The twelfth edition of the European Development Days (EDD) took place in Brussels from 5 - 6 June 2018 under the overarching theme"Women and Girls at the Forefront of Sustainable Development: protect, empower, invest." At the EDD, UN Women organized a High-Level lab Debate on Gender Responsive Budgeting. The session was moderated by Ermira Lubani, UN Women's Regional GRB Manager, who emphasized UN Women's work in Europe and central Asia with the support of ADA, Swiss-Development and the EU. Panelists shared key messages on how gender budgeting contributes to accelerating progress for women and girls. Deputy Minister Ardiana Jaku of Albania emphasized that gender budgeting is a critical part of larger public finance reforms, strengthening links between policies and budgets. Margaret Kakande, Ministry of Finance, Uganda, underlined cooperation between partners to advance gender equality and the leadership of the Ministry of Finance for implementing gender budgeting. Teresa Curristine, International Mometary Fund, explained the increasingly central role of gender issues in the IMF’s work and emphasized the importance of monitoring and evaluation for effective gender budgeting. Felix Fernandez-Shaw of DEVCO noted how the European Union is supporting gender budgeting through its Gender Action Plan and country support, emphasizing that the time is now to advocate for all EU institutions and Member States to implement gender budgeting. In closing, panelists emphasized that gender budgeting is about fulfilling the rights of all and that we must work together to achieve gender equality.
Click to read a summary of UN Women's EDD 2018 coverage.