On March 3, Kayan-Feminist Organization, in partnership with the Yaft An-Nassriye local council and community center, and the Tel Aviv-based Adva Center, launched the opening session of our new training course, “Gender Equality in Local Budgets.” This sixteen-session program aims to provide women practical tools to analyze public budgeting processes and professionalize their advocacy vis-à-vis Arab local authorities through a prism of gender equality.

 

In the communal sphere, public budgeting policies have markedly different implications for Arab women and men. This project examines the various impacts impacts of economic policy, including inter-related systems, laws, budgetary allocations and social initiatives, on the status of Arab women in Israel. Leveraging expert, gender-oriented policy analysis, Kayan works to improve public decision-making processes, ensuring resources are spent fairly in order to reduce socio-economic inequalities between women and men.

 

This initiative seeks to provide women a set of tools to identify gender and social discrimination in local budgeting processes, as well as bring their influence to bear on an equitable, needs-based allocation of public resources. We lend Arab women keys to an economic lexicon and highlight the specific ways in which women are impacted through public policy. By raising awareness regarding the ways in which gender-responsive budgeting can serve as a foundation for genuine social equality, we hope to incorporate a new cadre of Arab women leaders within planning and allocation processes in their communities. Through critical analysis of local budgets, we hope to empower women to mainstream gender perspectives within the full spectrum of Arab local authority policies and programs.