(CUOPM) Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender Affairs, Ms. Sharon Rattan, is among regional participants attending a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)-sponsored workshop on Gender Mainstreaming in the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) Programme.
The two-day workshop which ended Tuesday at CDB headquarters, Barbados, is part of the Bank’s commitment to integrating gender equality in its operations.
CDB said the objective of the workshop was to enhance the gender analytical capacity for identification, analysis, monitoring, evaluation and reporting on gender as a cross-cutting theme within the portfolio of sectoral initiatives.
The training introduced concepts in gender analysis in both generic and sector-specific contexts. Gender analytical models ranging from ‘role analysis’ to more complex social and economic concepts was explored. Using actual BNTF cases, the workshop analysed gender in the project cycle.
CDB said there is evidence that BNTF sub-project initiatives are reaching the basic and strategic needs of beneficiaries, but the impact is constrained by the limited capacity among staff for undertaking analyses of gender contexts and gender impact assessments.
CDB said it recognises that failure to integrate gender dimensions adequately in the project cycle may lead to a failure to target the most vulnerable.
In the context of project management, gender imbalances are associated with a predisposition to design projects according to traditional roles associated with males and females which may erode the positive outcomes of development interventions.
The workshop targeted staff within the BNTF Programme, (Project Managers and Operations Officers at CDB) and counterparts in country, specifically chairpersons for Project Steering Committees.
The expected outcome of the workshop is enhanced capacity for gender analysis among key stakeholders in the BNTF Programme.
The BNTF is one of the Bank’s key instruments for addressing poverty reduction in ten participating Borrowing Member Countries (Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Turks and Caicos Islands).
BNTF is designed to assist poor and vulnerable communities in improving access to basic pubic services. BNTF provides grant funding for social and economic infrastructure, and skills training to enhance employability and community management. Two basic and highly complementary tenets of the Programme are ‘empowerment’ and ‘participation’ which have a close nexus with gender equality.