Gender equality is an important aspect of the development of any nation. Moreover, calls are being made to emphasize the need for gender sensitive budgeting in order to advance gender equality.Commissioner Danuta RadzikAdvancing the gender equality situation is in fact one that is required if Guyana is to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Moreover, making an earnest plug for this is the Women and Gender Equality Commission. According to Ms. Danuta Radzik, at a recent press conference held by the Commission,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, “Gender budgeting is really important and we feel that Guyana is ready for that.”Radzik, who serves as Commissioner on the Women and Gender Equality Commission,Cheap NFL Jerseys, noted that budgeting for gender equality essentially means that “in the national budget there is thought given to looking at budgets through a gender lens.”This is important, she said, so that “those ways and means and systems and things that are needed to advance gender equality, literally from nursery to the end of one’s life, can actually have some traction in terms of dollars, and good sense to actually make a lot of what we have been advocating in our Commission, real and applicable.”Among the countries that have been embracing the notion of gender budgeting are South Africa and Australia. But according to Radzik, there are also developing countries in South America, much like Guyana, that have also found that gender budgeting has made a big difference for gender justice and equality when sharing of resources occurs in the society.And it was in order to emphasize the need for gender sensitive budgeting that the Commission earlier this year decided to spearhead a seminar at Parliament that dealt with gender budgeting.“We had a really strong turnout from the Ministry of Finance, the Minister of Finance himself communicated with us and sent a strong team including the Head of budgeting…We had an extremely good turnout of Members of Parliament and Ministers and it was a rich discussion,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping,” said Radzik of the seminar.Taking the lead on the gender sensitive discussion was Dr. Peggy Antrobus,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, a famous Caribbean Feminist Economist. The Women and Gender Equality Commission-spearheaded forum also benefited from support from the United Nations.Other seminars that were conducted by the Commission also saw efforts being made to solicit the support of parliamentarians to examine several pieces of gender related legislations which Radzik said, “We feel they need more attention paid to them.”While there are some legislations that could benefit from review and some amendment, she noted that there is undoubtedly a need for some stronger implementation of those legislations.Yet another seminar focused on gender development was convened by the Commission. On this occasion, Radzik disclosed, “We had the head of the Caribbean for UN Women and we had the Vice Chancellor Acting of University of Guyana, Dr. Barbara Reynolds. And we had Dr Linda Peek from the University of York in Canada.”At the latter forum, Radzik said that efforts were made to discuss the post 2030 developmental agenda which saw keen attention being directed to the SDGs which was preceded by the Millennium Development Goals.The SDGs,Cheap NFL jerseys China, officially known as Transforming our World, entails an agenda of 17 ‘aspirational global goals’ with 169 targets between them.Guyana was one of the first countries to sign on to the UN SDGs. And according to Radzik,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, it has been recognised that since goal five of the SGDs is in fact a stand-alone goal for gender equality, even the Head of the UN, in launching the SDGs said, “If goal five is not cross-cut and met in the 2030 agenda, none of the other 17 goals will be met.” Goal five of the SDGs is to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’.Radzik emphasized the importance of gender equality in the quest to achieve the SDGs.