MIFTAH
Thursday, 28 March. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

Ramallah – Studies conducted by the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, MIFTAH, which analyze services offered by the Ministries of Social Affairs, Health, Education and Labor from a gender perspective, concluded that there is a gap between the literature and documentation in formal institutions and actual implementation on the ground. The studies said teams working in the field still lacked a deeper sense on the issue and the tools necessary to institutionalize gender.

The findings were announced during a workshop given by MIFTAH on October 9 in Ramallah to highlight the most significant points of the four studies and to shed light on their indicators and recommendations. Several international institutions which support the four sectors attended the workshop along with civil society institutions, the Norwegian Representative Office, the European Union, international partners and the target ministries. The workshop was part of MIFTAH‘s program, “Towards Institutionalizing a Gender-Responsive General Budget” which MIFTAH has been implementing throughout 2012-2013 with support from UN WOMEN and European Union Project “ Financing for Gender Equality”.

Director of MIFTAH’s Participating Enhancement Program Lamis Shuaibi-Hantouli said: “MIFTAH’s message through these publications is for participation in creating a platform for dialogue that addresses decision-makers and policy formulators in formal institutions and international partners in order to adopt the best methods for promoting the principles of integrity and equality. This can be achieved through the recommendations aimed at adopting and developing strategic policies and approaches that would constitute the basis for institutionalizing social justice, whereby the gender perspective is adopted as one of the main indicators in formulating visions and strategies, and in designing plans, programs, projects; it is also used in preparing budgets and developing the necessary structures and mechanisms to guarantee the inclusion of gender at the various levels in the work of institutions.”

Hisham Qaddumi, Manager of the project “Financing for Gender Equality” at the UN WOMEN, pointed out that this is an international program that is carried out in 15 countries including Palestine and is aimed at integrating gender issues in policies in addition to finding means of funding for this. He added that it is also aimed at capacity-building at the civil level with the goal of institutionalizing a government commitment towards gender issues. Qaddumi pointed out that gender-responsive budgets are not separate from, but complimentary to, general budgets.

Furthermore, development and gender researcher Ayman Abdel Majeed addressed the most significant recommendations in the studies while presenting his policy paper. These included the need to include a gender perspective in policies, programs and service providers in the various ministries with the goal of capacity-building and raising awareness about analysis and planning on the basis of gender for policy and program formulators; also in order to coordinate and connect between the various relevant institutions and to link and institutionalize the issue of expenditures and gender budgets within the policy perspective in ministries.

The presentation generated a lively discussion among the participants, which basically focused on how to put these studies into action on the ground. The participants talked about the hindrances to achieving this, most importantly the lack of strong coordination and cooperation between government institutions at the PA level, in addition to the priorities and specific agendas of funders.

This project is funded by the EU

The contents of this press release are the sole responsibility of MIFTAH and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the EU, nor the views of UN WOMEN, the United Nations or any of its affiliated organizations.

 
 
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