Guyana was one of the countries that did not respond to a questionnaire issued in December 2006 by the Commonwealth Secretariat Gender Section.
The Gender Section of the Commonwealth sent out the letters to the Ministries of Finance and 24 countries responded and this number did not include the known countries with Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) initiatives.
The key role to be played by the Finance Ministries was confirmed in the communique from the recent Eight Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting held in Kampala, Uganda, in mid-June 2007.
In the section on “tracking the money for gender equality,” the communique noted the need to develop and enhance capacity for the implementation of GRBs, and that finance ministers needed to take the lead in implementing this, working closely with the national women’s machineries.
Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh said that Guyana was not represented at this meeting.
