Gender sensitive budgeting critical for development

Andile Tshuma, Gender
Budgets are not neutral. Starting from domestic level, for most households, there is never enough money, therefore each passing week, each passing month, a family has to decide what is most important, and everyone’s needs are considered and funds are spent. However, the power of spending usual lies within few people in the household and the breadwinner often has the say on who to spend on, what to spend on, how to spend and what to spend. Well, this is not always the case as in some cases, breadwinners have no final say in expenditure. But generally some people have more power than others in home money matters.

However, the mother, father and children will have needs that need to be met and the household will have to ensure that those needs are met equally and equitably.

The budget politics is not only confined to the home. At society level, duty bearers are also tasked with managing public funds and service delivery requires someone to manage funds equitable for the public and deliver quality services based on those funds.

Men, women, children and vulnerable community members will not have the same needs but public budgets must ensure that their needs are all catered for within the same budget.

There have been global calls and campaigns to ensure that all public budgets are gender sensitive and gender responsive. Women have been dealt a raw deal for generations and the ongoing efforts to achieve gender equality cannot yield results if gender equality is not reflected in the management of public funds, because budgets are not gender neutral.

As the Government, its key actors and departments engage on the National Development Strategy 1 in pursuit of Vision 2030, which speaks to the attainment of an empowered and prosperous Upper Middle-Income society by 2030, it is important to ensure that all limbs of Government are gender sensitive and that their budgets are also gender sensitive to help advance gender equality in Zimbabwe.

It would be instructive to interrogate what gender considerations are couched in this national thrust, and to check if these are reflected in budgets.

This will help determine what women can expect as the gender mainstreaming dividend deriving from it all.

Gender sensitive budgeting is budgeting that integrates a gender perspective and tracks how budgets respond to gender equality commitments and targets. Assessing budgets through a gender lens requires thinking about finances in a new way that looks into the needs of all genders who must benefit from the available resources.

Gender responsive budgeting is about allocating money for activities that eliminate gender barriers to public services and private sector investments. It aims at mainstreaming gender into public finance and economic policy so that a country has general budgets that include a gender equality perspective. It refers to the process of conceiving, planning, approving, executing, monitoring, analysing and auditing budgets in a gender-sensitive way. It involves analysis of actual expenditure on women and girls as compared to on men and boys taking into account their different needs and priorities.

It helps to decide how strategies should be made, adjusted and re-prioritised. It is a tool for effective policy implementation where one can check if the allocations are in line with policy commitments and are having the desired impact.

Gender-sensitive budget analysis looks beyond the balance sheets to investigate whether men and women fare differently under existing expenditure patterns. It helps policy makers understand how they may need to adjust priorities and reallocate resources to live up to commitments to achieving gender equality and advancing an equal world.

Budgets are one of the most influential tools for governance because without funds, policies or programmes cannot be implemented, meaning that services cannot be delivered. They influence the overall objectives of a project and reflect the strategic priorities by the authority.

Although budgets are usually perceived as gender-neutral or a set of numbers that impartially affect women and men, closer inspection reveals that this is often not the case. The way project funds are spent has a different impact on women and girls as compared to men and boys, often to the detriment of the former.

Gender sensitive budgeting is not an end in itself but an integral part of gender mainstreaming. More often than not, attempts at gender-sensitive budgeting unveil the low levels of budget allocated to gender mainstreaming strategies.

Gender sensitive budgeting is important as it leads to better service delivery from public service providers such as local authorities.

For instance, if Bulawayo City Council know their communities and gender specific needs, then, as a service provider, the municipality is in a better position to deliver relevant, timely and well-crafted services.

Government launched Vision 2030 and NDS1 to chart a new, transformative and inclusive development agenda.

It is envisaged that the pursuit of this vision will deliver broad-based transformation, new wealth creation and expand horizons of economic opportunities for all Zimbabweans, with “no one left behind”.

However, without implementation of the wonderful and progressive policies, this dream will remain beautiful and progressive on paper yet the reality tells a different story.

Government acknowledges that gender equality and women empowerment remains an unfinished business under the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) from 2018 to 2020, the NDS1 promises to prioritise gender issues in line with the theme of ‘leaving no-one behind’.

Although Government has made some progress with regards to gender mainstreaming, the current context is notably marked by, among other things, limited gender mainstreaming. Women still face hurdles in terms of opportunities to ascend to commanding heights in the national economy, including limited access to finance, limited access to land and freehold property, limited opportunities to influence policy as well as legal, cultural and patriarchal barriers.

According to NDS1, during the period under focus, integration of gender mainstreaming across all sectors will be strengthened, cognisant that gender equality is fundamental to achieving equitable, sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development. This builds on Government’s commitment under the Constitution, the Gender Responsive Budgeting Strategy, the National Gender Policy and Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Framework.

Citizens are therefore looking forward to programming and budgeting, which involves identification of gender issues, interventions, budget costing, and setting of performance benchmarks as well as prioritisation of resource allocation, disbursement and implementation of national and sectoral gender plans and programmes through implementation of gender sensitive programmes and projects, targeting women.

The Sadc Guidelines on Gender Responsive budgeting clearly recognise that the budget is the most important policy statement of the government, because no policy can work without money. The budget provides a comprehensive list of a nation’s priorities and outlines a government’s programme for spending and raising revenue.

Therefore, if gender equality related considerations are not clearly presented in a budget, a country can hardly attain its gender equality goals regardless of whatever great commitments and policies may exist on paper. Gender responsive budget work is about ensuring that government budgets and the policies and programmes address the needs and interests of women and men of all different social groups.

Gender sensitive budgeting also takes into account further categories of inequality such as age, religious or ethnic affiliation, marital status, wealth or the place of residence (urban/rural, different provinces) etc. It is not about whether an equal amount is spent on women and men, but whether the spending is adequate to women’s and men’s needs.

It comprises reprioritising expenditures and revenues, taking into account the different needs and priorities of women and men. It is not just about developing gender responsive budgets but also tracking the implementation and impact of the various budgetary allocations that were meant to address the different needs of women and men as well as assessing their impact on gender equality.

The Sadc guidelines on gender responsive budgeting commend and support the collaboration between governments and development partners in the Sadc region and state that NGOs have helped member states to make strides towards equal societies.

Achieving an equal world starts with the equitable allocation of resources and as such public office bearers must strive to ensure that all budgets and resource sharing are gender sensitive.-@andile_tshuma