One Day Capacity Building for Female Parliamentarians
25th October 2011, Transcorp Hotel Abuja
Organized by Hon. Minister, Federal Ministry of Women
Affairs & Social Development
Presentation by Saudatu Mahdi
Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative
(WRAPA) Nigeria
saudatu@yahoo.com, wrapa993@yahoo.com
www.wrapanigeria.org
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Objectives
 Appreciate
Concepts of Gender and
Gender Mainstreaming (GM)
 Link Legislative Responsibilities &
Processes to GM
 Identify strategies and entry points for
GM in legislative processes
 Highlight GM tools/activities to support
lobbying, bill development, and bill
presentation.
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Definition of Gender
Gender refers to:
a) the social attributes and opportunities associated with being
male and female and the relationships between women and men
and girls and boys
b) the attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially
constructed and are learned through socialization processes.
They are context/ time-specific and changeable.
c) Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued
in a woman or a man in a given context.
In most societies there are differences and inequalities between women and men in
responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over resources, as
well as decision-making opportunities. Other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis
include class, race, poverty level, ethnic group, disability and age
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About Gender Mainstreaming (GM)

What it is




Public policy concept
(especially in a democracy where the benchmarks for good governance
include, compliance with rule of law, accountability, and service delivery)
Measures the different implications for women and men
An inclusivity and accountability strategy of planned policy action,
(including legislation and programmes, in all areas and levels of sociopolitical life of citizens whose felt needs are being addressed)
Principles
 A Broader Concept of Gender Equality
This requirement calls for a more holistic approach to gender policy in order
to tackle the interconnected causes that create an unequal relation between
the sexes in all areas of life (work, politics, sexuality, culture and male
violence)
 Incorporation of a Gender Perspective into the normal governance agenda
(must be institutionalized through concrete steps, mechanisms and processes
in all MDAs, institutions & organizations – 2010 FEC approval for Gender
Desk Officers is an institutional arrangement for GM))
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
Context
 Organizations – (statutes, leadership and policy structures, products,
 Policy frameworks,
 Legislation (AA provisions in national and political party constitutions and policy
frameworks –such as the National Gender Policy)
 Development programming NEEDS, SEEDS, MDGs Vision 20:20:20)

Actors
 Parliamentarians, Policy makers in MDAs, Gender experts and Civil society, women and
other vulnerable groups by their organised and persistent demands for inclusion and
role in governance and development. (union actors and organization’s policy
NUBI FE, NLC has a gender policy, the Nigeria Police is finalizing its gender policy,
NGOs ) including the organized private sector)

Benefits
 policy-making process is broadened
 Policy process is reorganized
(actors know how to incorporate a gender perspective or that gender expertise is
included as normal requirement for policy-makers
 A shift in policy mechanism
(adoption of organizational cooperation on gender issues across all policy areas, levels
and departments; use of appropriate policy tools and techniques to integrate the gender
variable; monitor and evaluate all policies from a gender perspective; )
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Gender Mainstreaming Processes
 Government/institutions
commit to GM
and adopt principles for change
 Conduct a Gap Analysis in existing
structures, policy, legislation or procedure
 Design/adopt mechanisms for GM
 Set benchmarks, design tools for
implementation, monitoring and evaluation
 Locate in relevant
situation/policy/institution/organization
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Foundation for GM in Legislative Processes
1. Democracy and the rule of law
(obligation for accountability to the electorate in different ways – gender
mainstreaming for women)
2. Political party ideology and mechanisms for GM
(leadership positions in party or legislature, opposition status, caucuses)
3. Legislative mechanisms for delivery of democracy gains
(principal office positioning, Committee leadership & membership, Bills,
Motions, Constituency projects, petitions, advocacy & reports to
parliamentary platforms – WIP, IPU, CPU)
4. Quantity versus quality of female members & male gender
champions
(critical masses required to amplify and support inter and intra party
lobbying for gender bills and budgeting)
5. Strategic membership of Parliamentary working committees
(being where the decisions that impact on key gender needs, concerns)
7. Active presence, participation & value addition in parliamentary
platforms & debates
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Legislative Functions: GM Entry point
1. Law Making/legislation
(Sponsor or support private member bills for laws to enhance
entrenchment of policy and legal frameworks for GM)
2. Appropriation/Budgetary engagement
(Budget analysis & input to enhance resource allocation and spending)
3. Oversight
(Close monitoring & analysis of implementation of appropriation, policy
compliance by relevant MDAs and institutions of govt)
4. Leadership & Membership of Standing Committees
(Selection Committee, Appropriation, Rules and Business, Inter
parliamentary/conference committee, etc)
5. Lobbying (Inter and intra party/ constituency etc)
6. Invoking Order/Presiding Rules/ Sections to expedite action
on Bills
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Critical Phases for GM in Legislative Processes

Sponsor/Originating point

Articulation

First Reading

Second Reading




by Committee of the
Whole after 2nd Reading

Committee of the Whole
Consideration of
additional clauses
Committee stage
Public Hearing
Direct treatment of a bill

Final stage

Report stage 3rd Reading

Clean Copy of the Bill
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Strategies
1. Budget tracking
2. Raise motions to call attention to gender issues
3. Form alliances across party lines & among all
members including men
4. Address gender issues with traction and broad
based concerns
5. Bridge building with other women and male change
champions in decision-making positions including
ex-women parliamentarians
6. Partnerships to enhance lobby with CSOs and
development partners for technical support and
content (Gender Technical Unit in the NASS)
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Gender Analysis of Budget
What it is and how it is done
 Study of Budgets to determine how public spending
affects women and men.
 Is not limited to gender specific spending but is also
concerned with gender-neutral spending to show
(unintended) gender bias in the impact of programmes.
 Is done at all levels of government by elected officers or
civil servants.
 Civil society & parliamentarians can play a key role in
putting pressure on government to engender budgets.
 It can focus on total or specific aspects of the budget.
 Is achieved by the use of assessment tools and formats.
 It has basic requirements for effective conduct.
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Tools for GBA
1. Policy appraisal
(examination of the policies of different departments to analyse how they increase or
decrease inequalities between women and men)
2. Disaggregated beneficiary assessments
(research through people who use services to determine whether the services meet their
priorities)
3. Disaggregated public expenditure incidence
(compare government programme spending with information from households about
how it is actually distributed between men and women)
4. Gender-disaggregated tax incidence analysis
(examination of the direct and indirect taxes to work out how much tax is paid by men and
women)
5. Gender disaggregated analysis of the impact of the budget on time use
(look at whether the budget takes into account the way in which time is actually spent by
men and women in households -which means that unpaid work gets included)
6. Gender- aware medium term economic policy framework
(monitoring to ensure that government economic models include a gender analysis).
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Challenges of Legislative GM
1. Although may not be difficult to encourage the
adoption of the vocabulary of mainstreaming
monitoring or follow-up may suffer set backs at interagency level.
2. A consistent problem for all the organizations that
adopt gender mainstreaming is the translation of the
commitment into action starting with adoption of
organizational or institutional gender mainstreaming
policy
3. A mainstreaming fatigue within organizations caused
by a lack of adequate training and support to build
institutional capacity (requisite expertise, personnel and staff)
4. Loss of milestones and new positive action as
everything is then lumped into GM
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