The Role of Legislature in Achieving Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Nigeria

Gender balance in resource allocation is an important attribute that is needed for effective national planning and development. Any budget that takes into account the peculiarity of both males and females in the society and ensures equal opportunities for all in the achievement of the objectives of the budget is referred to as a gender-responsive budget. Gender-responsive budgeting is essential not only for gender equity and fairness but also for economic and financial equity in the context of national resource allocation. In Africa, especially in Nigeria, the role of women in economic development is undervalued. Women constitute about 50% agricultural workforce and offer over 70% of the contribution to food supply, yet their contributions are hardly recognized in the budget as reflected in the way the annual budgets at both state and federal levels are designed. There is no appropriate justification in the way women benefit from public sector expenditure and equality of access to national resources especially in rural areas in the budget is not accounted for. For instance, an analysis of the 2022 Nigerian Federal Government budget proposal by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) shows that the share of gender-specific projects examined by Ministries as a percentage of the overall Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) total budget is just 0.11%, and percentage of gender-related capital budget in overall 2022 capital budget is 0.36%. Although the Nigerian president in his 2022 budget speech emphasized the need for the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to design a gender-responsive budget to facilitate the distribution of resources fairly and equitably to vulnerable people in the society, there is no adequate provision for a budget with gender impact in equal employment opportunity, specific target expenditure for men and women and gender mainstreaming of budget in 2022. This calls for critical stakeholders’ engagement such as the legislators in the budget cycle so as to ensure gender-responsive budgeting in Nigeria. The objective of this chapter is to discuss the role of legislature in ensuring a gender-responsive budget in their law making, oversight, and representation functions.