OVERVIEW
Pursuant to Section 36 of Republic Act No. 9710, otherwise known as the Magna Carta of Women (MCW), all government departments, including their attached agencies, offices, bureaus, state universities and colleges, government owned and controlled corporations, local government units and all other government instrumentalities shall adopt gender mainstreaming as a strategy to promote women’s human rights and eliminate gender discrimination in their systems, structures, policies, programs , processes, and procedures and that gender biases are removed.
Being government-owned and controlled corporation, local water districts all over the country are mandated to allocate at least 5% of their budget for PAPs (Programs, Activities and Projects) to mainstream Gender and Development (GAD).
PCW Memorandum Circular No. 2015-03 dated May 19, 2015 sets the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) to exercise the regulatory jurisdiction over water districts and serve as the preliminary reviewer of water districts’ GAD Plans and Budget to review whether the identified gender issues and corresponding GAD programs, activities and projects (PAPs) are appropriate based on the parameters set under the aforementioned memorandum circular and are aligned with the water districts’ mandates, as well as the sector’s GAD goals and objectives.