Report
of the Portfolio Committee on Women in the Presidency on the Annual Performance
Plan and Budget Vote 8 of the Department of Women, Children and People with
Disabilities for the financial year 2014/15.
The
Portfolio Committee on Women in the Presidency, having considered the Annual
Performance Plan and Budget of the Department of Women, Children and People
with Disabilities for 2014/15 on 01 July 2014, reports as follows:
1.
Introduction
The
Budget Vote 8 of the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities
was referred to the Portfolio Committee on Women in the Presidency on 25 June
2014 for consideration and report. As per the Announcement, Tablings and
Committees (ATC) of 25 June 2014, only Programme 2: Women Empowerment and Gender
Equality, was referred to the Portfolio Committee on Women in the Presidency
for consideration and reporting.
The
Department indicated that the Annual Performance Plan that was presented was
based on the previous Department of Women, Children and People with
Disabilities. To this end, the Ministry was in the process of transferring
Programme 3 which deals with children and Programme 4 dealing with people with
disabilities to the Department of Social Development. Furthermore, the Minister
noted that like all new Ministries, they are waiting for the proclamation by
the President.
The
Committee, in performing its constitutional oversight mandate, engaged with the
Department of Women on 01 July 2014 in this regard. In terms of the National Council Against Gender Based Violence, the Minister indicated that
this will be reviewed by the Department to determine where best this should be
located. Of particular importance, the Minister noted that the Women
Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill (WEGE Bill) will be withdrawn from
Parliament and that extensive consultation will be undertaken by the Department
in this regard as several concerns regarding the Bill were raised to date.
2.
Mandate
and strategic objectives of the Department
The
mandate of the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities was
to promote, facilitate, coordinate and monitor the realisation of the rights of
women, children and people with disabilities. The Department’s strategic
objectives included the following:
On
25 May 2014, His Excellency, the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, announced
the establishment of the Ministry for Women within the Presidency, which is
mandated “to champion the achievement of women’s socio-economic empowerment and
women’s rights”.
3.
Expenditure
Trends and Medium-Term Priorities
The
total budget for the Department for 2014/2015 period was R218.5 million. The
Department’s spending priorities for the medium term were intended to be the
development of key sectoral policies on women’s empowerment as well as the
improvement of the Department’s administrative capacity.
The
Department allocated 42.2% (R92.3 million) of its total budget to the programme
for Women Empowerment and Gender Equality, in anticipation of the
implementation of the Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill. It should
be noted, however, that 72% of this budget (about R67.2 million) accounts for
transfers to the Commission for Gender Equality, leaving about 27.2% of the
budget (R25.1 million) for the implementation of programmes focusing on gender
equality.
4. Programme 2: Women Empowerment and Gender
Equality
The programme for Women
Empowerment and Gender Equality aims to facilitate the translation of national
and international instruments into empowerment and socio-economic development
programmes, and to oversee and report on the realisation of women’s rights and
equality. Its objectives can be summarised as follows:
The sub-programmes for the
Women Empowerment and Gender Equality programmes are as follows:
·
Advocacy and
Mainstreaming for Gender Equality
This sub-programme promotes the
mainstreaming of women’s empowerment and gender equality considerations into Government
policies and processes of governance. For the year 2013/14 this work focused on
advocacy programmes aimed at accelerating women’s socio-economic development as
well as ending gender based violence, and included the finalisation of the
Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill (No. 50 of 2013). This was done with
a staff compliment of 5 and a total budget of R8.3 million, to be increased to
R11.9 million in the period 2014/15.
·
Institutional
Support and Capacity Building for Gender Equality
This sub-programme
coordinates institutional support and capacity development by promoting synergy
among Government Departments, civil society and the private sector. The 2013/14
programme consisted of consultations on the national gender machinery, gender
mainstreaming sessions with local government entities, the distribution of the
gender scorecard, as well as an analysis of gender-responsive budgeting. This
work took place with a staff compliment of 4 and a budget of R4.1 million to be
increased to R4.7 million in 2014/15.
·
Monitoring and
Evaluation for Gender Equality
This sub-programme monitors, evaluates and
reports on the promotion of the realisation of the rights of women within all
Government entities to ensure compliance and to conduct impact assessments.
During the 2013/14 period, the Department piloted a monitoring and evaluation
strategy with gender-responsive indicators in Departments in the economic
cluster. A report on women’s representation in political and decision-making
structures was compiled, and the Department participated at several
international platforms including the United Nations Commission on the Status
of Women, African Union and Southern African Development Community meetings.
This was done with a staff compliment of 8 and a budget of R7.2 million, to be
increased to R8.5 million for the period 2014/15.
·
Commission
for Gender Equality (CGE)
The
CGE, an independent non-statutory body, engages in advocacy programmes aimed at
raising awareness of and challenging patriarchal stereotypes. It aims to
protect and enforce gender rights, and attends to complaints made by members of
the public and sanctions appropriate intervention in line with relevant
policies and legislation. A transfer is made to the CGE in full to the sum of
R63.1 million in 2013/14, increasing to R67.2 million in 2014/15.
5. Expenditure Estimates
The
overall budget allocation for Women
Empowerment and Gender Equality programme in 2014/15 is R92.3 million, of which
R67.2 million will be transferred to the CGE. Overall the budget for the
programme constitutes 42.2% of the Department’s total budget. Apart from the
large transfer to the CGE from this Programme’s
budget, the bulk of its budget for the period 2014/15 goes to the sub-programme
on advocacy and mainstreaming. Of the R25.1 million remaining after transfers,
R14.5 million is allocated to goods and services, and a further R10.1 million
to the compensation of employees. While R6.7 million of the goods and services
budget is allocated to travel and subsistence, and R2.2 million is allocated to
venues and facilities, a further R5.6 million is not allocated to a specific
line item. For the year 2013/14, about R5.8 million of the goods and services budget
was not assigned to a specific line item. For both years it is unclear what
these amounts were spent on.
There
is an increase in the budget for the compensation of staff for the
sub-programme on institutional support and capacity building, while the number
of personnel over the medium term remains the same for this programme. In
addition, the number of staff accounted for in this programme totals 17,
however, elsewhere in the report, information on personnel indicates that this programme
has 18 staff members. Also, the number of posts for each sub-programme remains
stable between 2013/14 and 2014/15, with compensation for employees also
remaining stable for salary levels 1-6 and 7–10. Although the number of posts
for levels 11–12 and 13–16 remain the same, total salaries for these levels
will go down by 4% for levels 11-12, and will go up by 26% for levels 13–16.
6. Observations
Having met with
the Department to scrutinise the Annual Performance Plan and budget for
2014/15, the Committee made the following observations:
·
The Committee acknowledged that the budget
presented was in relation to the Department of Women, Children and People with
Disabilities as it existed prior to the 2014 National Elections.
·
Notwithstanding this, the Committee was concerned
about the small budget allocations for Programme 2, 3 (children) and programme
4 (people with disabilities) and urged for larger allocations within the Departments
where these responsibilities now reside.
·
The Committee was unclear as to how the
objectives and targets in Programme 2 would be translated into activities that
would address gender inequality, the female unemployment and poverty in South
Africa.
·
The Committee also noted that there was no clarity
around the final location of the National Council Against Gender-based Violence
and this had to be addressed as soon as possible given the challenges in
dealing with gender-based violence in the country.
·
The Committee acknowledged that the Department is
in the process of transferring Programme 3 and 4 to the Department of Social
Department and retaining Programme 2.
·
The Committee agreed that a more focussed mandate
for the new Ministry will greatly advance the women’s economic empowerment and
development in the country.
7. Conclusion
The
Committee thanked the Department for the presentation and awaits the outcome of
the transition. At the time of the adoption of the report, the Presidency had
issued a statement on 3 July 2014 regarding the proclamation by the President
of all newly established Ministries.
8. Recommendations
Having
considered the Annual Performance Plan and budget for the Department, the
Committee recommends to the Minister for Women in the Presidency as follows:
·
The Committee noted that Programme 2 of the Department
has been allocated a small budget and recommends that more resources should be
allocated to the Department to assist with the implementation of their
programmes and transition process.
·
The Committee recommends that the Department
refines its objectives and targets to ensure that measurable outcomes are
achieved.
·
The Committee also urged that clarity should be
provided around the location of the National Council Against Gender-based
Violence as soon as possible.
·
The Committee recommends that the Department
should speed up the process of transferring Programming 3 and Programme 4 to
the Department of Social Development and its internal restructuring.
Report to be considered.