Civil society checklist for a pro-poor and engendered 2012/13 national budget

Members of the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group met to develop a checklist that will guide the 9th Parliamentarian when critiquing the Budget Framework Paper for the financial year 2012/13. Recognizing that Parliament is mandated to check that spending decisions are in line with national priorities, the budget advocacy group which advocates for pro-poor and gender sensitive budgets in Uganda believes that this checklist will guide parliament in ensuring that gender and pro- poor concerns are incorporated into the national budget priorities for the upcoming financial year 2012/13.

Priority areas in Health, Education, Agriculture, Information Communication and Technology, Trade, Water and Sanitation, Lands, social development and macro economics were identified and some of the emerging issues included the declining budgetary allocations to the water sector yet access to clean and safe water especially in the rural areas is still lacking.

The other issue was government ministries should be tasked by parliament to report on the existing measures to improve pay for teachers and health workers, scrapping off UPE program in urban areas, reducing budget deficits, attracting foreign and local investors, reducing inflation, mitigating climate change and its effects on agriculture, inconsistencies in demand and supply of drugs by NMS, compensation of land owners in the oil rich areas, progress on demarcation of government land, funding for community access roads, and increasing access of ICT services in the rural areas among others...

It was also stressed that Parliament should request the responsible sectors to give a status update on the implementation of the National Action Plan for Women, the Information Communication and Technology Policy, the Labour Act, progress on amending the Succession Act to be gender sensitive and progress on developing guidelines for the operationalisation of the Trafficking in Persons Act. In addition, there was a concern on the issue of the pending Land Act and the counterfeit bill which have never been passed.

According to Julius Mukunda, the Senior Program Director Forum for Women in Democracy, once finalized, the checklist will be submitted to parliament so that the parliamentary committees study the raised issues and present them to the specific sectors during the budgetary review process.

Carol Namagembe
Programme Officer Communications

Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE)