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Gender Analysis of the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare Budget
UN Women Malawi
Evelyn Court, Area 13
P.O. Box 31774,
Lilongwe 3,
Malawi
June, 2015
ii
Acknowledgements
This report is a culmination of concerted efforts of different stakeholders that have played different
and invaluable roles. Their support, encouragement and hard work are highly appreciated. UN
Women in Malawi would like to recognize the contributions of Viwemi Chavula, Anna Tresse and the
entire UN Women Team and the other UN Agencies who contributed to the success of this study.
Special thanks go to Tinyade Kachika (UN Women Consultant) for her technical insights and
guidance during the course of the assignment.
UN Women in a special way thanks the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disabilities and Social Welfare
for all of their support and guidance during the process of the study.
All the sectoral representatives as well as those at district councils who were consulted for offering
their precious time are saluted for participating in this study.
Lastly, profound gratitude goes to the team of local consultants; Messrs Humphrey A.J. Mdyetseni
(Team leader), Alick B. Kafunda and Hope Msosa for carrying out the study on behalf of UN
Women in Malawi.
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Citations
Researchers: Humphrey A.J. Mdyetseni (Team Leader), Alick B. Kafunda and Hope Msosa
[email protected] ; [email protected]
Suggested Citation:
UN Women (2015): Gender Analysis of the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social
Welfare Budget, UN Women, Lilongwe, Malawi.
Contacts:
The Resident Representative, UN Women Malawi, Evelyn Court, Area 13, P.O. Box 31774,
Lilongwe 3, Malawi
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................................. ii Citations ................................................................................................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................................... iv Acronyms & Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................. vi Executive Summary........................................................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background to the Study ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Objectives of the Study .......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Structure of the Report ........................................................................................................................................... 2
CHAPTER II: STUDY METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Study Design and Scope ......................................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Document Review, Data Collection and Sources ............................................................................................ 3 2.3 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................................................. 3
CHAPTER III: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................. 4 3.1 Gender Policy Instruments .................................................................................................................................... 4
3.1.1 Instruments at Global Level .......................................................................................................................... 4 3.1.2 Instruments at Continental Level................................................................................................................. 5 3.1.3 Instruments at Regional Level ...................................................................................................................... 5 3.1.4 National Gender Policy Framework ........................................................................................................... 5
3.2 Legislation Enhancing Gender Equality, Children And Persons With Disability’s Welfare ................. 6 CHAPTER IV: MoGCDSW BUDGET ANALYSIS ............................................................................................... 8
4.1 Trends in MoGCDSW budget allocations......................................................................................................... 8 4.1.1 Proportion of MoGCDSW’s budget to the national budget, 2009-2014 ........................................................... 8 4.1.2 Proportions of the ministry’s PE, ORT & Development budgets, 2009-2014 ................................................. 9 4.1.3 Departmental allocations for gender, children and disability affairs, 2009-2014 ............................................ 10 4.1.4 Share of foreign/donor funds to women, children and disability programmes, 2010 to 2015 .......................... 14 4.1.5 Proportion of Gender against Key Sectoral Provisions at District Council Level ............................................. 15
4.2 MoGCDSW’s budget prioritization and allocation in respect to gender related laws, 2009-2014 ... 17 4.3 MoGCDSW Co-ordination Activities implemented between 2009/10 and 2014/15 ......................... 21 4.4 MoGCDSW’s funding disbursement trends between 2009/10 and 2014/15 ....................................... 22
4.4.1 Quarterly Disbursements of Funding for MoGCDSW ...................................................................... 22 4.4.2 Aggregate Annual Funding ......................................................................................................................... 23
4.5 Analysis of implications of budget trends ....................................................................................................... 24 4.6 Budget Development Processes ........................................................................................................................ 26
4.6.1 Engagement of Stakeholders in Budget Development Processes .................................................... 26 4.6.2 Entry Points for Effective Lobbying for Resources Within The Budgeting Process. ................. 27
CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................... 29 5.1. Summary of findings and conclusions ............................................................................................................ 29 5.2 Overall recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 30
References .......................................................................................................................................................................... 33 Appendices ......................................................................................................................................................................... 34
Appendix 1:Ministry Of Gender , Children Disability And Social Welfare Budget Analysis 2009/10 To
2014/15 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 34 Appendix 3: Institutional Implementation of Gender, Child and Disability Related Legislations ........ 43 Appendix 4: Budget Development Vis-À-Vis Stakeholder Engagement ...................................................... 44 Appendix 5: Full Budget Calendar For Stakeholder Engagement .................................................................. 45 Appendix 6: Consultation List .................................................................................................................................. 47
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List of Tables
Table 1: Acts Anchoring Gender, Children and Disability Welfare .................................................... 6
Table 2: Trends in the MoGCDSW vs. national budget, 2009-2014 .................................................. 8
Table 3: Examples of Programmes under which the legislations could potentially be
implemented .............................................................................................................................................. 11
Table 4 ORT functional allocations, 2009-2014 .................................................................................. 13
Table 5: Ministry's development budget allocations, 2009-2014 ....................................................... 14
Table 6: Proportion of donor funding in the Ministry's budget ........................................................ 15
Table 7: Trends in Budgets for Key Sectors versus Gender at District Council (as %)................. 16
Table 8: Gender coordination activities implemented between 2009/10 and 2014/15. ................ 21
Table 9: Funding disbursement trends for the Ministry of Gender .................................................. 22
Table 10: Annual Disbursements by Key Cost Centres (ORT) ......................................................... 23
Table 11: Timeliness of Monthly Funding to Cost Centres/Institutions ......................................... 24
Table 12: Government Budgeting Process Guide ............................................................................... 28
List of Figures
Figure 1: Ministry's budget type analysis, 2009-2014 ........................................................................... 10
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Acronyms & Abbreviations
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
CBCCC Community Based Child-Care Centres
CBE Complimentary Basic Education
CDA Community Development Assistants
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
against Women
CGFT Central Government Fiscal Transfers
ECD Early Childhood Development
GRB Gender Responsive Budgeting
HIV Human Immuno-deficiency Virus
KPA Key Priority Area
MACOHA Malawi Council for the Handicapped
MDG Millennium Development Goal
MGDS II Malawi Growth and Development Strategy II
MK Malawi Kwacha
MoGCDSW Ministry of Gender, Children Disability and Social Welfare
MoH Ministry of Health
MoEST Ministry of Education Science and Technology
OBB Output Based Budget
ORT Other Recurrent Transactions
PE Personal Emoluments
RB Recurrent Budget
SADC Southern Africa Development Community
UDHR Universal Declaration on Human Rights
UN United Nations
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Executive Summary
This report presents findings of the budget analysis for the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and
Social Welfare (MoGCDSW). The study was commissioned by the UN Women Malawi to establish
evidence on the exact state of the Ministry’s funding, how it (funding) supports its gender coordination
role, and reinforces the implementation of gender related laws, polices and programmes. It is hoped that
the findings in turn will be used to lobbying for increased resources to the Ministry’s in the 2015/16
financial year and/or for future budgets,; and for strengthening programming and capacity development
processes.
The study analyzed trends from 2009/2010 to 2014/15 budget allocations for the Ministry of Gender,
Children, Disability and Social Welfare both at National and Local Council levels. At national level the
study focused on the allocations to the Ministry’s vote, focusing on various priorities of the sector in line
with the MGDS II. In addition, the analysis sought to appreciate intra-sector resource sharing balances
by further analyzing budgetary allocations towards key departments like gender affairs, child
development and disability as well as at cost centre level. A trend analysis approach has been used to
understand how resources have been prioritized since 2010 within the sector. The analysis centered
largely on desk reviews of key budget information contained in the official Government of Malawi
budget documents. Additionally, the study reviewed key policy instruments such as the Draft National
Gender Policy (2012), Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Policy (2009), Second Edition HIV and
AIDS Policy and Strategic Plan (2015-2020), National Policy on Equalisation of Opportunities for
Persons with Disabilities (2007), the Joint Sector Strategic Plan (2013-2017) and the Malawi Growth and
Development Strategy II (MGDS II). These are key policy instruments which guide resource
prioritization within the gender sector. The literature review was supplemented with field data sourced
through key informant interviews with policy holders and implementers at all levels.
The key findings of the study could be summarised in three broad categories. Firstly, the sector has
largely been underprovided in terms of financial resources, with annual provisions being mostly below
the MGDS minimum requirement. Secondly, the sector has been inefficient in terms of resource
allocation with key investment areas being underprovided as compared to consumption oriented ones.
Lastly, the sector’s budget is not gender responsive as evidenced by the absence of outputs and activities
that meaningfully impact on the improvement of the status of critical gender groups like women,
children and people with disabilities, coupled with the absence of sex disaggregated data for most of the
output targets.
A comparison between the ministry’s and national budget during the fiscal years under review reveals
that the ministry’s budget has mostly been receiving less than 1% of the total share. For instance, in 2009
and 2010 the ministry was allocated MK681 million, representing a 0.3% share of the total national
budget of MK257 billion. Similarly, in 2010 the ministry was allocated about MK617 million which
constituted about 0.2% of the total national budget. Worth pointing out is the increase in allocation
towards the ministry between the 2011/12 and 2012/13 financial years. Between these years, the
ministry’s budget witnessed a jump of close to 500% i.e. from an allocation of MK1.7 billion to MK10
billion. However, the massive jump in the resource provision was due to the nearly ten times increase in
the number of Social Cash Transfer Programme beneficiaries from the 27,975 that benefited in 2011/12
to an estimated 254,000 that were targeted for the 2012/13 financial year.
viii
Over the five years reviewed, it is observed that resource distribution amongst the budget components,
that is, Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT), Personal Emoluments (PE) and development have mostly
been skewed towards PE and the development budget. For instance in 2009/10 and 2010/11 financial
years, PE constituted about 40% and 45% (respectively) of the total ministry’s budgets. On the other
hand, during the same years the development budget was around 35% and 28% (respectively) of the total
ministry’s budget. Notably, from 2011 up to 2014, the ministry’s budget was dominated by the
development budget. For instance, in the 2012/13 financial year the development budget constituted
about 94% of the total ministry’s budget (figure 1). However, the allocation towards ORT is a major
concern; the ORT budget was only 2% of the total ministry’s budget in the same year (2012/13).
Likewise in the other years, especially from 2011 to 2014, ORT constituted significantly lower
proportions of the total ministry’s budget.
The increase in resources for the development budget means that the investment resource package for
the Ministry is growing and facilities created from such investment would enable improvements in
service delivery (e.g. improved training facilities, increased number of trained personnel and improved
livelihoods at household level which will enable households to work better and for children to be able to
attend schools). However, the decline in ORT budget reduces the availability of operational resources for
the Ministry and this may paralyse some important services like policy coordination and direction,
supervision, monitoring of programmes implementation and technical backstopping services among
others.
The analysis further reveals that development partners’ continued domination of the Ministry budget (in
terms of percentage contribution) is an issue of serious concern considering that donor support is limited
in terms of beneficiaries’ coverage (donor funds are mainly disbursed through projects that are
implemented in selected parts of the country). Since most of the donor funded activities respond to
donor interests and usually in selected areas, there is a risk that the Ministry’s priorities may not be fully
addressed and most areas of the country may be starved of strategic gender services. Additionally,
although development partners continue to provide more resources than Government in the Ministry’s
budget, there are major concerns which range from resources not being strategically provided to areas
that could lead to women and girls empowerment. Most of the resources are for social protection
activities, which in the long-run may not be easily sustained by Government should donor fatigue creep
in, coupled with too much inconsistence and variations in levels of donor financing from one year to the
next. If this pattern continues, it poses a serious threat to effectiveness and sustainability of investments
in the sector.
With regard to effective Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB), the study has noted that key institutions,
including the Ministry of Gender itself are yet to start serious efforts in implementing the approach. Of
notable concern is the glaring absence of meaningful actions aimed at addressing gender- related laws
that have been passed since 2006, and yet these have a huge bearing on women and girls. The failure to
prioritize the implementation of the six laws in the budget may prolong the low access to justice,
particularly by women and girls. For the actions that are being implemented, the targets are mostly too
few to make impact, with little or no resource provision, inconsistent across years and usually not gender
responsive. The challenges are further aggravated by inadequate capacity by Parliament and Ministry of
Finance to analyze the gender responsiveness of budgets to ensure that they are relevant to the priorities
of women and girls, and men and boys in different sectors.
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Another inherent weakness in the Ministry’s budget is the lack of meaningful gender coordination
activities to stamp its authority as the lead agency in gender mainstreaming. There is an absence of
targets, let alone gender responsive targets, for the few coordination activities that are included in the
Ministry’s budgets. Therefore, there is need for the Ministry to seriously review its subsequent work-
plans and budgets in order to address these shortfalls.
The failure by Treasury to disburse all the funding to the Ministry and its establishment as per the
approved budget is also an issue of serious concern since it negatively impacts on the achievement of
planned targets. There have at times been over 30 percent underfunding cuts, which are worrying;
particularly for a department such as disability that has very limited alternative financing.
The timeliness of funding further affects implementation of planned activities. The disbursements of
funds varied considerably across quarters, with some quarters being overfunded as compared to others.
Such situations need to be avoided since unplanned for resources may be used inefficiently, leading to
poor implementation of subsequent underfunded activities.
Recommendations:
The recommendations for this study aim at addressing issues at two levels, namely: the broader level and
the specific/individual level.
A. Recommendation on Broad Key Issues:
On a broader level, this report seeks to recommend that:
a. Firstly, on aggregate, Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development should provide adequate financial resources to MoGCDSW in line with the minimum requirements as prescribed in the MGDS II.
b. Secondly, the MoGCDSW should efficiently allocate resources to key investment areas as opposed to over providing the consumption oriented areas.
c. Lastly, MoGCDSW should ensure that her budget is gender responsive for a meaningful improvement in the status of critical gender groups like women, children and people with disabilities.
B. Recommendations on Specific/Individual Level: Besides the broader level, this report also seeks to recommend the following on an individual level: Recommendations related to Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning & Development/Treasury and National Assembly:
1. There is need to lobby Treasury to guarantee minimum levels of resource provision for adequate
programming and implementation of gender issues and that whenever the national budget is
increasing; the nominal provision to the Ministry ought to increase as well.
2. There is need for Treasury to significantly reciprocate to the donor efforts by meaningfully
increasing counterpart funding (Part II) allocations. This will ensure sustainability of investment
efforts in gender sector, especially in the years when donor contributions are at their lowest.
3. Treasury needs to seriously review the ORT ceilings to ensure that more funds for operations are available so that value for money is realized.
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4. Treasury should strictly observe disbursements plans from the Ministry and disburse funds in appropriate amounts at the right times in order to maximize the efficient use of scarce resources.
5. Ministry of Finance should go beyond providing gender budget guidelines, and take the lead in making GRB a legal obligation in order to strengthen compliance e.g. under the Public Finance
Management Act (2003).
6. Parliament, MoGCDSW, and Ministry of Finance should support efforts to increase district council allocations towards gender programming in order to enable the sector at this level to coordinate and sphere-head the implementation of gender related interventions on the ground. This could be done by either devolving some funds from the head office to the council level or transferring idle resources from other sectors, but also urgently filling gender positions at district levels. .
7. Parliament and Ministry of Finance should build their own capacity in GRB in order to ensure that sectors are properly held accountable for implementing gender budget guidelines.
Recommendations related to MoGCDSW, UN Women and Stakeholders:
8. MoGCDSW needs to seriously review the recurrent budget and meaningfully provide for the
underprovided programmes that have notable impact on women and girls such as youth
development and economic empowerment, among others.
9. MoGCDSW should earnestly lead the efforts in coming up with innovative and strategic actions
to support the consistent implementation of gender related laws once they are passed. This
should be accompanied with systematic efforts in building capacities of implementing partners
for meaningful multi-stakeholder participation.
10. MoGCDSW should expedite the consolidation of the two strategic plans for the then Ministry of
Gender, Children and Social Welfare and the then Ministry of Disability and Elderly Affairs to
have one common vision, mission, and mandate in order to address implementation challenges
that the Disability Act is experiencing.
11. MoGCDSW should change its own budgeting processes in order to generate gender responsive
budgets and lead by example. In addition, capacity building in GRB for partner institutions and
government departments in general should be pursued since the problem (of non gender
responsive budgets) appears endemic.
12. In view of the dwindling government resources towards the implementation of gender, child and
disability programmes, MoGCDSW, UN Women and stakeholders should develop a
comprehensive resource mobilization strategy with the aim of increasing a resource base for the
sector. The strategy would harmonize the fragmented pieces of resource mobilization efforts by
various institutions in the sector.
13. MoGCDSW, UN Women and other stakeholders in the sector should revive and strengthen
various Technical Working Groups and other development community structures at all levels so
that they can be used by the masses as advocacy vehicles in the budgeting processes.
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
This report presents a budget analysis of the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social
Welfare (MoGCDSW). The assignment was commissioned by UN Women Malawi, which is the
United Nations entity for gender equality and women empowerment. The assignment is part of a
three year gender based governance project being implemented by UN Women. The project is aimed
at facilitating institutionalization of Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in current national
frameworks by working with government and civil society partners. This is with the ultimate aim of
enhancing women voice and participation in socio-economic activities in the country.
Most importantly, the assignment constitutes one of the key support roles that UN Women is giving to the MoGCDSW, whose mandate includes ensuring that gender is mainstreamed in all government programmes. MoGCDSW is mandated to promote gender equality and protect the welfare of Malawian women, men, girls and boys to become self-reliant and active participants and beneficiaries of the national development agenda. The assignment among others will analyze the Ministry’s budget to ascertain the extent to which gender mainstreaming and women’s and girls’ social and economic empowerment has been promoted.
There have been concerns that the MoGCDSW is underfunded and that this constrains the effectiveness in the full performance of its functions. However, so far there is no documented evidence that has traced the trends of the exact state of the Ministry’s funding and how the resources allocated to the Ministry are adequate for coordinating and support towards the implementation of gender related laws, policies and programmes.
It is therefore expected that the findings of the study will support the Ministry in lobbying for adequate resources to its activities in the 2015/16 budget and subsequent budgets, as well as improve on its own planning and budgeting.
1.2 Objectives of the Study
The overall objective of the assignment was to carry out a budget analysis of the MoGCDSW from 2010
to 2014 with the aim of using the findings to justify lobbying for increased resources to the Ministry’s in
the 2015/16 financial year; and/or for future budgeting processes.
Specific objectives:
1) To establish yearly trends of the share/proportion of the Ministry’s budget to the national budget and departmental allocations to the Ministry’s budget (2010 to 2014/2015).
2) To analyze the women, child, disability centered areas that have been prioritized and allocated national resources over the targeted period, and describe the extent of allocation of resources.
3) To analyze how various infrastructure or services that have been demanded by gender related laws have been responded to through the budget since 2010.
4) To examine trends regarding budget allocations towards the Ministry’s responsibilities in fulfilling its gender coordination mandate.
5) To analyze implications of the budget trends in relation to the Ministry’s ability to discharge its mandate.
6) To provide clear entry points for effective lobbying for increased resources within the budgeting process.
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1.3 Structure of the Report
The report is organized in five main Chapters. Chapter 1 gives the general introduction. It outlines
the background information, the objectives and the deliverables of the assignment. The assignment
methodology is provided in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 provides literature review focusing on the current
key milestones and challenges within the gender sector. Chapter 4 provides the budget analysis of the
sector. Chapter 5 presents the summary, conclusions and recommendations emanating from the
analysis.
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CHAPTER II: STUDY METHODOLOGY
2.1 Study Design and Scope
The study analyzed trends from 2009/2010 to 2014/15 in respect of budget allocations for the
Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare. The analysis was done at national
and Local Council levels. At national level the study focused on the allocations that have been
made for various priorities of the sector in line with MGDS II. In addition, the analysis focused
on analyzing budgetary allocations towards various departments in the sector; namely gender,
children and disability. A trend analysis approach has been used to understand how resources
have been prioritized since 2010 within the sector. At Council level, focus was on the budgets
and work plans of selected Centres that are implementing interventions relating the gender
related laws that are of interest to the study. The analysis has been designed hugely as a desk
review of key budget information contained in the official Government of Malawi budget
documents.
2.2 Document Review, Data Collection and Sources
The study reviewed a number of documents including: Universal Declarations on Human Rights,
Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS)
II, Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development,
Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in
Africa, all relevant gender legislations, National Gender Policy and Strategy and general literature
on gender responsive budgeting. Budget data was sourced from National Budget Documents
including: Budget Statements, Annual Economic Reports, Financial Statements, Detailed Budget
Estimates and Output Based Budget (OBB) Estimates. These documents contain official
information on public resources allocation and expenditures for all government ministries,
departments and local councils in Malawi.
In addition, to supplement the desk review, the consulting team from 17th May to 24th May, 2015 embarked on a data collection exercise from the field. This was aimed at soliciting data to address gaps from the desk review. Key institutions/organizations that have a direct bearing over the implementation of Gender, Children and Disability programmes were purposively sampled from 8 districts, distributed across the regions of the nation (see appendix 6 for details of institutions consulted). The field data collection largely took a form of key informant interviews and were carried at all levels, national (ministry head quarters of key institutions) and council level. Institutions included Social Welfare, Police, Magistrates and reformatory centres, vocational schools and training institutions for people with disabilities.
The analysis was also informed by inputs from Members of Parliament during violence against
women and children dialogue that was organized by UN Women and partners on 13th May 2015.
2.3 Data Analysis
The data for the study was collected from various budget documents, and has been largely
processed through Microsoft Excel and the results have been presented using tables, pie charts
and graphs. The output based budget analysis utilized the Gender Responsive Budgeting
perspective.
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CHAPTER III: LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Gender Policy Instruments
Governments, especially Member States of the United Nations such as Malawi, have officially expressed
commitment to gender equality goals. This is in recognition of the fact that increased gender equality is
important to the achievement of the goals of democracy like social justice, poverty reduction and
sustainable development. It also brings with it economic efficiency and justice whilst fulfilling national
commitments to international conventions on human rights. There is mounting evidence that gender
inequality leads to major losses in economic efficiency and human development, including low
productivity rates and the diminished capacity for people to achieve well-being. Therefore increasing
access to resources and opportunities for groups that experience inequalities can help Malawi to fulfill its
legal commitments related to equality, accelerate the achievement of the MDGs and the MGDS II, and
promote higher levels of economic development.
3.1.1 Instruments at Global Level
There are a number of international human rights instruments dealing with gender equality that Malawi
is a party to. These instruments include:
a) Universal Declaration on Human Rights which advocates for equal rights of men and women
(Article 2), right to equal pay for equal work (Article 23 (2)), and special protection to motherhood
and childhood status (Article 25(2).
b) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) which promotes respect and ensure to all
the enjoyment of their rights irrespective of their sex etc (Article 2), equal rights of men and women
on the enjoyment of civil and political rights (Article 3), measures during emergency situations not to
involve discrimination on the basis of sex among others (Article 4), right to freedom of movement
and choice of residence (Article 12(1)), freedom from torture (Article 8), right to liberty and security
of persons (Article 9) among others.
c) Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW 1979)
including the Convention on the Rights of the Child. CEDAW has 30 articles and it is a passport to
equality. It establishes the universality of the principle of equality of rights between men and women
and makes provision for measures to ensure equality of rights of women throughout the world. It
provides for equality of rights of women in all fields (political, economic, social, cultural and civil).
d) World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna 1993), the fourth world Conference on Women held
in Beijing (1995) and the subsequent review Conferences Beijing +5, +10, +15 and +20. These
Conferences reiterate and reinforce key agreements outlined in CEDAW and provide for specific
issues on inequalities that women continue to experience.
5
3.1.2 Instruments at Continental Level
At continental level, Malawi is a party to the following instruments: a) African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights (1981) which prohibits discrimination of people on the basis of sex, provides for right to
education, and promotes equal pay for equal work and elimination of discrimination against women; and b)
Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (2003)
which provides for diverse rights of women. All its articles deal with equality of rights of women in different
aspects of life. It deals with the elimination of discrimination, affirmative action to increase the equality of
women, elimination of harmful practices, protection of women in armed conflicts, right to positive cultural
context, rights of widows, right to family planning, reproductive rights, inheritance rights of women and
special protection to elderly women and those in distress among others.
3.1.3 Instruments at Regional Level
At the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) level, Malawi is a party to the following gender
instruments: SADC Declaration on Gender and Development (1997) and its Addendum on the Prevention
and Eradication of Violence against women and Children (1998) as well as the 2008 SADC Protocol on
Gender and Development. These instruments promote eradication of violence against women to ensure
elimination of all gender inequalities and promote the full and equal enjoyment of rights. These instruments
have also dealt with equality on different areas like constitutional and legal rights, accessing justice, marriage
and family rights, widow and widowers’ rights, elderly women and men rights, the girl child, persons with
disabilities, governance rights (representation and participation), education and training, productive resources
and employment, gender based violence, health, HIV & AIDS, peace building and conflict resolution, media
information and communication.
3.1.4 National Gender Policy Framework
The Malawi Constitution provides the basis for formulating gender aware policies in the country. Section 20
provides for gender equality and Section. 24 provides for special rights of women. Furthermore, following
the Beijing Conference in 1995, countries were encouraged to formulate their own Platforms for Action
based on issues that were critical in their countries. Malawi formulated its own National Platform in 1997
which had 4 themes namely: poverty alleviation and empowerment; the girl child; violence against women;
and peace.
Malawi also formulated its first National Gender Policy in 2000, which covered the period 2000-2005. The
policy had the following thematic priority areas: education and training, reproductive health, food and
nutrition security, natural resources and environmental management, governance and human rights, poverty
eradication and economic empowerment. The National Gender Programme (2004-2009) was designed to
operationalize the National Gender Policy and had 8 priority areas: institutional strengthening; education;
health; HIV and AIDS; agriculture, food and nutrition security, natural resources and environment; poverty
and economic empowerment; governance and human rights. The Draft National Gender Policy (2012) was
formulated to address the weakness of 2000 National Gender Policy and awaits adoption by Cabinet.
6
Malawi developed the National Strategy on Combating Gender Based Violence (2002– 2006) and was
implemented by different stakeholders. The strategy was reviewed and led to the implementation of National
Response to Combating Gender Based Violence Strategy (2008 -2011). Currently, Malawi has a revised GBV
strategy that was adopted in 2014.
Further, the Government of Malawi is implementing the Joint Sector Strategic Plan (JSSP, 2013-2017) of the
gender, children, youth, and sports sector working group. The JSSP outlines how gender, children, youth, and
sports sectors will work together to “protect children and empower youth and women economically, socially
and politically while striving to achieve gender equality” (p.7). Outcome 4 of the JSSP is to reduce violence
against children, youth, and women. It also contains several planned strategies and activities which include
among others lobbying for the modification of harmful cultural practices that perpetuate GBV, and
strengthening GBV service delivery systems.
3.2 Legislation Enhancing Gender Equality, Children And Persons With Disability’s Welfare
As recently as 2013, government has enacted the Gender Equality Act. The Act aims at ‘promoting gender
equality, equal integration, influence, empowerment, dignity and opportunities for men and women in all
functions of society; prohibiting and providing redress for sex discrimination, harmful practices and sexual
harassment; providing for the public awareness on promotion of gender equality; and providing for
connected matters, At best, the law provides a great opportunity for ensuring that key social service sectoral
interventions equally benefit men, women, boys and girls; and that women and girls in particular, are not
disadvantaged. While this remains a great milestone in the fight for gender equality, the challenge remains
ensuring that the law is widely disseminated and implemented.
In addition, the government of Malawi has made strides in creating a conducive legal environment for the
implementation of interventions that relate to women, men, boys, girls and persons with disability. Other
laws that have been enacted to respond to the concerns of women, men, boys, girls and persons with
disability are presented in Table 1.
TABLE 1: Acts Anchoring Gender, Children and Disability Welfare
Act Year Purpose
Prevention of Domestic
Violence Act
2006 To ensure the commitment of the State to eliminate gender based violence
occurring within a domestic relationship, and to provide for effective legal
remedies and other social services to persons affected by domestic
violence.
Child Care, Justice and
Protection Act
2010 To consolidate the law relating to children by making provision for child
care and protection and for child justice; and for matters of social
development of the child and for connected matters.
Deceased Estates (Wills
and Inheritance) Act
2011 To provide for the making of wills and the devolution of property
under a will; the inheritance to the estates of persons dying without
valid wills; the protection of deceased estates; the administration of
7
deceased estates; the prosecution of offences relating to deceased
estates; the civic education of the public; the functions of courts in
relation to deceased estates and for other connected matters (the Act
in question).
Gender Equality Act 2013 To promote gender equality and equal integration of men and
women in all functions of society, prohibit and provide redress for
sex discrimination, harmful practices, and sexual harassment and
provide for public awareness and promotion of gender equality.
Disability Act 2012 To make provision for the equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities through the promotion and protection of their rights; to provide for the establishment of a Disability Trust Fund; and to provide for matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing (the Act in question).
The Marriage, Divorce
and Family Relations Act
2015 To provide for marriage, divorce and family relations between
spouses and between unmarried persons, their welfare and
maintenance and that of their children; and for connected matters
(the Act in question).
The Trafficking in
Persons Act
2015 To prevent and prosecute individuals involved in all forms of
trafficking in persons for any other reasons; and for other connected
matters (the Act in question).
8
CHAPTER IV: MOGCDSW BUDGET ANALYSIS
4.1 Trends in MoGCDSW budget allocations
This section will mainly focus on the following areas: (a) establishing yearly trends of the share/proportion
of the Ministry’s budget to the national budget (2010 to 2015); (b) establishing yearly trends of the
share/proportion of the Department of Gender Affairs, Department of Children Affairs, and Department
of Disability budgets to the overall Ministry’s budget. (2010 to 2015); as well as (c) determining the share
of foreign/donor funds to women, children and disability programmes in the Ministry over the targeted
period (2010 to 2015).
4.1.1 Proportion of MoGCDSW’s budget to the national budget, 2009-2014
A comparison between the ministry’s and the national budget during the fiscal years under review shows
that the ministry has mostly been receiving less than 1% of the total share. For instance, in 2009/10
financial year, the ministry was allocated MK681 million, representing a paltry 0.3% of the total national
budget. Similarly, in 2010/11 the ministry was allocated about 0.2% of the total national budget. Worth
pointing out is the increase in allocation towards the ministry between the 2011/12 and 2012/13 financial
years during which the ministry’s budget skyrocketed by as much as 500% (table 2).
Table 2: Trends in the MoGCDSW vs. national budget, 2009-2014 COMPONENT 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
MK'000,000
National Budget 256,769.0 294,784.0 303,724.0 408,391.0 638,151.0 742,753.0
Ministry Of Gender 681.68 617.62 1,675.87 10,033.33 4,756.07 5,381.04
Ministry Budget share as % of National budget 0.3 0.2 0.6 2.5 0.7 0.7
Recommended Budgetary share for child, youth development and empowerment as % of National budget according to MGDSII
- 0.8 1.2 1.1 1.1 1.4
Source: Computed from government budget documents 2009-2014
This massive jump in the resource provision was due to the nearly ten times increase in the number of
Social Cash Transfer Programme beneficiaries from the 27,975 that benefited in 2011/12 to an estimated
254,000 that were targeted for the 2012/13 financial year. Not surprisingly, the allocation dropped
substantially in the subsequent two financial years following 2012/13 in which the ministry was allocated
about 0.7% of the total national budget during which the estimated number of Social Cash Transfer
beneficiaries was reduced to 104,732 and 119,438 in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 respectively. It is worth
noting however, that the targeted numbers of social cash transfer beneficiaries kept being projected higher
and higher with each successive budget despite the reality that achievement levels were mostly less than
20%.
Further critical examination of the allocations shows that there is clear evidence that the Ministry has been
largely underfunded over the years. For instance, according to the MGDS II costing framework, the key
areas of child and youth development and empowerment which are largely handled by the Ministry were
supposed to be allocated not less than one percent of the national budget annually (table 2 above). It
should further be pointed out that the minimum one percent excludes other important functions of the
9
Ministry such as general policy coordination, social welfare services and the added responsibility of
managing disability affairs among others. This possibly suggests that a reasonable allocation could be a
proportion much higher than one percent, quite contrary to the aggregate provision of less than 1 percent
that the Ministry has mostly been getting.
Key issues: The Ministry’s budget trend has been inconsistent in terms of its share of national budget, with the provision falling below 1
percent for most of the period understudy. There is need to lobby Treasury to guarantee minimum levels of resource provision
for adequate programming and implementation of gender issues in line with the MGDS II recommendations. Furthermore, it
would make sense that whenever the national budget is increasing; the nominal provision to the Ministry should increase as
well.
4.1.2 Proportions of the ministry’s PE, ORT & Development budgets, 2009-2014
The review also examined the ministry’s budget proportions between the three main components of
Personal Emoluments (PE); Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) and the Development budgets.
According to the government budgeting categorization PE and ORT constitute what is called the
Recurrent Budget (RB) and is meant to support staff salaries and daily running costs, respectively. On the
other hand, the development budget is used for financing capital related projects such as infrastructure
improvements and capacity development (acquisition of expert services and support to training
institutions among others).
Over the five years reviewed, it is observed that resource distribution between the said components has
mostly been skewed towards PE and the development budget. For instance in 2009/10 and 2010/11
financial years, PE constituted about 40% and 45% (respectively) of the total ministry’s budgets. On the
other hand, during the same years the development budget was around 35% and 28% (respectively) of the
total ministry’s budget. Notably, from 2011 up to 2014, the ministry’s budget was dominated by the
development budget. For instance, in the 2012/13 financial year the development budget constituted
about 94% of the total ministry’s budget (figure 1).
However, the allocation towards ORT is a major concern; the ORT budget was only 2% of the total
ministry’s budget in the same year (2012/13). Likewise in the other years, especially from 2011 to 2014,
ORT constituted significantly lower proportions of the total ministry’s budget.
The picture drawn from this scenario is that on a positive note, the increase in resources for the
development budget means that the investment resource package for the Ministry is growing and facilities
created from such investment would enable improvements in service delivery (e.g. improved training
facilities, increased number of trained personnel and improved livelihoods at household level which will
enable households to work better and for children to be able to attend schools). However, the decline in
ORT budget reduces the availability of operational resources for the Ministry and this may paralyse some
important services like policy coordination and direction, supervision, monitoring of programmes
implementation and technical backstopping services among others.
10
FIGURE 1: Ministry's budget type analysis, 2009-2014
Source: Computed from government budget documents 2009-2014
There is need therefore for a balanced budget for the Ministry by among other things increasing the ORT
provision so that the Ministry ably supports and complement donor efforts being scaled up through the
increased development budget.
Key issues:
The Ministry’s budget is largely financed by donors, which a concern taking into account the unpredictability of
donor is financing. There is need for Treasury to meaningfully reciprocate to the donor efforts by increasing
counterpart funding (Part II) allocations. Such efforts will also ensure guaranteed minimum allocations to the
Ministry, especially in years when donor contributions are at their lowest so that investments in gender equality are
not unnecessarily derailed.
The great imbalance between the ORT budget and Personal Emoluments in favour of the later means that Ministry
is spending more on remunerating staff than on delivery of services (staff are paid for doing very little work). In
addition, the very little ORT means that the Ministry is not able to effectively coordinate and complement donor
efforts that have substantially been scaled up following the massive increase in the development budget. Since donor
funds cannot be used for Ministry’s operations due to conditionalities attached to those funds, the only available
option is for the Treasury to seriously review the ORT ceilings to ensure that more funds for operations are available.
4.1.3 Departmental allocations for gender, children and disability affairs, 2009-2014
The review also sought to analyze yearly trends in allocation towards the department of gender affairs in
comparison with the ministry’s overall total budget. It has to be noted that resource categorization in the
government budget documents reviewed was not according to departments within the ministry. As is the
11
case with most ministries, categorization of resources in the government budget documents is rather done
by way of listing budget type allocations, functional allocations, program allocations, project allocations,
item allocations as well as allocations by key priority outputs and outcomes. In this respect, an attempt was
made to try to align the various gender related laws against programs whose activities could best facilitate
the implementation of those laws while bearing in mind that in some cases, actions of programs could
overlap across several laws (table 3).
Table 3: Examples of Programmes under which the legislations could potentially be implemented
Legislation Programme/s Rationale
Prevention of
Domestic
Violence Act,
2006
Complementary
basic education,
economic
empowerment
Illiterate people are unlikely to be knowledgeable about their social
obligations particularly towards their families and dependents, their own
rights and rights of others. Again, people that are not empowered,
especially girls and women are over-dependent on their male
counterparts hence vulnerable to more abuses. Some education coupled
with skills and access to entrepreneurship would go a long way towards
emancipating women and girls from the yoke of dependence. Being
aware of how to deal with various facets of domestic violence, including
economic and financial abuse, can particularly strengthen the
empowerment of beneficiaries of economic empowerment interventions.
Child Care,
Justice and
Protection Act,
2010
Pre-primary and
Primary education,
Social protection
Children especially from poorer and vulnerable households are prone to
abuse as they lack basic provisions of life. Pre-primary education offers
them the much needed day care and early cognitive development
opportunities whereas social protection benefits avails them with some
minimum basic daily nutritional requirements. Applying the Act to
reinforce the obligations of guardian and parents, to instill specific
responsibilities in children, and to particularly protect girls from harmful
practices can especially strengthen the programme.
Gender Equality
Act, 2013
Economic
empowerment,
vocational
training, social
protection, youth
development,
child protection,
Pre-primary and
Primary education
Gender inequalities in all sphere of life are a drawback to development
efforts. MoGCDSW has the task of improving the relevance of all its
programmes by ensuring that they are solidly promoting gender equality
by reflecting the obligations of the Ministry under the Act to:
a) Develop programmes aimed at promoting gender equality in all spheres of life;
b) Develop programmes that create awareness of fundamental human rights, equality and mutual understanding and respect;
c) Develop programmes that create awareness of sexual harassment and providing assistance and social support for victims of sexual harassment;
d) Enlist the services of traditional leadership and Non- Governmental Organizations in disseminating information and in the conduct of any other activities connected with such programmes; and
e) Recruit public officers that are required to carry out activities for the implementation of the respective programmes.
12
Disability Act,
2012
Social protection,
economic
empowerment and
vocational
training.
People with disabilities are among the most vulnerable to social and
economic abuse due to inadequate skills, development opportunities and
their physical or mental challenges. All these shortfalls prevent them
from being self-reliant through earning decent incomes and to protect
themselves from harm. Activities that are implemented through
programmes like social protection, economic empowerment and
vocational training are instrumental in fulfilling the provisions of the
disability act which among other things call upon the strengthening of
capabilities of people with disabilities to gain a living through work that
is freely chosen or accepted in labour market, and; ensure access to social
support programs.
Deceased
Estates (Wills
and Inheritance)
Act, 2011
Social welfare,
child protection,
economic
empowerment
Girls and women are the most affected by the widespread phenomenon
of property grabbing/dispossession. The law, among other things,
provides for civic education and awareness on management of deceased
property, who is entitled and not, and the handling of inheritance
disputes. Social welfare, child protection and economic empowerment
create a good platform of ensuring that property dispossession is
prevented, but also that where applicable, a culture of Will writing is
developed.
Marriage,
Divorce, Family
Relations Act,
2015
Social welfare,
social protection,
youth
development,
child protection,
economic
empowerment
The law is reinforcing obligations of both parents towards their children,
preventing child marriage, reaffirming equal rights of spouses within a
marriage, and providing a uniform system for dealing with separation or
divorce, including custody of children and distribution of property.
These respective elements can be used to make the law practical relevant
to women and girls on the ground in activities related to social welfare,
youth development, child protection and women’s economic
empowerment.
The Trafficking
In Persons Act,
2015
Youth
development,
child protection,
economic
empowerment
vocational training
Children, young people and women are most vulnerable to trafficking
since they are lured into job opportunities. Equipping them with skills on
how not to fall into the trap of traffickers, promoting their education,
vocational training and general economic empowerment, where
applicable, can directly contribute to combating trafficking. In addition,
implementing protection measures that the Ministry is expected to lead
under the law, such as shelters, should routinely be part of child/victim
protection measures.
As such, the review has attempted to look at how ORT resources were distributed in the ministry across
functions, with particular reference towards functions that are mostly carried out by the departments of
gender, children, disability and social welfare. Allocation for ORT was particularly isolated as it is vital in
implementing day to day activities of the ministry.
In that regard, it was generally noted that the social welfare services function dominated resource
allocation to the ministry for the years under review. Over fifty percent of the ORT resources towards the
ministry in each of the years reviewed (i.e. 70.5% in 2009/10; 54.9% in 2010/11; 57.3% in 2011/12;
59.6% in 2012/13; 53.1% in 2013/14; and 55.8% in 2014/15) was allocated towards implementing
activities under the social welfare services function. The review also notes that administrative expenses
received the second highest allocation in terms of ORT resources. Resources towards administration
accounted for around 25% of the total ORT budget in most of the years under review. On the other hand,
13
economic empowerment and youth development services components received significantly lower
allocations (Refer to table below 4).
Interestingly, the budget documents reviewed showed that from 2009 to 2012 functions such as social
protection services, Complimentary Basic Education (CBE) as well as vocational training were not
allocated ORT resources (with the exception of the 2014/15 for social welfare services and vocational
training; and 2013/14 and 2014/15 for CBE). There is a danger that continued allocation of insufficient
resources to CBE and social protection would affect the implementation of activities relating to mainly the
Prevention of Domestic Violence, Disability and Gender Equality Acts. In addition to the reasoning in
Table 3, in the first place, failure to implement CBE programmes would perpetuate ignorance among the
illiterate masses on their social responsibilities like fending for their families and ensuring social order and
harmony for sustainable socio-economic development within their communities. The social breakdown
would mostly affect women and the girl child as their needs would not be met by the irresponsible men.
Secondly, the inability to adequately provide for social protection services like cash transfers would
aggravate the situation of the most vulnerable among which are the disabled and the elderly who because
of high poverty levels in communities, lack proper care even from close relatives. Yet again, insufficient
funding to vocational training will perpetuate poverty and dependence especially among the disabled and
the resource poor girls and boys, since they will be denied an opportunity to learn skills that would enable
them decent means to some livelihood, hence subjecting them to various forms of abuse in their quest to
make ends meet.
Table 4 ORT functional allocations, 2009-2014
ORT by the Ministry's functions 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
MK'000,000
Pre-Primary and Primary Education 0.0 1.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 80.5
Youth Development Services 41.6 34.7 32.5 33.7 43.3 41.6
Economic Empowerment 10.0 20.3 49.2 48.8 38.9 42.2
Social Welfare Services 480.3 244.0 319.4 349.0 525.8 832.1
Administration Expenses 145.3 132.1 156.1 153.8 248.2 338.3
Social Protection Services 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 80.5
Complementary Basic Education 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 134.0 48.0
Vocational Training 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 29.0
Other 4.5 12.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Total 681.7 444.6 557.2 585.2 990.1 1492.2
Source: Computed from government budget documents 2009-2014
It should be further noted that while resources for the social protection were pooled through donor
financing mechanisms and thus placed under the development budget, the worrying factor is
inconsistencies in resource provision from one year to the next particularly for the largest activity of cash
transfers over the years reviewed. For instance, in the 2012/13 financial year alone, social protection
services were allocated MK9 billion, rising from MK662 million in 2011/12 and MK50 million in
2010/11, only to drop to less than MK 4 billion in both 2013/14 and 2014/15 financial years (table 5).
As mentioned earlier, resources under the social protection services were mostly utilized for the social
cash transfer program, mainly targeting the poor and vulnerable households. These resources could be
14
viewed as having been strategically utilized in addressing gender needs since social cash transfer programs
mainly target men, women, boys and girls who do not have adequate resources and means to support
themselves. However, such emphasis in providing needs for the most vulnerable groups was at the
expense of some equally important functions handled under the Department of Children Affairs like pre-
primary education (specifically for early childhood development support). The program was allocated
about MK24 million in 2010/11; MK150 million in 2011/12 about MK80 million in 2012/13, all of which
represent less than one percent of the Ministry’s budget. The allocation further dropped again the
following year to about MK30 million and then rose again to MK80 million in 2014/15 budget.
Table 5: Ministry's development budget allocations, 2009-2014
Development Allocation by Functions 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
MK' 000,000
Pre-Primary and Primary Education (CBCC and ECDs)
- 23.0 150.0 80.0 30.0 -
Youth Development Services - -
Economic Empowerment (women and youth) 81.6 - - - 50.0 -
Social Welfare Services (juvenile programs) - - - - 100.0 266.6
Administration Expenses - - - - - -
Social Protection Services (Cash transfers) - 50.0 662.0 9,253.1 3,406.0 3,645.1
Complementary Basic Education (Adult literacy)
128.0 189.7
Vocational Training (Magomero, MACOHA) 30.0 100.0 117.0 80.0 - 50.0
Other -
Total 239.6 173.0 1,118.7 9,413.1 3,586.0 3,961.6
Source: Computed from government budget documents 2009-2014
In addition, there is a disturbing oscillation in allocations between the development and ORT budget
components for pre-primary education services within the ministry’s vote whereby pre-primary education
resources have mostly been under the development budget component, and in very low amounts (Refer to
table 4 above). Among other challenges, failure to make notable improvements in resources provision for
pre-primary education will greatly affect the implementation of Child Care, Justice and Protection Act
whereby parental/guardian care is to be promoted, and adequate protection for vulnerable children is to
be safeguarded.
4.1.4 Share of foreign/donor funds to women, children and disability programmes, 2010 to 2015
Another key component of the analysis was to look at the share of the donor pooled funding to women,
children and disability functions. Analysis on the same has been done at two levels. Firstly, the review has
looked at the proportion of donor funding to the overall ministry’s budget as well as the overall ministry’s
recurrent budget. On the same, the review has noted that donor funds have accounted for over fifty
percent of the total ministry’s budget during the years reviewed. For instance in 2011/12, 2012/13,
2013/14 and 2014/15, the share of donor funds to the total ministry’s budget was 53%, 91%, 63% and
68%, respectively. In 2009/10 the proportion was around 11% whilst in 2010/11 there was no indication
of donor sourced finances under Development Part 1 of the ministry’s budget (table 6).
15
Table 6: Proportion of donor funding in the Ministry's budget
Components 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
Total Ministry budget 681.68 617.61 1675.86 10033.33 4756.08 5381.03
Allocation under Dev I 77.2 0.0 881.7 9,153.08 2,995.95 3,645.08
% of total Ministry's 11.3 0.0 52.6 91.2 63.0 67.7
Source: Computed from government budget documents 2009-2014
From the foregoing, the review notes that the ministry has been heavily reliant on donor funding for most
of the years, which is a concern considering that continued over reliance on external funding means that
the ministry is unable to implement its activities in times when donor funding is not timely available. This
calls for government to ensure that the ministry is adequately financed using locally sourced funding.
Key issues:
The Ministry’s operational budget (ORT) though small relative to the other budget components (development and
PE), continues to be heavily skewed towards reproductive activities (social welfare and administration) rather than
investment oriented ones like empowerment and youth development. Ironically, the empowerment and youth
development activities have been noted to include more activities targeting women and girls. This is a concern since
without youth development and economic empowerment, then, gender inequalities will continue to worsen.
The absence of provisions to pre-primary and primary education under the operational budget (ORT) poses a serious
challenge to early childhood development particularly for children from poorer and vulnerable households. The
situation if not checked will lead to poor man-power development for the future of the country. The Ministry needs to
seriously review the recurrent budget and meaningfully provide for the underprovided programmes.
Development partners’ continued domination of the Ministry budget (in terms of percentage contribution) is an issue
of serious concern mainly because donor funded activities usually responds to donor interests and is implemented in
selected areas (not the whole country). There is a risk that the Ministry’s priorities may not be fully addressed and
most areas of the country may be starved of strategic gender services.
Although development partners continue to provide more resources than government in the Ministry’s budget, the
major concern is that most of the resources are not strategically provided to areas that could scale up women’s and
girls’ empowerment through the implementation of gender related Acts.
There is too much inconsistence in levels of donor financing with funding levels varying considerably from one year to
the next. If this pattern continues, it poses a serious threat to effectiveness and sustainability of investments in the
sector.
4.1.5 Proportion of Gender against Key Sectoral Provisions at District Council Level
Trends on gender allocations at the district council reveal that there is no stand alone budget item for
gender, but general allocations are made to Social Welfare Services. This could be reflective of the absence
of specific gender personnel/positions at district level. Even then, Table 7 shows that Social Welfare
16
Services have been getting low allocations as a share of the total Central Government Fiscal Transfers
(CGFT) when compared against the key sectors at the same level (table 7).
Table 7: Trends in Budgets for Key Sectors versus Gender at District Council (as %)
Sector 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
Education 30.4 39.0 38.1
Health 48.5 40.0 30.2
Agriculture 2.8 4.2 5.3
General Resource Fund 6.2 4.5 10.0
Constituency Development
Fund 7.2 5.4 6.0
Social Welfare Services 0.7 1.2 2.4
Source: Computed from government budget documents 2012-2014
In addition, over the years the share of the sector’s budget at district level has not meaningfully improved
to match the growing demands of its functions taking into account that the proportion of the poor and
vulnerable appears to be increasing over time as evidenced by the recent socio-economic trends in the
country.
It is quite clear that the poor allocation of resources for social welfare programmes at district level mirrors
the predicament of the parent ministry and if not reversed, would continue to suffocate the
implementation of programmes, projects and interventions including the various pieces of legislations that
are relevant to social welfare and child protection. This could delay efforts to address gender inequalities,
child rights violations, and other social ills that negatively impinge on the realisation of the national
development goals.
It was rather interesting that when institutions were asked on what would be a minimum requirement for
them to effectively deliver services, they unanimously proposed at least increasing the current funding
levels by not less than 100 %. This was echoed by almost all the institutions that were consulted at both
national and council level, not just MoGCDSW. This clearly shows that the problem of inadequate
budgetary provisions for gender related programmes is quite endemic and needs immediate address.
Key issue
The district council is an operational platform where all the key legislations pertaining to the ministry’s mandate are ideally
supposed to be implemented on the ground. However, such institutions are experiencing acute budgetary shortfalls, a factor
that poses a big challenge to effective planning and implementation of gender related interventions. It is imperative therefore,
that Parliament, MoGCDSW, and Ministry of Finance should support efforts to increase this allocation to enable the sector
to coordinate and sphere-head the implementation of gender related interventions at this level. This could be done by either
devolving some funds from the head office to the council level or transferring idle resources from other sectors to finance gender
activities at this level. In addition, resources have to be allocated towards implementing an approved structure for key positions
within MoGCDSW to be upgraded and/or created at the district level.
17
4.2 MoGCDSW ’s budget prioritization and allocation in respect to gender related laws,
2009-2014
The other component of the analysis was to ministry’s prioritization of funding in relation to various
women, children and disability issues as well as legal instruments the ministry is supposed to champion.
Specifically, the focus was on resource allocation and prioritization towards the implementation of the
Child Care, Justice and Protection Act (2010); the Deceased Estates (Wills and Inheritance) Act (2011);
the Gender Equality Act (2013); the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act (2006) and the Disability Act
(2012). Although recently passed, the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act (2015) and the
Trafficking In Persons Act (2015) are also discussed in order to learn lessons from the past and ensure
that the two laws are immediately implemented. In addition, the review looked at infrastructure
investments as demanded by the respective gender related laws mentioned. The findings show that more
should be done to prioritize the implementation of these laws in the Ministry’s budget (Annex table 1). It
is clear that the Prevention of domestic violence Act, Child, Justice and Protection Act and Deceased
(Wills and Inheritance) Act are pieces of legislation which most institutions are quite familiar with, with
over 70% of respondents indicating that they are implementing some actions addressing those legislations.
However, as will be seen below, the reading of most of the budgets do not usually display these actions.
4.2.1. Child Care, Justice and Protection Act (2010) Under this Act, which has been around since 2010, some notable actions have been included in the
Ministry of Gender budget for the past six years and in the Malawi Human Rights budget during the years
2009/10 and partly 2010/11. However, as observed below, the purposeful intention to implement the law
through the respective activities, mostly routine for years, is hard to discern The actions include:
recruitment and training of child protection workers and caregivers (social protection); reformation of
juveniles; provision of bursaries to needy students; development of OVC guidelines rehabilitation and
renovations of ECD centres and CBCCs; rights advocacy campaigns and support in handling related cases
(all under social welfare services); and, cash transfer to households keeping orphans and vulnerable ones.
While these actions are quite commendable, some notable inherent weaknesses are that these are usual
actions that have been there for as long as the institutions have been around and even before the various
Acts came into being. Furthermore, the targets indicated are very few, not disaggregated by gender
considerations, and inconsistent from one year to the next. Secondly, for some targets, resources to be
spent are indicated while in others there is no provision of resources. This weakness is also noted across
years for the same targets, with some actions virtually disappearing from the budget altogether without any
evidence that they were successfully concluded. Thirdly, some critical institutions such as the Judiciary and
Police have not provided for actions in their budgets that signify clear plans to support the
implementation of the law.
4.2.2. Gender Equality Act (2013) Under this Act, enacted in 2013, some activities that have featured in the Ministry’s budget and can have a
direct connection to the law relate to addressing harmful practices; promoting women’s representation in
key positions in the private and public sectors (though there is no mention of seeking to achieve the 40:60
recruitment quota in the public service); and seeking to improve the participation of women in higher
learning institutions (although limited to Magomero). Largely, it can only be deduced that some activities
by the Ministry of Gender and the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) can contribute to the
18
implementation of the Act because the scrutinized budgets reveal generic and sometimes routine activities.
For the Ministry, it has implemented activities that include: recruitment and training of Community
Development Assistants (CDAs); training and linking of women entrepreneurs to business opportunities;
development of business; rehabilitation and renovations of infrastructure in institutions for enterprise
trainings; promoting women in key positions and; breaking harmful cultural practices that affect women
and girls negatively.
However, there has been no specific budget item that demonstrates the Ministry’s intention to implement
its specific mandate under the Act.1 For the MHRC as the enforcement agency of the Act, its budgets
have largely focused conducting investigations of women and gender rights, empowering communities
with information, training of partners, CBOs and primary school head-teachers on human rights and
democracy, convening discussions on topical issues like disabilities, and production of IEC materials
among others. And as the case with MoGCDSW, there is no direct manifestation in the post 2013 budgets
of specific allocation of resources for MHRC to discharge its specific obligations under the Act.2
Therefore, as was the case with actions indicated in the Child Protection Act, most of the proposed
actions are routine, very few, not disaggregated by gender considerations and inconsistent from one year
to the next. In addition, some targets have allocated resources while others do not. This weakness is also
noted across years for the same targets, with some actions virtually disappearing from the budget
altogether without any evidence that they were successfully concluded.
4.2.3. Disability Act (2012) The study reveals that, while the other pieces of legislation are being implemented by several actors, the
Disability Act is largely being implemented by institutions which are pro-persons with disability, like
Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA) and Mulanje Vocational Training Centre for the Blind.
Most district councils do not have desk officers to take care of disability issues. This is problematic, in that
the welfare of the persons with disability is not well represented.
a) Develop programmes aimed at promoting gender equality in all spheres of life; b) Develop programmes that create awareness of fundamental human rights, equality and mutual understanding and
respect; c) Develop programmes that create awareness of sexual harassment and providing assistance and social support for
victims of sexual harassment; d) Enlist the services of traditional leadership and Non- Governmental Organizations in disseminating information and
in the conduct of any other activities connected with such programmes; and e) Recruit public officers that are required to carry out activities for the implementation of the respective programmes. a) Monitoring and evaluating the policies and practices of (a) State organs, State agencies and public bodies; and (b) the
private sector, in order to promote gender equality and make any necessary recommendations; b) Carrying out investigations and conducting searches in relation to any gender issues either on its own volition or upon
receiving a complaint; c) Considering, deliberating on and making recommendations to the Minister on any gender issues; d) Providing information to any party in a gender dispute on rights, remedies or obligations; e) Promoting and facilitating access to remedies for any dispute concerning gender issues; f) Promoting the ratification by Malawi of any international gender instruments; and g) Collaborating with the Minister in establishing mechanisms aimed at progressively realizing gender equality; h) Developing working relationships with international partners, civil society organizations and Non-Governmental
Organizations devoted to protecting and promoting gender issues; and i) Doing or performing any other duties as are necessary for the implementation of this Act.
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Under this Act, some of the provisions that require tangible actions from gender perspective to be clearly included in the budget could be: strengthening capacities of men and women with disabilities since they have the right to gain a living through work that is freely chosen or acceptable in a labour market; promoting the right of men and women with disabilities to adequate access to means of living including access to adequate food, clothing and housing; ensuring access for men and women with disabilities to social support programmes; and developing guidelines that allow men and women to have equal opportunities in terms of accessing public services, infrastructure and economic opportunities. However, an analysis of the budget shows that very few some activities have been implemented since the 2012/13 budget the most notable being the training of disability desk officers and the virtually impaired students. These activities are very few to make any impact, with the latter limiting the whole perception of disability to only visual impairment.
Another inherent weakness is the lack of meaningful targets, resource provision and disaggregation of
targets by gender considerations. Failure by partner institutions like Malawi Human Rights, Judiciary and
Police to include complementary actions in their budgets is another serious challenge to the successful
implementation of the Act. The Ministry and partners need to seriously start addressing the issue in the
2015/16 national budgets considering that the actions of these institutions have direct bearing on the
implementation of the Act. The MoGCDSW is mandated with coordinating policy formulation, review
and implementing monitoring and evaluation programs; strengthening capacities, promoting disability
mainstreaming in all sectors; encouraging partnerships in programmes that address the needs and
concerns of men and women with disabilities; and ensuring that private entities offer facilities and services
which are available to the public take into account all aspects of men and women with disabilities.
Together with MHRC, the Ministry is also expected to facilitate access to justice where civil or criminal
violations have been encountered by various categories of men and women with disabilities.
4.2.4. Prevention of Domestic Violence Act (2006) Under this Act, there have been no specific proposed actions towards the implementation of the law in
the Ministry’s budget for years under analysis. An examination of budgets for other related institutions like
the Judiciary (who are supposed to have domestic violence forms etc) also points to the same anomaly.
There is need for the Ministry and all sectors that are relevant to the implementation of the Act to
urgently make their budgets responsive to addressing issues of stationery, enforcement officers, counseling
platforms, enforcement of orders, awareness and accessibility of the law to implementers/enforcers and
the public, and general service provision to domestic violence survivors. ,
4.2.5. Deceased Estates (Wills and Inheritance) Act (2011) Under this Act, there have been no any proposed actions no specific proposed actions towards the
implementation of the law in the Ministry’s budget for years under analysis.. An examination of budgets
for other related institutions like the Judiciary, Police and the Malawi Human Rights also display the same
situation. The implementation of this law through the budget demands putting in place public awareness
programmes about the law; enforcing implementation by instituting monitoring mechanisms to track
implementation through structures such as District Commissioner’s offices, Administrator General, Police
and Courts. In particular, budgets need to support the full enforcement of provisions that criminalize
property dispossession because since this provision was introduced in the law around 1998, its state of
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enforcement remains unknown and meanwhile, property dispossession still continues to affect many
women and children.
4.2.6. The Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act; The Trafficking In Persons Act (2015)
While these Acts are still new and hence probably not much can be said about them in as far as budgeting is concerned, the experience that previously passed laws have gone through suggests that their implementation cannot be taken for granted. The Ministry and partners therefore, need to urgently look into deliberate ways of kick-starting the implementation of activities relating to the Act in the national budgets, starting with itemizing specific actions that need to be fulfilled for the laws to start being implemented. Examples of such actions in respect of the marriage law are: public awareness, establishing marriage registration systems, including identifying registrar of marriages at community levels and ensuring the availability of appropriate registers/stationery, strengthening capacities of marriage registrars and courts to understand the law, and the police to understand criminal aspects of some violations of the law etc.
For the trafficking law, this requires close collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security. The MoGCDSW’s specific mandate under the Act is to recruit protection officers3 and to look into the designation of premises as shelters for the care and protection of trafficked persons; as well as to make rules and regulations for the care and protection of trafficked persons at the shelter and for the administration of any shelter.
For the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security/police, the implementation of the trafficking law
through the budget will mean strengthening already existing efforts to tackle human trafficking. It also
means putting in place budgetary measures to avoid the financial struggles that the Ministry encountered
in order to pass the law, resulting in advocacy efforts largely being funded by civil society organisations.
Currently, there are concerns that once the Act has been gazetted, the Ministry may not even have
resources to fund the dissemination and implementation of the law since the 2015/16 budget ceilings
could not accommodate it.
Overall, while government is commended for enacting the different crucial pieces of legislation under
review; implementation remains a challenge as summarized in appendix 3. This report has proposed a
number of additional actions that could be budgeted for as summarized in Annex table 2. However, the
actions are by no means exhaustive but a good starting point for the starting to implement the Acts in
earnest. In addition, the establishment of accountability structures by Parliament and other stakeholders
on how gender related laws are being implemented could help to ensure that only budgets that address
critical gender issues are passed.
Key issues
Responsible institutions, including the Ministry of Gender are yet to start serious efforts in implementing actions
aimed at addressing gender related laws that have a huge bearing on women and girls. This shows that the Acts have
so far only been passed as a routine obligation, without implementing and enforcement agencies taking much
deliberate action to ensure the availability of resources to match paper laws with actual transformation/reforms on
the ground.
3 Who will perform the following duties of ensuring that trafficked persons receive proper care, assistance and protection; and ensuring that trafficked persons are interviewed according to guidelines set in the law?
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For the actions that are being implemented, the targets are mostly too few to make impact, with little or no resource
provision, inconsistent across years. This approach has to be reversed in order to truly use gender related laws as
weapons for reversing gender inequalities in various spheres of life.
The Ministry of Gender should seriously lead the efforts in coming up with innovative and strategic actions to
support the implementation of the six Acts. This should be accompanied with systematic efforts in building capacities
of implementing and enforcement agencies.
Parliament and Ministry of Finance should put in place necessary mechanisms for scrutinizing ministerial budget
submissions to consistently ensure that all gender related laws that are passed are being allocated resources for
implementation across sectors.
Now that they are merged, the MoGCDSW should expedite the consolidation of the two strategic plans of the previously independent entities of MoGCSW and Ministry of Disability and Elderly Affairs so as to have one common vision, mission, and mandate. This will probably help to address the implementation challenges that the Disability Act is experiencing.
There is need to mainstream the implementation of the Disability Act in all the relevant sectors and not to leave the task of implementing activities of this Act to the main beneficiaries.
4.3 MoGCDSW Co-ordination Activities implemented between 2009/10 and 2014/15
The Ministry was supposed to implement a number of coordination activities as a policy holder and lead
agency in the gender sector. The study has noted that over the years under review, most of the activities
that are budgeted for have largely been of institutional benefit with minimal outreach to other partners
(table 8).
Table 8: Gender coordination activities implemented between 2009/10 and 2014/15.
COORDINATION ACTIVITIES 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
Carry out internal audits (no of audits 11 0 0 - - 1
Conduct research monitoring visits (no of visits) 4 4 4 - 1 1
Conduct research projects (no of research projects) 1 0 0 - -
-
Develop HIV and AIDS workplace policies (no of policies)
1 0 0 - - -
Budget for the Ministry formulated (No of budget documents)
1 0 0 - - -
provide ICT services (No of Computers maintained) 25 0 0 - - -
Support social services programming (no of programmes developed)
4 5 0 1 - -
Guidelines for OVC developed (no of guidelines) 0 0 1 - - -
Source: Computed from government budget documents 2009-2014
In addition, most of the activities have no targets indicated for most of the years so that performance
could be competently assessed. Where the targets have been set, they are not gender responsive. This
pattern should be of concern considering that the nation relies on the Ministry for gender mainstreaming
leadership and technical support. The absence of coordination relevant activities leaves no guarantee that
other sectors would effectively design and implement programmes addressing strategic gender needs in
the country.
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Key issues:
The Ministry’s budget lacks organized gender coordination activities to demonstrate its authority across all sectors,
hence the need to review its subsequent work-plans and budgets to address these shortfalls. To complement such
efforts gender mainstreaming budget lines should be factored into budgets of Ministries and Departments. Such
budget lines will enable respective sectors to play an active role in ensuring effective gender programming and
budgeting within their institutions, while MoGCDSW takes the overall of ensuring that respective activities are well
coordinated and linked to national gender equality frameworks.
Absence of targets, let alone gender responsive targets even for the few coordination activities included in the
MoGCDSW’s budget is a gap that needs urgent redress bearing in mind that the government is implementing
performance based budgets. The Ministry as among the lead key institutions ought to set the pace and lead by
example.
4.4 MoGCDSW’s funding disbursement trends between 2009/10 and 2014/15
The study investigated the pattern of funding to the Ministry during the study period in order to assess
whether the flow of funds was conducive enough for adequate and timely implementation of planned
activities. This is the case because planned activities are mostly time bound and interrelated such that
delays may affect levels of delivery, let alone impacting on the delivery of subsequent activities.
4.4.1 Quarterly Disbursements of Funding for MoGCDSW
The findings show that generally, the resource flow has not been even across quarters, at times with the
Ministry getting as low as 16% as opposed to the expected 25% of the required quarterly provisions (table
9).
Table 9: Funding disbursement trends for the Ministry of Gender
FY 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015
Quarter % % % %% % %
Q1 21 22 26 22 35 22
Q2 22 30 25 26 20 24
Q3 42 24 28 20 23 -
Q4 16 24 21 32 22 -
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 Source: Computed from government budget documents 2009-2014
In some cases, quarterly funding has been as high as over 40%, resulting in serious reductions in funding
levels for the next quarters. While the under provision or over-provision of quarterly funding could be
justified (that maybe the Ministry made some special requests for advance funding), the greatest risk is that
such incoherent patterns in the flow of funds could seriously affect implementation of routine activities
that are sensitive to funding shortfalls (like operating expenses for training institutions). These further
breed inefficiencies in an institution which is already under funded coupled with unbalanced budget
components, i.e. less ORT but huge allocations in development and PE budgets.
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4.4.2 Aggregate Annual Funding
In terms of aggregate annual funding levels, the trend shows that the Ministry and its establishment have
mostly received less than 100% of the approved funding levels (table 10).
Table 10: Annual Disbursements by Key Cost Centres4 (ORT)
MINISTRY/ DEPARTMENT
Financial Year
2010-11 Approved Estimates (MK)
Annual Disbursement (MK)
% received
Variance %
Women & Child Development
2009-2010 122,665,000 119,509,694 97.43 2.6
2010-2011 118,132,615 111,630,232 94.50 5.5
2011-2012 122,526,904 105,503,078 86.11 13.9
2012-2013 115,504,400 108,936,194 94.31 5.7
2013-2014 216,663,720 139,190,809 64.24 35.8
2014-2015* 311,495,797 179,688,367 57.69 42.3
Magomero Community Development College
2009-2010 17,127,000 16,496,400 96.32 3.7
2010-2011 18,000,000 15,837,500 87.99 12.0
2011-2012 24,000,000 23,406,054 97.53 2.5
2012-2013 30,900,000 28,475,874 92.15 7.8
2013-2014 29,988,640 23,161,838 77.24 22.8
2014-2015* 23,623,446 14,666,483 62.08 37.9
Mpemba Boys Home 2009-2010 14,590,000 14,230,000 97.53 2.5
2010-2011 15,050,000 13,368,000 88.82 11.2
2011-2012 9,200,000 8,933,615 97.10 2.9
2012-2013 11,200,120 10,284,391 91.82 8.2
2013-2014 10,869,784 8,309,050 76.44 23.6
2014-2015* 8,158,145 5,773,008 70.76 29.2
Chilwa Approved School 2009-2010 16,448,000 15,988,400 97.21 2.8
2010-2011 16,600,000 14,733,920 88.76 11.2
2011-2012 13,800,000 11,350,172 82.25 17.8
2012-2013 11,922,384 11,176,075 93.74 6.3
2013-2014 12,004,760 8,758,795 72.96 27.0
2014-2015* 10,004,760 6,358,785 63.56 36.4
Persons with Disability & Elderly
2013-2014 169,756,689 85,717,143 50.49 49.5
2014-2015* 140,605,875 88,430,212 62.89 37.1
Mulanje School for the Blind 2013-2014 30,074,506 21,178,283 70.42 29.6
2014-2015* 19,936,605 14,605,316 73.26 26.7
Social Cash Transfer 2014-2015 320,000,000 126,333,333 39.48 60.5
Source: Computed from government budget documents 2009-2014
While the situation may not be peculiar to the Ministry alone, in some instances the funding annual
variations for some Cost Centres are quite disturbing. For instance in 2013/14, the average funding
disbursement levels to the Ministry was only around 70%. Some Cost Centres like the Ministry
headquarters got as low as around 60%, while the Disability department was the worst affected at around
4 Cost Centre: a semi-autonomous unit with abilities to plan and execute and evaluate its budgetary allocation. * The 2014/15 figures are as of the third quarter since the financial year is not yet finished.
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50%. The picture being presented here is that for an already inadequately funded institution, the reduced
average disbursements inevitably affect the implementation levels of planned outputs.
Key issue:
Funding disbursements have varied considerably across quarters with some quarters being overfunded as compared to
others. Such situations need to be avoided since the unplanned resources could be used less efficiently, leading to poor
implementation of subsequent activities that will be subjected to underfunding.
The failure by Treasury to disburse all the funding to the Ministry and its establishment as per the approved budget
is a challenge to the goal of promoting gender equality since it has bearing on the achievement of planned targets. The
over 30% underfunding cuts are worrying, and need to be avoided due to the significance of the Ministry in driving
the nation’s gender equality agenda.
4.5 Analysis of implications of budget trends
4.5.1 Effects on the Implementation of Programmes and Pieces of Legislation
4.5.1.1 Comprehensive Knowledge on Gender, Child and Disability Related Issues
Data collected from the field through key informant interviews and observations on implementation plans
from key gender implementing ministries, departments and agencies has revealed that institutions are
stuck just at awareness. For instance, when asked if they have ever heard of Gender Responsive
Budgeting; 63% of the respondents reported knowing of the subject matter. However, the corresponding
percentage reported that they are not doing anything on the same. This was also the case when institutions
were asked if they know the pieces of legislations guiding gender, child and disability work; this registered
a 100% response. However, Part 4.2 has indicated that the implementation of most of the pieces of the
laws through the budget is problematic.
Key Issue:
Knowledge alone is not enough; institutions need to be capacitated enough with adequate financial resources and technical
assistance to move from knowledge to comprehensive implementation. This is what will bring transformation in the lives of the
marginalized women girls, boys and persons with disability.
4.5.1.2 Timeliness of Monthly Funding
Notwithstanding the fact that the ministry and its establishment have been receiving less than 100 percent
of the approved funding, the timeliness of this funding is also problematic. This has been confirmed by
the various institutions that were consulted during the field data collection, see table 11 below.
Table 11: Timeliness of Monthly Funding to Cost Centres/Institutions
Timeliness of Monthly Funding
Frequency Percentage
Timely 7
Late 37
Very Late 26
Inconsistent 30
Total 100
Source: Field Data, MoGCDSW Budget Analysis, UN Women (2015)
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It is disappointing to note that only 7% of the respondents reported that funding is timely. A whopping 93% reported that funding is not timely; of this 37% reported that funding late while 30% indicated that it is inconsistent. On inconsistency, the Ministry of Home Affairs reported that besides the overlaps in funding, they have not received funding for December to date.
This poor timing in funding is counter-productive in that it affects timely delivery of goods and services to
the needy women, children and persons with disability. Service providers will not procure necessary
supplies critical in the delivery of these goods and services. For, instance, antiretroviral drugs for post
exposure prophylaxis will not be procured in time when victims
of rape need it. In addition, Social welfare Officers or law
enforcers may not have the means to travel to attend to victims
of domestic violence. Worse still, boys and girls in reformatory
centres may not have adequate meals and necessary materials to
aid them in the reforming processes.
Furthermore, these inconsistencies in timing for funding and
the fluctuating funding levels are affecting planning. A case in
point is the 15% of respondents who indicated that they do not
have work plans. When asked about the reason, they
unanimously mentioned these inconsistencies in funding and
expressed the sentiments as presented in the box.
Key issues: Treasury should address the inconsistencies in timing for funding and the fluctuating funding levels as they are affecting planning for institutions. Timely funding and adequate disbursement of right amounts of funding is crucial in that implementation of social related services if inclusive growth and development is to be attained.
4.5.2 Justification for Mainstreaming Gender in Ministries and Departments
Insufficient gender budget allocations and poor disbursement regimes to ministries, departments and
other agencies is causing a strain on the already poorly funded MoGCDSW through calls made from
stakeholders to provide gender related expertise to their various sectors. A case in question is that when
the Ministry of Defence is going out for peace keeping missions, it relies on the experts from MoGCDSW
to accompany them to provide necessary expertise to women and children in the conflict zones. However,
these requests are usually not funded, but MoGCDSW is called upon to bear the costs for the missions.
This is challenging in that it diverts resources already planned to cover for these missions at the expense
of the other equally important coordinating interventions for the ministry.
This challenge would be sorted out if gender was well mainstreamed in the ministries, departments and
agencies. In this case, for instance, Ministry of Defence would just improve on its training package to also
equip its personnel with relevant skills to respond and provide necessary support to women and children
affected by conflicts. This approach would help ministries and departments to enjoy the benefits of
gender mainstreaming like: maximization of both financial and human resources and it would help
ministries and departments to identify ways in which core business activities can be re-organized, re-
oriented and carried out differently for the advancement of the institutions.
“…palichifukwa chanji chokhalira ndi
workplan ngati siukudziwa kuti
ndalama zibwera liti, ndiponso
zikabwera zidzakhala zochepa bwanji?
Ndiuzeni ndinu chifukwa chokhalira
ndi pulani pamenepa...”
What justification is there to have a
work plan if you don’t know when the
funds will be disbursed and how little
they will be?
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4.5.3 Effects on Programme Sustainability
In spite of the challenges experienced in accessing funding from the national budget, there are still some
district council institutions which to date solely rely on the government for funding. This is not helpful in
the current context where evidence shows that government is struggling to fund its operations. It is
however encouraging noting that there are some institutions that are proactive and they are going extra
mile to diverse their resource base.
These efforts to increase institutional resource base are commendable, and play a role to relatively sustain
some gender and disability related interventions during lean periods especially towards the last quarter of
the year, when government disburses sometimes as low as less than 10 percent of the 25 percent
disbursement benchmark.
Having said the above, the over reliance on development partners for financing of the Ministry budget (in
terms of percentage contribution) in order to coordinate the implementation of the nation’s gender
equality goals is still an issue of great concern ,mainly considering that the share is too high. This brings
out challenges of strategic orientation, ownership, accountability and sustainability of programmes. With
the creeping in of donor fatigue coupled with the impact of “cash-gate” and the general economic
challenges in the Euro-zone; any sudden pull-out of resources would inadvertently have negative effects
on the implementation of gender, children and disability interventions whose delivery systems are not yet
strong and could collapse easily in that case.
Key issues
Allocation of resources by each sector for its own gender mainstreaming interventions and for technical support to achieve this will make a difference in ensuring that there is a comprehensive national gender response to implement relevant laws and other programmes, because it is clear that all this cannot be solely achieved through the MoGDSW’s budget.
There has to be a balance between pro-activeness by sectors, including in district councils, to find extra financial resources for the implementation of gender related activities in the light of low operational costs from the government budget, and the need for government to be in charge of implementing its own gender equality vision through the allocation of adequate resources.
4.6 Budget Development Processes
4.6.1 Engagement of Stakeholders in Budget Development Processes
The hallmark of GRB is the participation of citizens, particularly women and marginalized groups, in
planning and budget formulation processes. An analysis of field data reveals that most institutions (65%)
are not engaging stakeholders and beneficiaries in the various stages of the budget development (appendix
4). There were varying reasons for not doing so, the major reasons were negligence and some (7%)
attributed this to lack of funds to conduct consultative meetings with relevant stakeholders and
beneficiaries.
The study revealed that there are some institutions that are making efforts to engage stakeholders and
beneficiaries. However, for those rare instances where consultations are made, the consultations
unfortunately are not gender responsive.
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About 15% of the institutions revealed that they carry out their budget formulation, monitoring and evaluation using their top senior management. This methodology, though quickening the processes and cost-effective, does not produce budgets which reflect the reality on the ground. This in turn breeds resentment, and critical stakeholders and beneficiaries end up not owning programmes/projects and activities being implemented. Again, it makes it difficult to comply with direct budget guidelines from Treasury that “Ministries and Departments are advised to address the needs of females and males in the activities, outputs and budget of each programme and sub-programme as a priority and make sure that sufficient resources are allocated to the ascribed gender equality areas.”5
On the other hand, the study surfaced a commendable approach to budget development processes,
whereby 15% of the sampled institutions are using the Technical Working Groups and other development
structures like the Village Action Committees. This approach makes the processes participatory and has
the advantage of easily incorporating the views of the marginalized women, children and the persons with
disability. In addition, the use of these structures offers the advantage of projecting the needs of the
stakeholders and beneficiaries using a united front which can strengthen the voices of the weak.
Key issues
The study has revealed that there are capacity gaps in gender responsive budgeting in most of the institutions. Institutions do not fully appreciate the concept of gender responsive budgeting and later alone the need for engaging in participatory budgeting.
The use of Technical Working Groups and other development structures like the Village Action Committees, coupled with the use of joint budget tracking and end of the year reviews, are best practices which need to be analyzed and repackaged for replication and scaling up.
4.6.2 Entry Points for Effective Lobbying for Resources Within The Budgeting Process.
In view of the many funding gaps existing in at all levels as revealed by this analysis, it would be
imperative that deliberate efforts be put down on how to engage relevant authorities for the address of the
same. The consulting team has proposed a step-by-step approach in engaging the relevant stakeholders in
ensuring that the funding challenges experienced by MoGCDSW are addressed. The table in the
appendices (appendix 5) presents a detailed approach which is formulated along the budgeting calendar
guide that the Malawi government follows, see table 12 below.
In line with this budgeting process template, the proposed advocacy scheme in appendix 5 has detailed
activities which need to take place at what time and the roles of institutions like UN Women and other
stakeholders are clearly spelt.
5 Excerpt of the 2015/16 budget guidelines on gender responsive budgeting
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TABLE 12: Government Budgeting Process Guide
Process Activities
Budget Planning Pre-Budget meetings/ConsultationsPublic Expenditure Reviews/FindingsBudget Prioritization
Budget Formulation Resource Envelope determinationBudget guidelinesPolicy Reviews Determination of Ceiling
Budget preparation Budget CircularsCeilings to MinistriesBudget Discussion MeetingsBudget Consolidation
Budget Presentation and
Approval
Budget SpeechBudget DeliberationsCommittee of SupplyAppropriation BillBudget Approval
Process Activities
Budget Execution Loading of budget data in IFMIS for expenditures management
Cash flows
Funding
‘Virements’/revisons within the vote and expenditure categories
Budget Monitoring Regular monitoring trips
Ad-hoc monitoring
Monthly reports to the head of M&E
Quarterly reports
At the end of the year balances are clo
Budget Reporting Accountant General compiles and produce final accounts for that
financial year subject to audit by Auditor General
Auditor General audits the reports which are presented to Parliament.
Public Accounts Committee acts on the Audit reports
Source: Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development
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CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1. Summary of findings and conclusions
The key findings of the study could be summarised in three broad categories. Firstly, the sector has largely been underprovided in terms of resources, with annual provisions being mostly below the MGDS minimum requirement. Secondly, the sector has been inefficient in terms of resource allocation with key investment areas being underprovided as compared to consumption oriented ones. Lastly, the sector’s budget is not gender responsive as evidenced by the absence of outputs and activities that meaningfully impact on the improvement of the status of critical gender groups like women, children and people with disabilities, coupled with the absence of sex disaggregated data for most of the output targets.
On an individual/specific level, the following findings and conclusions are drawn from the analysis:
The Ministry’s budget trend has been inconsistent in terms of its share of national budget, with the provision falling below one percent for most of the period understudy.
The Ministry’s budget is largely financed by donors, which is a concern taking into account the unpredictability of donor financing.
The great imbalance between the operational budget (ORT) budget and Personal Emoluments in favour of the later means that Ministry is spending more on remunerating staff than on delivery of services (staff are paid for doing very little work).
The Ministry’s ORT budget though small relative to the other budget components continues to be heavily skewed towards reproductive activities (social welfare and administration) rather than investment oriented ones like empowerment and youth development. This is a concern since gender inequalities can best be addressed by scaling up youth development and economic empowerment interventions.
The absence of provisions to pre-primary and primary education under the operational budget (ORT) poses a serious challenge to early child development, particularly for children from poorer and vulnerable households. The situation if not checked will lead to poor man-power development in the country.
Development partners continued domination of the Ministry budget (in terms of percentage contribution) is an issue of serious concern mainly considering that the share is too high. Since most of the donor funded activities respond to donor interests and usually in selected areas (not the whole country), the Ministry’s priorities may not be fully addressed and most areas of the country may be starved of strategic gender services.
Although development partners continue to provide more resources than Government, in the Ministry’s budget, most of the resources are for social protection activities, which in the long-run may not be easily sustained by Government.
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There is too much inconsistence in levels of donor financing, with funding levels varying considerably from one year to the next. If this pattern continues, it poses a serious threat to effectiveness and sustainability of investments in the gender sector.
MoGCDSW and relevant sectors are yet to start serious efforts in implementing gender related laws, which have a huge bearing on women and girls. This lack of prioritization of the laws means that access to justice for women, girls and children remains elusive.
For the activities that are being implemented, the targets are mostly too few to make impact, with little or no resource provision, inconsistent across years and usually not gender responsive.
The Ministry’s budget lacks strong gender coordination activities to demonstrate its authority in coordinating gender mainstreaming efforts in the country, hence the need to seriously review its subsequent work-plans and budgets to make improvements.
There is an absence of targets, let alone gender responsive targets, even for the few coordination activities that are included in the budget. Bearing in mind that the government is implementing performance based budgets, MoGCDSW should lead by example.
Funding disbursements to MoGCDSW have varied considerably across quarters, with some quarters being overfunded compared to others. Such situations lead to inefficient implementation of interventions.
The failure by Treasury to disburse all the funding to the Ministry and its establishment as per the approved budget is an issue of serious concern since it has bearing on the achievement of planned targets. The over 30% underfunding cuts are too huge.
Parliament and Ministry of Finance have inadequate capacity to enforce gender responsive budgeting through incentives and disincentives. Legal measures to reinforce GRB do not exist.
5.2 Overall recommendations
The recommendations for this study aim at addressing issues at two levels, namely: the broader level and
the specific/individual level.
A. Recommendation on Broad Key Issues:
On a broader level, this report seeks to recommend that:
a. Firstly, on an aggregate level, Government should provide adequate resources to MoGCDSW in line with the minimum requirements as prescribed in the MGDS II.
b. Secondly, the MoGCDSW should efficiently allocate resources to key investment areas as opposed to over providing the consumption oriented areas.
c. Lastly, MoGCDSW, Parliament and Ministry of Finance should ensure that the sector’s budget is gender responsive for a meaningful improvement in the status of critical gender groups like women, children and people with disabilities.
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B. Recommendations on Specific/Individual Level: In addition, to the broader level, this report also seeks to recommend the following on an individual/specific level:
Recommendations related to Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning & Development/Treasury and National Assembly:
1) There is need to lobby Treasury to guarantee minimum levels of resource provision for adequate
programming and implementation of gender issues and that whenever the national budget is
increasing; the nominal provision to the Ministry ought to increase as well.
2) There is need for Treasury to meaningfully reciprocate to the donor efforts by meaningfully
increasing counterpart funding (Part II) allocations. This will ensure sustainability of investment
efforts in gender sector, especially in the years when donor contributions are at their lowest.
3) Treasury needs to seriously review the ORT ceilings to ensure that more funds for operations are
available so that value for money is realized.
4) Treasury should strictly observe disbursements plans from the Ministry and disburse funds in
appropriate amounts at the right times in order to maximize the efficient use of scarce resources.
5) Ministry of Finance should go beyond providing gender budget guidelines, and take the lead in
making GRB a legal obligation in order to strengthen compliance e.g. under the Public Finance
Management Act (2003).
6) Parliament, MoGCDSW, and Ministry of Finance should support efforts to increase district
council allocations towards gender programming in order to enable the sector at this level to
coordinate and sphere-head the implementation of gender related interventions on the ground.
This could be done by either devolving some funds from the head office to the council level or
transferring idle resources from other sectors, but also urgently filling gender positions at district
levels. .
7) Parliament and Ministry of Finance should build their own capacity in GRB in order to ensure that
sectors are properly held accountable for implementing gender budget guidelines.
Recommendations related to MoGCDSW, UN Women and Stakeholders:
8) MoGCDSW needs to seriously review the recurrent budget and meaningfully provide for the
underprovided programmes that have notable impact on women and girls such as youth
development and economic empowerment, among others.
9) MoGCDSW should earnestly lead the efforts in coming up with innovative and strategic actions to
support the consistent implementation of gender related laws once they are passed. This should be
accompanied with systematic efforts in building capacities of implementing partners for
meaningful multi-stakeholder participation.
10) MoGCDSW should expedite the consolidation of the two strategic plans for the then Ministry of
Gender, Children and Social Welfare and the then Ministry of Disability and Elderly Affairs to
32
have one common vision, mission, and mandate in order to address implementation challenges
that the Disability Act is experiencing.
11) MoGCDSW should change its own budgeting processes in order to generate gender responsive
budgets and lead by example. In addition, capacity building in GRB for partner institutions and
government departments in general should be pursued since the problem (of non gender
responsive budgets) appears endemic.
12) In view of the dwindling government resources towards the implementation of gender, child and
disability programmes, MoGCDSW, UN Women and stakeholders should develop a
comprehensive resource mobilization strategy with the aim of increasing a resource base for the
sector. The strategy would harmonize the fragmented pieces of resource mobilization efforts by
various institutions in the sector.
13) MoGCDSW, UN Women and other stakeholders in the sector should revive and strengthen
various Technical Working Groups and other development community structures at all levels so
that they can be used by the masses as advocacy vehicles in the budgeting processes.
33
REFERENCES
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2006): Prevention of Domestic Violence Act, Ministry of Justice and
Constitutional Affairs, Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2010): Child Care, Justice and Protection Act, Ministry of Justice and
Constitutional Affairs, Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2011): Deceased Estates (Wills and Inheritance) Act, Ministry of Justice
and Constitutional Affairs, Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2011): Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (2011-2016. Lilongwe
Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2011): The Millennium Development Goals Annual Country Report,
Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, Lilongwe, Malawi.
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2012): 2012/13 Financial Statement, Budget Document No. 3 Ministry of
Finance. Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2012): Approved Estimates of Expenditure on Recurrent and Capital
Budget for 2012/13 Financial Year. Detailed Estimates. Budget Document No. 4. Ministry of
Finance. Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2012): Approved Estimates of Expenditure on Recurrent and Capital
Budget for the 2012/13 Financial Year. Outputs Based. Budget Document No. 5 Ministry of
Finance. Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2013): 2013/14 Financial Statement, Budget Document No. 3 Ministry of
Finance. Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2013): Annual Economic Report, Budget Document No. 2, Ministry of
Development Planning and Cooperation. Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2013): Approved Estimates of Expenditure on Recurrent and Capital
Budget for 2013/14 Financial Year. Detailed Estimates. Budget Document No. 4. Ministry of
Finance, Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2013): Approved Estimates of Expenditure on Recurrent and Capital
Budget for the 2013/14 Financial Year. Outputs Based. Budget Document No. 5, Ministry of
Finance. Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2013): Gender Equality Act, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional
Affairs, Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2013): Joint Sector Strategic Plan (2013-2017), Ministry of Gender,
Children, Disability and Social Welfare, Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2013): Disability Act, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs,
Lilongwe, Malawi
Government of Malawi (GoM) (2015): The Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act; The Trafficking
in Persons Act, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Lilongwe, Malawi
34
Append ices
Appendix 1:Ministry Of Gender , Children Disability And Social Welfare Budget Analysis 2009/10 To 2014/15
Focus area and key relevant
outputs
Budget Component
Annual outputs targets
2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
Prevention of Domestic
Violence Act
Nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing
Child Care, Justice and Protection Act-Girl Child
Protection
Delivery of support services
improved
Recurrent /Devt (GoM)
300 Community child protection
workers recurited (MK 4.1 million)
- 130 ECD Caregivers trained
and 42 District Staff trained in child protection
(MK 50 million)
150 ECD Caregivers
trained (MK 80 million)
170 child protection workers
trained in Case Management
and Journey of Life; 1372
ECD givers trained
Reformation of juvenile offenders
Recurrent 100 juveniles reformed and re-
integrated in society (MK 31
million)
130 juveniles reformed and re-
integrated in society (MK 34.7
million)
- 150 Juvenile offenders
reformed and rehabilitated
(43.2 Million)
85 Juvenile offenders
released and 122
rehabilitated at Chilwa and
Mpemba (37.5 Million)
150 Juvenile offenders
reformed and re-integrated into
their communities (41.6 Million)
increase burasries for needy secondary students
Recurrent 13,000 OVC provided with
education support
15,000 OVC provided with
education support (MK243.9
Guidelines for coordination of OVC program
developed (MK
-
35
(MK0.59 million)
million) ???)
provide technical and material
support to ECD centres
Recurrent/Devt GoM
120 ECD centres rehabilitated and upgraded (MK
23 million)
132 ECD centres provided with
materials(MK 23 million)
100 Community Child Care centres rehabilitated and
upgraded; capacity of 600 Early Childhood Caregivers
enhanced (MK 150 million)
21 CBCCs rennovated (MK
???)
Rehabilitated 7 ECD services and upgraded
87 CBCCs(MK 7.6 million)
offer complementary basic education
(MK48 million)
Support the most vulnerable with
food and non-food items for upkeep
Recurrent /Devt (GoM)
300 households supported with
items (MK 2.115 million)
17,290 beneficiaries
receiving cash transfers (MK
57.5 million); 200 people provided
with food supplements
((MK9.7 million); 5 welfare programs
implemented (MK 31 million)
105, 732 beneficiaries
receiving cash transfers (MK 662.0 million);
254,000 beneficiaries
receiving cash transfers (MK
9,253.1 million);
28,946 vulnerable
people assisted with cash
((MK 3,405.9 million)
vulnerable people assisted with cash
((MK 3,645.1 million)
create an enabling environment for child protection
Recurrent /Devt (GoM)
90 percent of children have
their rights upheld (1.8 Million)
- - - 2 Girls hostels constructed at Mpemba and Chilwa (MK 100 million)
2 Girls hostels constructed at Mpemba and
Chilwa (MK 150 million)
Improve access and quality of
adult education for illiterate adults
Recurrent 4,000 adult literacy classes
operational (MK 23.1 million)
- -
Development (GoM)
80 percent increase in adult literacy by 2015
(MK 132.4 million)
- - - Produced 25,000 English
primers for adult literacy
classes
Deceased Estates (Wills and
nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing
36
Inheritance) Act
Gender Equality Act
Include gender equality
provisions in the laws of Malawi
Recurrent 90% of laws with gender equality provision (MK
2.6 million)
- - - commemorated 16 days of Activitsm
against GBV; International Literacy Day
and international womens day
Break cultural/traditiona
l practices that perpetuate gender
inequalities
Recurrent 15 harmful cultural practices
substantially reduced (MK 2.7million)
- - -
undertake affirmative action to increase women decision makers in high levels of the public and private
sectors
Recurrent 50 percent women in key
decision making positions ((MK
1.8 million)
25 percent women in key decision
making positions (MK 11.5 million)
25 percent women in key decision
making positions (MK ???)
25 percent women in key
decision making positions (MK
???)
25 percent women in key
decision making
positions (MK ???)
25 percent women in key decision
making positions (MK ???)
Facilitate access to credit,
equipment and technology to assist in value
addition
Recurrent 10 women groups assisted
with seed money (MK 10.8 million)
25 women business groups
attached to microfinance institutions ((MK10.7 million)
- - 300 women business groups
attached to microfinance institutions ((MK???)
Train women in entrepreneurship
skills and business management
Recurrent 10 district councils oriented
in selection criteria (MK 1.5
million)
- - Umodzi and Phindu business
and credit manuals
reviewed and disseminated
(MK 48.7 million)
37
train communities for active
participation in development activities at
district
Recurrent 12 district councils with communities
particpating in community
based programs (MK 5.2 million)
- 20 Community development
Assistants trained in home
management and food utilization
(MK 337.1 million)
25 Spouses of Chiefs and other
Community Leaders from
different districts trained in home management and
nutrition (MK ???)
38 Spouses of Chiefs and
other Community
Leaders from different
districts trained in home
management and nutrition
25 Spouses of Chiefs and other
Community Leaders from
different districts trained in home management and
nutrition; 29 DCDO refreshed
on the revised Community
Leaders Training Manual (MK832.1
million)
improve undergraduate
and postgraduate intake, equity for
girls and quality of higher education (Infrastructure development at
Magomero College)
Development -GoM
Various classrooms
rehabilitated and 1 office building
(MK 30 million)
1 office block and security brick waal fence constructed (MK 100 million)
3 office blockS rehabilitated and
furnished, 1 Admin office
constructed (MK 117 million)
Admin Office block construcetd at Magomero and lecture theatyre and library desings (MK 80 m)
income from on and off-farm
activities increased
Recurrent - 32 business groups trained in
entrepreneurship, business
management and credit other IGAs
(MK 20.3 million)
50 business groups trained in
entrepreneurship, business
management and credit other IGAs
(MK 49.2 million)
15 entrepreneurs trained in weaving technologies and another 15 in basketry and bamboo furniture construction (MK 48.7 m)
2,162 business groups trained in entrepreneurship and credit management; facilitated formation of 2,880 business groups (MK 38.9 million)
250 business groups trained in
business and credit management ; 15
trained in basketry and bamboo
funriture making (MK 42.2 million)
Disability Act (2014)
114 Disability desk officers trained; Community
-
38
Based Rehabilitation plan rolled out (MK 80.5 m)
50 visually impaired students trained in vocational and rehabilitation skills at Mulanje Vocational Training School (MK 29.0 million)
construction of hostels at Mulanje
School for the blind started (MK
141.5 million)
The Marriage, Divorce and
Family Relations Act; The
Trafficking In Persons Act
nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing
39
Appendix 2: Implementable Gender Actions in the Various Acts
Implementable Gender actions in the Various Acts
Act/Legislation Issue Possible Actions Responsible Partner
Time Frame
Prevention of Domestic Violence Act 2006 Purpose: to ensure the commitment of the State to eliminate gender based violence occurring within a domestic relationship, and to provide for effective legal remedies and other social services to persons affected by domestic violence.
Implementation of the Act
-Develop a policy and implementation strategy on the prevention of domestic violence
MoGCDSW and MoJCA
On-set of the Act
Create awareness on the Act
- Sensitise the masses on the provisions of the act -Sensitize service providers on their roles and responsibilities
MoGCDSW, CSO, MoHAIS, Media
On-going
-Capacity Development
-Conduct a thorough capacity (technical, Human resource, finances and knowledge) gap analysis within responsible agencies. -Develop a comprehensive capacity development plan based on the capacity gap analysis.
MoGCDSW, Development Partners and CSO
On-going
Counselling Services
-Establish counselling/Therapeutic Centres for survivors of domestic violence -Train and deploy Counsellors to the Therapeutic centres -Resource the counselling/Therapeutic Centres with necessary amenities
On-going
Child Care, Justice and Protection Act, 2010 Purpose: To consolidate the law relating to children by making provision for child care and protection and for child justice; and for matters of social development of the child and for connected matters
Implementation of the Act Create awareness on the Act Child Care And Protection Addressing harmful practices
-Develop a policy and implementation strategy on the prevention of domestic violence -Conduct Periodic reviews of the policy and strategy - Sensitise the masses on the provisions of the act -Sensitise communities on Child Care and Protection by families -Roll-out the implementation of ECD Programmes -Develop and strengthen existing foster homes e.g those by SOS Village homes Support for Children by Local Authorities
MoGCDSW and MoJCA, MoLGRD, CSO, INGOs, Development partners,
On-set (3-5 years) Short to long-term Short to long-term
40
-Modify traditional norms and practices which permit behaviour that contravenes the law and often treat children as having a lesser status under customary law -Support Local Councils to develop and enforce bye-laws which will enhance child protection
Juvenile offenders -Create a conducive environment for bringing a Child offender before a Court or other inquiry -Improve the structures and conditions of the juvenile detention sites.
MoJCA MoGCDSW ,
MoFEPD
Short to long-term
Legal representation Ensure that a child is provided with legal representation at state expense
Child Justice Courts -Roll-out the establishment of child justice courts in the rural remote areas -provide adequate personnel to run the child justice courts for both rural and urban settings -Ensure that the media is restricted to report proceedings in a child justice court
Deceased Estates (Wills and Inheritance) Act 2011
Implementation of the Act Create awareness on the Act
-Develop a policy and implementation strategy on the prevention of domestic violence -Conduct periodic reviews of policy and strategy - Sensitize the masses on the provisions of the act
Administrator
General’s Office,
MoGCDSW,
MoJCA, MoITC,
CSO
On-set
Writing of wills Promote the culture of writing of wills by the populous
On-going
Administration of deceased estates
Train officers in the effective management of deceased estates Strengthen the administration of deceased estates
41
Gender Equity Act, 2013 Purpose: to promote gender equality and equal integration of men and women in all functions of society, prohibit and provide redress for sex discrimination, harmful practices, sexual harassment and provide for public awareness and promotion of gender equality.
Implementation of the Act Create awareness on the Act Address sex discrimination and sexual harassment Participation of women in the public service Education and training Access sexual and reproductive health services Act enforcement
-Develop a policy and implementation strategy on the prevention of domestic violence - Sensitise the masses on the provisions of the act -Prevent sex discrimination, prohibition of harmful social, cultural or religious practices and prohibition of sexual harassment; -Improve the participation of women in public life and decision making positions -Promote equality of access to education and training -Improve access to sexual and reproductive health services -Promote information on sexual and reproductive health services to enable users of those services to make informed choices. -Strengthen the capacity of Human Rights Commission to enable it enforce the implementation of the legislation
MoGCDSW, OPC, MoLVT, MoH, MoEST, Academic institutions, CSO, Development Partners
Short to long-term
Disability Act, 2012 Purpose: To make provision for the equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities through the promotion and protection of their rights; to provide for the establishment of a Disability Trust Fund; and to provide for matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing.
Implementation of the Act
-Develop a policy and implementation strategy on the prevention of domestic violence
Ministry of Transport, MoGCDSW, Ministry of Labour, MoH
On-set Ongoing
Create awareness on the Act
- Sensitize the masses on the provisions of the Act
Accessible infrastructure Health care services
Advance architectural designs which will facilitate easy access to premises and the provision of services or amenities Facilitate easy provision of health care and rehabilitation services to persons with various forms of disabilities.
Education and Training
Coordinating Structures
Design education and training curriculum which facilitates promote easy access to education and/or training for persons with disability Establish the National Coordinating Committee on
42
Disability Issues (NACCODI) and subsequent supporting structures at the Local Council level
Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act, 2015 Purpose:
Implementation of the Act Awareness on the Act Age of marriage Rights and obligations of parties in the marriage contract Family Counselling
-Develop a policy and implementation strategy on the prevention of domestic violence - Sensitize the masses on the provisions of the Act -Promote adherence to the legal marriage age amongst the relevant stakeholders -Promote Girl child education as a means to delaying early child marriages - Sensitise families/masses on the rights and obligations of parties in the marriage contracts as stipulated in this Act -Promote parties to be proactive to report abuses of any form between parties in the marriage contract -Establish and operationalize Family Counselling Panels
MoGCDSW, Religious institutions, CSO, MoJCA, MoEST
On-set Ongoing
CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES Research, Monitoring and Evaluation
-Develop and implement comprehensive Research, monitoring and evaluation systems to track and evaluate the implementation of the Gender related Acts -Document and publish and disseminate research, monitoring and evaluation findings.
MoFEPD, MoGCDSW, CSO, Academic institutions, Development Partners
On-going
Information and Communication Technologies
-Design and implement robust Information, Communication and Educational programmes to enhance the execution of the various gender, children, disability legislation, policies and strategies.
NSCT, MoITC On-going
Publicity/Civic education Design and operationalise communication strategies for each individual Act.
MoGCDSW, MoITC
Capacity Development
-Conduct a thorough capacity (technical, human resource, finances and knowledge) gap analysis within responsible agencies for all the Gender, Children and Disability Acts. -Develop and implement comprehensive capacity development plan based on the evidence from the capacity gap analysis.
MoGCDSW, Development Partners and CSO
On-going
43
Appendix 3: Institutional Implementation of Gender, Child and Disabil ity Re lated Legislations
Prevention of
Domestic Violence
Act
Child, Justice
and Protection
Act
Deceased (Wills
& Inheritance)
Act
Gender
Equality Act
Disability
Act
Marriage
Act
Trafficking
in Persons
Act
Police
Social Welfare
Northern Region
Police HQ
Social Welfare
MoGCDSW
MoHAIS
MoYS
Kanengo Police (VSU)
Social Welfare
MACOHA-Vocational
School
Police
Social Welfare
Police
Social Welfare
MACOHA
Mpemba Reformatory
Centre
Police
Vocational Training for
Blind
Social Welfare
Judiciary
Police
Social Welfare
Magomero Vocational
Training
Judiciary
Chilwa Reformatory
Centre
Judiciary
Social Welfare
22/27 20/27 19/27 17/27 8/27 1/27 7/27
81 74 70 63 30 4 26
No Intervention
Intervention being
Implemented
Level of Institutional Implementation of Gender, Child and Disability Related Legislations
KEY
Percentage Coverage of Laws
Total
District & Institution
Zomba
Chiradzulu
Mulanje
Blantyre
Mchinji
Lilongwe
Mzuzu
Mzimba
44
Appendix 4: Budget Development Vis-À-Vis Stakeholder Engagement
Totals
Share of
total
Men Women Boys Girls All Nothing # %
0 0 0 0 //// 4 15
0 0 0 0 // 2 7
0 0 0 0 //// 4 15
0 0 0 0
//// ////
//// // 17 63
8 19 27 100
30 70 100 100
0 0 0 0 // 2 7
0 0 0 0 //// 4 15
0 0 0 0 //// 4 15
0 0 0 0
//// ////
//// // 17 63
10 17 27 100
37 63 100 100
0 0 0 0 //// / 6 22
0 0 0 0 //// 4 15
0 0 0 0
//// ////
//// // 17 63
10 17 27 100
37 63 100 100
Through Village Action Committees 0 0 0 0 //// 4 15
Joint Year-end evaluations 0 0 0 0 // 2 7
Senior Management alone 0 0 0 0 //// 4 15
Not engaged at all 0 0 0 0
//// ////
//// // 17 63
10 17 27 100
37 63 100 100
Budget Development vis-à-vis Stakeholder Engagement
Formulation
Implementation
Monitoring/Tracking
Evaluation
Sub-Total
As % Share of Total
Sub-Total
As % Share of Total
As % Share of Total
Sub-Total
Only Senior Management
Not engaged at all
Advocacy
Sub-Total
As % Share of Total
Use of Technical Working Groups and
other development structures
Not engaged at all
Only Senior Management
Joint Monitoring with development
structures
Only Senior Management
Want to, but no Resources to hold
Consultative Meetings
Use of Technical Working Groups and
other development structures
Not engaged at all
Develeopment Stage with
Corresponsing Activities
Responses on Engament Disaggregated by
Sex
45
Appendix 5: Full Budget Calendar For Stakeholder Engagement
Stage Intervention/Budget Activity Period UN Women Intervention (s)
1 Formulation of Public Sector Investment Programmes (PSIP). At this stage development partners are also involved in making agreements with government on focused aggregate spending.
Sept to Nov - Lobby with MoGCDSW to formulate projects which empower communities. - Lobby for MoGCDSW to decentralize project planning so that planning responds to grass root needs. - equip national, and district council level structures to input into the PSIP - Lobby for Treasury to devolve some projects to the grassroots in the spirit of decentralization.
2 Mid-Year review of the budget. This involves reflecting on the implementation of the budget mid way.
Dec
UN Women to conduct an independent Mid-Year MoGCDSW budget review to inform the mid-year budget review
3 - Formulation of budget guidelines, issuance of the formulated guidelines and orientation of the same by Treasury. - The guidelines are budget development templates/frameworks to aid ministries and departments in the budget development process. - Treasury conducts orientation of guidelines to officials responsible for budgets in the various ministries. - Treasury in addition to guidelines also issues preliminary budget ceilings. - During this time of the year, the reviewed Mid-Year budget is presented and deliberated in the National Assembly by MPs
Jan to Feb - Present findings of the Mid-Year Budget Review to MPs, MoGCDSW, Ministry of Finance, key stakeholders in the gender and disability network, Media and other stakeholder. - Lobby for the inclusion of issues emanating from the independent budget review to inform ministry, programme, and intra-programme allocations. - Disseminate the findings of the Mid-Year budget review to relevant stakeholders
4 Preparation of budget estimates by ministries and departments. Treasury conducts consultations with various stakeholders which among others, involves defending budget estimates by ministries and departments.
Feb to March - Conduct Budget consultations with relevant stakeholders on the 2016/17 budget to identify issues and, - Lobby for the inclusion of the identified issues with MoGCDSW and Finance
5 Presentation of budgets and issuance of tentative final budget ceilings and development of final budget estimates by ministries and departments. The final ceilings provide the ultimate budget instructions to ministries and departments; they can be minus or positive to the initial indication. - Depending on good justification ministries are provided with improved budget ceilings.
March to April UN Women and Gender and disability network to follow up with all stakeholders in the Gender and disability fraternity and councils to ensure that all relevant issues presented by community representatives are incorporated into the final budget estimates. - UN Women and Gender and disability network to critique budget ceilings to ensure that they accommodate critical gender and disability concerns
6 Consolidation of budget estimates budget Treasury
April to May Lobby with Ministry of Finance/Treasury to ensure that at least all community and network concerns are incorporated into the final consolidated budget estimates. The current (2015/16 budget). And the 2016/17 budget to come.
7 Presentation and deliberation of the consolidated draft budget estimates by parliament.
May to June - Conduct an independent 2015/2016 MoGCDSW Budget Review - Disseminate the findings of the 2015/16 budget analysis to key stakeholders especially, MPs to inform their 2015/16 budget deliberations.
46
- Conduct a detailed training on budgeting and budget tracking for the members of network.
8 Preparation of approved budget after passing by parliament. Implementation of the approved budget to follow.
July to Sept - Conduct independent activity monitoring and budget tracking at all levels.
Preparation of monitoring reports (usually quarterly reports to track progress)
October - Support progress review meetings for MoGCDSW and its establishments. - Follow with MoGCDSW to solicit reports on the implementation of interventions.
47
Appendix 6: Consultation List
Name Organisation/Ministry/Depart Position Contacts
Mr. Ken M’bwana Ministry of Home Affairs and
Internal Security
DoFA
Mr. Charles
Mphande
Ministry of Home Affairs and
Internal Security
Under Secretary 0999317089
Mr. Nsitu MoGCDSW Desk Officer Police
Mr. Nsefula MoGCDSW Director for Gender
Mr. Fred Simwaka MoGCDSW Principal Gender &
Dev Officer
0999346800
Mr M. Sichinga MoGCDSW Principal Economist 0999610083
H.B Chimbeleko Magomero Training College Deputy Principal 0994304700
Joseph Kalero Zomba Social Welfare Office Social Welfare Officer 0881668113
Moffat Hara Chilwa Reformatory Centre Principal 0995484222
Lawrence Mangani Mulunguzi Court Zomba Magistrate 0999727577
Kingsley Mnuthe Chiradzulu Police Station Inspector 0888379168
Annie Chikhadzula Chiradzulu Magistrate Magistrate 0888897615
L. Gondwe Mzimba Police Inspector 0888755130
Priest Mpemba Kanengo Police-VSU Inspector 0999255935
Mike Maulidi Chiradzulu Social Welfare Office Social Welfare Officer 0999918445
Y. Phiri Mulanje Magistrate Court Magistrate P.O Box 25 Mulanje
Mrs Navicha Mpemba Reformatory Centre Social Welfare Officer 0999298908
Mrs Chuza Mpemba Reformatory Centre Matron 0888308416
H. Gama Mulanje Social Welfare Office Social Welfare Officer 0999429084
A. Chisale Mulanje Police Station Constable - VSU PO Box 48, Mulanje
Y.F Banda Vocational Training for the Blind D. Principal Mulanje
G. Kandiero MACOHA – Blantyre Administrator PO Box 5971, Bt
Y. Chiotha Blantyre Social Welfare Office Social Welfare Officer 01823198
Mrs G. Nyirenda Blantyre Police HQ, South Inspector 0882923244
48
C.L Msowoya Northern Region Police HQ Inspector 0888 622254
Jane Chavula Mzimba Social Welfare Office Social Welfare Officer 0888148075
E.W Botha Mzuzu Social Welfare Office Social Welfare Officer 0993370711
Maximus Bakali Mchinji Police Station O.C. 0888385353
Vincent Kawonga Mchinji Social Welfare Office Social Welfare Officer 0999477467
Mrs Kayira MACOHA-Vocational Centre, LL Principal 0888118805
J. Nthengwe Lilongwe Social Welfare Office Social Welfare Officer 0995183324
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