Yiaga Africa tasks MDAs on gender-responsive budgeting

Yiaga Africa has called on Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to provide a gender-responsive budget in order to eliminate all forms of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) by 2030.

The Program Manager of the Yiaga Africa, Dr Ernest Ereke, made the call at an ongoing workshop organised by the group on Friday in Lagos.

The the theme of the workshop is “Experience Sharing and Capacity Building Workshop on Gender-Responsive Budgeting.”

The workshop is aimed at ensuring that issues concerning development and governance are reflected in budgeting and appropriation in the nation.

According to Ereke, one way to reduce violence against  women (VAG) is to intentionally deploy instruments of budget and appropriation at all levels of government to meet the needs of victims of gender-based violence.

He added that VAG could also be reduced if adequate funds are made available to prevent them.

“We want to ensure that in the 2022 budget and appropriation bills, these issues are reflected.

“After this engagement, we will sit with the legislators who will ensure that it is reflected in the budget,” he said.

The Senior Program Officer of Yiaga Africa, Ms Yetunde Bakare, said the workshop would also help improve knowledge and capacity for the participants.

“It will provide parliamentary support to lawmakers to inform legislative actions and more gender-sensitive budgeting in Nigeria,” she said.

Dr Terfa Abraham, a Consultant from the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, noted that gender-responsive budgeting is not solely for women or girls.

“It is not saying divide the budget equally between men and women; it is budgeting for every person.

“The aim is to address injustice in every issue pertaining to gender.

“Gender for one state may be catering for boys between six and 13 years of age  while for another state, for youths between 16 and 26,” he said.

Abraham added that while preparing budgets, allocation should be deliberate to determine the required outcomes.

Yiaga Africa is one of the implementing partners of Spotlight Initiative, a UN-EU project responding to all forms of VAWG, with a particular focus on domestic and family violence.