A/HRC/21/12 90. The Philippines is open to constructive dialogue and cooperation with international human rights mechanisms. The head of delegation stated that the Philippines has issued an invitation to the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons for an official country visit. 91. The delegation elaborated on the plan for Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Gender Equality that advocates a participatory process and a human rights-based approach. She mentioned the establishment and strengthening of Gender and Development Focal Points at the national and local levels, including foreign service posts to accelerate gender mainstreaming in policies and programmes and to improve gender budgeting. 92. The delegation expounded on its efforts to promote sexual and reproductive health, such as the allocation of 11 per cent of its annual budget to women’s health under the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Nutrition programme. This programme will equip rural health units with up-to-date medical equipment for safe birthing and essential newborn screening by trained health service providers. 93. As of April 2012, over 24,000 members of the Community Health teams have been deployed to enrol poor households in health insurance which covers maternal health and family planning. 94. In addition to the pending Anti-Discrimination Bill, the Philippines has embarked on a number of initiatives to protect and promote the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBTs). 95. The delegation said that in order to ensure access to quality education and fulfil the right to education by children towards achieving education for all goal, the Philippines, through its Basic Education Reform Agenda, was seeking to achieve universal coverage of out-of-school youth, universal school participation and elimination of drop-outs and class repetition. 96. The 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey showed that the infant mortality rate has declined from 35 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 1993–1997 to 25 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2003–2007. The Philippines is implementing programmes on essential newborn care; birthing facilities for mothers; expanded immunization, injury prevention, among others, as well as applying the Newborn Screening Act of 2004 and the Newborn Hearing Act of 2010. 97. Based on a study conducted in 2001, a total of 7.2 million children aged 0–14 years old have benefitted from the Philippines’ conditional cash transfer programme. Data on the Pantawid Pamilya programme showed that there was an increase in the number of pupils in public elementary schools from 0.6 per cent from 2004 to 2007, to 3.5 per cent from 2008 to 2010. There was also an increase in the number of students in public secondary schools in the same areas from 0.5 per cent from 2004 to 2007, to 3.2 per cent from 2008 to 2010. 98. The delegation stated that the Philippines was stepping up its efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour by rescuing child labourers in hazardous and exploitative working conditions, providing livelihood programmes for parents, eliminating child labour in the tobacco industry and providing integrated services for migratory sugar workers. 99. The delegation said that the Child Policy on Social Protection in Schools was launched in May 2012 to protect children from all forms of violence, including bullying. The policy requires the creation of a child protection committee in every school, training of teaching and administrative personnel and a referral and monitoring system. 12