A GENDER and development academy will soon rise in Mati City to assist villages in their gender mainstreaming efforts.

The academy is a joint project of the Davao Oriental State College of Science and Technology and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The move to set up a gender academy was the rest of a two-year research titled “Gender and Development in the Barangays in the City of Mati,” which was presented last Friday by the school’s DOSCST Gender and Development Center.

The two institutions are in the initial stages of establishing the academy with the research team set to develop training modules and provide gender sensitivity training in selected villages within the year.

The researchers said that they elaborated the gender mainstreaming levels of 26 barangay local government units in the City of Mati, in accordance with the Gender Mainistreaming Evaluation Framework developed by the Philipine Communission on Women.

“Aside from the GMEF, the research team composed of Dr. Jeralyn H. Sacro, Project Leader; Prof. Mary Fil M. Bauyot, Study Leader;  and Mr. Jhonnel P. Villegas, Study Leader, also conducted a gender analysis using the Harvard Analytical Framework to profile the activities, access and control, and influences of gender at the barangay level,” DOSCST said on Facebook.

“The study’s results shall serve as the baseline for developing a comprehensive GAD Framework, assisting the BLGUs in their gender mainstreaming efforts regarding policy, people, enabling mechanisms, and programs, projects and activities (PPAs),” it added.