The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has urged the government to ensure petroleum revenue expenditure is gender-sensitive. A research conducted by the energy policy think tank has revealed there is persistent gender inequalities within the education, health and agriculture sectors.
This is notwithstanding the several measures and policy interventions of the government over the years. The research has shown women continue to engage in the agricultural value chains characterized by lower financial returns.
About 14 percent of death cases among women are maternity health-related and girls are 20 percent less likely to attain a high school education than boys.
The Energy Policy organization held a forum with stakeholders working with community-based gender-focused organizations in Tamale last Monday (March 13, 2023) to highlight the gender dimensions of the agriculture, health and education sectors and the need for petroleum revenue expenditure through Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) investments to reflect these dimensions in the design and implementation of projects and interventions.
The Policy Analyst of ACEP, Mr. Eliasu Ali in his address said, “Basically, the conversation we are having this morning centers around the use of our petroleum revenues. Petroleum resources have generated revenue over the past ten plus years and as an organization at the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, we believe that in line with the provisions of our petroleum laws; the petroleum management act which dictate that petroleum revenues should be used in an equitable to benefit everybody in one of the top priority areas – which is social inclusion and the protection of the weak and vulnerable.”
“We did a study to analyze over the years the trend of ABFA allocation in project implementation to see whether they are equitable in terms of gender equality, to see whether the disproportionate needs of women especially in the agriculture, health and education sectors are being met through the budgetary allocation as well as the project implementation” he added.
