The training, funded by Oxfam Ghana, was intended to analyse the gender responsiveness of government programmes such as Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), One-District One Factory (IDIF), and One-Village One-Dam (IVID).

It was held in Tamale and attended by journalists drawn from the Northern Region.

Mr Ibrahim Akalbila, Coordinator at GTLC urged journalists to assess government’s policies to measure their impacts on the development of the country.

He expressed the need for journalists to exhibit professionalism as watchdogs of the society and scrutinise and assess government’s policies especially on agriculture focusing on their impacts across gender for inclusive development.

He said by so doing, journalists would influence the national discourse on major government policies towards ensuring gender responsiveness in budgeting for inclusive development.

He said there was the need for journalists to inform the citizenry with accurate and authentic information to promote gender inclusiveness, especially regarding government’s programmes on agriculture to influence budgetary allocations to the sector.

Mr Akalbila said gender inclusiveness in the government’s agriculture programmes such as PFJs, IDIF, and IVID would create an enabling environment for women to venture into farming in the rural communities.

He appealed to government to implement modernised agricultural policies to strategically enhance the transformation of the economy to help in the development of the country focusing on the gender-responsiveness budgeting for the year 2019.

The GTLC is a trade and agriculture policy and practice advocacy and research organisation with membership of 106 small scale farmers, producers and other civil society organisations with representations in the 10 regions of the country.