Manila - The Institute for Labor Studies conducted the 9th episode of its 2021 Resilience in Stride Webinar series placing a special focus on the People With Disabilities sector via the webinar titled, “DIG Deeper: Promoting Disability-Inclusive Governance in the Philippines,” last December 10, 2021 via Zoom and was live streamed through the official ILS Facebook page.

The 2-hour webinar enabled the resource speakers to present an overview of their organization’s disability-inclusive governance framework to further help guide the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in mainstreaming its policies, programs, and services towards a disability-inclusive society.

In response to the effort of the national government, DOLE spearheaded the creation of the Disability-Inclusive Governance Framework (DIGF), which aims to restructure the Department’s policies, programs, and services, toward making them more responsive and inclusive to the needs of the disabled people. Its formulation is also in consonance to Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the promotion of full and inclusive economic growth and decent work for all including the PWDs.

Welcome Remarks were delivered by Atty. Ma. Karina Perida-Trayvilla, Director of the Bureau of Workers with Special Conditions.

The episode was divided into three segments. The first one provided an Operational Framework of Disability Inclusive Development, which was presented by Mr. Randy Calsena from the National Council on Disability Affairs. Mr. Calsena discussed the key elements of the Inclusive Governance and shared pointers on how to successfully create, implement, and monitor DIGFs, including its best practices and lessons learned.

The second segment zeroed in on the “Economic Empowerment of PWDs: Manual on Disability Inclusive Governance,” which was discussed by Ms. Zenaida Pre, DTI Resource Generation Management Service. For this segment Ms. Pre gave an overview of DTI’s economic empowerment measures for PWDs, especially in the time of the pandemic and likewise gave the audiences an update on the projects that they were able to roll out for PWDs.

The last segment is a synthesis of Stakeholder Comments delivered by Actress and PWD Advocate Ms. Bianca Lapuz, where she did a brief sharing of other International or Local disability-inclusive frameworks, and which paved the way for a panel discussion by addressing live questions from audiences which were sent via zoom and the FB comments section.

ILS Executive Director Ahmma Charisma Lobrin-Satumba delivered the Closing Remarks and shared with everyone an updated DOLE’s draft of the DIGF and the Department’s policy directions for 2022.

You may view this episode online via this link: DIG Deeper Webinar