Developing conceptual, strategic, and technical skills for the advancement of gender equality through the inclusive and egalitarian management of government revenues and expenses was the aim of the most recent training session on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) of UN Women. This session was organized by the UN Women Training Centre, in close collaboration with the multi-country office of UN Women Maghreb; and it took place between the 2nd and 6th of July 2018 in Rabat, Morocco for a multi-national French-speaking audience. The session brought together thirteen participants representing various national and international entities. Several Moroccan civil servants also attended the training because of the partnership between UN Women and the Moroccan Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Hanane Larroumy, in charge of the engineering division for GRB trainings of the Centre of Excellence (Moroccan Ministry of Economy and Finance) participated in the session in order to strengthen the capacities of the Centre: "we are in the process of building a pool of expertise within the Centre of Excellence to later train state and non-state actors in the issue of GRB. Getting a grasp of international experiences in this area through the training session was very interesting”, explains the participant.

For development practitioners like Mohammed Khalouani, the ultimate goal of the training lays in the ability to implement the modules taught by Claudy Vouhé, an expert in gender and development and the facilitator of the session, in actual planning and monitoring tools. “My initial aim was to better understand the concepts related to gender and apply them in budgets. Tomorrow I will go to the office with a new spirit of change. That is regarding the first objective. For the second one, we have been given tools that will help us to look at the programs and budgets through a gender lens" he explained. Mr. Khalouani is the head of the division of solidarity and social inclusion of the Moroccan National Mutual Assistance entity (l’Entraide Nationale marocaine).

The integration of a gender perspective in different fields such as public policy, planning and budgeting is not limited to governmental departments but can also be carried out at the regional level. For this, Tariq Bounjem, an executive in the division of regional development of the Council of the Fes-Meknes region, heavily relies on gender-related data and statistics, and their use during the planning and development of budgets. He considers this element to be essential in the decision-making process.

The week-long training ended with a session on the formulation of strategies to strengthen GRB in each of the participants’ institutions. Mohamed Khalouani sees an opportunity of continuity of such an exercise at the implementation stage: "beyond the instruments and concepts, I would like to receive assistance in the establishment of GRB tools at the territorial level. This support would help the participants in the performance of their missions". Indeed, the promotion of Gender Responsive Budgeting is a central concern in the achievement of UN Women’s goals of gender equality in Morocco and worldwide.

Developing conceptual, strategic, and technical skills for the advancement of gender equality through the inclusive and egalitarian management of government revenues and expenses was the aim of the most recent training session on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) of UN Women. This session was organized by the UN Women Training Centre, in close collaboration with the multi-country office of UN Women Maghreb; and it took place between the 2nd and 6th of July 2018 in Rabat, Morocco for a multi-national French-speaking audience. The session brought together thirteen participants representing various national and international entities. Several Moroccan civil servants also attended the training because of the partnership between UN Women and the Moroccan Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Hanane Larroumy, in charge of the engineering division for GRB trainings of the Centre of Excellence (Moroccan Ministry of Economy and Finance) participated in the session in order to strengthen the capacities of the Centre: "we are in the process of building a pool of expertise within the Centre of Excellence to later train state and non-state actors in the issue of GRB. Getting a grasp of international experiences in this area through the training session was very interesting”, explains the participant.

For development practitioners like Mohammed Khalouani, the ultimate goal of the training lays in the ability to implement the modules taught by Claudy Vouhé, an expert in gender and development and the facilitator of the session, in actual planning and monitoring tools. “My initial aim was to better understand the concepts related to gender and apply them in budgets. Tomorrow I will go to the office with a new spirit of change. That is regarding the first objective. For the second one, we have been given tools that will help us to look at the programs and budgets through a gender lens" he explained. Mr. Khalouani is the head of the division of solidarity and social inclusion of the Moroccan National Mutual Assistance entity (l’Entraide Nationale marocaine).

The integration of a gender perspective in different fields such as public policy, planning and budgeting is not limited to governmental departments but can also be carried out at the regional level. For this, Tariq Bounjem, an executive in the division of regional development of the Council of the Fes-Meknes region, heavily relies on gender-related data and statistics, and their use during the planning and development of budgets. He considers this element to be essential in the decision-making process.

The week-long training ended with a session on the formulation of strategies to strengthen GRB in each of the participants’ institutions. Mohamed Khalouani sees an opportunity of continuity of such an exercise at the implementation stage: "beyond the instruments and concepts, I would like to receive assistance in the establishment of GRB tools at the territorial level. This support would help the participants in the performance of their missions". Indeed, the promotion of Gender Responsive Budgeting is a central concern in the achievement of UN Women’s goals of gender equality in Morocco and worldwide.