Next, the prospects of the GBV Observatory Project and the Regional Capacity Building on
Mapping of Legal Referral Mechanisms on GBV were emphasized.
The current training will be guided by the need to concentrate on how to make voices of one of
the most excluded sectors of society be heard in this process. It is also aimed at echoing findings
and processes on the conduct of the mapping of GBV legal referral mechanism; enhancing
regional office capacity to plan and implement GBV mapping legal referral mechanism in their
respective areas of responsibilities; and contributing to enhanced capacity of the Commission
and the regions to serve as Gender Ombud.
Too, the training will make available a venue to discuss plans and implementation of GBV
mapping and other gender related activities in the regions. As such, it ought to strike a balance
of creativity from the ground and standards from the central office. It was recognized that in
implementing a program or project, it is also productive to gather ideas and insights from the
regional offices. As such, the formula has always been 80-20, in which 80% of project
implementation is prescribed and designed with inputs about standard practices and programs
which can be compared and contrasted in each region and results of which will be consolidated
to get a national picture. Meanwhile, the remaining 20% rests on the rich creativity and
ingenuity of the regional offices. The training will provide time to discuss all of these which will
later be crystallized to come up with better program and be considered and reprogrammed from
the central to become a standard.
As a final note, Commissioner Gomez-Dumpit shared that as the Commission crossed its midterm mark last November 5, it considers itself on legacy mode. For this, the regional offices and
respective officers are the legacy and will be the ones contributing to the legacy that the
Commission will leave behind at end of term on May 5, 2022. She hoped by then she would have
visited all the regions already. She wished everyone well in putting all ideas and insights together
for a very successful capacity building project but I’m more excited about what comes out of this
after. Lastly, she also thanked the indefatigable duo and team from Gender Equality and
Women’s Human Rights Center.
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