The Philippines will pilot test an Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) initiative to promote women protection at the workplace.
The Apec Women and the Economy (WE) Fora has launched on Wednesday the Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Policy Toolkit, which provides a menu of policies that targets to address barriers that hinder women’s productivity at workplace, as well as increasing women’s participation in the economy.
“The pilot of implementation of this toolkit will be done here in the Philippines,” Department of Health (DOH) Assistant Secretary Paulyn Jean B. Rosell-Ubial said at the Apec WE Fora news conference.
Ubial mentioned that the DOH targets to roll out the policy toolkit in 10 selected private companies inside the Clark Economic Zone in Central Luzon starting January 2016.
The policy toolkit focuses on five key categories: workplace health and safety; health access and awareness; work-life balance; sexual and reproductive health; and gender-based violence.
The DOH, along with the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Trade and Industry, will be developing the scorecard next month to rate companies’ implementation of the toolkit.
Under the scorecard, the public sector will rate the companies according to colors: green for 90 points and up; yellow for 71 to 89 points; and red for 70 points and below.
Ubial said the government will be providing grant of P500,000 per company, or a total of P5.0 million for the entire pilot testing which shall be used by companies to document and create an impact study of the policy toolkit on how it benefited the company.
“Those rated green will be provided grants so that they can actually document the interventions and the effect on their businesses, whether there has been significant gains in their financial and commercial interest,” Ubial mentioned.
“Hopefully the other economies of Asia and the Pacific can adapt it in their specific areas,” she added.
The Philippines will conclude its hosting of Apec-WE Fora on Friday.