Districts to allocate more resources to gender equality

NORTHERN PROVINCE MUSANZE — An official from the Ministry of Finance has disclosed that districts are set to ensure that gender concerns are fully intergraded into district development plans and budgets in the 2010/11 financial year. Elias Baingana, the National Budget Director revealed this while concluding a three-day workshop on gender responsive budgeting. The workshop drew vice mayors in charge of economic development as well as directors of planning and budget from all the districts in the province. Baingana, said that one of the key challenges has been lack of capacity and awareness with regards to gender issues. The participants were briefed on gender concepts, principles of gender budgeting, tools which shall be used in the planning process, entry points on how gender budgeting can be mainstreamed and the role of other stake holders in formulating gender responsive budgeting. Similar workshops will cover other provinces aimed at creating awareness of gender responsibility and institutionalising budgets that are gender responsive. Speaking at the event, Deo Kabagambe, the provincial Executive Secretary observed that there is need to have gender sensitive indictors in order to continuously asses the involvement of men, women, boys and girls at the different levels of the policy, programmes and projects implementation. Ends