"Nurturing women leaders: Grassroots Women's Leadership and Political Participation"
The Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC) has been currently working inside and outside the Bangsamoro region, creating programs that are specifically tailored to the needs of its partner network organizations and communities, and most importantly, to women and ensuring that they possess a significant part of every one of its programs. MPC has been engaging with Bangsamoro women leaders in areas where democracy has been nascent if not more or less established.
The MPC’s Grassroots Learning Hub project funded by the USAID and Save the Children- Philippines’ through its CSO2 small grant, has dedicated a component addressing women’s political participation and leadership. The Grassroots Women’s Leadership and Political Participation Hub which envisioned helping women acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to participate meaningfully in all aspects of the political process in the current Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) transition period.
Formally launched in February of this year, this program has been MPC’s to the calls of its partner network organizations for training that will equip them in complementing current efforts of the interim government to ensure that the institutional reforms agreed upon in the peace agreement will be fully implemented.
Women's with Leadership and Political Participation Training
Integrating feminine leadership into one’s identity is particularly difficult among women in BARMM region where credibility is established in a culture that privileges patriarchal or masculinist authority. Dominant perceptions and misconceptions still are prevalent that women are not cut out for leadership. And so hearing personal experiences of women leaders challenging the conventional ways of leadership are always beautiful, invigorating, and inspirational. There is no scarcity in women leaders, but there exists an environment that stifles their potentials.
The Mindanao Peoples Caucus in partnership with the United Nations International Organization on Migration through the Supporting Conflict Transformation towards Effective Peacebuilding in the Bangsamoro Region (STEP BARMM) Project, recently conducted a Participatory Action Research (PAR) entitled: “Promoting Conflict Prevention, Social Cohesion and Community Resilience in BARMM in time of COVID-19.”
