By Alex Yomah
Integrity Watch Liberia (IWL) with support from the Action Aid says, at least ten Civil Society Organization COSs working groups capacities were built on budgeting.
Speaking at the program, Integrity Watch Liberia, Policy Analyst, Narvin Ireland said, “This year’s meeting is about Civil Society Organizations (CSO) that works on issues that focuses on budget and key among our objectives is inclusive citizens’ participation in the budget and making the budget more responsive to address the need of men, women and people with disabilities.”
“The purpose for today’s engagement is to convince CSO Budget Platform and strategize how we can strengthen our advocacy to have engagement with our key stakeholders on issues of transparency around the budget and also to consult on how we can engage these same stakeholders as they prepare for next budget year,” he said.
Integrity Watch Liberia said, the CSO Budget Platform has been working with partners, the Ministry of Finance and has been included on the citizen’s participation on the budget, a newly established part of the government’s mechanism in the budget.
According to Integrity Watch, the primary objective is also intended to seek the interest for citizens to participate in the budget processes of the fiscal budget aimed at ensuring the budget be gender-responsive.
He said the purpose is to engage COS Budget Platform is to strengthen how, “We can strengthen our advocacy that would engage stakeholders on the issues of fiscal transparency.”
Also speaking, ActionAid, Learning Program officer, Prince D. Gaye, said, “We are supporting CSOs because we want our budget be responsive to women, men and people with disabilities for them to get access to the national budget.
“Our efforts to support and facilitate these kinds of engagements especially with CSOs coalition; the CSO platform is to ensure that the budget performs as it should be,” Gaye asserted.
