Building Capacity for Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting: The Rwandan Experience

1. Building Capacity for Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting: The Rwandan Experience Chika Ezeanya Ph.D. School of Finance and Banking Kigali, Rwanda.

2. Rwanda has the highest percentage of female Parliamentarians in the world.

3. Government of Rwanda has ratified all major international and regional instruments on gender.

4. Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion is dedicated to gender affairs. Gender Monitoring Office is charged with ensuring that every ministry takes responsibility for mainstreaming gender in all its activities.

5. GRB in Rwanda • The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning started implementing Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in 2008. • The aim is to mainstream gender into the analysis of public expenditure and means of raising public revenues, so that the impacts on men and women are considered.

6. Rwanda’s GEPM • The GRB and other gender equity programmes are designed to avoid over-reliance on external consultants. • The emphasis of the Ministry of Finance is on building the capacity of Rwandans across sectors to be able to bring gender perspectives into the mobilization of government resources as well as the implementation of Government programs.

7. GEPM • The Gender-responsive Economic Policy Management (GEPM) GEPM Program is a strategic partnership between the School of Finance and Banking in Rwanda and the UN Women in collaboration with The Ministry of Finance.

8. Rwanda’s Gender-responsive Economic Policy Management (GEPM) Program is an offshoot of UNDP’s Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative (GEPMI) • The core objective of UNDP’s GEPMI is to ensure equity in poverty reduction strategies and economic policies in order to quicken the pace towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

9. Why the GEPM in Rwanda? • Response to a long-term objective of creating a critical mass of: • Economists • Planners • Budget officers, all capable of integrating gender dimension as a variable for : • Economic analysis • Policy analysis • Budgeting

10. The GEPM Partnership • The programme addresses the need for gender integration in economic policy analysis, policy formulation and implementation . • Seeks to design appropriate capacity development programmes with short, medium and long-term horizon, for the different cadres of staff and policy managers in various sectors.

11. Expected Skills to be Imparted • Enhanced understanding of gender concepts in economic policy design, implementation and evaluation. • Knowledge and expertise to formulate, implement, monitor, and evaluate policies, programmes and budgets from a gender perspective; • Knowledge and expertise to mainstream a gender perspective in national development policy dialogue and planning

12. Curriculum Overview Module 1 : Introductory Gender and Economics Modules 2 & 3 : Gender-Responsive Policy Analysis Module 4: Gender, Data and Indices Module 5: Employment and Labour Markets Module 6: Gender and Poverty

13. Curriculum Overview Modules 8 & 9 : Gender and Macroeconomic Strategies in Africa Module 10 :Gender and Trade Module 11 : Gender and Access to Finance. Module 12 :Public Finance and Gender- Responsive Budgeting.

14. Structure • The course is organized to run over a three-week period, with about eight (8) hours of teaching per working day.

15. Progress Report • MoU between UN Women and SFB signed in October 2010 • Training of Trainers (ToT) carried out by internationally recognized gender experts in 2011 • Twelve modules completed and printed in early 2012 • GEPMI Programme officially launched on 23rd November 2012 by the Acting Minister of Gender and Family Promotion and Minister of Cabinet Affairs. • Presently at the final stage of recruitment for intake 1.

16. MurakozeCyane Thank you