The Resident Director of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Liberia, Mrs. Vandetta Bernard-Jones, emphasizes a need for a gender-sensitive budgeting process in the government to ensure that the collection and allocation of public resources are inclusive, effective and contribute to advancement of gender equality and women's empowerment.
According to her, a gender-responsive budget must be inclusive in the national budget and must work for everyone, including women and men, girls and boys by ensuring equitable distribution of funds and contributing to equal opportunities for all.
Madam Bernard-Jones made the call in Monrovia on Wednesday, 7 December during introductory remarks at a Public Policy Roundtable on the theme, "Legislative Transparency During the Budget Process."
The Public Policy Roundtable was held under the auspices of the National Democratic Institute in partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
The forum comes two days after the Executive branch of the Liberian government thru the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, submitted the Draft 2023 National Budget, totaling US$777.94M, to the House of Representatives at the Capitol.
Deputy Minister of Finance for Budget and Development Planning, Mrs. Tanneh Geraldine Brunson, presenting the Draft National Budget to Speaker Bhofal Chambers on Monday, 5 December said, external resources constitute US$110M of the amount.
However, the NDI Resident Director says key things that should be considered in preparing a gender-sensitive budget include women's health programs, special education initiatives for the girl child, employment policy initiatives for women, provisions for daycare and after-school facilities for children of working women as well as provisions for judicial platforms that protect women against violence more often perpetrated by men.
She says transparency is important during presentation of the Government budget and its entire process, because it fosters trust in citizens, in that their interests are respected to ensure that public money is used well.
"It also promotes inclusivity, responsiveness and at the same time supports better fiscal outcomes. It is essential to empower citizens to participate in public processes and to hold the government to account", Mrs. Bernard-Jones underscores further.
Several government ministries invited to the Roundtable to give their perspectives on sectorial areas of the budget did show up except the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
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The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education were conspicuously absent.
Speaking on How can Civil society Organizations collaborate with the Legislature to make the Budget more responsive to the needs of citizens, the Co-chair of the House Committee on Ways, Means and Finance, Sinoe county district#2 Representative Matthews Zarzar says budgeting is not about Mathematics or Accounting, noting that the Budget is highly political.
"The Budget is called the President's Budget under our system", Rep. Zarzar notes.
He says the Legislature will work with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the budget hearing process, adding "CSOs are our partners, and we will work with them in the budgeting process."
The Director of the Legislative Budget Office, Moses T. Cooper, drills the participants step-by-step on how the budgetary process evolves, beginning with drafting of the National Budget by the Executive, scrutiny and approval by the Legislature, execution by spending agencies and ministries, and lastly monitoring and evaluation.
