(Togo First) - Lomé hosted last Monday, April 4th, a workshop for the elaboration of the gender-sensitive budget for the year 2023. During the session, participants - gender experts, senior officials, technical and financial partners of Togo - aimed to better promote women and gender equality in the budgeting and allocation of state resources.
"Gender budgeting consists in applying the integrated approach of equality between women and men to the financial aspect of public policies," said Kofi Agbenoxevi Paniah, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, at the beginning of the meeting. The official especially mentioned Togo’s efforts to support and strengthen gender equity, over more than a decade now; efforts consolidated in the first axis of the Togo 2025 roadmap.
2023: new "gender-sensitive" ministries
In Togo, the 2022 budget law came with a gender-sensitive budget covering six (06) pilot ministries, notably the ministries of grassroots development, primary and secondary education, health, social action, agriculture, and public works.
In 2023, two ministries (the ministries of justice and higher education) and two institutions (the Prime Minister's Office and the Court of Auditors) will be added, according to Kofi Agbenoxevi Paniah.
The elaboration of the gender-sensitive budget is supported by the World Bank (through the PAGE project) and the European Union. The latter’s representative, Joachin Tasso Villalonga, praised the government "for putting Togo at the forefront of GRB (Gender Responsive Budgeting) in the region and welcomed their ambition to extend it to all public institutions.”
In Togo, the development of a gender-sensitive budget was instituted on April 7, 2020.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi