The Department of Gender Relations in collaboration with Niagara College hosted the third Gender Mainstreaming/Gender Budgeting workshop.

The workshop forms part of the second phase of the“Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Saint Lucia’s National Sustainable Development Plan” launched earlier this year, which seeks to ensure that gender equality is at the forefront of planning throughout the public service.

Ana Androsik, faciliatator of the workshop, noted that the objective of the initiative is to provide guidance for the trainers in the Saint Lucian government.

 “The participants were extremely active and well engaged,”  Ms. Androsik, Faciliatator of the workshop, said. “This was a voluntary workshop, people had to sign for the workshop as they wanted to become trainers of trainers, so this time around our participants are dedicated staff from various ministries interested in learing more and and be willing to share their expertise.”

Earlier this year, public servants were  introduced to gender concepts and gender analysis. Janey Joseph, Acting Director of Gender Relations explained the concept of gender responsible budgeting.

“In order to effectively mainstream genders throughout the publc service, gender budgeting is a criticitcal aspect. Gender responsible budgeting refers to how do you finance those iniatiatives that are gender responsible. In order words how do you ensure that the budget given for  a particular program benefits everyone.”

In January 2020, the Department of Gender Relations will host the second leg of the general gender concepts and gender based assessments to include a larger group of public servants.