CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE __________________________________________________________________________ development strategy”. They have declared that it is crucial, considering the difficulties in this area, for Benin to have a structure that has a clear mandate, adequate political influence, sufficient human and financial resources, as well as the required skills and capabilities for carrying out its tasks. Thus, the participants at the Forum on Women demanded the creation of a structure to handle gender and development issues that should report directly to the president of the republic, and that would have branches in all other ministries. 286. The CRM has also noted the absence of a national gender policy – serving as a basis for all parties and departments – to promote the gender dimension in policies and programmes. The CRM experts also noted the efforts made by bilateral and multilateral partners to support Benin in the promotion of its women and gender policy. The CRM learned – following discussions held with representatives of the Swiss Cooperation Agency, the Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA) and the UNDP – that efforts are under way to take the issue of gender equality into account in strategic documents, budgets and programmes. In 2005, the approach was integrated into certain sectors, when the budget/programme of MAEP (the Population Policy Statement, or DEPOLIPO) was re-read, and in the formulation of the 10-year strategic plan of the Ministry of Works and Public Service. However, these same partners found weaknesses and a lack of coherent planning about the strategic options adopted in the budgets/programmes and in the annual work plans of the other ministries, as well as the lack of an appropriate budget for carrying out activities for greater equality and equity. 287. The analysis of the performances of most sectors revealed that the major activities carried out under the gender theme boils down to awareness campaigns and training17. These conclusions were reinforced by the national study on IDISA, conducted by some of the national researchers mentioned above. This study has highlighted the challenges, weaknesses and areas requiring intervention. It highlighted particularly the small budgets allocated to gender issues. The promotion of women should not be limited solely to the reform of their legal status. It is therefore imperative to ensure equity for women in the allocation of public funds through adequate budgets for gender issues. Examining budgets from a gender perspective helps to identify gaps and discrepancies between the access to, and distribution of, public resources. It is not a question of preparing separate budgets for women and men. On the contrary, the objective of analysing budgets from a gender perspective is to redefine priorities and to allocate adequate resources that will meet the needs of all sections of the population, while taking into account the disadvantaged position of women. 17 Budgetary support joint mission and joint implementation of budgetary support review and implementation of PRSP – gender approach in the joint mission. 115