The first episode of Shared Goals features special guest Aoife Mallon, research and engagement associate at the University of Ulster, and was released on Friday to coincide with International Women’s Day.

The podcast explores the challenges and advantages of using a “gender budgeting” approach to organise public finances, and how it could benefit human rights to adopt it in Northern Ireland.

Alyson Kilpatrick, chief commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, said: “To mark International Women’s Day, we are delighted to welcome Aoife Mallon, from Ulster University, on NIHRC’s podcast ‘Shared Goals’. At a time for action to accelerate equality for women, understanding gender budgeting is more critical than ever.

“Gender budgeting is a tool to address human rights inequalities because it demonstrates how budgets can disproportionately affect genders and be affected by gender. Its focus is to allocate and use public finances to achieve the best outcome for everyone thereby better ensuring equality across society.

“The podcast considers this approach and how it can enhance the practical implementation of human rights duties, including the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. We will listen with a keen interest and consider how this approach can be used to achieve better outcomes in Northern Ireland.”

Ms Mallon added: “By making better linkages between policies and budgets, improving transparency in the budget process and analysing the equality impacts of budgets through a gender lens, gender budgeting has the potential to improve long-term fiscal stability, ensure sustainable public service delivery and improve equality outcomes for all people living in Northern Ireland.”

You can find Shared Goals on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcast providers.