‘2024 National Budget should be socially inclusive’

Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter

The 2024 National Budget should be socially inclusive through addressing the needs of disadvantaged communities including people with disabilities, orphans and the elderly, journalists attending a training workshop on budget processes were told yesterday by one of the organisers.

The workshop was convened by the Zimbabwe Parliamentary Journalists Forum and the Southern Africa Parliamentary Support Trust.

In her presentation during the workshop, SAPST programmes manager, Ms Chengetai Kanyangu said the country’s constitution and legislation have identified interest groups like people with disabilities and the vulnerable, among others, whose rights should be specially respected.

“We need to look at the inclusivity of the budget in areas like education and health. The rights of all the population groups, especially those that have been previously excluded, are better reflected in the Budget,” she said.

A socially inclusive Budget should influence public expenditure and trigger social and economic change by directly funding or subsidising certain policies and programmes that are responsive to the needs of marginalised groups, and reduce explicit or implicit social biases.

It was important to advance the role of marginalised groups, she also said, to enable their participation in all sectors of the economy.

“A study by International Labour Organisations concludes that economic losses related to disability are large and measurable, ranging from between 3 and 7 per cent of GDP,” she said.

“The exclusion of children with disabilities affects not only them, but imposes costs on the whole community. If these children lack the opportunity to be productive, society loses out on what they could have produced.”

Another SAPST official, Ms Natasha Ntini, said it was also important for parliament and the media to check whether budgetary allocations were in sync with Government’s development goals.

“Before we analyse the Budget, it is important to analyse the Government’s policies first and the legal framework behind that. We need to analyse whether Budget allocations are in line with the policy goals,” she said.

The crafting of the 2024 Budget begins on Monday, when Parliamentary portfolio committees begin their public consultations to gather stakeholder views.