Female Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) are being given the skills and tools to analyse budgets to see whether they are gender-responsive and contribute to the realisation of gender equality commitments.

This is happening under a two-day workshop for EALA Women MPs, which started on June 16 in Arusha, in partnership with Akina Mama Wa Afrika, a Pan-African feminist leadership development organisation.

Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is a strategy that seeks to achieve gender equality between men and women by focusing on equitable distribution of public resources and spending them on projects/programmes that take into consideration the specific needs of everyone. It must contribute to equal opportunities for all.

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While opening the workshop on gender-responsive budgeting, EALA Speaker Joseph Ntakirutimana said, "Gender responsiveness is an important factor in ensuring that all genders in our community are treated fairly and catered to.”

The training, he said, comes after the EAC Council of Ministers read the proposed budget for the region for the 2023/2024 financial year, on June 15.

"It is now for you to scrutinise and see how gender-responsive it is,” he told EALA women parliamentarians.

He indicated that gender equality and women empowerment are fundamental human rights and an integral part of EAC integration agenda.

"For EAC to attain a people-centred and a market-driven community, there is a need to remove all obstacles that hinder effective participation of women and girls as well as unleash their full potential,” he remarked.

The Secretary-General for EALA Women Caucus, MP Fatuma Ndangiza, said that they are building the capacity of women parliamentarians, such as through training, in gender-responsive budgeting.

"During budget planning, you should ensure that the funding allocations to different sectors respond to the needs of women and men based on their different issues and benefits,” she said, giving an example of cross-border women traders who have very limited financial means and should be supported.

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Again, Ndangiza said that financing for the machinery such as tractors needed for agriculture mechnisation, and fertilisers required to increase farm yields, should be carefully considered in the budget by taking into account the means of both women and men, to avoid a situation where some might be unable to access them, while others easily get them.

"The fact that this induction programme for EALA Women Caucus has coincided with the budgeting process, is an opportune moment for us because the skills acquired in the budget analysis and scrutiny, wearing the gender lens to make sure that we have fair budgets that work for men and women of East Africa and also that there is gender responsive budgeting in resource allocation within the East African Community organs and institutions,” she said.

The Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Lead at Akina Mama Wa Afrika, Olabukunola Williams, said that during the first two-day workshop in Bujumbura [in April], they covered gender-responsive governance, and how EALA lawmakers can be gender-responsive legislators.

"It’s quite important for us to be able to have these kinds of conversations and be able to ensure that whatever budget is passed this year and in the future within EALA Parliament responds to the gendered needs of everyone within the region,” citing women in rural areas, or adolescent girls.