The consideration of gender specificity in the development of budgets in WAEMU member states is at the heart of a validation workshop opened on Monday, August 9, 2021 in Ouagadougou. On the agenda, the development of training curricula taking into account gender-responsive budgeting.

The objective is to promote training curricula that take into account gender-responsive budgeting. In this way, they can be provided in vocational training schools for civil servants in the Member States of the Union. According to the publication of the news site "Le faso", the WAEMU Commission wants to standardize the implementation of gender-responsive budgeting in all eight member states. Dr. Barbara Ky, economist and director of gender at the WAEMU Commission, says that "WAEMU member states have initiated actions to take gender into account in the preparation of budgets. But it turns out that the approaches, the methodologies, the tools are different from one State to another. This is why the WAEMU Commission has decided to support its States in the application of gender-responsive budgeting in several ways."

In 2018, the Commission adopted the WAEMU Gender Strategy whose objective is to contribute to the promotion of a community institutional environment conducive to equality and equity between men and women in the economic fields, political, social and cultural. As part of this strategy, it is envisaged that a training module on gender-responsive budgeting will be integrated into the curricula of schools and training institutes in WAEMU member countries. For Mamadu Serif Jaquite, Commissioner in charge of the Human Development Department of the WAEMU Commission, this initiative aims, on the one hand, to provide WAEMU member States with highly qualified human resources in this area and, on the other hand, harmonise the methods, practices and tools of gender-responsive budgeting in the Community area.