Susan MUTONI 
Project Coordinator 
Email: susan.mutoni@minecofin.gov.rw

Objectives

The purpose of Gender budgeting is to bring gender perspectives on how government resources and programs are implemented. The aim is to mainstream gender perspective into the analysis of public expenditure and means of raising public revenues, so that the impact on men and women are considered. The long-term goal of the programme is to ensure government spending addresses the needs of women and men equitably and government institutions promote accountability and transparency in the determination of government priorities and public spending. 

Functions

• Sensitize government institutions at central and local level on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB);
• Effective training of all stakeholders in the national planning and budgeting processes to develop skills in preparation, review and analysis of the budget using the gender lens
• Develop a system of monitoring and evaluation for gender responsive targets that is aligned with existing M&E frameworks

What is  Gender Equitable Local Development?

Gender Equitable Local Development (GELD) is an integrated three-year (2009-2012) joint UN programme covering five countries in Africa; Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. GELD seeks to integrate gender-equity into local level planning and budgeting so that local development is more gender equitable and supportive of the most excluded socio-economic groups, especially poor women. Specifically, the programme aims to develop strategies and mechanisms to improve women's access to resources and services at the local level through gender-responsive planning and budgeting in achieving gender equality and justice goals. The GELD programme aims to place gender equality and gender justice goals at the centre of local governance and development processes.

GELD seeks to address the following key issues:

• How can local governments deliver for women?
• What institutional conditions foster women's substantive participation in local governance?
• What institutional conditions and processes ensure that poverty and equity concerns are adequately reflected in identifying governance priorities and resource allocations?
• Which community dynamics constrain and prevent women from achieving their human potential and how can these be addressed?

GELD Goal

The achievement of Gender Equitable Local Development through accelerated localized action in realizing government commitments towards the MDGs for gender Justice.

GELD Objectives: to

1. Strengthen local governments' institutional capacity for gender responsive action in planning and budgeting and for them to apply gender lens in tracking budgetary allocations to ensure they are aligned with expenditure performance in service delivery
2. Strengthen local governments capacity to engage in policy debates to advance gender equality
3. Facilitate the empowerment of local communities through their respective local authority systems for effective participation in and ownership of their development and policy engagement from a gender lens
4. Support and facilitate local governments in knowledge generation that draws on their local experiences in gender mainstreaming to inform and enlighten local government policy decisions in local development planning and budgeting

Expected Results

• Planning and budgeting with a gender lens Local level development plans that incorporate the needs and interests of the poor and excluded groups and resource allocations that address gender equality issues?
• Building the evidence base Knowledge results generated and disseminated to inform local level gender-responsive planning and budgeting and advocacy efforts.
• Policy engagement and influence Open dialogues and debates on policy on decentralization and local governance that brings policy discourse to the local people and that gender perspective informs the design of local governance policies.