Kafawe Women Group (KWG) Organisation in Nandi which is funded by Uraia Trust in partnership with Care Kenya, trained young women drawn from Tinderet, Aldai and Nandi Hills Sub Counties on the budget process to equip them to be proactive in the budget process.
KWG, which is implementing a governance project, called Women’s Voice and Leadership seeks to educate women on the budget for them to understand the stages of the budget process and how to participate to ensure County budgets align with the needs of the community.
The objective is to be able to have a community with empowered women and girls living with dignity and contributing as equal partners in development.
Speaking to the young women in a meeting held at a Nandi Hills hotel, KWG coordinator Francis Ng’eny said the organisation promotes social and economic empowerment of women and girls through mainstreaming gender concerns about their rights.
Ng’eny noted that women have equal rights and opportunities like their male counterparts a reason why they should also participate in the budget process to be able to intervene and initiate changes at the right stage of the budget process before decisions are made.
“Different decisions are made at each stage of the budget. As women you need this knowledge to know when to intervene appropriately to ensure necessary changes are made before decisions are made,” said Ng’eny.
According to the coordinator, there are four stages of the budget cycle, namely formulation, approval, implementation, audit and evaluation with each stage headed by different arms of government and independent forces.
The coordinator said budgeting is key in every day endeavors and noted that once they understand budget issues, they will be budget champions who are in a better position unpack and critique the County Integrated Development Plan hence be proactive.
Ng’eny stated that the knowledge about the budget can also be applied at home to ensure effective budgeting of resources on the domestic front adding that women are known to be effective budgeters as compared to men.
Member of County Assembly for Kapsimotwa ward, Edwin Korir mentored the young women urging them to ensure they share the knowledge on budget with the entire community terming it essential to people at all levels.
Korir said that budgeting is crucial especially to families saying that it is a privilege for the young women to be equipped with knowledge to enable them budget their resources as young parents.
“Whether you are a doctor, an engineer, a farmer, a politician, if you don’t know how to budget then you are done. You are privileged as young women to get knowledge on the budget early enough. Ensure you apply it even at home,” Korir pointed out adding that good budgeters are great investors.
Mercy Jepkogei, one of the women who attended the training applauded the initiative adding that they will henceforth apply the knowledge about the budget in their day to day endeavors to budget for resources at home besides participating in the County budget process to ensure they initiate changes at the right stage to ensure community interests are catered for.
“As young women, we count this a privilege. Now that we have acquired knowledge on budgeting early enough, we are going to apply it in our daily lives. We have realized that we need to participate in the budget process,” said Jepkogei.
By Ruth Mainye
