A New Zealand-based organization and the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) recently commended the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) for placing inclusivity at the core of its internal and external services.
The Center for Organizational Excellence Research (COER) in early August recognized PhilRice’s gender and development (GAD) mainstreaming as an outstanding international best practice under the social responsibility category among 82 worldwide contenders.
COER, an organization dedicated to benchmarking and business excellence research and consultancy, lauded the Institute’s implementation of gender-sensitive and gender-responsive programs, projects, and activities.
These programs include the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Program and the Rice Business Innovations System Community Program (RiceBIS), which ensure equal participation of women and men in the provision of production and technical support services on rice farming and agripreneurship.
Meanwhile, PCW bestowed the Silver award for Outstanding Gender-Responsive Agency and GADtimpala Bronze award for the Institute’s exemplary GAD Focal Point System (GADtimpala AlaGAD).
As a rigorous process, the award selection committee composed of the PCW and inter-agency body, reviewed and validated 18 qualifiers as part of their 2023 Gender and Development Transformation and Institutionalization through Mainstreaming of Programs, Agenda, Linkages, and Advocacies (GADTimpala) search.
“At PhilRice, we have seamlessly integrated Gender and Development (GAD) principles in our operations to give rice science a human face. While we play different roles in our pursuit of prosperous rice farming communities through science and technology, we ensure complementation and cooperation of women and men to promote fairness, inclusiveness, and sustainability,” said Dr. Karen Eloisa T. Barroga, PhilRice deputy executive director for development.
“We thank the PCW for this double award. PhilRice has always been supportive of GAD, and we’re truly glad that our efforts have been honored,” Dr. John C. de Leon, PhilRice executive director added.
