A book on gender-budgeting, its implications, practices and concepts was on Tuesday launched in Accra.Gender Budgeting represents a special type of policy-making that enables budgets or money allocation to become effective tools for advancing gender equity or to ensure that women participated fully or advanced in all sectors of society.
The 187-page book entitled "Gender-Budgeting as a Tool for Poverty Reduction" was written by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), a women's development oriented international nongovernmental organisation (NGO) headquartered in Zimbabwe.
Commenting on the book, Madam Frannie Leautier, Executive Director of ACBF, said it was written in order to highlight capacity weaknesses in gender budgeting that needed to be addressed.
"It is disheartening to note that gender-budgeting initiatives have generally failed in their attempts to influence the decision-making
processes that would have rendered development more equitable," she said.
She said the Book provided documentation that would increase knowledge and understanding at the governmental and non-governmental levels so as to allow more deliberate decision-making about the gender-budgeting processes.
"It will also provide more information to substantiate gender-budgeting as an effective mechanism for poverty reduction that could have an impact on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals," she said.
She noted that the organization chose to launch the Book in Ghana due to its close collaboration with the African Women's Development Fund, an NGO which is headquartered in Ghana, and its democratic credentials.
Dr Rose Mensah Kutin, Convenor of Network for Women's Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), praised ACBF for its concern for issues relating to women on the Continent and for coming out with the book.