BUJUMBURA September 24th (ABP) – The gender Ministry organized in Bujumbura on Thursday a planning meeting for operational activities for 2018-2019 on gender mainstreaming in planning instruments ( laws, policies, strategies, programs, projects and budgets).
The members of the thematic group “Gender mainstreaming in planning instruments” made up of members of gender units from different Ministries and State institutions, gender focal points from civil society organizations and technical and financial partners, proposed actions to conduct this year that runs from July 2018 to June 2019, according to the new system.
The Ministry in charge of gender is currently developing the gender mainstreaming guideline in its different services. Sensitization and advocacy activities on gender mainstreaming are planned with the authorities of the different sectors and thus capacity-building sessions on how to mainstream the gender dimension and advocacy and communication are regularly organized.Several activities to be carried out in advocacy, communication, capacity building and coordination and monitoring and evaluation were identified by the thematic group. These include advocacy for the revision of deficient or discriminatory laws and the implementation of egalitarian laws in ungoverned areas. The members of the group also intend to make an inventory of the guidelines or tools of gender integration existing in the different sectors and to call on to develop them in sectors that do not have them.
Given the lack of resources needed to promote gender equality, advocacy will be made for the opening of budget lines for this component and fund-raising for the operation of the thematic group will be conducted.
It is also envisaged the identification of projects implemented in the different sectors and the analysis of gender mainstreaming in those different projects.
Ms. Spès-Caritas Barankariza, Director of the Department of Gender Equality at the Ministry of Human Rights, Social Affairs and Gender, said that at one point the government and its partners found that the gender appeared nowhere in the sectors, in the framework of the national coordinating committee for aid.
The Gender Cluster was thus created to be a witness for the observation of gender mainstreaming in different sectors. It is one of the 14 sectorial groups set up within the framework of the national coordinating committee for aid.
The gender theme group has four components, namely the participation of women and girls in decision-making and conflict resolution, the fight against sexual and gender-based violence, the women’s empowerment component and gender mainstreaming in planning.
