A rallying call for all inclusive budgeting was reignited in Abuja, the Nigerian capital on Friday, 23rd April, 2021, when the Center for Gender Economics – Africa(CGE-Africa) launched the Gender Responsive Budgeting(GRB) Flagship Project.
The CGE – a non-governmental organisation dedicated to comprehensive research, capacity development, advocacy and advisory services to mainstream gender equality into governments’ economic policies, budgets and development plans.
Has been officially operational in Nigeria since March, 2011 has worked in three key areas:
- Girls Economic Leadership – WEL Program.
- Women’s Economic Security & Justice – WESJ Program.
- Elderly Women’s Economic Wellbeing – EWEW Program
The launch which was held at the CISLAC conference room in Jabi, FCT, Abuja was well attended by civil society groups, NGOs, women organisations and the media.
It was a platform for the Executive Director, Center for Gender Economics, Uchenna Idoko to set out the goals/objectives of the initiative.
Delivering her speech, the executive director went on the memory lane enumerating progresses and in-roads made in the past through Nigeria Gender Budgeting Network and the GWIN – Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria.
Ms Idoko also highlighted on the lessons learnt from these past activities and how these can form a bedrock for the current push. One of the key things raised was need for Data to show what has been done or being done.
She encouraged participants to build friendship with people in critical areas of government, so as to leverage on those networks to get the relevant data
To drive the point home the she declared the commitment the Center for Gender Economics to establish an online Gender Responsive Budgeting Observatory Hub, where partners can go to get resources on the subject.
The discussion light a fire in most of the participants, who during the question and answer session were eager to discover where and how they can start pulling their weight to ensure that Gender Responsive Budgeting becomes a culture in Nigeria.
