GENDER RESPONSIVE BUDGETING & FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION

1. GENDER RESPONSIVE BUDGETING & FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION Simel Esim, Ph.D. Economist International Center for Research on Women

2. Outline • Gender Responsive Budgeting • Overview of Existing Initiatives • A Focus on South Africa • Public Spending • Decentralization

3. National Budgets • Most important economic policy instruments of governments • They reflect the values of a country - who it values, whose work it values & who it rewards • They are assumed to affect everyone more or less equally • Budgetary policies can have significantly different impacts on women & men & on different groups of women & men

4. Gender Responsive Budgeting As a Process • The Budgets are part of larger policy processes • policy • budget • program • performance • Gender sensitive budgets are a variety of processes and tools aimed at facilitating an assessment of the gendered impacts of larger policy processes including budgets themselves

5. Defining Gender Responsive Budgeting • Are NOT separate budgets for women or men • Gender sensitive ANALYSIS of government budgets, rather than formulation of separate budgets • Focus NOT ONLY on portion of budget that is seen as gender or women related, BUT... • Examine ALL sectoral allocations for their differential impact on women, men, girls & boys • Focus on reprioritization of budgets and NOT expanded spending

6. Defining A GRB Initiative • Participants– whoinitiated it, who is involved in it, how do they work together (researchers, activists, NGOs, parliament, government) • Scope of the exercise – national, local, expenditure, revenue, all or selected portfolios • Activities -- research, publication, material development, advocacy, training • Audience -- government officials, parliamentarians, advocacy NGOs, citizen’s groups, researchers, media, public • Targeted policy process –planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation • Political dynamics – the record of government on gender, other axis of inequality/disadvantage

7. Donor initiatives • Commonwealth Secretariat • concentrated around government capacity building • supported exercises in Sri Lanka, Barbados & Fiji • UNIFEM • focus on civil society--a series of regional workshops • led the Interagency Meeting on GRB in Brussels, Oct 01 • UNDP • pilot approach with a focus on participatory budgeting • the potential for improved economic governance

8. Existing Initiatives

9. Existing Initiatives: Africa (12) • Botswana (UNIFEM/UNDP workshop) • Kenya (CIDA + government + NGO) • Malawi (CIDA + government) • Mauritius (UNDP/UNIFEM workshop) • Mozambique (SIDA + government) • Namibia (SIDA + government) • Rwanda (UNIFEM+parliament) • South Africa (since 1995--NGO, government, parliament, ComSec, Mott Foundation, NOVIB) • Tanzania (NGO + government) • Uganda (NGO + parliament) • Zambia (UNIFEM+government+NGOs, Netherlands embassy) • Zimbabwe (academics+GERA funding)

10. SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN’S BUDGET(1995-2002)

11. South African Women’s Budget • Started in mid-1995 • Joint effort of the Gender and Economic Policy Group of the parliamentary Committee on Finance and two policy-oriented research NGOs • Focused on the national ministries and produced 3 volumes in 3 years on 26 ministries • 4th year they looked at 5 of 840 municipalities • Produced Money Matters simplifying the material

12. South African ‘Women’s Budget’--Impact • Its thorough documentation, 4 ‘women’s budget’ volumes, & popular materials made it easier to share • Inspirational nature of the exercise in the way it took off and grew in the past 6-7 years, the high level support it received • Commonwealth Secretariat funding, TA helped spread the learning across countries—became a model for others • Involvement of the coordinator of the SA Women’s Budget, Debbie Budlender, in over 10 other country exercises • A Southern initiative, an African initiative that resonated with people around Africa and the rest of the developing world as something doable, attainable

13. Current Status of GRB in South Africa • Government initiatives are “dormant or dead” • Due to the departure of supportive key players (previous Deputy MoF, a British consultant in the Budget Office) • Activists’ easy access to people in government and parliament in the early years after 1994 has become harder • Outside government initiative continues but it is weak on the advocacy side • early years did not need advocacy, but now they need it • research does not spell advocacy out • civil society needs to learn advocacy • gender machinery is weak

14. Conditions to GRB Success • High level commitment to support GRB—MoF • Institutionalizing the GRB effort within government • When governments change, level of commitment can change • GRB can be associated with the old regime and abandoned • Ministerial staff that are trained move onto other jobs • A research center, set of researchers to undertake the GRB analysis—public finance and gender analysis • An NGO, a network of NGOs for advocacy, M&E • Capacity building on GRB among local stakeholders

15. PUBLIC EXPENDITURES

16. Category 1: Targeted gender-based expenditures of government departments spending on national women’s machineries, small discretionary funds for special programs that are not mainstream spending by government agencies. Women's health programmes, Special education initiatives for girls, Employment policy initiatives for women, etc. + Category 2:Equal employment opportunity expenditure by government agencies on their employees. For example, training for lower level clerks (where women may predominate), paid parental leave, childcare facilities for children of employees. + Category 3:General/mainstream budget expenditures by government agencies which make goods or services available to the whole community, but which are assessed for their gender impact. Who are the learners in government-provided literacy classes? Who benefits from farming support in the agriculture budget? Who are the users of clinic services? = TOTAL EXPENDITURE

17. Tools • Policy assessments (applying gender analysis) • Institutional analysis • Gendered beneficiary assessments like opinion polls, attitude surveys, participatory rapid appraisal processes • Benefit incidence analysis with gender, class, race, location breakdowns (expenditure and revenue side)

18. Data Needs GRB assessment requires sex-disaggregated data on • iInputs (budget or staff allocations) • AActivities (services planned and delivered) • oOutputs (utilization of activities, beneficiaries) • oOutcomes (planned and actual achievements like increased health, education, time availability, etc.) Systematic generation of sex-disaggregated data in all ministries/departments & local authorities across Central statistics office data that is sex-disaggregated (census, household surveys and time use data)

19. DECENTRALIZATION

20. South African GRB at Local Level • Local Spending is on a wide range of functions • Water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal • Local Revenues are more diverse than national & provincial government • Tariffs for services, intergovernmental transfers • Different types of internal funds • Not property and other forms of tax

21. Category 1: Gender specific allocations at the local government level. In South Africa the researchers found very few examples of these. Local government deals with household services rather than services directed at gendered individuals. Examples are Port Elizabeth Municipality’s grant-in-aid to gender oriented organizations and allocations for creches in Lusikisiki. + Category 2:Equal opportunity or affirmative action allocations. Few expenditures intended to address inequalities among municipal employees (ex. Gender unit in Port Elizabeth). In South Africa, research revealed greater gender imbalances in local government empoloyment than in provincial and national spheres. + Category 3:Mainstream expenditures. Impact of each allocation on women and men, girls and boys, and different groups (class, race, location) of women and men, girls and boys. Again, difficulty in determining the gendered impact of household or community level allocations. Difficulty also in obtaining basic information as to the nature and size of allocations. This information is essential for gender, poverty or any other impact analysis. = TOTAL EXPENDITURE AT LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEVEL

22. Multiplicity Diversity Lack of uniformity Complexity of accounts Diverse forms of revenue Lack of information Reluctance to share info Conflicting information Services are directed at hh not individual Headship category is problematic Gender –poverty Neither women (nor men) are homogenous groups—poor women (men) differ in their needs between municipalities or within them Difficulties in Local LevelBudget Analysis Gender Analysis

23. Gender and Decentralization Assumption that decentralization of expenditures is beneficial for women and the poor • Allocations are made by those closer to the local needs, priorities • Local participation of the poor in budgetary decision making is more feasible • Decisions will be more transparent and local policy makers will be more accountable to their immediate constituents

24. Yet with Decentralization… • Weakened checks and balances can increase fiscal control of local elite and likelihood of corruption • Can result in local centralization and a way for local elite to ignore public policies, or local needs • Local participation and women’s participation are not guaranteed (few women in decision-making positions, participating NGOs might have few or no women) • Can further exacerbate regional inequalities

25. Examples of Social Audits & Participatory Local Budgets • Social Audits: The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (Workers’ and Peasants Power Association), a small and activist group in the north Indian state of Rajasthan • Participatory Local Budgets: In Brazil, the City Hall of Porto Alegre adopted a participatory budgeting process in 1989.

26. Questions • Does decentralization increase/decrease gender inequalities? • What are the impacts of decentralization of services, expenditures and revenue mobilization on access to productive resources, opportunities for women & poverty? • What institutional structures facilitate women’s and men’s participation in budget formulation & macroeconomic strategy design? • What types of budgetary systems and methods can assist in addressing the needs of the vulnerable and poor? • How do different forms of decentralization-deconcentration, delegation, devolution- impact a gender-responsive budgeting process? What are potential differential impacts?

27. Websites for more information on gender budgets UNDP/UNIFEM • http://www.undp.org/poverty/resources/gender_budgets.htm • http://www.unifem.undp.org/progressww South Africa • http://www2.womensnet.org.za/budget • http://www.idasa.org.za/final/publications International Budget Project • http://www.cbpp.org • http://www.internationalbudget.org Gender Budgets Website (IDRC) http://www.gender-budgets.org

28. More Information on this presentation... Simel Esim, Ph.D. Economist International Center for Research on Women 1717 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 302 Washington, DC 20036 Tel: 202-332-2853 ext. 148 Fax: 202-332-8257 E-mail: sesim@icrw.org http://www.icrw.org/ http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/frame1/papers/gender2papers.html ‘ http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/grhf/_Spanish/pubs/informes.html