Posted on  by jeynard

Presidential Proclamation No.227 Series of 1988 declares the observance of the Month of March as Women’s Role in History Month and Republic Act No. 6949 Series of 1990 declares March 8 of every year as National Women’s Day which aims to give recognition to the contributions of Filipino women in our society.

This year’s theme, “We Make Change Work for Women”, which shall be used from 2017 -2022. It highlights the empowerment of women as active contributors to and claimholders of development. This pursuit of development is also anchored on the commitment of “Malasakit at Pagbabago” or True Compassion and Real Change.

The National Women’s Month Celebration (NWMC) every March is part of the worldwide observance of the International Women’s Day (IWD). The following policies support the celebration:

Proclamation No. 224, s. 1998 Declaring the first week of March each year as Women’s Week and March 8 as Women’s Rights and International Peace Day

Proclamation No. 227, s. 1998 Providing for the Observance of the Month of March as Women’s Role in History Month

Republic Act No. 6949, s. 1990 Declaring March 8 of every year as National Women’s Day

Theme:

In 2017, the PCW Board Members and Inter-Agency Technical Working Group identified the NWMC theme “We Make Change Work for Women” to be used from 2017-2022. The theme highlights the empowerment of women as active contributors to and claimholders of development. This pursuit of development is also anchored on the commitment of “Malasakit at Pagbabago” or True Compassion and Real Change.

The theme also emphasizes that women should be active drivers in bringing about positive changes, and that they should also reap from the fruits of development efforts. This can be made possible by empowering women—enabling them to meaningfully engage with other development stakeholders, and having them benefit from the implementation of the Magna Carta of Women.

ELEMENTS OF THE THEME

 We stands for Women’ Empowerment – empowering women enables them to confidently and meaningfully engage with appropriate institutions to ensure that they contribute to and benefit from development and changes. Thus, women’s empowerment will make the change that we are espousing or any development effort responsive of women’s concerns.

  • Make Change Work= MCW = Magna Carta of Women – making change work for women necessitates strengthening the implementation of the MCW at all levels. It means putting in place functional mechanisms as well as implementing and making known to citizens, programs and services that address strategic gender needs of women.
  • Change– also means Compassionate and Harmonized Actions and Networks for Gender Equality.
  • We / us or “kami / tayo” in Filipino– who is going to pave the way for an enabling environment for women to be empowered? Who is going to ensure that the MCW is implemented at all levels? Who is going to make change work for women? It all of us, in our various capacities whether as government officials and employees, members of the private sector, the academe, non-government organizations, or as private individuals can be partners for a change that is gender-responsive. It emphasizes our collective effort, collaboration and participation to ensure that women will not be left behind in the pursuit of change.

The theme emphasizes that women should be active drivers in bringing about positive changes, and that they should also reap from fruits of development efforts. This can be made possible by empowering women – enabling them to meaningfully engage with other development stakeholders, and by fully implementing the MCW.

OBJECTIVES

Consistent with Proclamation No. 227 s. 1988, the annual conduct of the National Women’s Month Celebration (NWMC) aims to give due recognition to the contributions of Filipino women in our society.

Specifically, 2018 celebration aims to:

  1. inform and engagewomen as stakeholders of government programs and services – to promote citizen-centric governance and make “change” a conscious effort to know, understand, and provide what ALL citizens need;
  2. create and facilitateplatforms to discuss good practices, gaps, challenges , and commitments in pursuing gender and development (GAD) – to strengthen implementation of the Magna Carta of Women; and
  3. inspire and empower women and girls to be agents of change – to contribute in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of all women.