THE Australian government has allotted $1 million to strengthen women's roles in the Bangsamoro on peace building and conflict resolution.
The three-year project entitled “Basic Start” aims to transform women's views on leadership in their home and communities.
"We are trying to provide an avenue for the Bangsamoro women to speak up and engage with their leaders," Oxfam Conflict Transformation Program Manager Lyca Sarenas said Monday, February 27, at the sidelines of the conference on Women on Peace and Gender Governance at the Waterfront Insular Hotel.
Over 90 women leaders from selected local government units in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) and Zamboanga Peninsula participated in the conference to perform their duties to make gender equality a reality among their women constituents.
Oxfam Country director Richard Mawer said the project funded by the Australian government seeks to empower more than 900 Bangsamoro women in the development of the peace process.
"Hopefully we give all the women here the skills and some of the vocabulary to play an active role in their respective community," Mawer said.
Sarenas said the program started in 2015 along with the Women Engaged in Action 1325 and the implementation of the Philippine National Action Plan calling to fulfill its commitment on Women, Peace and Security in Armm.
"The peace and development in the Bangsamoro is a very long-term process so we hope to carry on working these issues even after the three-year program ends," he said.
The seminar entitled Women on Peace, Gender and Governance: Magnifying Women's Voices in the Bangsamoro held on Monday is the 7th among the series of training executed by the Oxfam Philippines in
partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.
