The Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Emma Kantema, says the ministry aims to ensure that the boy child is not left behind in economic empowerment.

Dr. Kantema was speaking at the launch of the Unmasking Postnatal Depression book over the weekend. 

The cabinet approved the programme, which involves gender-responsive planning and budgeting. 

It places an obligation on government offices, ministries and agencies to ensure that annual plans and budgets cater for issues that are gender specific. 

They must ensure that boys, girls, men, and women enjoy equal opportunities, equal access to opportunities, and are equally empowered.

"So for all the other OMAS, to look at what the gender-specific roles are, when it comes to the boy child, we are no more saying 'girl child only', but 'boy and girl child'. So if you are an education minister, what programmes do you have to put in place to make sure that the needs of the boy child are also catered for?"

The minister also announced the recruitment of more social workers and that the aim is to have a social worker in each constituency. 

"Through initiatives such as this, we also have counselling services, and we have social workers. This year we are going to increase our uptake with social workers. We will be employing around 30 social workers. And because we have delegated our function to the regions, we have to have a social worker for each constituency."