The number of programmes under Vote 1 for the Presidency has decreased from six for 2006/07 to three for 2007/08. This reorganisation may reflect efforts towards greater efficiency. It has, however, also resulted in less information than previously being made available to parliament and the public. The length of the vote has decreased from 16 to 13 pages.
The Office on the Status of Women was previously a separate sub-programme under Programme 5: Policy Coordination. It had an allocation of R3, 77m for 2006/07 and R3,96m projected for 2007/08. The 2006Vote stated that the role of the sub-programme was to facilitate the development of a national gender policy framework and coordinate activities in the areas of gender equity and equality. The Vote included one three-line sentence on recent outputs of the Office. It also included some definite outputs and measures/indicators relating to development of a manual on mainstreaming gender, a critical review of gender structures and focal points, and an agreed set of implementation indicators.
For 2007/08, the Office on the Status of Women falls under Programme 3: Executive Coordination. The Office does not have a separate budget line and is thus not seen as a distinct sub-programme. Instead it is included in the sub-programme Gender, Disability and Children (GDC). The Vote states that the role of this sub-programme is to work with focal points in the offices of premiers, mayors and departments 'to bring certain issues into the mainstream, including bringing the rights of women, children and people with disabilities into governance processes, coordinating GDC activities, and overseeing GDC work in Government.
There is a lengthier paragraph than before in respect of recent service delivery outputs. This paragraph does not, however, distinguish between activities in the three areas, apart from listing the different days and campaigns (such as Women's Day and 16 days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children) which were celebrated. There is no mention of the gender manual, the review of gender structures and focal points, and the implementation indicators. The Committee is concerned about this as these are the outputs that were committed to in last year's budget.
Under medium-term output targets for the coming period, there is only one measure/indicator for gender, disability and children, namely GDC-sensitive integrated development plans for district municipalities in selected nodes. This begs the question as to what this unit will be doing at the non-municipal level, and in districts, which are not selected.
An over-riding concern in respect of this vote is the 'lumping' together of women with children and people with disabilities. We are obviously in agreement that all three of these groups need attention. We feel, however, that their needs differ in important respects, and it is thus not helpful to plan for them as a single grouping of 'vulnerable' sub-groups. In addition, the problem in respect of women is not only, or even primarily, an issue of 'vulnerability'.
In addition, we are concerned about the types of activities listed under outputs. While days and campaigns can help in raising awareness, these offices could and should be achieving more in respect of systemic change in processes and government operations.