Musings from the Gender Responsive Financial Literacy Capability Building

The Gender-Responsive Financial Literacy Capability Building among personnel of the Division of Malaybalay City was conducted at Cebu Province last June 20 to 22, 2019. The activity aims to broaden the horizon of the personnel’s view on the complementary qualities of men and women in the industry to increase job satisfaction, efficiency, productivity, responsiveness to client needs and self-commitment to uplift financial advocacy. The activity did not only encourage camaraderie among the personnel, it also builds up working relationship as one familiarize the co-worker’s attitudes and values through interactions.

The glimpse of Cebu Province booming industries emphasizes the significance of natural resources conservation management in the development of tourism industry. It is vivid in the eyes of local and foreign tourist how wonderful nature’s way of creating Sumilon sandbars along with the crystal seawaters in the vicinity. The scenery made tourists grateful on the discipline and collaboration among residents in the maintenance of cleanliness and conservation of the local resources. The folktale on the fishermen’s care for nature and whale in Oslob, Cebu and the residents’ ability on seeing its benefits opens up a great tourism industry that provides opportunity for both men and women to uplift financial capacity. Furthermore, the breathtaking beauty of flowers cultivated in the garden of Sirao manifests how appealing nature is to human kind.

The exploration made in different business industry highlights the significance of extraordinary labeling of services to the clients and the appeal on proper packaging of products to the consumers. Women empowerment were also observed as most female vendors explicitly display their convincing ability in promoting a crunchy and yummy chicharon. It brought excitement to everyone’s faces while each picked a flavor of their own choice. Collaboration between men and women in the aforementioned industries surely empowers financial capacity and promotes economic growth in the province.

These scenarios pose a great challenge for Malaybalay City educators to ignite the fire of sustainable development of the city’s natural resources added with care in the utilization of these resources for the improvement of financial capacity of the locality. In addition, the observations conducted pushes workers to reflect the system and quality of services offered in the workplace as needed by the clients. In general, the Gender-Responsive Financial Literacy Capability Building did not only build financial literacy but also promotes aesthetic values, economic values and work values.

Ria K. Alcuizar