Team Arua rewarded for their work on gender-responsive budgeting
Recent updates from former participants of ICLD Gender mainstreaming programme in Arua Municipal Council, Uganda demonstrates how their change project, developed within the programme, continues to bear fruit after the end of the programme in 2019:
Arua Municipal County was ranked in the 3rd position of all local Ugandan governments who complied with Gender and Equity requirements during the budget preparation of the financial year 2021-2022.
“We really don’t know how to thank ICLD for the capacity building during the programme. Now we are fighting to be in position one in the whole country in the Financial year 2021-2023” says Lumu Musa in the Arua Team.
The Ugandan statistician Lumu Musa and his team colleagues participated in the ICLD Gender Mainstreaming programme during 2018–2019 with a specific local focus on gender mainstreaming and participatory budgeting in Arua Municipal Council in Uganda. Absence of women’s participation within municipal planning and budgeting due to insufficient mobilization and education and lack of active engagement among women was targeted as areas of concern in the initial part of the training programme. Thus, the project aimed to increase women’s participation and engagement in local planning and budgeting by mobilizing and educating women. Simultaneously, the Arua team set a goal to enhance and develop a gender responsive budget by 2019.
Arua’s project reached out to different groups of local female stakeholders. Political leaders and officials, educators and women at grassroots level, members of committee and women of business were among the targeted groups for the project. The mobilization of women in all parts of society turned out to be a factor for success. After being informed and educated about the benefits of their contribution, women of Arua showed a great willingness to engage in planning and budgeting processes.
Women’s participation in planning and budgeting increased noticeably; 80% of all females either received direct information or participated in public budget meetings compared to 36% in the previous year. Raised budget allocations for women-driven issues, recruitments of women to the Ward development committees and the establishment of local information centers are other examples of positive outcomes of the project.
As female participation in local decision-making increased, women’s issues became prioritized in the public budget. The Arua project do also show the importance of empowering women by strengthening the capacity and confidence among women to analyze and influence local political decisions. Capacity building efforts initiated through the ICLD Gender Mainstreaming programme has helped to increase awareness and develop facts and data about women in budgeting in Arua.
Later reports show that the processes of gender mainstreaming the local organization continues to evolve after the end of the training programme in 2019. Arua Municipal County was ranked in the 3rd position of all local Ugandan governments who complied with Gender and Equity requirements during the budget preparation of the financial year 2021-2022. The municipality is thereby granted with a certificate of Compliance with gender and equity requirements.
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Have you and/or your municipality identified gender related issues within your organization? Do you want to strengthen local democracy by developing skills and learning new tools for gender mainstreaming in your society?
Apply for the Gender Mainstreaming programme today. Applications are open until 30/9 for interested parties from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. You will find more information at Gender Mainstreaming | ICLD.