No tracking of women's benefits thru policymaking

The concept of gender equality is seeing increasing inclusion in policymaking, but how far it has impacted the lives of women remains invisible due to lack of a monitoring or tracking mechanism, speakers said yesterday.

The government has been formulating gender-responsive budgets since 2009 to ensure that women are equally benefitted by development programmes, but the impact still remains largely unknown, they said in a seminar titled “Policy, law and budget to remove discrimination against women” by Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS) at the CIRDAP auditorium in the capital. 

The organisation, working to establish equal rights for women, presented findings of a study conducted under the supervision of Prof Salauddin M Aminuuzzaman of Dhaka University.

The report acknowledges the improved opportunities that women are getting to empower themselves now compared to a decade earlier, but at the same time is critical of the implementation of the policies made to narrow the gender gap.

All the ministries have been made accountable for spending its budget allocated for social and economic empowerment of women, but what is missing here is a policy implementation-tracking mechanism, Salauddin added.

With the economic shifts, goals have to be aligned with the changing needs. Unemployment was once a major concern, but now the focus should be on how to generate decent jobs, said Prof Sharmind Neelormi, from the economics department of Jahangirnagar University.

Economist and researcher Pratima Paul Majumder said recognition of women's unpaid work is needed to empower them.

Nazma Mobarak, joint secretary of the finance division, said the government was considering projects to pay social safety allowances to women directly through banks. Empowerment of women highly depends on them exercising more power and engagement in decision-making, she added.

Rokeya Kabir, executive director of BNPS, delivered the concluding speech at the programme.