Islamabad The Human Capital Management Institute (HCMI) & Noor Pakistan, in collaboration with the Evidence and Learning Alliance (ELLA), arranged a lobbying session with the parliamentarians of Pakistan, says a press release.
The session was attended by Mehreen Razaq Bhutto (PPP), Siraj Khan (PTI), Aisha Syed (JI), Dr. Asma Mamdot (PML-N), Surya Jatoi, Shahida Rahmani, Mussarat Mahesar, Mujahid khan and Shams u Nisa.
HCMI Chief Executive Syed Naeem Athar Abbas briefed the audience on the Gender Responsive Budgeting Mechanism in Pakistan. He said: “This session has been organised to create awareness among the local and international audience of the challenges posed by gender gaps in Pakistan and the opportunities created by reducing them.”
He further commented on the reports published by ELLA on Gender Responsive Budgeting mechanism in Pakistan and said Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is government planning, programming and budgeting that contributes to the advancement of gender equality and the fulfilment of women’s rights.
He proposed 3 goals first was the change and refinement in government budgets and policies to promote gender equality, second raising awareness and understanding of gender issues and impacts of budgets and policies and third was making governments accountable for their gender budgetary and policy commitments. He said: “it is every important for a country to have the phenomena of gender responsive mechanism to contribute to the upbringing of the country. Women are victimized in Pakistan and continue to face disparities in access to and control over resources Gender disparities are more accentuated in the rural areas of Pakistan”.
These gender-based inequalities translate into greater vulnerability and inaccessibility of the equitable share of women in the flow of public goods and services. Naeem further contributed that an initiative and mechanism has to be developed and we are working on it which will be soon shared with the concerned authorities. He said with respect to other countries gender responsive budgeting is practiced on a very small scale in Pakistan, which should be improved and women and girls should be given equal rights to participate in all forms of activities. Gender Budgeting should not be limited to the social areas such as education, employment and welfare, in fact it should also focus on the gender mainstreaming and improving the allocation of resources to women. It can be used to contribute to a more informed view of policy options and impacts that are not usually valued in money. GRB should not confine to women related ministries or departments, but should be introduced to other departments like Industrial and Labour department and Science and Technology. After the presentation a queries session was kept in which the parliamentarian’s fully participated and expresses their views regarding the gender responsive budgeting practiced in Pakistan and the work women parliamentarians are going without all the discouragement and other duties they have to perform. They are dedicatedly working but there is no appreciation for them from any side.
In the end of the session, they hoped to work together in improving the Gender Responsive Mechanism in Pakistan, which will adversely bring an increase the economy and work on the initiated measures for gender responsiveness for the government budgetary processes which need to be further consolidated and some major initiatives need to be taken to capacitate affected individuals to participate in the budget process.
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