The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, NILDS and the UN Women have collaborated to build the capacity of staff of the National Assembly and the Institute on gender-responsive Budgeting.

This was made known during the opening session of the workshop on gender-responsive Budgeting in Abuja on Monday.

Speaking on the essence of the capacity building, in his opening remarks, the Director General, NILDS, Prof. Abubakar O. Sulaiman said the Institute has a mandate to promote research, provide specialised support and improve the technical capacity of legislative staff, committee secretaries and political aides to process appropriation bills and policy oversight of the executive on all issues, including gender.

“Since its establishment in 2011 and in fact, right from its existence as a Project (2003-2010), one of the key aspects of the work of the Institute is undertaking detailed analysis of the Federal Government budget to provide practical guide to the National Assembly on all components of the budget to help improve understanding of critical issues that include level of implementation of expenditure and revenue budgets and the structure of the budget.

“Over the years, this essential work of the Institute has significantly enhanced the legislature’s role in authorising budget decisions and holding the government to account. It has also assisted the National Assembly in ensuring that government budget is inclusive, participative and realistic.”

Speaking further, he explained that the training is intended to enhance the capacity of the staff of the Institute as well as the relevant committees of the National Assembly to scrutinise the annual appropriation bill and ensure that it is gender-sensitive.