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Activists urge Z’bar gender-sensitive budget
2006-11-08 09:00:02
By Issa Yussuf, Zanzibar
Calls have been made to the Zanzibar Finance ministry to come out with a ’gender budget’ which will be sensitive to the needs of women.
The gender activists were speaking during a three-day workshop on the Zanzibar budget committee.
They said that the budget committee should focus on gender receptive budgeting, with special emphasis on gender, poverty, education and livelihood.
Women development activist and facilitator of the workshop, Mary Rusimbi of the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), said it was high time changes were made in the Zanzibar budget to reflect women’s development.
She said: ”A number of countries have made changes in their budgets. Zanzibar should follow suit.”
She added: ”Specific attention needs to be given to allocation of funds and the devising of new schemes for the empowerment in education, health, and employment,” Rusimbi said.
Opening the workshop, the Zanzibar minister responsible for women development, Asha Abdallah Juma, said that the national budget should now guarantee gender sensitiveness.
”There is a need to earmark a substantial portion of the annual budget for women development,” she told the workshop participants.
Some participants observed that because women’s contribution to the GDP has been huge for years, they must therefore be recognised by having a budget which focuses on developing them.
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