City of San Fernando, Pampanga – The Commission on Audit Regional Office No. 3 joins the nation in celebrating the worldwide observance of the National Women’s month with the theme “We Make Change Work for Women.”

The said theme has been adopted by the National Women’s Month Celebration (NWMC) since 2017 as it highlights the empowerment of women as active contributors to and claimholders of development, anchored on the commitment of ‘Malasakit at Pagbabago” or True Compassion and Real Change.

On its 6^th year, the theme aims to: inform and engage women as stakeholders of government programs and services; create and facilitate platforms to discuss good practices, gaps, challenges, and commitments in pursuing Gender and Development (GAD) to strengthen implementation of the Magna Carta of Women; and inspire and empower women and girls to be agents of change and to contribute in promoting gender equality and the women empowerment.

International Women’s Day has existed in various forms all over the world for more than 100 years. It was developed from social justice and different labor movements to eventually become an annual event recognized by the United Nations.

In the Philippines, the Women’s Month Celebration has since performed as a venue to showcase women’s successes and address ongoing and developing women’s empowerment and gender equality topics and concerns, difficulties, and commitments.

In line with the celebration, COA RO3 scheduled all flag raising ceremonies for the month of March 2022 to be in conjunction with the NWMC. It also prepared a month-long activities such as film showing and zumba dance workout. In addition, the following webinars were also organized to complete the NWMC.

1. 1. Online Briefing on GAD Knowledgebase, as part of the activities of NWM
   2. Online Briefing on GAD Audit Performance Summary Report for the Calendar Years 2009-2018 for the National Government Agencies, Government Corporations and Local Government Units
   3. Online Livelihood Program on Information Technology entitled: “Exploring Google Workspace” and “Improving Livestream Using Open Broadcaster Software”
   4. Online Updates on COVID-19: Myths and Facts

COA RO 3 Director Omar S. Roque said that such celebration is the best venue to address the issues that women continue to face so empowerment can be fully achieved.