Communiqué from Public Hearing on Gender Perspective to Budgeting: 
Focus on Education

Abuja, 29 and 30 October 2003

Preamble

The House of Representatives Joint Committees on Appropriation, Education, and Women Affairs, and Youth Development held a Public Hearing on Gender Perspective to Budgeting with Focus on Education Sector in collaboration with the Civil Society Education Working Group [consisting of the Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD), ActionAid Nigeria, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), and the National Democratic Institute (NDI)] on 29th and 30th October, 2003 at Abuja, Nigeria.

The Public Hearing, which was declared open by the Honourable Speaker of he House of Representatives Rt. Honourable Aminu Bello Masari, was attended by members of the National Assembly and representatives of Executive arm of government and members of the civil society. Presentations and research findings on education budget and cost of education were presented by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), ActionAid Nigeria, CSACEFA and Socio Economic Rights Initiative (SERI). Presentations were also made by Senator Abdul Azeez Ibrahim (Chair, Senate Committee on Education), Hon. Gabriel Suswam (Chair, House Committee on Appropriations), Hon.(Dr.) Garba Matazu (Chair, House Committee on Education) and Hon. Saudatu Sani (Chair, House Committee on Women Affairs & Youth Development). The keynote address was delivered by a representative of the Honourable Minister for Women Affairs and Youth Development Obong Rita Akpan.

The Public Hearing observed as follows:

• Access to education is both a basic need (one which is necessary for the fulfilment of an individual’s personhood) and also a strategic need (that which will yield access to other opportunities such as health, employment and political awareness.) 
• Access to quality education by all regardless of class or sex is a critical element of development. Education helps to nurture democracy and promote peace. For instance, it has been documented that nine years of basic education reduces the chance of HIV/AIDS infection by three-quarters. 
• Fees and levies such as Parents Teachers Association (PTA) levy, development levies, uniform costs, handicraft levies etc constitute barrier to access to education. 
• There is evidence of persistent gender inequalities in the educational attainments of males and females in Nigeria with males having higher literacy rates than females. For instance, while the rate of access of males between the ages of 15-24 years is 69.8 percent, the corresponding rate for females is 59.3 percent. 
• The factors responsible for gender disparity include among other issues cultural problems such as child marriage, teenage pregnancy, over bearing domestic responsibilities, wrong gender stereotyping and questions of religious interpretation. 
• The budget is the instrument by which a government reflects its policy priorities, translating these commitments into monetary terms. 
• During the military years, more funds were allocated to education than the past four years of civilian rule. For instance, the percentage of the annual budget allocated to education decreased from 9.01percent in 1998 to 8.79percent in 2000 to 5.68percent in 2001 and then to an all time low of 4.37 percent in 2003. 
• There is an absence of adequate legislation to guide and enforce the process of budgeting especially monitoring and evaluation in Nigeria. 
• A key gap in the budgetary process in Nigeria is the lack of transparency, respect for due process and a faithful and methodological monitoring and report back of resource utilisation.

The Public Hearing recommended as follows:

• The Nigerian government should as from 2004 start preparing gender responsive budget that will take into consideration the differential impact of budget on women, men, girls and boys. This will lead to a more equitable allocation of resources and gender equity.
• Government should increase budgetary allocation to education to at least 26 percent as recommended by UNESCO and the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In the same vein budgetary allocation to Universal Basic Education should (UBE) be increased by the Federal, State and Local Governments. 
• Government should increase capital expenditure to education to at least 70 percent of the total education budget for the next five years.

The Public Hearing called on the National Assembly/ State Houses of Assembly to: 

• Enact a comprehensive Budget law stipulating due process for budget formulation, implementation and monitoring towards ensuring gender equity and the judicious use of resources as earmarked.
• Enact the Freedom of Information Law. 
• Enact/revisit legislations on special education for women in specific circumstances such as those in purdah, drop outs and ensure the enrolment and retention of the girl child in school.

The Public Hearing called on the Executive arm of Government to: 

• Involve the Civil society in the conceptualisation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of budgets in Nigeria. 
• Increase social actions such as the provision of free meals, health facilities etc in order to make sure that girls and boys go to school. 
• Ensure that all forms of fees are abolished in primary schools. 
• Encourage the participation of local communities in decision-making and management of schools. 
• Give accent to the Universal Basic Education bill that has been recently passed by both the House of Representatives and Senate and implement it faithfully. 
• Establish a monitoring unit for UBE made up of representatives of government, civil society and religious leaders. 
• Ensure adequate and prompt payment of teachers’ salaries, emoluments, training and retraining of teachers. 
• Review the curricula in schools to ensure that they are gender sensitive.
•  Reactivate regular and consistent inspection of both public and private schools to ensure discipline, standard, equity and quality. 
• Review the national Policy on Education with a view to matching the objectives to the needs of the people and mapping out adequate strategies to achieving the objectives of the policy.

The Public Hearing called on the Civil Society to:

• Map out strategies and actually participate at all levels of the budget process including preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. In particular, civil society should track budgets and monitor UBE funds.
• Engage in lobbying and advocacy for participatory budgeting and production of gender responsive budgets.