Gender-Responsive Budgeting: A Tool for Sustainable Development or Another Buzzword?

 The other day, I was talking to someone about how sanitary pads should be free or at least affordable for women and girls and more spaces for breastfeeding should be made available for women. The person looked at me like I was asking for too much.

I smiled and said, “Have you noticed how quick governments and institutions say they have gender-friendly policies but often struggle to implement them in everyday settings?” Pads are a basic need for half the population in Nigeria yet it’s not a priority. Similarly, breastfeeding spaces are necessary for women to nurse their babies in comfort and privacy, yet most public places are not designed to accommodate this important aspect of life.

These seemingly simple issues make me think of Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB).

GRB is a way of planning and spending public money that considers everyone’s needs regardless of gender. It looks at where the money goes and asks if those choices make life better for all.

The above is just a simple illustration; and an indication to the kind of metrics we can look at to tell if we really are prioritizing all genders. Males and females make up the population, so how do you intend to practice good governance when basic issues like these are catered for?

The term gender responsive budgeting has popped up in speeches and proposed policies but until these translate to actual change for the everyday Nigerian, we can’t claim to be practicing gender responsive budgeting.

Until gender starts getting treated as a core development issue and not just charity work, GRB will keep sounding like an abstract word. GRB should influence how governments rate progress, not just for reporting purposes.

Because there is no way sustainable development can happen when half the population is uncatered for. GRB can work, but only if we stop using it for show and start using it to fix systems so that males and females both get what they need.