Gender Responsive Policies and Budgeting Strongly Focused on at ‘Investing in the Future’ Conference

Thursday 20 October 2016

Sharjah - MENA Herald: Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB), and gender sensitive policies are based on gender analysis, with an objective to reduce the gaps between men and women, ensuring that fiscal resources are generated and allocated in a way that affects men, women, boys and girls, and address their needs equitably.

A session titled, ‘Food for Thought: Investing in Women – Gender responsive policies and budgeting’ held on the first day of the ‘Investing in the Future’ (IIFMENA) conference discussed not just the government’s role and responsibilities in the field, but stepped beyond to review the extent to which the private sector shares this responsibility in engaging in policy development that ensures access to fair and decent work, that promotes women and creates a safe workspace for all.

The session took off with an insightful keynote address by Her Excellency Hina Rabbani Khar, Former Pakistan Foreign Affairs Minister, where she highlighted the role her country has played in empowering its women within the nation’s cultural and religious contexts.

She said, “We have inherited a religion, which has its roots in upholding every woman’s izzat or dignity. Yet in the name of religion we have tortured and killed them in the name of honour. That said, Pakistan has experienced a paradigm shift in the way we have changed our perception of women, where successive governments have worked relentlessly in creating walls around them and ensuring that they are equal participant’s in our development processes. Increased women’s participation in public offices over the years is one example.”

“Change and progress are often so slow you don’t even see it. Honour killing of women was one of our society’s biggest bane, which has finally been eradicated with the passing of a unanimous parliamentary legislation in October 2016 – a movement that started 17 years ago when it had but four supporters. This reinforces my faith in the fact that every small step makes a difference,” she added.

The session chaired by Alizeh Iqbal Haider, Ex- Member of Pakistan Parliament; Khawla Al Mulla, UAE Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry for Education Policies; and Rose Zergani, Alghanim Industries Corporate Talent Acquisition & Kuwaitization; and moderated by Meg Jones, Chief of Economic Empowerment division, UN Women, reviewed the role of various government entities, civil society and the private sector and other actors in pursuing gender responsive policies, and ensuring their implementation.

Alizeh Iqbal Haider said, “We need to have more women members of parliament to voice our issues more strongly. There is no shortcut or no schemes to attaining equality and empowerment for women, and having them involved in the legislative and decision making processes will ensure emancipation and development in the longer term, guaranteeing that our public policy and budgeting are more responsive and adaptive to their needs.”

Khawla Al Mulla then took centre stage to reveal how they have been guiding the UAE to ensure that the nation releases long-term budgets for women’s education and development. She said, “Education here is characterised not just by building schools, but is expressed through UAE’s culture and dialogue. Here, we can send a tweet to our Ruler – therefore, our ideologies of progress and emancipation have existed since the creation of our Constitution, which were taken from our societies
to be put into our schools.”

“We ensured that our budget allocation to education was both region and gender specific because the UAE’s demographic is split between costal, Bedouin and mountain areas,” she added.

Moderator Meg Jones picked this cue from Al Mulla, emphasising the importance of relying on data and statistics to bridge the gap between a nation’s resources and its rightful receivers. She said, “According to a recent IMF report, bridging the education and employment gap by just a third in this region will increase its GDP by $ 1 trillion. That is why working on the basis of statistics is both reliable and scientific.”

Rose Zergani, brought a private sector perspective to the discussion, saying, “Data and statistics must be looked at as a principle, otherwise we will invariably touch a glass ceiling and see our initiatives become redundant no matter our intentions. Moreover, doing so makes business sense. Even from a private company perspective, participatory decision making is imperative because studies have showed that women are great innovators and communicators and enhance any environment they are part of.”

“There also needs to be a direct private–public relationship in enforcing legislation and policies that empower women, in order to make them effective,” she added.

The second edition of Investing in the Future is organised by The Big Heart Foundation, a Sharjah-based humanitarian organisation dedicated to helping people in need worldwide, and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). This year’s theme is ‘Building the Resilience of Women and Girls in the Arab Region.’ It is a two-day event taking place on 19 and 20 October at the Al Jawaher Reception and Convention Centre in Sharjah, UAE.

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