THE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Negros Occidental - North has conducted Gender and Development (GAD) analysis and tools training for its executives and spokespersons to institutionalize and strengthen its focal point system.

Provincial Agrarian Reform program officer I Milagros Flores, during the activity in Bacolod City Monday, February 10, presented the salient features and updates of the GAD tools and exploration of the interim technical working group.

Flores also discussed GAD-related events from February to April this years as well as the reconstitution of the Provincial GAD Focal Team.

The agency also administered a review of its program of activities and project proposals to align these undertakings in accordance with the vision of the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW).

This is in line with the commission’s gender responsive focus area and the Philippine framework plan for women to be all gender-inclusive in servicing its internal and external stakeholders, it added.

DAR-Negros Occidental, in a statement, said the activity also aims to clarify the roles and responsibilities, composition and the structure of the agency’s GAD Focal Point System (GFPS).

This is to enable GFPS to function as a mechanism for catalyzing and accelerating gender mainstreaming in the agency towards the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The DAR and PCW are one in creating and enabling environment for its stakeholders to be more responsive in achieving equality and empowerment across all genders, it said. (EPN)