Gender Analysis of Budget: planning

Meeting report

JOINT MONITORING COMMITTEE ON IMPROVEMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE AND STATUS OF WOMEN
28 March 2001
GENDER ANALYSIS OF THE BUDGET: DISCUSSION

Chairperson: Ms P Govender

Documents handed out:
First Women's Budget: Chapter 9: 'The Way Forward' - Debbie Budlender (see Appendix)

Note: The meeting of 14 March was cancelled.

SUMMARY
The Committee decided that the best way to deal with a gender analysis of the budget would be to examine the policies and spending of each Department:

MINUTES
Ms C Botha (ANC-Free State) indicated that Parliament's intervention in the budget process takes place in September (Department of Finance) and March for the budgetary review.

Ms Govender noted that the debate is that Parliament does not feature enough in the budgetary process. In the analysis of the budget the Committee must consider its own priorities: Poverty, HIV/AIDS and Violence as it affects women. These broad issues can be linked to specific issues. For example, access to employment would relate to poverty. This must be looked at from a gender perspective. Also issues such as increases in employment must be analysed carefully, to see what portion of that increase relates to women.

Ms Govender said that the Committee needed to look at whether each Department's policies reflect this Committee's priorities. Although the National Gender Policy is not official, it does indicate that there should be gender policies in all Departments. If such policies are in place, the Committee must see how these policies are reflected in the Department's budget, both in income and expenditure.

Ms Govender indicated that there are three types of spending:
Targeted spending - spending that is specifically targeted at women's programmes. This type of spending forms a negligible part of the total budget. This spending is within the budget and does not come from donor funding. If there are certain programmes that are facilitated by donor funding, then the question that needs to be asked is: When would the donor funding be brought in to the mainstream budget so that it could sustainable.

Affirmative Action/equity Spending within Departments - There is a need to check whether the departments have put all the structures in place to comply with relevant legislation eg the Labour Relations Act.

Rest of the Spending - The question to be asked here: To what extent does this mainstream programme meet gender equity objectives?

Ms Govender suggested that the following questions be considered in a gender analysis of a budget:
- how much is to be spent and on what?
- how are services to be delivered?
- how does possible expenditure relate to provision by business organisations, voluntary organisations and community groups?
- how does possible expenditure relate to the informal and unpaid provision of services through households and family networks?
- how can poor women access more time, better nutrition, better health and better skills?
- what are the implicit assumptions regarding the way society is organised, and what are the implications of this for those who do not conform to the norm?
- who will benefit from public sector employment?
- who is going to benefit in terms of access to services?

Ms Botha pointed out that in analysing the Safety and Security budget, the Committee ought to look at whether the Department had budgeted for dealing with the issue of domestic violence.

She also stated that statistics that are presented to the Committee by the Departments, should be scrutinised by the Committee. The statistics should be broken down and the details that lie behind the statistics must be ascertained. There is a tendency for statistics to indicate incorrect assumptions.

Ms Botha said that the Committee should play an interrogatory role in the analysis of the Department budgets. The Departments should explain to the Committee whether they have carried out their specific commitments or not. If they have not, then they need to explain what the reasons for this are.

Ms Govender commented that the increases in the budget allocated to gender equity or specific programmes related to women, should be "real increases".

Ms D Mahlangu (ANC-Gauteng) stated that in analysing the budget of the Department of Education, the Committee should firstly see whether the budget is aimed at improving the status and quality of life of women in all spheres of life. She added that an important issue was that of teenage pregnancies. Where was this accommodated for in the budget?

The issue of teenage pregnancies is not being dealt with by the Department of Education. There is a Schools Act that deals with teenage pregnancies. The Committee needs to find out why these teenagers are falling pregnant and what circumstances they are in. The Committee needs to look at how this Act discriminates against women.

The admission of young women at tertiary institutions was the responsibility of the Department of Education. This issue needs to be discussed with the Department as the Committee needs to know what the Department is doing about this

Ms Mahlangu also said that in the analysis of a budget the Committee must refer to the Public Finance Management Act. The capital expenditure of the various Departments should also be looked at. What needs to be ascertained is to what extent these Departments are benefiting women directly.

Ms Govender stated that most of infrastructural capital expenditure is spent on roads, prisons etc. There is a need to look at how women may benefit from this.

The meeting was adjourned.

Appendix:
Extract from Chapter 9 (The Way Forward) of First Women's Budget by Debbie Budlender

How much is to be spent and on what?
Example: If a disproportionate amount of the education budget goes to tertiary education and there are fewer women at this level, does this mean that poorer and less educated women will be short-changed?

How are services to be delivered?
Example: Will the Departments of Justice, Health and Safety and Security co -operate in providing 'one-stop' facilities for women who have been subjected to violence so that they are able to access police, health, counselling and any other public services they require at one centre?

How does possible expenditure relate to provision by business organisations, voluntary organisations and community groups?
Example: If employers at large companies and mines provide basic adult education and training for their employees, who will provide for poorer women, with their lower formal employment rate and their lesser presence in large establishments?
Example: What form of state assistance -- financial or otherwise- will be provided for battered women's shelters established by voluntary organisations?

How does possible expenditure relate to the informal and unpaid provision of services through households and family networks?
Example: If state welfare policy emphasises community care and provision in place of state and institutional care, will women bear the burden as the primary, but unpaid community carers?

Who is going to benefit in terms of access to services?
Example: If government services - extension services, grants, health, Legal Aid, etc- are available only at certain outlets and at particular times, how does this impede access of poorer women in outlying areas with limited access to transport, or who work during normal working hours? How will government ensure that women obtain all necessary information on what services are available and how to access them?

Who will benefit in terms of public sector employment.?
Example: Will affirmative action extend beyond colour and simple numbers to ensure that women are at all levels of the service, and across all job categories, that there is a targeted recruitment, and that conditions of work take account of their special needs?

How can poor women access more time, better nutrition, better health and better skills?
Example: Will planning in respect of provision of water, electricity, childcare, etc, give priority to those women who at present spend long unpaid hours in providing their households with these basic requirements for decent living?

'The sub-council on women also drew up a checklist of revenue-raising measures by government, such as various forms of taxes, user charges and fees. They asked which groups would be most affected by a reduction In income, consumption, access to services and control over the provision of services. They asked which groups would bear an increased workload or worktime in terms of unpaid provision. And they asked about the implications in terms of financial autonomy. They proposed that these questions be asked of all revenue-raising measures at all levels of government. Examples of all these effects, and the interrelationships between them, are covered by Hartzenberg in her chapter. (Chapter 8.)
In our research we developed one other question which addresses the role of fiscal policy in promoting particular morals, norms or ways of life. It is of special importance in a society like ours which does not have a single. monolithic culture. The question is:

What are the implicit assumptions regarding the way society is organised, and what are the implications of this for those who do not conform to the norm?
Example: What happens to part-time workers, usually women, and those in the informal sector, again primarily women, when they are pregnant or unemployed, given that the Unemployment Insurance Act pays out on the basis of the amount previously earned in the formal sector? What happens to low-paid single or abandoned women who bear children - even those who have formal employment - given that the Unemployment Insurance Act pays only a small percentage of their previous salary during maternity leave?

APPENDIX
The following is an extract from the 1996 Budget Speech by Mr Chris Liebenberg
Following the Beijing Women's Conference, South Africa undertook to play a more active role in the development and implementation of policies and programmes set out in the Beijing Platform of Action. Three areas of work have been identified:
· the development of statistical database which will provide information on the impact of expenditures disaggregated by gender;
· the implementation of targets and indicators of gender equality and equity in spending; and
· the development of a performance review mechanism to evaluate progress and report to Parliament.