‘2022 Budget Will Cater for Women With Disabilities, Exposed to Gender, Sexual Based Violence’

Gilbert Ekugbe
Committee clerks of the National Assembly have stated that the 2022 budget will prioritise projects and programmes that reflects gender responsive needs, noting that the budget proposals of all the MDAs will identify the needs of women with disabilities, vulnerability, and others who are exposed to gender and sexual based violence.

Speaking at the workshop organised by Yiaga Africa in collaboration of spotlight initiatives, a research fellow at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) Dr. Terfa W. Abraham, said the budget call circular revealed that the 2022 budget will prioritize projects that are sensitive to gender responsive needs stating that president Buhari had said in his speech in October 2021, that the 2022 budget will be anchored on gender responsive budgeting.

This, he stated, would address the gender policy documents of the government with development paradigm to mainstream gender appropriation bills and budgeting to ministries, departments and agencies while also promoting gender equitable social norms.
He noted that gender based issues will ensure that the actual implementation level of gender responsive budgeting would meet the responsive needs to produce inclusive budget for women and girls.

The stakeholders clearly advised on gender responsive budgeting, adding that part of the initial effort was to prioritise government spending towards distributing resources to vulnerable groups, victims of sexual assaults, marginalized groups and sexual based violence of people who are likely to be trafficked.

The National Assembly clerks on gender responsive budget also expressed their roles in ensuring that the ministries, departments and agencies, (MDAs) come to terms to defend their budget and comply to allow projects and programmes to reflect the needs of gender responsive projects.

While stating that the committee clerks plays bureaucratic roles in the management of the national Assembly through the questions and answer at the plenary session by informing the passing of the budgetary allocation to all MDAs.
“During the budget defence clerks play important roles that will make MDAs to sit up to provide for the budget to meet the needs of the people”. he said

Terfa affirmed that we must engender projects in the budget which must come down to actions to ensuring a more friendly gender components of zero hunger, zero poverty and all other things that affects women more while adding that the interest must come from all sides.

In addition, he suggested that churches religious centres and faith based organisation must have programmes and projects that deliberately cater for girls and women. Otherwise if these set of people that accounts for 50% of our Nigerian population are not catered for, the future of children cannot be guaranteed.

He added that the budget call circular is a vital tool of the budget process, unfortunately it comes earlier before the president present his speech. It tells the assumption, development philosophy of the budget before it comes and the allocations to the MDAs, the key sectors the government is giving much allocations and the reflection of government spending priorities.

Also Speaking, Program Manager, Yiaga Africa, Ernest Ereke said the National Assembly is considering gender responsive budgeting for the 2022 appropriation bills while describing the stakeholders and clerks as the engine room of the legislature saying that we will bring issues around gender into the appropriation bills.