Gender-responsive budgeting in Africa: An action learning project in Senegal and Uganda

Budgets are the implementing tools that transform government promises and commitments into programs and services. Mainstreaming gender considerations into the budget development process is critical to creating more equitable and inclusive societies. Incorporating gender analysis tools into the various stages of the budget process can ensure that the different roles and needs of both women and men are taken into account as decisions are made about development priorities, funding levels, and implementation.

However, due to limited awareness and capacities in gender analysis in the budgetary process, much of the effort to promote gender-responsive budgeting is devoted to analyzing performance by gender in a few sectors. There are still challenges related to ensuring that those involved have the capacity to undertake effective gender-responsive budgeting at both the local and national government levels in African countries.
This project aims to build capacity in gender-responsive budgeting for selected researchers and technical agents of chosen line government ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as to engage with civil society to strengthen their advocacy work for gender-responsive budgeting in Senegal and Uganda. The project involves analysis of policies, expenditures, and service delivery; integration of gender analysis into research and development; and networking and promotion of learning.

Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment of Uganda and Senegal’s Consortium pour la recherche économique et social will implement the project. The action learning approach of this project will engage these two organizations, who are Think Tank Initiative grantees, to share experiences and knowledge in a peer-learning format.

This project is funded by the Think Tank Initiative (TTI), a multi-funder program dedicated to strengthening independent policy research institutions, or think tanks, in developing countries. The program aims to enhance their ability to provide sound research that informs and influences policy. This second TTI phase (2014‒2019) will fund 43 institutions, helping them consolidate their role as credible development actors in their countries, and in some cases, regionally and internationally.