ADVANCING WOMEN’S RIGHTS THROUGH GENDER EQUITABLE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT,

GRB HLGM,Kigali 26th July 2011

Gender equitable planning, budgeting and service

delivery

Nalini Burn, Regional Advisor GRB, North Africa SRO

Questions to address

How are institutional actors at the state and local level interconnected in shaping patterns of gender equality and access to services in different local contexts?

Where responsibility for service provision is shared amongst local and other levels of government, at what level are gender concerns dealt with most effectively?

What institutional mechanisms can facilitate planning, budgeting and delivery of services in a gender responsive manner?

How can planning and budgeting systems integrate gender equitable requirements? (examples of planning and budgeting frameworks and processes that have ensured effectiveness of local government in addressing gender equality issues)?

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What do we mean by Gender equitable? Gender equity is about the ‘equivalence in life outcomes for women

and men, recognizing their different needs and interests, and requiring a redistribution of power and resources’. (IDS, 2000).

› Issues :contested meanings of equity, some of which reproduce existing gender roles and relationship, and some ‘proper’ redistribution

Gender justice is defined by the ending of, and the provision of redress for, inequalities between women and men that result in women’s subordination to men. › As an outcome it is about access and control over resources, combined

with agency, which is the ability to make choices and decisions › As process, it is about accountability to redress injustice

(Goetz 2007).

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Gender justice, citizenship

Dilemma of citizenship for women. Not a one to one relationship between citizen and state.

Women’s relationship to the state is specifically through kinship and particularistic groupings –colonial construction, hardened and codified in overlap of statutory, customary and religious systems of law --

‘Grounded and situated for women whose lived experiences are mediated by race, ethnicity, family connections, status in social hierarchies and economic status.’› ( Celestine Nyamu –Musembi 2008)

Implications for principle of subsidiarity, for exercise of political power

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Decentralisation and Local public policy processes.

Citizens

Elected representatives

Plan, Budget and administration( includ

es tax and land)

Service delivery

Shor

t acc

ount

abili

ty r

oute

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Local policy process.

• M&Esystem• Sex-disaggregated data

AND other variables of discrimination rimination

Diagnostic

• Representative and participatory democracy

• Informed by diagnosis,• Institutional analysis: roles,

mandates and competencies, procedures

Priorisation • A local development plan and its translation into

• A local budget plan • Participatory monitoring of

plans and budget• Accountability mechanisms

Programming/ monitoring

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Decentralisation: Two broad prescriptive

forces 1. Normative policy

transfer: is good (the pros):› political, fiscal and

administrative 2.Part of political and

economic liberalisation(state failure, market virtues)- › governance + liberalisation› Competition and choice in

politics and economy

Dynamics of policy process› of a top down policy transfer +

funds transfer and › forms of either partnership or

resistance, obstruction, accommodation, instrumentalising in pursuit of own objectives: elite capture) contested, ambivalent terrain of decentralisation

› Rather technocratic approach to delivering good governance

› Underfunded mandates

Who and what shapes Decentralisation and local governance (DLG)?

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Situating local planning and budgeting

Local Development

Local Governance

Local Planning and Budgeting

• Local , provincial, regional council

• Urban and land use planning• Sectoral ministries• Private local enterprises• Mutinational businesses

• Multiple actors Local Council• Deconcentrated sectoral Services• NGOs , CBOs , committees• Agencies

• Local council• Local administration• Central ministries

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MDG

No wish list planning, so linked to budget constraint,

How does the reconciling of top

down and bottom-up happen?* Scope for intersectoral approach,

local level? Bounded sphere of

ParticipatoryP&B, using CDD approach

So felt need to have earmarked Funds for national MDG/PRS priorities at LG level

Issue: limited localising of MDGs, Issue :MDGs are sector based and

practised… Issue whose indicators to use:

MDG/PRS/sector related Who sets criteria and priorities for

ranking and prioritising? Conditional block grants Reduced scope for planning at LG

Complex realities: Top down and bottom up planning, budgeting, context specific, evolving

MDG

Poverty Reduction Strategy

Sector/line

LG

SWAPs, baskets

Macro,

Budget ,GBS?

hard top-down budget constraint,IPF block, sectoral grant (conditional)

LLG LLG

Entry points for GELD numerous, but scope? IGA fund

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Example of Rwanda: top-down and bottom-up planning

Planification District

cellules

villages

Document de cadrage budgétaire au niveau district: ressources locales,+transferts intergouvernementaux + partenaires techniques et financiers

Faible gendérisation à ces niveaux

Echelles gouvernements/CL

Min IntérieurMin EcoFin

villages

Secteur

•Dans la pratique, ascendante est une consolidation des plans de plusieurs cellules.•Planification sectorielle au niveau des divisions administratives provinciales et communales

ProvinceSectoriels

cellules

Nalini Burn

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Aligning budgets to evidenced –based policy for gender-responsive service delivery and results: avoiding policy evaporation.

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Cash management system for disbursement › evaporation of planning& budget allocations (authorised, despite

bottom-up), and the protection of administrative, HR expenditure. another rationale for gender equitable earmarked funds)

Process › How it happens and actors involved. Where does the accountability

lie, the reporting and monitoring requirements weak. Underlying political economy issues.

Disbursement delays › expenditure chain from Ministry of Finance, › scope for local revenue generation and retention.

Service delivery. › Implications for its undermining. › Who to hold to account in the chain and for what?

What should the front line staff be held to account for, when their salaries are late and there is no provisioning for supplies

Policy evaporation:Budget execution , implementation

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Lessons learned on DLG

Informal Donor Working group on decentralisation and local governance guiding principles ( Nov 2008) DLG: will address sectoral/swap constraint to DLG, are aware of political economy issues, World Bank evaluation

Harmonisation: UNCDF Local Development Fund + partnership with other development partners

Actors will work with: Local government associations and Partnerships of state and DP partners ( UCLGA, MDP etc)

Enlarging fiscal space: association of tax commissioners in Africa – to address aid dependency, capital flight etc.)

Aligning political+ fiscal + administrative decentralisation (example Morocco constitutional and regionalisation reform)

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Accountability failures --and redress?

Grassroots woman :

How can we question what these people are doing when we do not even know what they have in the planning document?’

Woman councillor in Paidha Town, Uganda:

We refused to pass the budget of this financial year because we could not see something specifically for affirmative action.

We only relented when we were assured and shown that our concerns were captured under the various sectors – health, education, and production – where specific budget lines were made for women’s special needs’

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Women leaders to become champions

Mandates What women leaders need

to be able to do: Identify women’s concerns Sensitise and mobilise

women on national issues Linking women in the

community and the decision-makers and mobilising resources for women concerns

Participate in planning processes

Advocate for women’s rights

Monitor service delivery

Challenges No skills Denial of rights, obstruction, shelved off

from policy space Status quo benefits a few officials Need for challenging existing power

structures Strategy Collective mobilisation: awareness, civic engagement, alliance

building Negotiation, political organisation,

mobilise constituency, generate factual and relevant information

Create a harmonised budget cycle and women leaders’ engagement tool

Ongoing learning by doing, takes time, resources, yields results… Each of skills and results generate performance indicators, on the voice side

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Lessons learned South Africa and Morocco South Africa: Strong national guidelines are

needed› For women as contractors and

workers and to benefit› Contestation of women in local

politics› Difficult to get in as ward

councillors, representation comes from insistence of parties

› Women in participatory processes but not in decision-making

› Local councils assign low priority to gender

› IDP LED: none looked at LED› Women are very present in

committees related to their needs, usually chaired by a man

› Hostile institutional environment

Morocco: Constitutional and

Decentralisation/regionalisation reform

Constitution: rights-based and primacy of international rights instruments

Regionalisation and legal-backed linkages and transfers among levels of government

No devolution of mandates without devolution of funds

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Uganda: local

Incentive-based grants transfer performance system› Check list of indicators for gender mainstreaming- gender

analysis, disaggregated data; gender impact analysis and annual allocations- maximum score of 10 out of 190;

› + or – 20%; capacity-building grant› District level gender policies pioneered by FOWODE:

annual Gender Aware Budget Plans [GAPB], using the Local Government Guidelines, but with no extra funds provision (50% of districts); monitoring indicators

› Field lessons :Community development officers: difficulty of fulfilling mandates for gender mainstreaming without dedicated funds

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Performance based Planning and Budgeting

Performance Indicators built into LG’s own PPB indicators.

Performance-linked grants: difficult to get off ground because of data difficulties, hence need to address it with LG-Based Community Based Monitoring System CBMS.

Then build in incentives to use the more refined data as part of performance-linked part of the grant

Also link performance-part of grant to indicators of downward and horizontal accountability

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Asia

India, Philippines, Indonesia, China: Focus CSOs – Budget advocacy , analysis and

accountability local media networks, (voice) Reform of social safety nets in Community-

based and driven development + conditional money transfers (using disaggregated data )

Indonesia: Musrenbang: elaboration of MOU et Decrees between local state and civil society actors ( 11 points +indicators to attain status of gender equality sub-district)

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Rights-based approach A rights-based approach starting with

building ability to claim rights, can work even in settings with political quota, budget quota, and possibly elite driven- including women elites

Awareness of rights, compared to actual state of affairs in terms of rights

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Example of rights-based approach, AFARD, Nebbi District, Uganda: Use of Gender responsive audit tool

After the project, against baseline conditions,› Women’s Council Executive effectiveness had increased

by 78%› Women’s participation in planning process by 68%› LLG responsiveness by 63% but› LLG transparency and accountability by 6%

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Nebbi District: What it has involved

Technical and advisory support throughout, in planning meetings, as interlocutors,

Importance of political skill building for women, as well as women-only deliberations

Importance of building notion of accountability to constituents – how to demonstrably reach to grassroots women

Importance of using a tool such as a gender responsive audit to assess performance, along dimensions of capacity: 1 .awareness, 2. effectiveness and 3. empowerment - influencing change

Critical importance of human-rights based awareness, ability to claim rights

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District level: Need for diagnosis, Planning, monitoring information system

Community Based monitoring System for planning and budgeting ( district level representative surveys + LLG rotating CBMS› Political economy analysis , inclusive livelihood analysis –

especially unpaid work - cross cutting issues of climate change, food and economic insecurity, human security, integrating physical/body integrity, VAW, using engendered statistical systems and processes principles- not only sex-disaggregated data, but also other inequality-relevant data; gender –sensitive expenditure and revenue analysis

Qualitative fine grained context-specific research System not a questionnaire, includes participatory

analysis and assessments, scope for narratives of change and qualitative indicators to interpret quantitative ones

Example of Morocco in ongoing fusion of Communal Information System and gender-responsive CBMS

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Local development: infrastructure

Information and communication are part of infrastructure –resources for development, and for LDF to fund + others

Not aligning components but a rights-results chain of how infrastructure underpins development outcomes ( CEDAW+ CSECR)

Maternal mortality: why? What are the factors? Where to get information from? What output to get outcomes? ( participatory planning and budgeting)

Infrastructure in context of crises and poverty reduction: › addressing care economy and unpaid work constraints, labour

intensive programmes linked to achieving social sector outcomes; › using notion of sustaining the means to produce, to cover

reversing soil erosion, desertification, climate change adaptation and resilience

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Planning and budgeting policy processes

Capacity development budget to be used not so much in sector-specific areas but in cross-cutting areas of LG precisely in gender equitable planning and budgeting training for duty-bearers ( also rec. 50 ILO)

Information baseline is cross-cutting expenditure and revenue-raising at district level, but rotating Community-based Monitoring System (CBMS )at LLG level (attract resources from other development partners)

Capacity development ongoing learning by doing facilitation ( supporting technical and advisory agencies), based on lessons learned from AFARD, Uganda and others.

Build on /consolidating linking council executives and staff to LG associations, national, sub-regional, regional and world-wide, for peer to peer learning and experience sharing networks . Also rec. 55 of IDRC Mexico Conference

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Social accountability

Collective practices: consensus cooperation, commitment to participation

Responsiveness: Important not to marginalise men

Mobilising grassroots women: local information and communication materials

Radio talk, facilitation in closed door budget meetings

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Concluding reflections

Issue of political quota, “budget “quota, segmentation along the lines of separate and unequal but considered equitable and non threatening of existing order, which then gets further legitimised ( have achieved 30% seats, 30% budget allocation) has to be seriously addressed.

GELD must be linked to a robust national GRB, fully claiming the application of new aid modalities-Accra including human rights, environment, gender justice on the one hand, as well as UN System and other response to Crises, also tracking and addressing new investment flows ( Non OECD-DAC) attracted to resource extraction – cross-border farming, sovereign funds, and also climate change mitigation and adaptation funds

Strategic alliances built on social, economic and cultural rights and local development approaches, emphasising LG-LG, south-south collaboration and networking, climate change adaptation and resilience, cooperatives/collective action, social protection floor and surveillance, vulnerability monitoring as well as vulnerability funds