Feminist view of gender budgeting in Zimbabwe

media as projecting the budget to amount to US$3,5 billion, with civil servants’ salaries expected to take up US$2,1 billion.
This leaves many minds wondering whether or not the National Budget allocations are based on the amount of noise made by individual groups or it is informed by a careful process of needs analysis and prioritisation.
Further, the 2012 National Budget will provide a test case for Government’s commitment towards gender equality and equity, having adopted gender budgeting as a women’s empowerment strategy back in 2007.
This week, we present to you a feminist viewpoint of gender budgeting. Feminism is more than just a struggle to do away with male dominance or to fight for women’s equality with men.
It is about transforming mindsets of both women and men with respect to power sharing gender division of labour as well as allocation of resources.
As such, the main thrust of feminism is to challenge policies and practices that treat women as invisible or that serves to reinforce situations oppressive to women.
In relation to the formulation of national budgets, feminist ideologies help governments to adopt national policies and fiscal instruments that liberate women from economic oppression and other forms of discrimination.
National budgets are a manifestation of any government’s values and priorities at any given time.
Therefore, it is important to undertake a gender budgeting analysis in order to assess national budgets’ sensitivity to differences between women, men, boys and girls that translate to different needs, privileges, rights and obligations.
Gender budgeting challenges the assumption that macro-economics are inherently gender neutral by analysing and exposing the gender impact of the budget and seeking to reduce gender gaps through the generation and allocation of resources.
Lack of financial resources and support from national governments has been the major stumbling block in the implementation of policies in most African states of which Zimbabwe is no exception.
Thus, when analysing national budgets from a gender perspective the ultimate goal is to examine whether the government concerned is fully committed in its endeavour to empower women and raise their status. This is in recognition of the fact that historically women have been marginalised especially due to patriarchal structures and systems that uphold male dominance in all sectors of society including the economic sector.
There is therefore need for societal transformation if gender budgeting initiatives can achieve the intended goals.
In Zimbabwe, gender budgeting was officially adopted in 2007. However, the implementation of gender budgeting has taken a very slow pace and gender gaps have remained visible in the allocation of public funds through national budgets.
A snapshot of Zimbabwe’s national budgets from 2008 to the present (particularly those sectors that affect women the most), reveals that the promotion of equality between men and women has not been clearly articulated.
For example, the 2009 National Budget set aside US$9,2 million for the Basic Education Assistance Module, US$5 million for the National Training Fund and Cadetship, which programmes were targeted at assisting “‘vulnerable groups” to access education. However, it was not clear how many women were set to benefit from such programmes and funds.
In relation to Specially Targeted Vulnerable Groups, women were not considered explicitly as part of this segment in society. Instead the budget mentioned the elderly, orphans, child-headed families and physically challenged persons.
The 2010 National Budget Statement presented by the Finance Minister Tendai Biti on December 3, 2009, noted that: “The gender trap manifests itself in the small numbers of women taking up influential positions in political and economic institutions set-up such as Parliament, ministerial posts and managerial posts in both the public and private sectors.”
Surprisingly, the rest of the budget was silent on financing women’s participation in decision-making.
Fair enough, the 2010 National Budget item 256 (Upliftment of Youth and Women) allocated US$23 million under the Vote of Credit to go towards support micro, small and medium enterprises and co-operatives and youth projects.
US$1 million was also allocated under the Women’s Development Fund to be administered by the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Development.
Simple mathematics shows that each of the 10 provinces would get US$100 000 of the WDF. The 2010 National Budget allocated US$285,4 million for the health sector, which constituted 12,7 percent of the total budget. US$17,5 million of the money was intended to purchase essential drugs, rehabilitation of infrastructure at health institutions.
Over the past nine years problems regarding equipment and access of drugs have affected people’s access to essential health services.
Women were the most affected as they had to cope with poor maternal health care which sometimes lead to loss of life.
A ZWRCN’s analysis of the 2011 National Budget shows that the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development remains under-resourced with a meagre allocation for 2011 (US$ 6 857 000) constituted 0,23 percent of the total budget, also a marginal increase from 0,2 percent in 2010.
The ministry was allocated only
US$50 000 for conducting gender mainstreaming in all ministries.
And even though the Women’s Empowerment Fund was allocated US$2 million in the 2011 Budget, up from US$1 million in 2010, the amount still is not enough to afford many women with an economic chance.
Thus, in practice, gender equality has not yet been viewed as one of the flagships of best macro-economic practices.
The 2009-2011 budgets had the largest allocations directed towards wages of the civil servants. However, according to SAPST (2009:10) national budgets should allocate or give priority to service delivery rather than wages and allowances.
With indications so far, that over 50 percent of the 2012 National Budget will go towards civil servants’ salaries, feminists would want to know, how many women will benefit from the civil servants’ wages? Food for thought!

l The Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre and Network is an information-based organisation committed to gender equality and equity. The organisation promotes women’s rights and empowerment by advocating for social and economic justice in Zimbabwe and globally. Tel: +263-4 252388-90/700250, Fax: +263 4 720331, Email:[email protected] Website: www.zwrcn.org.zw