Legarda: Invest in Women Leadership

IN CELEBRATION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, SENATOR LOREN LEGARDA TODAY ENCOURAGED THE GOVERNMENT TO INVEST MORE IN STRENGTHENING WOMEN’S ROLE AS LEADERS IN THE SOCIETY.
Legarda said that women have proven their leadership capabilities especially in times of crisis.
“Women are powerful agents of change. We know this and we have a track record to prove this,” she stressed.
The Senator said that in the area of climate change adaptation and mitigation, women from different parts of the world have been developing various programs for such agenda.
In Micronesia, women farmers have developed their own useful knowledge of the island’s hydrology, enabling them to find water and dig out water wells during droughts.
A gender-sensitive community education in Honduras, one that focused on warning systems and hazard management overseen by women, led to the prompt but orderly evacuation of the communities hard hit by Hurricane Mitch in 2004, which saved hundreds of lives.
“In the Philippines, women’s organizations have been developing farming and fishing strategies that can adapt to extreme weather events. Likewise, women make up a sizable portion of workers, supporters and volunteers of Luntiang Pilipinas. It is one of the most active organizations in the country’s tree planting and reforestation work,” Legarda pointed out.
“We need to lift the social, cultural and institutional barriers that constrain women from effectively adapting to climate change effects in order to seek welfare and well being for themselves and their families, and that they may effectively use their leadership skills to contribute in national development,” Legarda concluded.