Accelerating Gender Mainstreaming thru Training and Advocacy

Accelerating Gender Mainstreaming thru Training and Advocacy

I’ve been in social development work for more than two (2) decades and have conducted gender and development and other related trainings to 36 sub national government agencies; 18 local government units at the provincial and municipal levels; 22 NGOs, academic institutions and private sector. This does not include the trainings which were conducted in the villages as part of the projects we are implementing.

Am I making an impact? How many people have I reached so far? Are my efforts able to open the hearts and minds of the participants to change their patriarchal mindsets? Are the consciousness-raising resulting to change in behaviours and overcoming gender biases?

I don’t have answers because I don’t keep track. Without proper tracking, I have no way of knowing whether I am producing results or not.

Thus, this 2024, I will keep tab on the number of people I have reached and conduct evaluation of the trainings conducted. I will design an evaluation form that will gather information regarding the changes in knowledge, skills and attitude of the participants. The Resource Person evaluation form that is being administered after the training does not capture the learnings and realizations of the participants. It only asked whether, the resource person has:

• thorough knowledge of the topics
• provided valuable insights and responses to participants queries
• thoroughly explained and processed the learning activities
• created a good learning environment
• sustained the attention of the participants
• managed her time well
• demonstrated keenness to the needs of the participants

Are they really learning from me? Am I making a dent on their level of consciousness?

Thus, the World Pulse’ impact dashboard will be helpful in this initiative. By setting a target, I will proactively reach more organizations and people to increase the number of gender and development champions and accelerate gender mainstreaming in policies, plans and projects and activities.

I will start by including the number of persons who attended the orientation on Gender Equity, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) which was conducted for a group of human resource and organizational development practitioners and the Gender Inclusive Language and Gender Analysis with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in our Eastern Visayas, Philippines.

I intend to reach 600 direct participants from January to December 2024.