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	Citizens must engage with the budget and hold leaders accountable by Patricia Munabi UN Women, Womankind Worldwide Uganda   May 2017   Our mothers didn’t have sanitary towels!” Such had been the casual response of certain legislators when asked to equip schools with sanitary pads for girls as part of gender-responsive budgeting. Their response astounded me! These men have mothers, sisters and daughters, but perhaps they’re of a different class, so this is not an issue for them! The provision of sanitary pads at school remains one of the most surprising discoveries for policymakers when thinking about gender-responsive budgeting.   Prior to the last election in Uganda, the government promised to provide sanitary pads in schools. Later they said there was no money for it, despite the Minister of Education being a woman. If girls don’t have access to sanitary pads, they drop out of school. It’s as simple as that.   For gender-responsive budgeting to work, we need to build both the supply and demand for it. We must raise awareness among policymakers of the importance of integrating gender in budget plans.   At the same time, we must increase demand and capacity among citizens so they can participate in the process, ask the right questions based on their needs, and hold those in charge accountable.   When we began to work with local women and men at a grassroots level on gender-responsive budgeting, we asked them what their actual needs were, and then taught them to track where the money was going. We showed them that by not engaging in the budget process, their needs were not being addressed.   We asked the community to elect leaders who form the Village Budget Club, and who are responsible for monitoring the quality of service delivery, advocating for resources on prioritized issues, and holding local leaders accountable.   The Village Budget Club keeps citizens informed of the latest budgetary developments through radio engagements and community meetings. Sometimes local leaders are invited to explain why resources aren’t being allocated to certain needs so citizens can understand the constraints in place.   As citizens started participating actively, they saw how their lives improved. For example, after local women highlighted the critical need for family planning, policymakers created specific budget lines for family planning and allocated resources accordingly. This was in sharp contrast to the past, when we simply had a blanket budget on healthcare. We’ve seen more girls attending and staying in schools because communities demanded separate toilets for boys and girls.   We have used the evidence from our gender-responsive budgeting work at the grassroots level to advocate at the national level and increased resource allocation in areas such as health, education and agriculture.   Sometimes, we face backlash from local leaders who don’t like the idea of an ordinary citizen asking them questions and holding them accountable. We educated the local people on the country’s Constitution, which proved critical in equipping them with the knowledge of their role and responsibilities as citizens, and the confidence to advocate for their rights.   Now most local officials have realized that the work we are doing, in fact supports them, and our model has become the “in thing”. Local governments are supposed to monitor resource allocation, but village budget conferences hardly take place due to a lack of funds. As a result, local leaders cannot get the grassroots evidence on resource allocation that they need for their work. Our work brings that evidence; it shows why citizens must engage with the budget and hold leaders accountable."   * Patricia Munabi is the Executive Director of Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), a women’s rights organization in Uganda. From 2010 - 2012, FOWODE was supported by UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality to implement gender-responsive budgeting at a local and national level in Uganda. This involved training women in 16 local communities to form Village Budget Clubs to ensure that women are actively involved in budget allocation and decisions at the local level. Some 200 legislators and government officials were also trained to implement gender-responsive programmes at the national level.   Standing with the changemakers: lessons from supporting women''s movements. (Womankind Worldwide)   Women''s rights organisations and movements are vital to a just world where the rights of all women are respected, valued and realised. Our new report, Standing with the changemakers, highlights the roles of women’s rights organisations and movements in bringing about advances in women’s rights, and what the international community can do to support them.   We know that progressive change happens when diverse and independent women’s movements have vision, strength, resilience and collective power. Change is sustained when these women’s movements thrive and flourish over time. Time and again, movements have proven to be successful in bringing about meaningful change in women’s lives due to their ability to unite and mobilise large groups of women, and make their collective voice heard.   http://www.womankind.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/resources/standing-with-the-changemakers Visit the related web page
	Men in the Middle East slow to embrace gender equality - study by UN Women, Promundo, Reuters Foundation   Aug. 2017   UN human rights chief welcomes rape law reform in Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan. (UN News)   The top United Nations human rights official welcomed the repeal of laws in Lebanon, Tunisia and Jordan that allow rapists to avoid criminal prosecution by marrying their victims.   “To punish a rape victim by making her marry the perpetrator of a horrible crime against her – there is no place in today''s world for such hideous laws,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra''ad Al Hussein.   He warmly welcomed the stand that lawmakers in Lebanon, Tunisia and Jordan have taken towards eliminating violence against women and ensuring that perpetrators of such violence are held to account.   According to the High Commissioner''s Office (OHCHR), on 16 August, Lebanon voted to repeal article 522 of its penal code, a law that exempted from criminal prosecution a person accused of rape who agreed to marry the victim. Two weeks earlier, on 1 August, Jordanian lawmakers also voted to abolish a similar provision – article 308 of its penal code.   In Tunisia, on 26 July, the Parliament adopted a law on eliminating violence against women and eliminating impunity for perpetrators, recognizing that violence against women includes economic, sexual, political and psychological violence. The law will come into effect next year. Tunisia has also established two human rights institutions this year dealing with human trafficking and improving the enjoyment of individual liberties and equality.   “These are hard-won victories, thanks to the tireless campaigns over the years by human rights defenders – in particular women human rights defenders – in Tunisia, Lebanon and Jordan,” underscored High Commissioner Zeid.   He noted however that in Lebanon, article 505 of the Penal Code continues to allow those accused of having sex with a minor to go free if they marry their victims, while article 508 allows for marital rape, and called for the article to be repealed and for marital rape to be criminalized.   “I call on the Governments and people of these countries – and other countries in the region – to build on this positive momentum, and to work towards the swift repeal of other legislation that condones sexual violence against women and girls and perpetuates discrimination against them in clear violation of international human rights law,” concluded Mr. Zeid. http://bit.ly/2x9FfaO   May 2017   Most young men in the Middle East and North Africa still hold traditional attitudes similar to their fathers towards women''s role in society, according to a survey published this week which said the region was bucking a global trend.   The study of nearly 10,000 men and women across Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and the Palestinian Territories also revealed significant levels of domestic violence and sexual harassment.   Two-thirds to three-quarters of the men surveyed believe a woman''s primary role should be caring for the household, according to the study by the U.N. Women agency and Promundo, a global organisation that promotes gender equality.   At least half the women surveyed also saw this as their most important duty.   Gary Barker, CEO of Promundo, said it was "concerning and surprising" that young men''s views in Morocco, the Palestinian Territories and Egypt did not differ substantially from those of older men.   "Everywhere else that we have done this research.. young men typically have more progressive views than their fathers and the older generation - that was not so here," he added.   The study suggested the finding could be a reflection of the challenging economic circumstances in the three countries where many young men said they struggled to find jobs, leaving them feeling disempowered and ashamed.   Overall, more than three-quarters of men supported the idea that men should have preferential access to jobs over women. But the study showed nearly as many women shared this view.   "It is not just men who uphold the patriarchy, women buy into a lot of these attitudes as well," said Shereen El Feki, senior fellow at Promundo, adding that greater equality would require changing women''s mindsets as well as men''s.   Barely a quarter of women in the region participate in the labour force - the lowest rate in the world - according to the International Labour Organization.   Despite the prevalence of traditional attitudes, the study said a sizable minority of men in the region supported women''s economic, social, and political equality.   "We don''t have to invent gender equitable men in the region, they exist. It is a matter of finding their voices and helping turn them up and say this can be the normal in the region," Barker said.   The study also showed high rates of domestic violence in Egypt with 45 percent of men saying they had been violent towards their wife. The figure ranged from around 8 percent to 17 percent in the other countries.   One of the most prevalent forms of gender-based violence highlighted in the study was sexual harassment in the street with 40 to 60 percent of women saying they had experienced it.   http://tmsnrt.rs/2pWakvv http://imagesmena.org/en/ http://bit.ly/2pbkYkX http://www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/07/middle-easts-women-are-championing-their-own-change http://www.hrw.org/news/2017/05/09/saudi-arabia-unofficial-guardianship-rules-banned http://www.hrw.org/endmaleguardianship http://ab.co/2xNGSeN http://www.hrw.org/news/2017/05/10/beaten-her-husband-and-nowhere-turn http://www.dw.com/en/child-marriage-in-iran-forces-girls-into-a-life-of-oppression/a-40450099 http://www.actionaid.org/shared/fighting-rape-laws-jordan-and-lebanon http://bit.ly/2vKB6dn http://news.trust.org/womens-rights/ http://tmsnrt.rs/2qQJJiQ http://tmsnrt.rs/2tOWVGQ http://www.equalitynow.org/press-clips/one-one-marry-your-rapist-laws-are-falling-middle-east http://www.equalitynow.org/campaigns/rape-laws-report
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