No fewer than 30 operators of civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been equipped with knowledge on gender responsive budgeting for gender based violence (GBV) prevention and mitigation in Cross River State.
Executive Director of Centre for Gender Economics in Africa (CGE), Mrs. Uchenna Idako, disclosed this while answering questions from LEADERSHIP in Calabar on Wednesday.
Idako, who spoke shortly after completing the training of NGOs and CSOs at Hotel 45 Calabar, stressed that the initiative was to equip participants with skills that can help them in thier quest to prevent and mitigate gender based violence.
She said that the knowledge gained at the training workshop will help them re-strategise and position themselves properly in their task of handling issues relating to gender responsive budgeting.
“It’s a training on gender responsive budget for civil society organizations (CSOs) that work for reduction of Gender Based Violence in Cross River. We have a project funded by Africa Development Fund. The project is called gender responsive budgeting for GBV prevention and mitigation,” she stated.
Idako stated that the rationale behind the training was to build critical mass diverse actors from Cross River State and beyond, who will engage in the process of gender-responsive budgeting and make every activist become conversant with budgeting and reawaken the ultimate solution in gender budgeting.
“We found out Cross River and other States despite all the policy provisions, yet GBV is still on the leap. We discovered that most of the donations are given from the donor agencies to CSOs. Most times they are time bound, nothing is paid for by the government budget.
“We know that for it to be sustained, for it to be institutionalised, government needs to start paying for GBV prevention. The workshop will give us a formula to work with the executive arm of government and the parliament.
“We have a strong belief that we will make impact. We are working with other civil society organizations (CSOs) that are responsive to this very initiative,” Idako added.
She advocated for human rights, accountability, transparency, participation, efficiency, effectiveness, economic growth, development, and gender equity/equality.
She said that the training has nothing to do with CSOs beaming their searchlight on the performance of any government but to work in one accord with government in the area of gender budgeting for the right thing to be done.