Dr Dorothy Gwajima, Minister for Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups made the call over the weekend in Dar es Salaam when wrapping up the three-day Regional Meeting on Financing for Gender Equality. The meeting brought on board minister of Gender and Finance from 22 African nations.
She said that through engaging the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) the other sectoral ministries will be inspired and implement strategies that align to the agenda of generation equality.
“In Tanzania, we have been able to connect with the Controller auditor general so as to stimulate all sectoral ministries to align with the agenda of generation equality. All the time they plan and implement they should be able to tell us to what extent they have been able to align with the agenda.
“And the CAG will be able to track and give remarks and go to the parliament and tell the members what ministries have complied with the generation equality agenda and if the budget is in line with what we are planning to do as a country and globally,” said Dr Gwajima.
She also added: “I call upon the ministers in attendance here to take this lesson and apply in their countries to align all their plans and indicators with the CAG so that we stop auditing money alone. Instead, there should be the same compliance in the agenda for Generation Equality program. I believe this sets a foundation for us to move forward and to be measurable and be connected with other sectors and once we meet again, we will be able to tell the story on our implementation and make comparisons among countries.
Dr Gwajima highlighted the importance of the forum as it puts together the finance and gender experts to strategize on the best ways to increase gender financing initiatives in their countries hence reducing dependency on development partners and stakeholders to implement gender financing initiatives
Dr Maxime Houinato, UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa and Regional Director for West Africa emphasized that the issue of gender equality should take as a development issue not as a woman issue, highlighting that providing women with equal opportunities, boosts productivity in their respective countries and the region.
Antoinette Sayeh, IMF deputy regional director pointed out that estimates showed that gender gaps in education and informal labor market participation can significantly increase national GDP rates in Sub-Saharan African countries, citing that, addressing such disparities demands a gender lens with a full range of economic policies, from expenditure and revenue administration and gender responsive budgeting systems.
The three-day high-level meeting concluded with a commitment to sustained action, ensuring greater availability to gender data, accountability and transparent reporting to achieve the goals set by Generation Equality Forum, providing a roadmap to guide future efforts to transform the economic and social status of women and girls in Africa.
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