February 13-14, 2023 | UCLG ASPAC, in collaboration with Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC), and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), held the two days Learning Workshop on Gender Responsive and Participatory Budgeting (GRPB) for local governments from on February 13th and 14th, 2023. As part of the Kuala Lumpur Regional Training Centre (KLRTC) 43, the event was hosted by the Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), Malaysia. The learning workshop equipped a total of 42 participants from 12 local governments in Malaysia to understand the GRPB contents and mechanism as a tool to help interpret their learnings into test projects of GRPB in their localities.
Dr. Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, the Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC stated, “The GRPB in local government is important. This issue is a two-pronged approach that includes a top-down approach, which is Responsiveness in local government budgeting, and a bottom-up approach, which is Participatory to ensure community (particularly women) participation. Instead of having a separate budget for women, GRPB is an important tool to improve the transparency, accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency of the management of public expenditure and provides for a more equitable distribution of public finances for women and men.” Hence, she concluded and committed to continuing UCLG ASPAC support to the local governments and their associations by providing knowledge and information, building their capacities, and providing opportunities for the exchange of knowledge and best practices.
In this learning workshop, participants visited the “Pusat Pembelajaran Komuniti Chow Kit or Chow Kit Community Learning Centre” which is the centre for the poor community managed by DBKL. The centre provides social support to street children, homeless men and women through various programmes. DBKL hosted a luncheon with all participants at the Kuala Lumpur (KL) Tower located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. At the end of the workshop, four cities from local governments developed and submitted for the GRPB test projects in Malaysia as pilot projects in their respective local governments. Proposals include the replication of the “Pusat Pembelajaran Komuniti Chow Kit” to Klang City.
