Volume 20 | Issue No. 3 | May-June 2019 ISSN 0119-0725
KMO learning event tackles gender-fair language in official documents
T
he Seminar-workshop on Gender-Sensitive Office Communications held on May 2-3, 2019 marked the first learning event of the Knowledge Management Office (KMO) for this year.The KMO in partnership with the UPLB Gender Center conducted the seminar-workshop at the Conference Center and Hotel of the Development Academy of the Philippines, Tagaytay City for selected UPLB administrative staff
and researchers. A total of 19 personnel from CPAf (11), Graduate School (3), University Planning and Maintenance Office (2), and Bids and Awards Committee (3) participated in the activity. Ms. Laila M.
Garcia, freelance consultant and former substitute faculty of the UPLB College of Development Communication (CDC), and Ms.
Jullie-Ann C. Reyes, university research associate of the UPLB Gender Center, served as resource speakers.
In her presentation, Ms.
Garcia explained the purpose of the common means of official communication such as letters, emails, and memoranda. She also gave some tips on how to write them clearly and effectively.
Quoting Dr. Madeline M. Suva, retired CDC professor, “clear writing is a result of clear thinking,” Ms. Garcia said.
In 2005, the Civil Service Commission released
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CPAf UpdatesVolume 20 | Issue No. 3| May-June 2019 CPAf Updates
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Volume 20 | Issue No. 3| May-June 2019
Dr. Miriam R. Nguyen receives a certificate of recognition as paper presenter during the 2019 International Conference on Social Participation and Co-Management of Natural Resources for Sustainable Development. Dr. Miriam R. Nguyen
Dr. Nguyen presents ICARE activities in an international conference
D
r. Miriam R. Nguyen presented a research paper titled “The Lake, Communities and Climate Change” during the 2019 International Conference on Social Participation and Co- Management of Natural Resources for Sustainable Development held on June 20, 2019 at the SP Session Hall, Calamba City Hall, Laguna.Dr. Nguyen discussed the ICARE (Increasing Community Awareness and Resiliency Enhancement) activities of a research project she led.
Entitled “Developing Strategies Towards More Resilient Fishing Communities Amidst Climate Change: The Case of Major Lakes in Luzon,” the project started in 2017 and will be completed in October 2019. Study sites are the five major lakes in Luzon, namely:
Laguna Lake (Laguna and Rizal),
Taal Lake (Batangas), Naujan Lake (Oriental Mindoro), Lake Buhi (Camarines Sur), and Lake Bato (Camarines Sur and Albay).
This project is funded by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA- BAR).
Under ICARE, the project team conducted various capacity building activities in the study sites including the Lecture Seminar on Awareness Raising of Communities on Climate Change;
Lecture Seminar on Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience and Strategies of Fishing Communities on Climate Change; Training- workshop on Participatory Community Resiliency Action Planning for Climate Change;
Advocacy and Communication Activities Towards Climate
Change Resilience; and Provincial
Stakeholders’ Forum. These activities aimed to enhance the capacity of fishing communities in mitigating and coping with the negative effects of climate change, thereby enhancing their resilience. Validated problem trees, legitimized action plans for both capture and fish pen/
cage operation, and commitment of local government units and government agencies to fund planned activities and strategies were among the major outputs of ICARE.
In her presentation, Dr. Nguyen shared the
participants’ impressions on the different activities of ICARE.
Based on the pre- and post- activity assessments conducted, participants were highly satisfied and happy with the activities.
Well-planned and well-organized, the activities enhanced their knowledge on the various topics on climate.
Dr. Nguyen also shared proposed future activities such as upscaling the project to lake communities in Visayas and
Mindanao, and an action plan monitoring as requested by the study sites.
The City Government of Calamba, Shiga University (Japan), and the University of Lampung (Indonesia) hosted the conference with Toyota
Foundation (Japan) as sponsor.
Researchers and officials from Indonesia, Japan, and the
Philippines presented their studies on various challenges and best practices in natural resource management. Francisca O. Tan Memorandum Circular No. 12
regarding the use of non-sexist language in all official documents, communications, and issuances.
Non-sexist or gender-fair language, according to Ms. Reyes, is “the use of words in writing and in speech, in such a way where no gender bias is expressed or no gender is being limited and trivialized.”
To avoid sexist language, Ms. Reyes suggested to avoid the following: the generic use of he,
his, or him unless the antecedent is obviously male (e.g., the architect uses the blueprint vs.
...his blueprint); the generic use of man (e.g., ordinary people vs.
ordinary man); sexism in symbolic representations of gender (e.g., founder vs. founding father);
sexual stereotyping of roles (e.g., police officer vs. policeman); and sexism when addressing persons formally (e.g., Dr. Maria Dela Cruz vs. Dra. Maria Dela Cruz).
The KMO learning event series intends to provide avenues
for learning and knowledge sharing among CPAf staff and students. This year, KMO aims to serve a wider audience and intensify its public service. Aside from the KMO-Gender Center learning event, KMO is also co- organizing a training-workshop on journal article writing for the faculty and researchers from various state universities and colleges in Luzon. This will be held on the third quarter of 2019.
Stella Concepcion R. Britanico
KMO learning event...
(from front page)Dr. Nguyen presents...
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Ms. Jullie-Ann C. Reyes Ms. Laila M. Garcia
CPAf Updates is published by the College of Public Affairs and Development, UP Los Baños. Contributions from the faculty, non-academic staff, and students are welcome. Please send news/feature articles and photos to [email protected]. Requests for use of content should be addressed to the
Editor-in-Chief. Comments and suggestions for improvement are most welcome.
Editorial Adviser: ROLANDO T. BELLO • Editor-in-Chief: EVELIE P. SERRANO • Associate Editor: STELLA CONCEPCION R. BRITANICO Managing Editor: STOIX NEBIN S. PASCUA • Layout Artist: RUETH T. CABRAL • Photos: DANILO G. REFORMA
Production: SANDRALYN V. TAN
https://cpaf.uplb.edu.ph • uplb.cpaf • UPLBcpaf
CPAf Updates Volume 20 | Issue No. 3| May-June 2019
CISC research team holds capacity-building activities among lakeshore communities in Libon, Albay
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research team from the Community Innovation Studies Center (CISC) of CPAf conducted a climate change- related lecture-seminar and participatory action planning training-workshop in Libon, Albay. These are among the major activities of the research project titled “Developing Strategies Towards More Resilient Fishing Communities Amidst Climate Change: The Case of Major Lakes in Luzon.”The Awareness-Raising Lecture-seminar on Climate Change was held separately in two lakeshore barangays of Nogpo and Buga in Libon, Albay.
A total of 93 stakeholders, 56 from Nogpo and 37 from Buga, participated. They were mostly fishermen; others were members of the Barangay Council and Barangay Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council (BFARMC), representatives of the Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO), farmers, and wives of the fishermen. The respective Barangay Chairpersons of Nogpo and Buga attended the activity and gave the welcome remarks.
Ms. Samantha Geraldine G.
De los Santos of CPAf discussed the concept of climate change and its effects on the fisherfolks’
livelihood and on their major water resources. She also shared some climate change adaptation
strategies being done in other areas. Aquaculturist of the City Agricultural Services Department of Calamba City, Ms. Cynthia C.
Buen, shared the mitigation and adaptation strategies on climate change effects being practiced by fishing communities in lakeshore areas in Calamba City.
Since 2018, lecture- seminars have been conducted in the six study sites to capacitate fishing communities on climate change adaptation. Another activity was the Participatory Community Resilience Action Planning (PCRAP) training-workshop with fishing communities in order to increase their resiliency on the challenges posed by climate change. The PCRAP training-workshop in Libon was conducted at Antonette’s Place on March 26- 27, 2019. The 42 participants include representatives of four lakeshore barangays of Lake Bato, the Municipal Agriculture Office, the BFARMC, and the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
During the said workshop, participants were grouped into two: those who are engaged in Open Water Fishing (OWF) and those in Fish Cage Operation (FCO). For the OWF group, declining fish catch due to
overfishing and increasing number of fishermen, pollution, shallowing
of lake, decreasing area for open fishing, and illegal fishing were the identified challenges. On the other hand, FCO group identified low income and fish harvest due to limited or lack of fishing gears, slow growth of fishes, shallow lake, and loss of fish from the cages.
The CISC-based research project is funded by the Bureau of Agricultural Research of the Department of Agriculture. It started in January 2017 and will end this October 2019. It is led by Dr. Miriam R. Nguyen (project leader), with CISC Director Blanquita R. Pantoja, Ms. Maria Francesca O. Tan, and Ms. Francisca O. Tan as study leaders. Also with the team are Ms. Samantha Geraldine G. De los Santos and Ms. Roxane A. Banalo as project staff. The project covers five major lakes in six provinces:
Laguna Lake (Laguna and Rizal);
Taal Lake (Batangas), Naujan Lake (Oriental Mindoro), Lake Buhi (Camarines Sur), and Lake Bato (Camarines Sur and Albay).
Francisca O. Tan
