Home
Contact us
Feedback
Site map
Franais Portugus

SEARCH
Keywords:
Advanced search
SUBSCRIBE
Your email address:

ANSA's 20 latest postings
Most popular postings on ANSA-Africa
News
Gender-responsive budgeting as a tool for alternative economic planning
17 July 2010
UNIFEM

When someone last counted, in 2002 it seems, more than 60 countries were doing Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB), and since then the numbers have increased. Sixty countries is a significant number given that GRB is a tool that emerged only in the 1980s. It is now in the gaze of the global community, not as much for what it has done but more so for the potential it offers. What actually does GRB offer, and what value does it add to planning and budgeting?

GRB is a loose term for several different kinds of efforts that can be located at the intersection of gender and budgets. Segregating public expenditure for women, which is commonly being done in many countries as the first step in GRB, is just one of the several methodologies that GRB offers. Others include the commonly known tools of gender-disaggregated beneficiary assessment, gender-disaggregated analysis of the impact of the budget on time use, gender-aware medium-term economic policy framework and so on.

However, GRB is an evolving area of work. Several new and innovative strategies are being tried under GRB, and it is being applied to new areas. Budgeting for laws pertaining to women'srights, such as domestic violence laws and maintenance laws, and applying GRB to HIV and AIDS, to revenue mobilisation and to audits are just some such examples of evolving areas of GRB. Hence, when we talk about GRB, the gamut of issues and approaches that this includes is quite wide and is becoming wider with time.The common perception among policymakers seems to be that so long as they are not explicitly discriminating against women in their policies, they are doing what needs to be done for women. What is often not recognised is that needs of men and women are different, and unless policies factor this in, they will not be gender-responsive.

The commonly known five-step framework on GRB tries to challenge this method of policymaking. By beginning with a situation analysis of men and women in a particular sector, it lays the foundation for explicitly recognising disadvantages women face. This also locates GRB in the larger context of the realities of the world we live in, where gender discrimination is rampant. The second step is an assessment of the extent to which the sector?'spolicy addresses the gender issues and gaps described in the first step. This helps scrutinise the match or the mismatch between the policies and women?'sneeds. The third step is to assess the adequacy of budget allocations to implement the gender-sensitive policies and programmes identified. This step helps to identify the resource gaps. The fourth step entails monitoring whether the money was spent as planned, what was delivered and to whom. This involves checking both financial performance and the physical deliverables (disaggregated by sex). And the last step is assessment of the impact of the policy/programme/scheme through a gender lens.

Moving beyond the theoretical underpinnings of GRB, let us look at some dimensions of the methodology:

1. GRB as an opportunity to look at nuances of budgeting and policymaking

Any work on budget analysis usually begins with looking at allocations. Analysing allocations offers useful insights into priorities accorded to women. However, budget analysis must also go beyond the level of allocations. GRB gives an opportunity to scrutinise budgeting in greater detail. Mostly, it is not just the quantity of resources that is an impediment; quality of money spent is also poor. In this regard some of the important questions that GRB should ask are:

  • a. What are the utilisation patterns? Are the resources allocated for women reachingthem?
  • b. If there is underutilisation, then what are the causes for that?
  • c. Are there specific components that consistently show underutilisation? How is fund utilisation divided across different financial quarters?
  • d. What is the staffing pattern? Are there adequate and trained staff to carry out the services that are mandated to be provided?
  • e. What are the unit costs of delivery? Are these realistic? How do these compare with international or national standards or benchmarks?

Research studies have shown that a large number of policies and programmes for women are budgeted with unrealistically low unit costs, suffer from lack of adequate trained personnel who would be able to deliver quality services, and have significant portions of the budgets that go underspent. Addressing these issues is important if GRB is to mean anything to common women.

2. GRB as a tool for governance accountability

GRB efforts should be seen in the larger context of citizens, civil society organizations and the women'smovement, trying to hold governments accountable to the commitments made. The mismatch between what is expected from the State and what it is delivering is at the centre of the argument. In holding the State accountable to its promises, not just in international human rights covenants but also to gender neutral commitments, GRB becomes valuable, since it draws attention to about 50 per cent (or so) of the population.

Since one of the most important milestones in women?'sstruggle for equality is CEDAW, GRB should be used to strengthen the State'saccountability to commitments in CEDAW. Currently, women'sgroups in many countries of the region are largely using the mechanism of shadow reports to track governments' implementation of CEDAW. However, GRB could be used as a tool for tracking how far governments have implemented CEDAW. One could analyse the amounts allocated and the amounts spent on each of the articles of CEDAW. Further, these allocations could be tracked to see what the quality of spending is. If budgets for women are made with CEDAW and its substantive equality principle in mind, it will definitely propel better planning and budgeting for women.

3. GRB as an opportunity to look at national women'smachineries

GRB work globally has also shed light on weak women'smachinery at the national level in many countries. Most of these institutions, whether it is the women'sministry or others, are usually underfunded, understaffed and often do not have the mandate that would enable them to make an impact on women?'slives. It has also drawn attention to the need for other ministries, including the Ministry of Finance, to take on gender concerns as their concern.

In India, for instance, research has shown that the creation of an independent Ministry for Women and Child Development has not resulted in any significant increase in allocations for women and children compared to when it was a department. Allocations for women and children have gone up in absolute numbers, but in relative terms (relative to the total expenditure of the union government) it is still a marginal increase and is still abysmally low, at less than 1 per cent. Worse still, priorities for women, in particular, within the ministry/department have actually gone down from 9.2 per cent in 2004-05 (real expenditure) to 3 per cent in 2006-07 (real expenditure). The union budget 2009-10 brings a further decline in proportional resources for women. Since women?'smachineries are meant to play a nodal role on women?'sissues, strengthening them will help in better economic planning for women.

4. GRB in the context of the changing aid scenario and UN Security Council Resolution 1325

Although governments' budgets are the largest single source of financing for gender equality and women'sempowerment in most countries, the changing global aid and security architecture once again points towards the need for strengthening GRB. The only way to track and monitor official development assistance and conflict reconstruction money flowing into many countries from a gender lens is through GRB.

5. Challenges that remain

As we move ahead in the trajectory of not just further refining the tool but also applying it more creatively to diverse areas of women'srights, several challenges remain. A non-romantic scrutiny of what is being done in several countries in the name of GRB will necessarily point towards the need for greater sharpening and sophistication of GRB as a tool and an area of enquiry.

a. Methodological review and deepening of GRB

As country after country in the region - and within countries, states/provinces too - take to GRB work, it is also important to take stock of different methodologies being used and set minimum standards to ensure that in this effort of spreading GRB, there is no compromise on its quality.

b. Interrogating allocations alone won't suffice

Merely interrogating how much of the budgets is going to women, though a necessary first step, will not suffice if the end result is to ensure better outcomes for women. It is important to carry out GRB work in a more comprehensive framework. Some of the important questions that we should be asking are:

  • What is the priority for women in the budgets?
Existing evidence from GRB suggests that allocations for women or women'sprogrammes are extremely low; however, States implementing GRB are rarely going beyond preparing the GRB statements to make a strong case for increasing allocations for women. This suboptimal spending on women needs to be increased if one is serious about addressing the development deficits women face or the historic discrimination they have experienced. The global gender equality financing gap has been estimated at USD 12 billion to USD 30 billion in 2006.
  • Do these resources reach the women?

As gender advocates, it is important to work on factors that constrain effective utilisation of funds. Women'sstruggle is not just over the quantity of resources, but the quality of resources also needs to be established.

  • When these resources reach the women, what is the impact?

Often, even wellmeaning programmes for women end up having either an adverse impact on women or reinforcing gender stereotypes.

c. Which women are we talking about?

It is important that GRB exercises use the intersectionality framework. GRB methodologies and approaches must try to assess how much money is reaching the most marginalised women - factoring in differences of class, caste, race, disability etc. How much budget is being allocated and spent for these doubly discriminated women, what the quality of spending of such programmes is, what the impact of these programmes is etc. must be assessed.

d. Earmarking resources versus segregating expenditure

One sees two different kinds of approaches to gender-sensitive budgets. In several countries, one would see a gender budget statement which tries to assess how much of the budget is meant for programmes for women. The other approach is to earmark a particular amount of resources for women, as a floor minimum. For instance, in India, the Women'sComponent Plan provided for at least 30 per cent of plan allocations of all "women-related" ministries to be earmarked for women. Such earmarking has its merits. However, from a gender perspective, not only does one need to track what is being charged to this component, as evidence has shown all kinds of expenditures being charged which may have nothing to do with women, one also needs to try to ensure that this pot of money covers expenses for women'sstrategic gender needs and not practical gender needs only. If this pot of money covers women'spractical gender needs, such as general health, education etc., one would end up shortchanging women.

e. Engaging not just with the numbers in the budget but also with budgetary processes

The budget-making process in many countries continues to be a male bastion. Engendering this process is as important, and in some senses, a precondition to engendering the outcomes. In the formulation phase of the budget, when different departments or ministries are formulating their demands for grants, women'spriorities must be factored in. In the legislation phase, it is important to assess how much attention is being given to women'sconcerns - whether a budget for women?'sschemes is being debated in the Parliament or not. In the implementation phase, it is important that budget tracking exercises by civil society organisations include a gender perspective, and in the audit phase it is important that the parameters of audit try to capture the gender component.

f. Bringing GRB down from national to local levels

Many GRB efforts have begun at the national level, largely because of the active role played by the women'sministry or the finance ministry. Doing GRB at the national level gives prominence and important to GRB, which is welcome. However, in the coming years, it is extremely critical to take GRB from the sovereign level to sub-sovereign and to local levels. Only when GRB is being done at the local level will it impact on the lives of common women, the poor women who constitute the majority of this planet.

g. Engaging macro processes

GRB work cannot and should not be done in isolation. Fiscal policy space that States have, social sector spending etc., are the superset of GRB. Unless the larger macroeconomic framework respects women?'srights, GRB will just result in minor tinkering with the system. Drawing attention to policies for women in the unorganized sector, in agriculture, to the care economy etc., putting them at the centre of the policy discourse and promoting good policies and budgeting for these sectors is extremely important.

The challenge for all GRB practitioners globally is to redefine and take GRB from the domain of a techno-managerial tool and translate it in terms of what it means for entitlements for women so that in their struggle for substantive equality, women as active citizens can stake claims over these resources. Only then will GRB reach the last woman and ensure her participation, using the Gandhian framework, and until then this struggle will continue.

* Article by Yamini Mishra, Executive Director of the Center for Budget and Governance Accountability. This article was originally published in "In search of economic alternatives for gender and social justice: Voices from India" a publication by WIDE, 2010.



Keywords: gender budgeting, India
Read more...
NEWSFLASHES RSS
Politics of NNPC's insolvency
19 July 2010
NEXT
United Nation's whistleblowers face perilous and uncertain times
19 July 2010
Daily Nation
Protector pushes for parliamentary body to crack whip
19 July 2010
Sunday Independent
Mapping the outcomes of citizen engagement
19 July 2010
IDS
Civil society hails new oil and mining transparency standards
19 July 2010
IPS
Transparency Index improves citizens' control over public budgets
19 July 2010
UNODC
It's a job well done in nurturing democracy
19 July 2010
The Citizen
more news
RSSNewsfeeds
NEWSLETTER
ANSA-Africa Monthly Newsletter
PROFILED LINKS
Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness
Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System
U4 Anti Corruption Resource Centre
Uwazi
social media in Africa
More links

INFORM US
Tell us about events relating to social accountability in the region
Home |Search |Site map |Disclaimer
ANSA-Africa is hosted by the Idasa
Octoplus Information Solutions