governance.careinternationalwikis.org

Voices of Women and the Poor in Local Budget Prioritization : The JATRA project in Bangladesh aims to support more meaningful participation for marginalised groups in local planning and budgeting. The project focuses on getting Union Parishads (the lowest level of government) to hold pre-budget meetings at Ward level (Ward Shavas) to consult with poor and marginalized citizens, particularly poor and extreme poor women, about their priorities for the Union budget. In 2015, at the 135 Ward Shava meetings, 48% of the participants from poor and marginalized households were women; in 2016 this figure has crept up to just over 51%. Overall, nearly 55% of the demands or issues raised at the meetings in 2016 came from the poor and extreme poor people, compared with 51% in 2015. 25% of all demands were placed by poor and marginalized women in 2016, as compared with 19% in 2015. This shows how CARE’s approach to citizen engagement has not only enabled more poor and marginalized women to participate in public meetings, but also helped increase their confidence to present their interests to public authorities.

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