Vox Bikol Columnist in International Women' Rights Workshop

Dr. Bernadette Gavino-Gumba, a columnist of Vox Bikol and a faculty member of the Ateneo de Naga University, was selected to participate in the Follow-up Workshop to the "Training Programme on the Equal Status and Human Rights of Women in South East Asia" which she had attended in Cambodia last 5-16 October 2009. She was one of the five participants selected from the 2009 batch, to join others from batches of 2007, 2008A and 2008B.

The workshop which was held at Holiday Inn Silom in Bangkok, Thailand last 1-4 March 2010 was sponsored by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, the same organization that convened the training programme in Cambodia. It was attended by delegates from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines, with speakers and facilitators coming from Sweden and South Africa. The workshop was funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), a government agency tasked to plan and administer Sweden's bilateral cooperation with developing countries. The major part of the development assistance is allocated to some twenty partner countries where long-term cooperation is implemented. Enhancing regional cooperation in the field of human rights and democracy among the countries in South East Asia constitutes a main priority for SIDA in its development cooperation activities in the region.

Dr. Gumba presented the initial results of her study entitled "An Assessment of the Gender and Development Program in the Ateneo de Naga University, Philippines." The study aimed to provide empirical data on indicators of success that may be attributed to the existence of the Office of Gender and Development in the university in the period 2000-2008. The said study collected and examined sex-disaggregated data on leadership and management, employment and promotions, decision-making bodies and committees, campus politics and composition of faculty, staff and students, among others.