General
Source: allAfrica
At least one per cent of the Mozambican state budget should be earmarked for activities focused on gender equality.
This was a recommendation made on Sunday by Raquel Credmades, a European Union specialist in gender-responsive budgeting, speaking to reporters after the end of seminar in Chidenguele, a resort in the southern province of Gaza, intended to build the capacity of Mozambican women parliamentarians to inspect budgets from a gender perspective.
Cremades said she reached the one per cent figure based on calculations of the state budgets in the five Portuguese speaking African countries.
“The international statistics indicate that at least one per cent of the state budget should be allocated to questions of gender”, she said. Cremades noted that national plans that deal with gender issues contain actions to be implemented, but face a lack of financial resources.
Cremades said that the Mozambican budget for 2016 allocated only 0.1 per cent of total expenditure for questions of gender.
But it is difficult to make such calculations, because there is no specific line for gender questions, either in the state budget, or in the annual Economic and Social Plan. Cremades urged women deputies to identify were gender issues can be tackled and to monitor expenditure on them.
Over 80 deputies took part in the one day seminar. Jovial Setima, of the ruling Frelimo Party, told reporters she hoped that such training events would continue, but with more than just a day for discussion.
By Mozambique News Agency