CONSERVING THE ENVIRONMENT

use of alternative fuel sources that are environmentally friendly, discouraged illegal logging and encroachment on forested land, charcoal production, water pollution and illegal dumping of wastes and negative human activities by enforcing the existing environmental laws in collaboration with other enforcement agencies," she added.

Hon. Bartuin outlined county government's action towards fighting the effects of climate change; a total of 156,800 indigenous and exotic trees planted across the county especially in water springs and catchment areas and protected water sources as well as catchment areas.

As the world marked the World Environment Day, Baringo County government in collaboration with its lead agencies today planted 5,575 tree seedlings at Sawich area of Chemususu Dam catchment in a bid to protect the springs that feed the dam.

While gracing the noble event, the CECM for Devolution, Public Service, ICT and eGovernment

Peninah Bartuin reiterated that tackling the effects of climate change requires concerted efforts from all the stakeholders warning that if decisive action is not taken against this glob- al crisis most countries Kenya included will suffer both economically and socially.

She gave an example of a frequent droughts experienced in the County leading to drying of rivers, dams and other water bodies resulting in conflicts like the one witnessed recently along river Emining where property worth millions were destroyed in the fight against water resources.

"County government is committed in the fight against global change and so far, we have enhanced tree planting, initiated the

'We are focusing on wetlands and catchment because it is key in tackling this problem. Also, the department of Environment and Natural Resources has fenced off 42 water springs, rehabilitated two swamps, protected four hilltops and two river banks as well as building gabions on eroded areas of the rivers and planting trees to protect the soil,' read part of the Governor's speech she delivered while representing him in the event.

Kenya Vision 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals envisages attaining a long-term develop- ment blueprint through empowering communities to own up environmental conservation agenda if the 10% forest cover and sustainable use of natural resources is to be achieved.

The Kenya Kwanza Administration ‘Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda’ (BETA) as championed H.E President Dr. William Ruto EGH targets to attain the planting of 15 billion trees in the next ten years through their campaign dubbed ‘The national tree growing and restoration campaign’ as one of the initiatives to address the effects of climate change.

According to the County Forest Conservator, Anne Nyaoke, so far, the campaign has seen the planting of 2.2 million trees in Baringo County against the President's annual county target of 46 million trees this year.

In order to upscale food security efforts and enhance forest cover, county Government intends to distribute more fruits seedling to communities and schools.

So far, more than 200,000 assorted fruit seedlings among them mango, Hass avocado and macadamia have been distributed to farmers across the county.

GENDER RESPONSIVE BUDGETING WEARS THE ‘SHE’ LENSES IN BARINGO COUNTY

to analyze and address the different needs, priorities, and impacts of budget policies available and resource allocations on both women and men, boys and girls. Gender Responsive Budgeting is not exclusively a “women” thing. It is going to be a long shot to demystify this notion but with constant and intentional education, it will be easy to involve women in matters around the budget without seeing it as “women” thing.

The Problem.

Word Bank defines public participation as the process where individuals, governmental and non-governmental groups influence decision making in policy, legislation, service delivery, oversight and development matters.

implementation and audit and The Budget Champions disseminate budget information, and lead communities in analysis of the budget documents and deliberating the decision at hand. To ensure that the community proposals are documented, they support in development and submission of budget memoranda to communicate and present priorities and recommendations to the relevant arms of government at any given point of decision making in the budget cycle. They also spearhead monitoring of budget implementation with a focus on particular programmes and projects of priority to the most vulnerable members of the community.

The birth of women only budget cell.

ences in service delivery provide stronger justifications.

This was the main reason for the birth of the ‘Women Only Budget Cell, ’piloted in Kabarnet ward, Baringo County Women drawn from all walks of life, meet under a tree or in a place of convenience to deliberate on a budget decision at hand. They analyze the relevant budget documents. and come up with budget proposals accompanied by justifications. These are usually relayed to the Sector Working Groups, County Treasury or County Assembly depending on the decision at hand.

In the recent past, the word gender has been used widely and, in many circumstances, to mean “women, girls or female”. No appointment, no selection, no recruitment, no elections and basically no representation of any kind that carries numbers goes without the mention of “Gender” to mean balancing the equation with women in order to be compliant with – section27 (3) of the constitution of the land that states; women and men have the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres. The rights of participation of women in democratic governance is enshrined in article 26 (6), article 27 (8) and article 81 (b) that seeks to solve the issue of gender imbalance in leadership positions by stating that no more than two – thirds of the members in any appointive or elective positions shall be of the same gender. The constitution brought with it a new phenomenon, the issue of gender equality and gender representation is now imprinted and stuck in the minds of Kenyans even if it’s not well understood by many.

It is no wonder the term “Gender responsive budgeting” comes with the notion that women have to be allocated their provision in the budget in order to bridge the gaps that are seen in the society as being the reason for the differences that exist between Men and Women in the society. While gender refers to the socially and culturally defined roles, norms, expectations and identities that are associated by either being male or female. It is Important to note that that this is different from sex, which is the biological attributes that differentiates men and women and how those attributes are expressed. Over time, these two have brought so much confusion and fights and the solution to this has been to shout “Gender” whenever women are underrepresented.

Even though gender responsive budgeting came up as a strategy to address and to promote gender equality and women's empowerment, it goes beyond addressing women's issues alone. GRB aims

Public participation gives assurance that citizens are heard and willingly and actively get involved in decisions that impact their lives. It is not only a basic right guaranteed in the constitution of Kenya but also civic responsibility.

Attributed to low awareness and also traceable to patriarchy that is deeply entrenched in the norms and beliefs of majority of communities in Kenya, participation of women has been very low. At the onset of devolution, public participation in Baringo County continued to be a “men” dominated affair. This conclusion was based in deliberate observation of attendance and deliberations county-led budget forums. Development committees were also dominated by men, with women playing the peripheral roles. Consequently, budget decisions were hardly addressing the unique needs of women.

Centre for enhancing Democracy and good governance (CEDGG) has been in the frontline in working to improve the capacity of marginalized and vulnerable groups to engage with and participate in decision making around the constitutional reform agenda and development processes.

With support from International Budget Partnership Kenya, CEDGG scaled up interventions to build the capacity building of communities in budget engagement.

The two organizations have trained budget facilitators and budget champions who help in educating the public and mobilizing them to participate throughout the stages of the budget cycle i.e., budget formulation, budget approval, budget

Historically, women have been assigned the caregiving responsibilities in the society, these responsibilities are not limited to child-rearing, housekeeping, nursing, feeding, farming, animal rearing among others. These unpaid chores and caregiving responsibilities can only be made bearable if the budgeting processes bears these in mind and ensures that budgeting is Programme based and service delivery is ensured with every budgetary allocation, implementation and completion of projects. The voice of women is important when making such decisions because it is mostly the women that relate to the proverbial ‘only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches.’ If a woman has to walk for a distance of more than five kilometers in search of water for family care, a woman has to travel several kilometers far from home in search of medical assistance for self, children and other family members, if a woman’s Sexual health and reproductive rights services are not available to her within reasonable distance, among other very many reasons, then the need for Women to actively and intentionally participate in the county governance processes cannot be understated.

In the course of her work, CEDGG learnt that in their own spaces, women are able to deliberate budgets in their own ‘language’ and at their own pace, which improves their knowledge, confidence and skills to negotiate. They come up with budget priorities that address their unique needs. In some occasions, these priorities may be the similar to those identified by the larger community but their experi-

A key achievement of the Women Only Budget Cell is improved capacity among women to engage in the budget processes. The County Government of Baringo has also been responsive to the issues advocated by the cell. Observably, there is emphasis on completion of water projects to improve water access; In health sector, priority has shifted to operationalization of health facilities constructed in remote locations and expansion of services with a focus on reproductive health.

In social protection sector, besides economic empowerment programmes spread across the county, the Women Only Budget Cell has been deliberate to push for allocations to combat Gender Based Violence – commemoration of gender calendar days for awareness campaigns, provision of dignity packs to the most vulnerable adolescent girls and boys and establishment of GBV rescue centre.

The Women Only Budget Cell has had its teething problems, especially in the beginning where it appeared as if it is ‘us’ against ‘them’ idea, some sort of a tug of war between women and men tag of war in the budgetary allocation decisions. To mitigate this, the budget cell identifies and communicates the benefits that would accrue to the entire communities, once the service delivery issues, they are championing for are addressed

To sustain these gains, the leadership of the women budget cell, urges CEDGG, IBPK, BACSOF and other like-minded partners to deepen the capacity of women budget cell and expand the model to cover the entire county. As required by law, the County Government of Baringo should embrace inclusivity in in her public participation spaces. Facilitators of government-led budget forums should be intentional in the application of fair deliberation process- to ensure that the voice of every member of the community is heard regardless of their gender, physical abilities and social status.

On her part, the Women Only Budget Cell will continue to amplify the voice of women in all budget decisions through budget training, joint budget analysis and engagement.

Janet Nandwa Ongoli Budget Champion/Team leader –Women Only Budget Cell. janetongoli@gmail.com