I wish to thank you, Madam Speaker, for permitting this Statement that seeks to draw attention on the need to wear our Gender Lenses as we analyse the budgets of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies next week before we finally approve them.
Madam Speaker, budgets are the most important tools available to a government and reflect its political and develop-mental priorities.
Although the numbers and figures compiled in the budget documents might seem gender neutral, empirical findings show that expenditure patterns and the way that government raises revenue have different impact on women and girls as compared to the male counterparts and often to the detriment of the former.
Madam Speaker, this is due to socially determined roles that women and men play in society, the gendered division of labour, different responsibilities and capabilities and different constraints that women and men face, which normally leave women in an unequal position in relation to the men in their communities, with regard to economic, social and political power.
Gender responsive budgeting is an approach designed to mainstream the gender dimension into all stages of the budget cycle.
Madam Speeaker, it aims at analyzing the different impacts of a State's national and local expenditure as well as revenue policy on both women and girls as well as men and boys.
In addition to the impact analysis,
gender responsive budgeting comprises making proposals to repriori t ize expenditure and revenues, taking into account the different needs and provisions of women and men, as well as religion or ethnic affiliation or the geographical place of residence (Rural/Urban).
The Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) became imperative when at the Finance Ministers meeting, the late Honourable Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, may his soul rest perfect peace, in common with other Ministers, adopted the policy of Gender Responsive Budgeting in the year 2005.
Madam Speeaker, the GRB initiative, seeks to ensure that, we move away from programmes made exclusively for women to programmes that targets both sexes and ensures that resources are shared equitably among the sexes so that no one is disadvantaged.
With the adoption of the DRB, policy preparations were made towards its implementation. The 2007 guidelines for the preparation of the Government Economic Policy and Budget Statement provided for the implementation of the initiative on pilot basis in three Ministries, namely Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Education (MOE). The reasoning being that they have been implementing some form of GRB through their various interventions on gender issues.
Madam Speeaker, training was
organized for key staff of Ministry of Finance and Ecomomic Planning (MOFEP), Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs ((MOWAC)), National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and the three implementing Ministries to develop their capacity.
Thereafter, a steering committee was put in place to guide the implementation
of this initiative. Members were selected from the three piloted Ministries, MOWAC, MOFEP and NDPC. Focal persons for gender mainstreaming in the Ministries were also co-opted to assist with the process.
Reports from these Ministries, that, is the piloted Ministries indicate that to a large extent the initiative has assisted the Ministries.
For instance, in the health sector, gender related activities for which interventions have been made include the intake of male students in nurses training colleges, which has increased.
Madam Speeaker, again, supply of vaccines, medicines, supplementary feeding programme have been undertaken to support the free maternal delivery initiative.
At the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, a training manual has been developed to guide implementation of the initiative and resources have been made available to train more females as community leaders.
As a policy the Government intends to extend this initiative to all sectors, and in view of this, I would like to advise the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning as the budget is in the stage of preparation that he should bring out appropriate measures that would promote gender equality through a budget, which we shall all hail as truly gender responsive.
It is, therefore, our responsibility as Hon Members of Parliament to critically look at the budgets from the various sectors as we work in our committees to ensure that this year's financial and economic policy of the Government, truly become gender responsive.
The media has also been urged to publicize the initiative widely to solicit the support of the general public, to ensure that the GRB becomes sustainable.
