TUCP Wins UNFPA Best Practice Award
In a recent Recognition and Awards Night dubbed “Reaching High” at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Department of Health and Commission on Population conferred to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines the Best Practice Award. TUCP was the top choice among seven non-government organizations that implemented adolescent and youth Reproductive Health Projects under the UNFPA 5th Country Program of Assistance. In addition to this is another plaque of recognition for its pioneering efforts in instituting reproductive health and family planning programs in the workplace.
The Project
Workers within the 18-25 age range was the focus of the TUCP-UNFPA Project on RH. The highly evident growing number of youth in employment and the increasing feminization of labor provided an opportunity and impetus for this endeavor.
The effort entitled “Reproductive Health Project for the Working Youth” utilized innovative strategies to achieve its objectives. Among other things, the project built leadership capacities of selected youth for RH; trained young workers as Young Adult Peer Educators (YAPEs); developed youth-friendly IEC materials; engaged the both trade union leaders and employers in discussions and actions on youth sexual and reproductive health (YSRH); and harnessed multi-sectoral partnerships.
Pioneer in the Labor Sector
TUCP was one of the very first organizations to adopt the RH approach after the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development in 1994. In the labor sector, TUCP is the first to do so.
Having been a pioneer on Family Planning and Reproductive Health in the workplace, TUCP is successful in bringing better and wider recognition of the rights of workers to better health information and services among trade unions and employers alike. Over 100 collective bargaining agreements containing RH provisions had been successfully negotiated since then. This is a shift from the regular FP provisions to a more comprehensive RH paradigm.
Under the program, eight union-managed Family Welfare Clinics staffed by trained health service professionals are equipped and sustained to deliver a package of quality FP/RH and other health services to workers and their families. Countless workers and their dependents benefited from this as TUCP explores more avenues to strengthen the program and expand its reach. Likewise, the Center was instrumental in bringing together government, non-government, academe, labor, employers and like-minded organizations to collectively push forward for RH@Work.
Reproductive Health
The ICPD Program of Action defines Reproductive Health as the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity in all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions and processes. This implies that people are able to have satisfying sex life and that they have the capacity to have children and the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so. It includes healthy sexual development; equitable and responsible relationships and sexual fulfillment; and freedom from illness, disease, disability, violence and other harmful practices related to sexuality.
Cognizant of the rights of workers to good health and the mechanisms to help them remain as such, TUCP is resolute in delivering services ranging from maternal and child health to men’s health concerns and involvement in reproductive health through innovative strategies making these available and accessible to workers. Not to win further awards but because good health is a workers’ right and for trade unions, it is our responsibility.
Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Among Filipino Adolescents
