Ministry’s 2019 budget is gender unresponsive – Committee

Dr. Kojo Appiah-Kubi, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Gender, Children and Social Protection has described the 2019 budget of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MOGCSP) as gender insensitive.

He said the situation where management/administration and school feeding took over 80 per cent of the budget was not a good practice and must be given a second look.

Dr. Appiah-Kubi said this at a post budget stakeholder workshop for the Committee on the gender responsiveness of the 2019 annual budget of the Ministry, tracking budgetary allocations and status of implementation in Ho.

It was organised by STAR Ghana to build the capacity of members of the Committee in analysing gender responsiveness of the 2019 budget and making gender sensitive inputs in subsequent budgets.

He said a study of the budget indicated that only 15 per cent went into “the actual work to support the deprived,” and asked the Ministry to work on that.

Dr. Appiah-Kubi said the current budget showed that the Ministry was not “devoting sufficient attention to important issues” with its main responsibilities “suffering”.

He therefore asked the Ministry to proactively engage the Ministry of Finance to make the budget responsive to gender issues and pledged the support of the Committee.

Madam Laadi Ayii Ayamba, Ranking Member of the Committee said the 0.06 per cent of the Ministry’s total budget allocation to gender equality and women empowerment was woefully inadequate and “not fair.”

Madam Adjoa Ntoso, a Member of the Committee also said the 0.08 per cent allocation to child rights promotion and protection was too small and described as unfortunate the lack of provision for people living with disabilities, especially children with learning disabilities.

Dr. Afisah Zakariah, Chief Director at the Ministry said school feeding and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) took a chunk of the budget because they were flagship programmes.

She assured that the Ministry would work with the Committee and the Finance Ministry to address concerns in the budget.

The Committee members were taken through steps to identify policies that were not gender sensitive and track budgetary allocations towards ensuring that expenditure was done as planned on gender sensitive policies.

Source: GNA

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