Gender Equality in Diplomacy to be discussed in Women in Diplomacy Webinar

The Delegation of the European Union (EU) to the Philippines and the Foreign Service Institute will jointly conduct a “Women in Diplomacy” webinar on 22 March 2021 to discuss the state of play in gender equity and gender equality in diplomacy.

The webinar will feature a distinguished roster of diplomats such as EU Ambassador Luc Véron, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Domingo-Albert, Acting Director Anne Kristine Salvador, Performance and Records Management Division and GAD Focal Point Officer of the Human Resources Management Office,  Department of Foreign Affairs.

A panel on the realities on diplomacy on the ground will be moderated by the EU Gender Champion, Ambassador Saskia de Lang of the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

Discussants include Philippine Ambassador to Germany Maria Therese Dizon-De Vega, Danish Ambassador to the Philippines Grete Sillasen, Philippine Ambassador to Portugal Celia Anna Feria, French Ambassador to the Philippines Michèle Boccoz .

Hungarian Ambassador to the Philippines Dr. Titanilla Tóth will provide the concluding remarks .

Together with the Foreign Service Institute, the EU Delegation endeavors to generate awareness and a deeper understanding on gender equality in diplomacy in the EU and the Philippines to inspire diplomats to uphold gender equity and equality in their workplace by integrating gender mainstreaming in their programming and in their own work ethics.

Both the EU and the Philippines strive to ensure equal opportunities and equal treatment for men and women and to combat any form of discrimination on the grounds of gender. The Philippines has adopted its Gender and Development Agenda which contains its targeted policies and programmes from 2018 to 2022 to address gender issues and challenges in the Department and all foreign service posts.

For the EU, a new EU Gender Action Plan III has been launched end of 2020 and the EU Ambassador together with the Ambassadors of the EU member states’ embassies are committed to be gender responsive leaders and to advance the gender agenda in their work. The 2021 EU Gender Champion is the Ambassador of the Royal Netherlands Embassy Saskia de Lang. 

The Gender Action Plan III provides the EU with a policy framework with five pillars of action for accelerating progress towards meeting international commitments and a world in which everyone has space to thrive. It makes the promotion of gender equality a priority of all external policies and actions; offers a roadmap for working together with stakeholders at national, regional and multilateral levels; steps up action in strategic thematic areas; calls for the institutions to lead by example, and; ensures the transparency of the results.