World Bank Institute Washington, DC April 3, 2002 Simel Esim, ICRW Simel Esim, Ph.D. Economist International Center for Research on Women

World Bank Institute Washington, DC April 3, 2002 Simel Esim, ICRW

Simel Esim, Ph.D. Economist

International Center for Research on Women


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


National Budgets Most important economic policy instruments of

governments They reflect the values of a country - who it values,

whose work it values & who it rewards They are assumed to affect everyone more or less

equally Budgetary policies can have significantly different

impacts on women & men & on different groups of women & men


Gender Responsive Budgeting As a Process The Budgets are part of larger policy processes

– policy– budget– program– performance

Gender sensitive budgets are a variety of processes and tools aimed at facilitating an assessment of the gendered impacts of larger policy processes including budgets themselves


Defining Gender Responsive Budgeting Are NOT separate budgets for women or men Gender sensitive ANALYSIS of government budgets, rather than

formulation of separate budgets Focus NOT ONLY on portion of budget that is seen as gender or

women related, BUT... Examine ALL sectoral allocations for their differential impact on

women, men, girls & boys Focus on reprioritization of budgets and NOT expanded spending


Defining A GRB Initiative Participants – who initiated it, who is involved in it, how do they work

together (researchers, activists, NGOs, parliament, government) Scope of the exercise – national, local, expenditure, revenue, all or

selected portfolios Activities -- research, publication, material development, advocacy,

training Audience -- government officials, parliamentarians, advocacy NGOs,

citizen’s groups, researchers, media, public Targeted policy process –planning, implementation, monitoring and

evaluation Political dynamics – the record of government on gender, other axis of

inequality/disadvantage


Donor initiatives Commonwealth Secretariat

– concentrated around government capacity building– supported exercises in Sri Lanka, Barbados & Fiji

UNIFEM – focus on civil society--a series of regional workshops – led the Interagency Meeting on GRB in Brussels, Oct 01

UNDP– pilot approach with a focus on participatory budgeting– the potential for improved economic governance


Existing InitiativesRegion Number of Initiatives

Africa 12

Asia (including ME) 8

LAC 8

Europe 7

North America 2

Oceania 2


Existing Initiatives: Africa (12) Botswana (UNIFEM/UNDP workshop) Kenya (CIDA + government + NGO) Malawi (CIDA + government) Mauritius (UNDP/UNIFEM workshop) Mozambique (SIDA + government) Namibia (SIDA + government) Rwanda (UNIFEM+parliament) South Africa (since 1995--NGO, government, parliament, ComSec, Mott

Foundation, NOVIB) Tanzania (NGO + government) Uganda (NGO + parliament) Zambia (UNIFEM+government+NGOs, Netherlands embassy) Zimbabwe (academics+GERA funding)


SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN’S BUDGET(1995-2002)


South African Women’s Budget Started in mid-1995 Joint effort of the Gender and Economic Policy Group

of the parliamentary Committee on Finance and two policy-oriented research NGOs

Focused on the national ministries and produced 3 volumes in 3 years on 26 ministries

4th year they looked at 5 of 840 municipalities Produced Money Matters simplifying the material


South African ‘Women’s Budget’--Impact Its thorough documentation, 4 ‘women’s budget’ volumes,

& popular materials made it easier to share Inspirational nature of the exercise in the way it took off and

grew in the past 6-7 years, the high level support it received Commonwealth Secretariat funding, TA helped spread the

learning across countries—became a model for others Involvement of the coordinator of the SA Women’s Budget,

Debbie Budlender, in over 10 other country exercises A Southern initiative, an African initiative that resonated

with people around Africa and the rest of the developing world as something doable, attainable


Current Status of GRB in South Africa Government initiatives are “dormant or dead” Due to the departure of supportive key players (previous

Deputy MoF, a British consultant in the Budget Office) Activists’ easy access to people in government and

parliament in the early years after 1994 has become harder Outside government initiative continues but it is weak on

the advocacy side – early years did not need advocacy, but now they need it

– research does not spell advocacy out

– civil society needs to learn advocacy

– gender machinery is weak


Conditions to GRB Success High level commitment to support GRB—MoF Institutionalizing the GRB effort within government

– When governments change, level of commitment can change– GRB can be associated with the old regime and abandoned– Ministerial staff that are trained move onto other jobs

A research center, set of researchers to undertake the GRB analysis—public finance and gender analysis

An NGO, a network of NGOs for advocacy, M&E Capacity building on GRB among local stakeholders


PUBLIC EXPENDITURES


Category 1: Targeted gender-based expenditures of government departments spending on national women’s machineries, small discretionary funds for special programs that are not mainstream spending by government agencies. Women's health programmes, Special education initiatives for girls, Employment policy initiatives for women, etc.

Category 2: Equal employment opportunity expenditure by government agencies on their employees. For example, training for lower level clerks (where women may predominate), paid parental leave, childcare facilities for children of employees.

+

+

Category 3: General/mainstream budget expenditures by government agencies which make goods or services available to the whole community, but which are assessed for their gender impact. Who are the learners in government-provided literacy classes? Who benefits from farming support in the agriculture budget? Who are the users of clinic services?

=

TOTAL EXPENDITURE


Tools Policy assessments (applying gender analysis) Institutional analysis Gendered beneficiary assessments like opinion

polls, attitude surveys, participatory rapid appraisal processes

Benefit incidence analysis with gender, class, race, location breakdowns (expenditure and revenue side)


Data NeedsGRB assessment requires sex-disaggregated data on

– iInputs (budget or staff allocations)– AActivities (services planned and delivered)– oOutputs (utilization of activities, beneficiaries)– oOutcomes (planned and actual achievements like increased

health, education, time availability, etc.)

Systematic generation of sex-disaggregated data in all ministries/departments & local authorities across

Central statistics office data that is sex-disaggregated (census, household surveys and time use data)


DECENTRALIZATION


South African GRB at Local Level Local Spending is on a wide range of functions

– Water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal Local Revenues are more diverse than national &

provincial government– Tariffs for services, intergovernmental transfers – Different types of internal funds– Not property and other forms of tax


Category 1: Gender specific allocations at the local government level. In South Africa the researchers found very few examples of these. Local government deals with household services rather than services directed at gendered individuals. Examples are Port Elizabeth Municipality’s grant-in-aid to gender oriented organizations and allocations for creches in Lusikisiki.

Category 2: Equal opportunity or affirmative action allocations. Few expenditures intended to address inequalities among municipal employees (ex. Gender unit in Port Elizabeth). In South Africa, research revealed greater gender imbalances in local government empoloyment than in provincial and national spheres.

+

+

Category 3: Mainstream expenditures. Impact of each allocation on women and men, girls and boys, and different groups (class, race, location) of women and men, girls and boys. Again, difficulty in determining the gendered impact of household or community level allocations. Difficulty also in obtaining basic information as to the nature and size of allocations. This information is essential for gender, poverty or any other impact analysis.

=

TOTAL EXPENDITURE AT LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEVEL


Difficulties in Local LevelBudget Analysis Gender Analysis

Multiplicity Diversity Lack of uniformity Complexity of accounts Diverse forms of revenue Lack of information Reluctance to share info Conflicting information

Services are directed at hh not individual

Headship category is problematic

Gender –poverty Neither women (nor men)

are homogenous groups—poor women (men) differ in their needs between municipalities or within them


Gender and DecentralizationAssumption that decentralization of expenditures

is beneficial for women and the poor

– Allocations are made by those closer to the local needs, priorities

– Local participation of the poor in budgetary decision making is more feasible

– Decisions will be more transparent and local policy makers will be more accountable to their immediate constituents


Yet with Decentralization… Weakened checks and balances can increase fiscal

control of local elite and likelihood of corruption Can result in local centralization and a way for local

elite to ignore public policies, or local needs Local participation and women’s participation are

not guaranteed (few women in decision-making positions, participating NGOs might have few or no women)

Can further exacerbate regional inequalities


Examples of Social Audits & Participatory Local Budgets Social Audits:

The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (Workers’ and Peasants Power Association), a small and activist group in the north Indian state of Rajasthan

Participatory Local Budgets:

In Brazil, the City Hall of Porto Alegre adopted a

participatory budgeting process in 1989.


Questions• Does decentralization increase/decrease gender inequalities?• What are the impacts of decentralization of services, expenditures

and revenue mobilization on access to productive resources, opportunities for women & poverty?

• What institutional structures facilitate women’s and men’s participation in budget formulation & macroeconomic strategy design?

What types of budgetary systems and methods can assist in addressing the needs of the vulnerable and poor?

How do different forms of decentralization-deconcentration, delegation, devolution- impact a gender-responsive budgeting process? What are potential differential impacts?


Websites for more information on gender budgets

UNDP/UNIFEM http://www.undp.org/poverty/resources/gender_budgets.htm http://www.unifem.undp.org/progressww South Africa http://www2.womensnet.org.za/budget http://www.idasa.org.za/final/publications International Budget Project http://www.cbpp.org http://www.internationalbudget.org

Gender Budgets Website (IDRC)http://www.gender-budgets.org


Simel Esim, Ph.D.Economist

International Center for Research on Women1717 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 302

Washington, DC 20036Tel: 202-332-2853 ext. 148

Fax: 202-332-8257

E-mail: [email protected] http://www.icrw.org/

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/frame1/papers/gender2papers.html‘

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/grhf/_Spanish/pubs/informes.html

More Information on this presentation...

Documents

World Bank Institute Washington, DC April 3, 2002 Simel Esim, ICRW Simel Esim, Ph.D. Economist International Center for Research on Women