1.      Background

Gender equity is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. In 2015, Uganda enacted the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) with provisions of compliance to gender and equity planning and budgeting under Section 9 (6) (a) and (b); Section 13 (11) e (i) and (ii); and c) Section 13 (15) g (i) and (ii). These provisions make it mandatory for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Local Governments (LGs) to indicate Gender and Equity issues in their plans that are to be funded through their annual budget after which they can be issued a Certificate of Gender and Equity (CGE). Government of Uganda thus, recognizes that promotion of Gender and Equity is at the center of appropriation and utilization of public funds.

Gender and Equity Responsive Planning and Budgeting in Uganda seeks to eliminate discrimination and inequalities against any individual or group of persons on the ground of sex, age, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, health status, social or economic standing, political opinion or disability, and take affirmative action in favour of groups marginalized for the purpose of redressing imbalances which exist against them (EOC Act, 2007).

Providing all citizens with equal access and participation in government programmes such as education, health care, decent work, and representation in decision-making processes is critical for sustainable development. The Third National Development Plan (NDP III) made great consideration for Gender and Equity Budgeting in all the 18 programmes, ensuring equity is considered in all sectors, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for development. The NDP III aims at ensuring a reduction in vulnerability and the gender inequality gap by the end of the 5-year plan.

The Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) together with the Gender and Equity Budgeting (GEB) taskforce supported by UNWOMEN Uganda under the Spotlight Initiative would like to build the capacity of CSBAG’s networks at both the national and local government level on Programme Based Budgeting (PBB) and Gender and Equity budget analysis and advocacy.

2.      Rationale for the training

Government of Uganda has in the last 5 years undertaken several reforms to improve its Public Finance Management (PFM) for efficient use of the available resources including the NDP III, the Medium Term Revenue Strategy, the Resource Enhancement and Accountability Program (REAP), the PBB approach, among others. All these need clear understanding by the Civil Society to clearly assess and track government interventions for advocacy.

CSBAG would like to increase the ability of its members to understand the PBB approach and also assess gender and equity interventions for advocacy. The overall objective of this training is to better understand the PBB approach and the extent to which gender and equity budgets are implemented. Participants should be able to understand the respective programmes and establish the extent to which budgets effectively benefit the targeted beneficiaries i.e. the vulnerable communities for advocacy.

3. Objectives of the training

The main objective of this training is to build the capacity of CSBAG’s networks at both the national and local government level on the Programme based approach and Gender and Equity budget analysis and advocacy. Special focus will be put on understanding gender and equity and tracking its interventions in the budget for advocacy. Specifically, this training will aim at:

• Equipping CSBAG members at national and local government level with knowledge on the Programme Based Approach
• Equipping CSBAG members at national and local government level with knowledge on key gender and equity dimensions for budget advocacy
• Providing hands on experience on tracking budgeting interventions to gender and equity under the 18 prograammes, highlighting key source and reference documents point for budget analysis
• Demonstrating how the analyse information can be used to support policy analysis and advocacy

4. Intended participants

CSBAG will train 25 of its members at both the national and local government level. CSBAG will send out a call for applications to all its members with an application form to fill. The call will be targeted for persons that engage in budget analysis for advocacy. 

Each interested organization will be entitled to ONLY ONE position to provide opportunity to more participants.

5. Timeframe

The training will be carried out for 3 days at a time and venue to be communicated to the selected participants.

Interested candidates should fill in the application form attached here and submit by 11^th June 2021 at 5:00pm.