FOREWORD The passage of Republic Act 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women (MCW) and the subsequent effectivity of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) in 2010 provided the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) with a fresh and expanded mandate as oversight body and authority on women’s concerns, as a catalyst for gender mainstreaming and as a lead advocate of women’s empowerment, gender equity and gender equality. This landmark law further mandated the PCW to be the primary policy-making and coordinating body on women and gender equality concerns, to be the overall monitor and oversight on the MCW and its IRR and to lead the capacity development of agencies to enable them to implement the MCW. Gender mainstreaming is the main strategy to implement the law. It is pursued by integrating the gender perspective in government policies, plans, programs, activities and projects (PAPs) to carry out the law’s procedural, policy and sectoral program requirements. One important mechanism for gender mainstreaming is the annual gender and development (GAD) planning and budgeting process. The GAD plan seeks to address identified women and gender issues through specific activities and the GAD budget is the amount required to implement the GAD plan. The GAD plan and budget is part of the agency’s overall annual work plan and budget which is submitted to the Department of Budget and Management. To clarify the instructions on the formulation of GAD plans and budgets according to the provisions of the MCW, the PCW, in partnership with the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) issued the PCW-NEDADBM Joint Circular (JC) No. 2012-01 or Guidelines in the Preparation of the Annual GAD Plan and Budget and GAD Accomplishment Report to Implement the Magna Carta of Women. The JC was formulated in consultation with national government agencies (NGAs), state universities and colleges (SUCs) and government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs). This Joint Circular repealed NCRFW-NEDA-DBM Joint Circular (JC) No. 2004-01. vii