A research fellow with the Centre for Gender, Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD) at the University of Cape Coast, Dr. Amanda Odoi has urged government to factor both genders into its budgetary decisions which she says will bring equity to the workspace.
She noted that the idea is to ensure accountability adding that, “having a gendered perspective to that budget ensures that the institution is accountable for both genders when they are addressing their issues”.
She, therefore, stated that before such a factor is included in the budget the government must sanction thorough research from relevant bodies before developing budgets in order to know what both genders need.
Dr. Amanda Odoi made this remark on Tuesday 12th July 2022 on the ATLANTIC WAVE, where the discussions centered on Gender planning and budgeting.
She also emphasized that considering all genders while developing budgets will ensure that government develops budgets that are gender-equal.
She noted that “ensuring that every phase of activity has a gender lens to it. Right from the conceptualization phase, the idea phase, and for each step you want to implement, the activity has a gendered lens to it. So it just to ensure that both women and men’s needs are considered in the planning of each activity that an institution or an organization seeks to implement.”
On his part, Dr. John Oti Amoah, who is also a research fellow with CEGRAD, hinted at plans by CEGRAD to mount courses to help build the capacity of the general public on gender issues in the country.
According to him, CEGRAD has over the years played its role in raising awareness of gender issues and such courses will assist in the training and analyzing gender issues so that the best can be achieved in gender equality.
“We organize this capacity training for policymakers, for them to have that consciousness. So in this case either being it male or female, whoever is there will be able to pose that critical question: how is this going to affect women and men? Which category of women and men will be affected by this event at each stage and when this is done, in allocating the resources which talk about the budgeting bit also, you use the same approach. So you don’t assume,” he said.
Source: EMMANUELLA AMA GYAMFI/ATLFMNEWS
