Environment, Social and Gender

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 by Millennium Challenge Account - Philippines

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ENVIRONMENTKALAHI-CIDSSDevelopment of Thematic Environmental Management Systems (TEMS) for the municipalities where KC will be implemented in order to ensure that environmental considerations are incorporated into KC decision-making processes and the project life-cycle from project design, location, implementation through monitoring and evaluation and final close-out. The TEMS refers to an approach to managing environmental impacts over a large geographic area and for high number of small-scale projects. It includes developing a methodology for screening projects, identifying key environmental impacts and mitigations and an approach to monitoring those impacts. Given that this program is implemented in rural areas and in poor urban enclaves, the system is driven by manuals, field guides and training rather than a computer-based management system. Last May 9, MCA-P signed a 12-month contract with Resolute CM and Pacific Spectrum Environmental Research and Consultancy Inc. to develop the TEMS.

SNRDP

  • Package A is conducting baseline studies of air and water quality, geo-hazard mapping in coordination with DENR and DOST.
  • Package B, which covers 11 municipalities, is required to submit an Initial Environmental Examination (IEE). This project is screened as Category B, meaning the impact is less than Category A, impact is site specific, few are irreversible and mitigation measures are readily available.
  • Preparation of Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) proceeding

GENDER

MCA-P’s Social and Gender Integration Plan
MCA-P’s Social and Gender Integration Plan provides a guiding framework for integrating social and gender issues into projects. The Plan (click here for the SGIP Plan) was approved by MCC in March 2012.

Social and Gender Integration in Projects

MCC, MCA-P push for gender equality as a key tool for growth

The fight against global poverty need not discriminate. In its aim to uplift lives, it should favor nothing and no one—no nationalities, religions, political ideologies, and ethnicities—not even gender.

This proves true for us in Millennium Challenge Account – Philippines (MCA-P) and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Our mantra is that “it is only through gender equality that a nation can truly promote economic growth and alleviate poverty.” (Read more here)


KALAHI-CIDSS is a community-driven development project that includes strong outreach and targeting of women and vulnerable groups within communities. The MCC-funded municipalities incorporate lessons learned from earlier implementation to include a number of gender focused activities. This includes the passage of a new KC gender policy and development of a gender toolkit to strengthen capacity of field staff to surface and integrate gender issues into funded projects.A $1-million Gender Incentive Fund will enable communities to address local gender issues.

Enhancing M&E and embedding gender into impact evaluations will enable us to better track benefits and evaluate results of gender focused activities.SNRDP includes strong environmental and social mitigation with a focus on women and other vulnerable groups. During resettlement planning and implementation, the needs of both women and men are being considered and compensation will be carried out with equal consideration for men and women. The project will utilize the frameworks and tools suggested through the “Toolkit for Making Road Infrastructure Projects Gender-Responsive.” This includes areas on consultation, creating economic opportunities for women during construction and monitoring.

RARP provides a good opportunity to track sex-disaggregated data on taxpayers and the project will do so through the electronic tax information system. These data will be used to better understand male and female taxpayer behavior and any differences between them, and to inform the public through a public awareness campaign.

Main Frameworks

The main frameworks and guidance for integrating social and gender issues into MCAs projects are:

1. MCC Gender Policy: http://www.mcc.gov/documents/guidance/policy-gender.pdf

2. MCC Gender Integration Milestones and Operational Procedures:
http://www.mcc.gov/documents/guidance/guidance-2011001054001-genderintegration.pdf

3. KALAHI-CIDSS Gender Policy

MCA-P’s gender requirements are also in line with national frameworks and policies on gender equality, including the Harmonized Gender and Development Guidelines and the Magna Carta of Women.