Note to Correspondents

PANEL DISCUSSION ON FINANCE MINISTRIES AND GENDER EQUALITY TO BE HELD ON 28 JUNE

A panel discussion entitled “Finance Ministries Accounting for Gender Equality” will take place on 28 June from 1:15 – 2:45 p.m. in Conference Room 4.  The discussion is being organized by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

In 2001, at the time of the Monterrey Consensus, Member States agreed “It is critical to reinforce national efforts in capacity-building in developing countries and countries with economies in transition in such areas as institutional infrastructure, human resource development, public finance, mortgage finance, financial regulation and supervision…public administration, social and gender budget policies…”  Five years later, Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is taking place in at least 40 countries.  Increasingly, ministries of finance are taking a leading role in building capacity and commitment to GRB to strengthen financial accountability.

Panellists will discuss the achievements and challenges in institutionalizing GRB in budget processes.  Representatives of ministries of finance and gender-budget experts will offer insights into the practices and potentials of GRB in different countries and regions of the world.

Speakers will include:  Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM (Chair); Kris Panneels (Belgium), Head of the Multilateral and European Cooperation Department (DGDC); Saif Eddine Senouci (Morocco), Chief of Service, Social Development and Health Service, Directorate of the Budget, Ministry of Finance and Privatisation; Monica Mwamnyange (Tanzania), Assistant Commissioner for Budget; Dakshita Das (India), Director (Budget) Ministry of Finance; Sarojini Ganju Thakur, Commonwealth Secretariat, Social Transformation Programmes Division - Gender Section; and Debbie Budlender (Discussant), Community Agency for Social Enquiry.

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