NPC, AFIDEP Begin 3-day Training on Gender-Responsive Planning and Budgeting
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), in partnership with the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), has commenced a three-day capacity-building workshop to strengthen the integration of gender considerations into planning and budgeting processes at the sub-national level.
The workshop, which began on Monday, August 31, 2026, at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) Conference Centre, University of Ghana, brings together planning, budget and gender officers from Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Greater Accra Region, as well as representatives from relevant national and regional institutions, and focuses on the practical application of NDPC’s Gender-Responsive Planning and Budgeting Toolkit to integrate gender considerations throughout the planning and budgeting cycle.
Opening the workshop, the Director-General of NDPC, Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, said the training was intended to help translate commitments to gender equality into practical action through planning and the allocation of public resources.
She noted that although women constitute more than half of Ghana’s population and account for 53 per cent of the country’s labour force, they continue to face unequal access to economic opportunities and decision-making.
“The challenge before us is to move from policy commitment to practical implementation,” she said, urging participants to critically assess whether public resources were reaching the people and communities that needed them most.
Dr. Amoah also expressed appreciation to AFIDEP for its support towards the development and implementation of the training.
Speaking on behalf of AFIDEP, Dr. Maame B. Peterson said the workshop has deliberately been designed to be practical, with participants working with actual planning and budgeting documents to apply the concepts to their respective districts and regions, emphasising that decisions on the allocation of public resources had implications for different groups within society and therefore needed to be examined through a gender lens.
“How money moves, who it reaches, and who it actually serves is not a neutral question. It is a question of fairness,” she said.
Dr. Peterson explained that the training curriculum was developed through collaboration between AFIDEP, NDPC and the Ministries of Finance and Gender, Children and Social Protection, following an assessment of gaps in gender-responsive planning and budgeting at the regional and district levels.
She encouraged participants to actively engage throughout the training and openly discuss the challenges they encounter in applying gender-responsive approaches in their wor,k saying, “Come with your own questions, not the polite ones,” she urged, stressing the importance of honest discussions to ensure that the training responds to the realities officials face in their respective institutions.
The training forms part of ongoing efforts by the NDPC and its partners to strengthen institutional capacity for inclusive and gender-responsive national development planning.
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