1. FORUM FOR WOMEN IN DEMOCRACY
Developing capacity of public institutions to formulate gender sensitive plans and budgets: Uganda’s Experience A presentation by Mukunda Julius Mugisha, Senior Program Director Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) Kampala, Uganda
2013 United Nations Public Service Forum Day and Awards Ceremony
“Transformative e-Government and Innovation:
Creating a Better Future for All”
24-27 June 2013
Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain

2. Background GRB started in Uganda in 1999
But gained momentum in 2004 with increased numbers of technocrats trained in GRB

3. Background
In 2010 /11 the National development plan (NDP) agreed and made gender inequality as one of the key five bidding constraints to national development in Uganda
In 2006/07 government came on board with the introduction of Budget Call circular directive on Gender Budgeting

4. Recent institutional Developments for GRB in Uganda
Operationalization of the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC)
A constitutional body charged with dealing with issues of inequality in the country
Organizing and mobilizing Parliamentarians into a GRB champions groups

5. Recent institutional Developments for GRB in Uganda
Development of Training manuals and programs
Spearheaded by the ministry of finance Planning and economic Development
Establishment of a Postgraduate diploma in Gender and Local development

6. Recent institutional Developments for GRB in Uganda
Establishment of Master degree in gender Aware Economics.  
The first in the world of its kind, aims to generate a new cadre of economists who are able to integrate gender equality as a parameter in economic analysis, policies and budgets.

7. Recent institutional Developments for GRB in Uganda
Generation of Gender disaggregated data by Ministry of Finance
Conducting participatory gender Audits for 5 sectors of the economy including Ministry of finance

8. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
This has taken several forms
Duration and quick fixes
one day workshop to five day intensive training organized mainly by NGOs
They have helped where there is scarcity of resources
Need to deal with emergencies
Need to have basics to help achieve short term results

9. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
Content development
structured training programs organized by training Institutions such ESAMI(East, South African Management Institute)
Structured training program by UNDP’s GEPMI program (Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative )
Tanzania Gender an Macroeconomics Program organized by TGNP
Academic programs such as the post graduate diploma and Master Degrees at Makerere University

10. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
Content development for GRB in Uganda
The five step approach
5 Corrective Feed Back
1. Gender Situational analysis
2. Gender Policy Analysis
3. Gender Budget Analysis
4. Gender Budget Monitoring

11. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
The GEPMI
The three-week course on Gender-Responsive Economic Policy Management aims at providing policymakers and development practitioners with the required skills and
knowledge that are needed to identify and address gender biases in the economic sectors and to analyze economic policies and budgets from a gender perspective

12. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
The course targets economic policymakers, development planners, researchers, in particular middle and high level public and private sectors officials, civil society organisations and other officials engaged in gender advocacy who want to increase their capacity to analyse and mainstream gender issues in economic policy formulation and management.
TARGET PARTICIPANTS

13. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
EXPECTED SKILLS UPON COMPLETION
The course enhances gender awareness in economic policy formulation and implementation and also sharpens the understanding of participants on the links between gender and economic policy formulation and management.
The course makes it possible for participants to become familiar with the analysis and use of gender concepts, tools and strategies especially in the economic sectors.

14. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
Expected skills upon completion include:
Fostering an enhanced conceptual understanding of gender concepts in economic policy design, implementation and evaluation,
Enabling participants to acquire knowledge and expertise to formulate, implement, monitor, and evaluate policies, programmes and budgets from a gender perspective;
Providing participants with knowledge and expertise to mainstream a gender perspective in national development policy dialogue and planning as well as in international negotiations;
Providing an opportunity to share relevant experiences and materials among participants from different national economic structures.

15. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
The course consists of standard modules, and one writing module that involve the drafting of individual or team papers.
COURSE CONTENT

16. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
COURSE CONTENT
Key components of the modules include:
Gender and Economics
Gender-responsive policy analysis
Unpaid care work
Gender, data and indices
Employment and labor markets
Gender and poverty
Gender and Macroeconomics
Gender and macroeconomic strategies in Africa, part I
Gender and macroeconomic strategies in Africa, part II
Gender and trade
Gender and access to finance
Public finance and gender-responsive budgeting

17. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
COURSE CONTENT
The GEPMI looks at gender in economics compressively
We no longer need to look at budget rather we need to look at what drives and influences the budgets
GEMPI also attempts to support that belief that if public service is of quality and adequate gender inequality may also reduced
GEMPI looks at the fundamentals that can address the root on fixing the economy and gender can be integrated
GEPMI departs from the norm of looking at how governments generates revenues and how resources are allocated

18. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
Target groups
The Target groups in Uganda are
The government technocrats:
these get training specifically on how to integrate gender in the planning and budgeting processes
Usually a lot of time is spent on development of gender issues and how they can be addressed using existing available resources
Generation of gender disaggregated data is key and a key message given
The CSOs
These get training majorly on budget advocacy
Most of the time is spent t on understanding the budget and the budget process

19. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
Target groups
The Communities
We have discovered that when communities are organized, mobilized and empowered serviced delivery improves and corruption in harder to sustain
We have introduced in Uganda the concept of Village Budget Clubs
These are groups of grassroots women and men who are training in gender budget monitoring and service delivery tracking

20. Building Capacities of Public Institutions in GRB
The group is charged with monitoring money flow into their community and how it has been utilized
The groups monitors government facilities to find out how resources are being utilized
The groups organizes the communities at larger and share their experiences in the budget monitoring exercises
The groups interfaces with duty bearers on the issues raised during

21. Challenges of building Capacities of Public Institutions on GRB
Staff turn over and redeployment
Inability of senior decision makers to attend GRB training sessions
Inadequate training materials and research on gender and economics
Gender considered as “simple” subject which can be mastered in weeks if not days
Economics is language of exclusion
There is no stand alone curriculum
Most gender activists have inadequate economics background

22. Conclusion
Investing in capacity development initiatives is crucial in fighting gender inequality. Whereas most of the training initiative have focused on policy makers, its now time to look at grassroots communities.. When communities are organized and trained in gender budgeting corruption is harder to sustain and service delivery improves.