The Ateneo de Manila University School of Law (ALS) offered a certificate course on adopting a Gender-transformative Approach to Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation (CCAM) from 3 - 21 January 2022. It was attended by more than 30 local disaster risk reduction management officers, gender and development officers, and civil society representatives from various local government units in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon. During the course, the participants learned about the overall situation in the country and the legal framework on DRRM and CCAM, as well as integrating the human rights-based approach and gender-transformative approach to planning and programming in these areas.
The resource persons for the course were:
· Fr. Jose Ramon T. Villarin, SJ, former Ateneo de Manila University President and Lead Reviewer of the UN Convention on Climate Change and Advisory Board Member of the Climate Change Commission;
· Dean Antonio M. La Vina, Lead Negotiator for the Philippines in the implementation of Conventions on the Biological Diversity and Climate Change and human rights, indigenous peoples, and climate justice advocate;
· Dr. Francisco A. Magno, Senior Fellow and Founding Director of the Jesse M. Robredo Institute of Governance and Political Science Associate Professor at De La Salle University – Manila;
· Atty. Ryan Jeremiah D. Quan, human rights and labor law professor at ALS and Program Officer of the ALS Graduate Legal Studies Institute;
· Prof. Amparita Sta. Maria, women’s rights and gender expert and concurrent Director of the ALS Graduate Legal Studies Institute and the Ateneo Human Rights Center Urduja Women’s Desk;
· Atty. Cathleen Terry E. Caga-anan, Field Program Coordinator of the International Development Law Organization in the Philippines and ALS faculty member;
· Atty. Lesley Jeanne Y. Cordero, World Bank Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist and former Undersecretary of the Office of the President - Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery; and
· Dr. Emma E. Porio, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Science Research Fellow at the Manila Observatory, Ateneo de Manila University.
The Certificate Course was organized in partnership with the Department of Interior and Local Government - Region IV-A, under the leadership of Director Ariel O. Iglesia, Assistant Regional Director Noel R. Bartobalac and with the guidance of Local Government Capability Division Chief Mr. Jay T. Beltran. The course was implemented by the Ateneo Human Rights Center, with the generous support of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
