Accountability Lab Nigeria has urged the Federal and state governments to systematically involve women, civil society organisations, and local community members in budget planning to ensure public spending effectively addresses the needs of vulnerable populations. ​
The advocacy group made the call on Sunday in Abuja during a technical workshop organised to co-design a gender-responsive budgeting assessment toolkit, supported by the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives. ​Speaking at the event, Friday Odeh, Country Director of Accountability Lab Nigeria, stressed that excluding marginalised groups from fiscal decision-making leaves critical community priorities underfunded.
He warned that without direct public participation, essential services, ranging from maternal healthcare and social protection programs to support for informal businesses, will continue to be sidelined in national and state budgets. Odeh urged governments across all levels to transition from top-down fiscal allocation to participatory, bottom-up budgeting that directly engages grassroots citizens. ​
Further highlighting the broader structural challenges, Program Lead Idakwo noted that existing legislative and policy gaps hamper women’s civic and economic inclusion. Idakwo pointed to the setback of the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill and the stalled progress on allocating reserved legislative seats for women as ongoing obstacles that limit women from shaping policy and public expenditure decisions. ​
The workshop brought together stakeholders to finalize an assessment framework aimed at tracking, evaluating, and advocating for gender-responsive public spending across Nigeria’s federal and state budget cycles.
