29 July 2020
Today Femnet, Oxfam, Seatini Uganda and CUTS Zambia launched the EU supported Fiscal Justice for Women and Girls in Africa project.
The overall objectives of the 3-year project are twofold.
Firstly, to strengthen the ability of civil society organisations, women’s rights organisations and citizens in Uganda and Zambia to hold decision-makers to account on formulation and implementation of fiscal policies affecting women and girls at national and regional levels.
Secondly, to contribute to more transparent and accountable revenue generation and spending policies by transforming fiscal systems to better respond to the needs of citizens, especially for women and girls in Africa.
The project will be implemented in Zambia and Uganda. A key component will be research and advocacy using the Fair Tax Monitor tool. For this specific project Femnet, Oxfam and partners will do a review of FTM methodology and with the expertise of Femnet sharpen the gender lense used in analysing the national tax systems. Over time these new insights will benefit all the other FTM country teams and other interested parties to increase their ability to take gender into when formulating fiscal policy recommendations.
This is important as CSOs have the potential to play a critical role in contributing to the emergence of effective, accountable and transparent public financial management institutions and domestic revenue mobilization policies to deliver on the SDGs. Building the capacity of CSOs to monitor and gather evidence on fiscal policies in their own countries, plan, develop and implement effective advocacy actions and engage with policy-makers through strategic dialogue will give civil society the tools needed to instigate meaningful policy change for citizens. In addition, supporting CSOs to engage the general public through influencing and campaigning initiatives will create more informed and empowered citizens to demand improved public services for women and girls and hold duty-bearers to account for fiscal policies.
For more information feel free to contact Nicole Maloba on email n.maloba@femnet.or.ke
