CEDAW and related laws, policies, programmes on
women; (2) conduct of a regular briefing or orientation among newly appointed
and elected officials on CEDAW and related laws; (3) creating conditions
conducive to transformative politics, human rights and gender-sensitive legal
structures; (4) strengthening capacity of national and local governments for
effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation; (5) harmonizing government
organization (GO) plans as well as its linkages with NGO and private agencies/
strengthening GO-NGO collaboration; (6) strengthening the role of NCRFW; (7)
popularizing CEDAW and related laws including the development of modules and
integration in academic curriculum; (8) integrating CEDAW in the programmes of
government, non-government and academic institutions; and (9) involving men
as allies.
In terms of sustainability, participants are expected to echo their learning to
their respective organization and start working to integrate CEDAW in their
programmes.
A Framework Paper
The multi-stakeholders’ workshops were designed and documented towards
producing a framework paper called “From De Jure to De Facto Rights for Women:
Towards a Framework for Strengthening Implementation of the CEDAW in the
Philippines”. It was completed in November 2005 after going through a number of
revisions enriched by comments and additional inputs from members of the
project team and from the consultation workshops.
The CEDAW Framework is needed for assessing national policies related to
women’s human rights and instituting a multi-sectoral integrated mechanism for
CEDAW standards in Philippine laws, policies, and programmes. The framework
paper provides an overview of Philippine compliance to CEDAW, including the
gaps and challenges in its implementation, and its linkage with other international
instruments such as the BPFA and MDGs.
The overview-framework paper serves as a useful tool for various stakeholders that
(1) provides a comprehensive view of how CEDAW is pursued in the Philippines;
(2) identifies gaps in policy implementation; (3) proposes recommendations to
address gaps; and (4) outlines directions for action and planning that may be
taken in programmes, projects and activities.
The framework and the training modules were shared in a regional workshop cohosted
by WAGI and the CEDAW SEAP Philippines in November 30 to December
2, 2006. There were 33 gender trainers from seven southeast Asian countries:
Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste, and Vietnam
who gave very positive feedback that the framework and the training modules
were a good model and could be adapted to their respective countries.
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