Catching Up with Dr. Pilar “Lalay” Ramos Jimenez Scientist in Residence and University Fellow

Members of SDRC recently engaged in a chat with University Fellow and Scientist in Residence Dr. Pilar “Lalay” Ramos Jimenez, who updated them on what’s been keeping her busy during quarantine. The Center was pleased to learn that since February of this year, she has been writing an opinion column called “View from the South” in The Manila Times. Invited to contribute to the broadsheet by emeritus editor Dante Ang, she writes from her experience in conducting research and consultancy work in Mindanao and the Visayas for different development agencies, to bring her insights to the wider community.

Among the topics that she has discussed are: 1) the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), focusing particularly on the need to postpone its first regular election scheduled for 2022, the notion of “moral governance” in line with the articles of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, and issues involving the Bangsamoro Youth Commission,   child and early marriages, gender and health education for the youth;  2) COVID-19, with discussions on adjustments made in hospital processes and programs, support for Ivermectin as medicine for the virus, and consequences of the lockdown on field researchers; and 3) contributions of a UNFPA cooperation program between Indonesia and the Philippines to the BARMM’s family planning and adolescent reproductive health programs.

Currently, Dr. Ramos Jimenez is doing a series of columns on efforts to institutionalize men’s responsibility in gender and development in Davao City, the first city to pass “An Ordinance Providing for a Women’s Development Code of Davao City, and for Other Purposes” and to implement legislation on women’s rights based on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The latest column in the series focuses on the passage on July 27 of the “MR GAD Ordinance in Davao City,” a “package of programs, activities, projects and services designed at transforming communities and empowering men as partners to a gender-responsive planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation” of the city government’s development agenda. The ordinance “primarily employs men-talking-to-men and peer-to-peer strategies to influence behavioral, rational, attitudinal, cultural and structural transformation toward gender equality”.

Meanwhile, at SDRC, Dr. Ramos Jimenez is part of a research team and book project on the “Impact of COVID-19 on the Filipino Family – A Life Cycle Approach,” and will soon oversee a special publication on the various concerns addressed in children’s studies.

The “View from the South” column can be accessed at https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/opinion/columns.