The National Council for Children’s Television (NCCT), the sole government agency with the mandate to ensure media literacy education for the Filipino Children, held a Gender Sensitivity Training from March 29 to 31, 2017 at Hotel Veniz, Baguio City. The resource speaker for the said training was Ms. Marita Castillo-Pimentel, an independent consultant of the Philippine Commission on Women vis-à-vis Field Program Manager of the Office of the Secretary, Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The gender sensitivity training, which is part of the Gender and Development effort of the government, is the first of the four gender sensitivity trainings to be conducted for this year. This effort is for the NCCT to ensure the empowerment of not just one sex but of both sexes – the male and the female sex.

Aside from conducting these important trainings, the NCCT also makes sure that the agency is an employer of equal opportunity. The current staff and personnel of the NCCT is composed of 8 women and 9 males.

The Gender Sensitivity Training covered the history of gender and development, gender sensitization, gendered roles and gendered work spaces, gender division of labor, and teaching and learning gender in media.

The concept of Gender and Development in the Philippines can trace its roots to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. The late Leticia Ramos-Shahani played a critical role in the crafting and adoption of this vital document.