ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Thursday called for gender-responsive budgeting as one of the most effective ways to ensure women’s needs and rights were met.

He expressed these views while speaking at the launching ceremony of the “Gender Responsive Budgeting Report” organised by the Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES).

Speaker Ashraf said that legislators in Pakistan had been working to increase women’s participation in the budgetary process and to ensure that gender considerations were integrated into development planning and implementation. He also stressed the need to ensure that gender-responsive budgeting was integrated into all levels of government and that it was effectively implemented and monitored.

The speaker also appreciated the efforts of Dr Shahid Rehmani, WPC secretary, to launch a summary paper on Gender Responsive Budgeting in Pakistan. Mr Ashraf said that his party believed in the emancipation of women and an empowered nation. He urged all participants to support the implementation of gender-responsive budgeting in Pakistan.

The Women Parliamentary Caucus launched the summary paper on “Gender Budgeting in Pakistan”. The purpose of the summary paper was to put forward key strategies and methodologies for the implementation of gender budgeting. This paper would serve as a source of inspiration and guidance for further work, especially for WPC but also for other institutions interested in promoting a coherent regarding the issue.

Dr Shahida Rehmani, in her inaugural remarks, said that the WPC had been working diligently to institutionalise the gender budgeting process. This strategy paper was the first step toward the process. She highlighted that to better understand public spending, there was a need to involve women in the budget-making process to ensure that their perspectives and needs were taken into account.

Dr Rehmani also highlighted that in the budget for FY22-23, a major number of financial amendments were from women MPs. Dr Rehmani concluded her speech by reiterating that investing in women and girls was not only a moral and social obligation but mandatory for the empowerment of women.

“There is no social justice without gender justice,” said Niels Hegewisch, the country director for Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

After FES organized a successful Gender Budgeting Workshop in November 2022 with WPC, experts Marion Böker from Berlin and Elisabeth Klatzer from Vienna have returned to Islamabad to continue the cooperation. They presented their strategy paper to a wide range of parliamentarians, journalists, and members of political and civil society.

According to Marion Böker, the aim of the paper was to apply a gender perspective to the budget and to realise equality of all genders, women, men and transgender persons. Dr Elisabeth Klatzer identified areas where Pakistan needed to take a more gender-inclusive approach. One potential area for achieving greater gender equality was through the agriculture sector. New investments in farming can create opportunities to improve working conditions and pay for women, who are often employed in agriculture under poor conditions and low pay, she added.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2023