Creating a pool of Gender Budgeting Experts

As part of her capacity development initiatives, Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) with support from UNWOMEN Uganda organized a Gender and Economic Policy (GEP) training for 20 Civil Society Organisations representatives and Local government officials. 

The topics that were covered were, Gender and sexuality, Gender responsive budgeting, unpaid care work, Feminist Economics, social justice among others. The objective of the training was to create a pool of gender budgeting experts that would in turn pass on the information to other stakeholders at the grassroots levels.

It came out strongly from the start that if people of an economy are unhealthy, the economy will be affected and the reverse is true. Therefore,  using a gender lens in formulating government policies is essential because of the various gender roles that they play in a community.

For many participants, the term Feminist Economics was incomprehensible but at the end of the session they realized that mainstream economics ignores the gendered dynamics of many economics systems like labor markets and because the men are perceived as bread-winners, this perception hinders women from bargaining for better wages. It came out clearly that societies and institutions are gendered because gender value, norms, society & its institutions are intrinsically gendered.

Shifting gender roles were discussed, it is now a common phenomenon for women to be the breadwinners yet the labor economics do not pay attention to this and that women face unique reproductive challenges such as maternal health, which men do not suffer, so when budgets are being made, policy makers should have that at the back of their minds yet most times, the budgets that are made are gender blind.  But with the Gender and Equity certificate that was integrated in the public finance bill, there is hope that it will give the policy makers a gender lens when they are creating budgets.

As the training was going on, there were live social media updates.  This particular question stirred up an online debate.

FOWODE ‏@FOWODE_UGANDA  #GEPTraining Q&A Session on Gender: "Why do men hate women who are empowered?" a participant  asked

Grace Nakate ‏@GNakate Feb 27  @FOWODE_UGANDA Some men feel threatened by what they perceive strong women can attain or achieve without them controlling it.

@joanmugaba: men live in fear that such women may instead take up their comfortable seats as family heads

@veerle_ronsse: I believe insecure/immature men are afraid of women. If they reach a level of awareness it changes.

Grace Nakate ‏@GNakate Feb 27@FOWODE_UGANDA Risk of generalizing, not all men hate empowered women. Just as not all empowered women appreciate role of men. #GEPTraining

 

Susan Asio of Action for Development (ACFODE) making a presentation during the training