28/09/2026
IN PHOTOS | 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗣𝗚𝗗 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲–𝟮𝟬𝟰𝟬
On September 8-9, 2026, stakeholders from across Mindanao gathered for the Mindanao Regional Consultation for the development of the Philippine Plan for Gender-Transformative Development (PPGD) 2026–2040.
The consultation brought together representatives from Regions IX, X, XI, XII, Caraga, and other Mindanao stakeholders, including regional government agencies, local government units, constitutional bodies, state universities and colleges, civil society and people’s organizations, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, youth, migrant workers, and other sectors. Their participation brought into the planning process the diverse realities of women and girls in urban, rural, geographically isolated, coastal and island, Indigenous, and conflict-affected communities.
Building on the earlier Visayas and Luzon consultations, participants examined persistent and emerging gender issues and identified priorities that require transformative action toward 2040. Discussions highlighted the growing risks of technology-facilitated gender-based violence and unequal digital access; women’s economic insecurity, migration, and unpaid care work; continuing barriers to protection and access to justice; and the compounded impacts of climate change, disasters, conflict, and geographic isolation on women and marginalized groups.
Participants also emphasized the need to move GAD implementation beyond compliance toward measurable changes in people’s lives. Recommendations included strengthening GAD institutions and local capacities, improving sex-disaggregated and intersectional data, ensuring continuity of health and social protection services during crises, strengthening care infrastructure and sustainable livelihoods, and making digital technologies safer and more inclusive.
Consistent with the direction set by PCW Chairperson Ermelita V. Valdeavilla, the Mindanao consultation reinforced the shift toward a gender-transformative approach for the successor PPGD. Rather than stopping at identifying gender gaps or expanding access to programs and services, the process asks what must change in policies, institutions, investments, systems, power relations, and social norms so that inequalities are not continually reproduced.
The Mindanao consultation forms part of PCW’s nationwide participatory process, undertaken with the University of the Philippines Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, to develop a successor plan that is evidence-based, results-oriented, locally grounded, collectively owned, and gender-transformative. Together with the perspectives gathered from the Visayas, Luzon, and succeeding consultations, the inputs from Mindanao will help shape the country’s gender equality priorities and transformative actions toward 2040.
