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Vote 7: Women, Children and People with Disabilities

Introduction: Policy Priorities for 2010/2011

With the inauguration of President Jacob Zuma and his administration, a new Department for Women, Youth, Children and Persons with Disabilities (hereafter, the Department) was created to replace executive mechanisms that had previously been established to cater to the needs of these socially vulnerable groups. The Ministry, it is believed, was created upon the realisation that the operation and budgetary allowances were not sufficient in order to give effect to the mandate of the Office on the Status of Women (OSW), the Office on the Rights of the Child (OR C) and the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons (OSDP), especially insofar as those mandates related to providing strategic leadership and management of the issues affecting these socially vulnerable groups.

The OSW, ORC and OSDP (known as the Gender, Disability and Children Cluster) were previously situated in the Presidency in order to give strategic direction and leadership to the various programmes focusing on women, children and persons with disabilities. It is essential to relate the mandates and strategic priorities of these programmes for 2009/2010 with the mandate and strategic priorities of the Department, given the fact that these structures have now been subsumed within the Department. The mandate of the GDC Cluster was essentially to translate constitutional imperatives, international obligations, policy pronouncements and legislation into measurable and meaningful programmes.

Women, children and persons with disabilities have suffered undue hardship due to the lasting legacy of apartheid, entrenched patriarchy and perpetual discrimination. It is therefore critical that Government programmes directly address the needs of socially vulnerable groups in line with the need for social spending, eradication of poverty and job creation.

The aim of the newly established Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities is to drive, accelerate and oversee Government's equity, equality and empowerment agenda on women, children and persons with disabilities, with a particular focus on poor and rural communities.

The Department's main objective is to take the lead in the formulation and driving of Government's strategic agenda in relation to women's empowerment and gender equality, children's rights and responsibilities and the rights and equality of persons with disabilities. The Department plans to achieve this through:

•	Collaboration with civil society.

•	Improved planning alignment between the three spheres of Government.

•	The monitoring of policy implementation and attainment of targets as they relate to the halving of poverty and .unemployment by 2014.

•	The development of global partnerships to strengthen the development of women, children and persons with disabilities.

The Department has highlighted the following priority imperatives:

•	The consolidation and management of a national vision and strategy to ensure coherence in the protection of the rights and development of women, children and people with disabilities.

•	Leadership in the development, management and oversight of compliance obligations in relation to matters affecting women, children and persons with disabilities at the national, regional and international levels.

•	The development of indicators and systems for collecting disaggregated data on women, children and persons with disabilities, feeding into the broader Government monitoring and evaluation system.

•	The facilitation of access to rights and development opportunities for women, children and persons with disabilities, particularly as this relates to the protection of persons affected and infected by HIV and AIDS.

•	The development of policy, systems and procedures aimed at ensuring that national departments, provinces and municipalities support the delivery of the Department's mandate.

The priorities outlined by the Department speak to some of the priorities outlined in the 2010 State of the Nation Address, particularly as they relate to improved performance monitoring and evaluation and improved access to rights and developmental opportunities for women, children and persons with disabilities. Also, the Department's focus on the protection of the rights of persons infected and affected by HIV and AIDS as a priority area synergises with the increased focus and targeted services as outlined by the President in his State of the Nation Address. Of concern, however, is. that very few performance targets and an inadequate budget allocation has been made to the Department in the 2010 budget. It is inferred that increased spending on health and social services, education and infrastructural development will also impact positively on women, children and persons with disabilities, yet no explicit mention is made of resource measures to specifically improve the lives of these socially vulnerable groups. In addition, the President highlighted the integration of gender equity measures into Government's programme of action, yet the issue of gender or gender considerations was not addressed at all in Minister Gordhan's budget speech. Key allocations in relation to women, children and persons with disabilities speak only to increased resources for HIV and AIDS programmes and increases in the child support and disability grants, as well as increased resources allocated to education. Resources have been outlined to address the needs of youth as a socially vulnerable group, yet the same priority has not been given to women, children and persons with disabilities. For the period 2010/2011, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), under the Presidency, has received an allocation of R370 million which is nearly 4 times more than the total allocation that the Department has received to cater for the needs of women, children and persons with disabilities.

Performance and Service Delivery Information

In a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Children and Persons with Disabilities, the Department indicated that as a result of inadequate financial and human resources, as well as the rank and lack of executive authority of officials, it has been difficult for the OSW, ORC and OS DO to deliver on their mandate, thus necessitating the establishment of the Ministry.

In terms of gauging performance it is therefore necessary to look at the performance and mandates of the OSW, ORC and OSDP and how these relate to the new department.

The Office on the Status of Women (OSW)

The OSW was created to establish, monitor and evaluate mechanisms that will advance Government towards gender equality. The mandate of the OSW was to ensure that Government Jives up to its constitutional, political and international commitments by translating these into measurable and meaningful programmes, thereby making a non-sexist society a reality. Its primary aim was to develop an enabling environment that will guarantee gender equality, thereby empowering women to have equal access to opportunities and resources that will enhance the quality of their lives.

Broad functions of Office of the Status of Women included the following:

•	Policy and development

•	Gender mainstreaming.

•	Planning and coordination

•	Advocacy

•	Networking and liaison

•	Advice to the President

•	Capacity Building

The Office on the Rights of the Child (ORC)

The broad mandate of the Office on the Rights of the Child was to facilitate delivery on the rights of children as mandated by the Constitutional mandate through:

•	Mainstreaming of children's issues in governance processes.

•	Mainstreaming capacity building in Government.

•	Monitoring and evaluation of children's rights delivery in Government.

In a briefing on 17 June 2009 to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Children and Persons with Disabilities, the former Office on the Rights of the Child (ORC) indicated to the Committee that the objectives for 2004-2009 were as follows:

•	To enhance integrated policy implementation for accelerated children's rights delivery.

•	To strengthen strategic children's rights management and leadership capabilities at all spheres of Government to achieve sectoral and organisational cohesion.

•	To facilitate, coordinate, monitor, evaluate, communicate and report on children's rights policies and programmes.

•	To foster desired citizenship principles among children and thereby give impetus to the people's contract.

The ORC had.also identified a number of challenges impeding its performance, namely:

•	Inadequate competencies in Government for children's rights mainstreaming, policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation and co-ordination of integrated policy implementation.

•	Location of child rights focal points.

•	Lack of ORC's in Mayors' offices

•	Only 4 established ORC structures in Gauteng, North West, Eastern Cape and Free State.

The Office on the Status of Disabled People (OSDP)

The core functions of OSDP were as follows:

•	Advocate for the rights of persons with- disabilities in Government.

•	To mainstream the rights of persons with disabilities in Government programmes.

•	To develop and analyse policies on the rights of persons with disabilities.

•	To facilitate the delivery of services regarding the rights of persons with disabilities.

•	To network and liaise with local, national regional and international stakeholders, including civil society at local and national levels.

•	To promote and develop strategic disability focused research.

The new Department has amalgamated the functions of the OSW, aRC and OSDP. It is also more streamlined in its approach to the needs of the socially vulnerable groups under its mandate. The Department aims to achieve this through the housing of all three socially vulnerable groups and the dovetailing of policies and programmes as opposed to the offices which operated independently of each other. In terms of performance, the former offices had attained some successes. However, they were also severely constricted by the lack of adequate resourcing, both human and financial. In addition, despite being located in the highest office of the land, these offices failed to effectively execute their mandates with the requisite authority. As a result of the level at which staff within these offices were employed, they were not able to mandate departmental compliance with regard to mainstreaming. The new Department is therefore poised to become the driver of Government's strategic agenda in relation to women's empowerment and gender equality, children's rights and responsibilities and the rights and equality of persons with disabilities, provided that it is adequately resourced.

Budget Analysis

The Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities has four budgetary Programmes namely Administration, Women Empowerment and Gender Equality, Children's Rights and Responsibilities and Rights of People with Disabilities. It is imperative to monitor the progress of the new Department but given that it has only recently been established, it is not possible to compare budgetary increases or decreases with previous years' allocations. What will, however, be looked at is the expenditure/ allocations of the OSW, ORC and OSDP for 2009/10 and how these measure against the allocations for the above mentioned programmes focussing on women, children and persons with disabilities in 2010/11.

In the previous financial year the OSW, ORC and OSDP were still located within the Presidency under Programme 3: Executive Coordination. These offices were located within the GDC Cluster and for the period 2009/10 received a total of R14.9 million, constituting only 4.5 per cent of the Presidency's total budget.

However, despite the allocation of R14.9 million to the GDC Cluster, in briefings by the OSW, ORC and OSDP in June 2009, it was indicated that the following allocations were received by the various offices:

•	OSW - R2.3 million 

•	ORC - R2.4 million

•	OSDP - R2.3 million

It is not clear what the breakdown of the R14.9 million that was allocated in 2009/10 was. The offices had indicated that audited financial statements would be submitted to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Children and Persons with Disabilities for the period 2008/09, as well as additional information for the period 2009/10.Given the mandate and scope of these offices and the objectives they had been set to achieve, the allocation was concerning.

In a presentation on its budget and strategic plans to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Children and Persons with Disabilities, the Department indicated that its total budget for the period between 2010 and 2013 was set at R1.174 billion with the following proposed programmatic allocations for 2010/11:

Programme | Proposed allocation for 2010/11 as presented by Department in October 2009 | Actual Treasury allocation received for 2010/2011
Women Empowerment and Gender Equality | R 39.023 million | R 59 million 10
Children's Rights and Responsibilities | R32.012 million | R7 million
Rights of People with Disabilities | R25.114 million | R7 million
Administration | R217.614 million | R24 million
Inter-sectoral Coordination | R32.947 million |
Total | R 346.713 million | R97 million

It would appear from the above Treasury allocations that there is a vast difference between the Department's proposed allocations and the actual appropriation by treasury. Apart from the increase in the Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality Programme as a result of the transfer of the Commission for Gender Equality to this Department from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, the reasons for these increases and decreases in programme allocations are unclear at this point in time.

The Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities has received a total budget allocation of R97.8 million. This allocation constitutes 0.02 per cent of the total appropriation of all departmental votes, and is the smallest allocation of all the Votes. It is concerning that so little resources have been allocated to mainstreaming and integrating the rights of women, children and persons with disabilities, thus once again marginalising these already vulnerable groups. Thus despite the needs and rights of these groups being elevated to ministerial level, financial and human resource allocations indicate that they are still relegated to the bottom of the budget barrel.

In terms of economic classification, most of the Department's budget goes to Transfers and Subsidies (53 per cent), followed by Current Expenditure (40 per cent) and capital expenditure (7 per cent). All the transfer payments are made through the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Programme to a Chapter 9 institution, i.e. the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE).

In terms of its selected performance indicators, the Department did not provide any targets in 2010 for the mainstreaming of women, children and people with disabilities in provincial growth strategies, integrated development plans and implementation plans in both provinces and municipalities.

Programme 1: Administration

The purpose of Programme 1 is to provide effective leadership, management and administrative support services to the Minister and other branches in the Department. A total of R24.5 million has been allocated to this programme, constituting 25 per cent of the total budget appropriation. Most of this allocation will be spent through the Corporate Services (55 per cent) and Management (28 per cent) sub-programmes and will be primarily used to set up the new Department, which includes expenditure on recruitment of staff, capital expenditure for the renovation of premises, information technology infrastructure, operating and support systems for the new Minister and mandate implementation costs. Considering that this is a new Department which has to be established from scratch, this expenditure on Programme 1 may well be justifiable in this financial year. However, it is indicated that for the periods 2011/12 and 2012/13 this programme still receives approximately 23 per cent of the Department's annual budget. This projection is problematic given that it would be inappropriate for administrative costs to continue to consume the most significant proportion of the Department's resources.

Programme 2: Women Empowerment and Gender Equality

The purpose of programme 2 is to facilitate the translation of national and international instruments into empowerment and socio-economic development programmes, as well as to oversee and report comprehensively on the national realisation of women's rights and the progressive realisation of equality.

Objectives to be achieved under programme 2 focus on the empowerment of women by:

•	Mainstreaming women empowerment and gender equality considerations into governance processes at all three spheres of Government.

•	Developing and maintaining a monitoring and evaluation framework.

•	Adapting international and continental instruments into local gender equity initiatives.

•	Developing and managing Women empowerment and gender equality catalytic projects.

•	Facilitating public-private partnerships in the interests of women.

Programme 2 has been allocated a total of R58.9 million, constituting 60 per cent of the total budget. Upon initial inspection it would appea.r that Programme 2 has been disproportionally resourced in relation to programmes 3 and 4, which have only received R7.1 million each. However, upon closer scrutiny, it is evident that programme 2 has in fact received an almost similar allocation to the other two programmes. Of the R58.9 million allocated to Programme 2, R51.9 million (Le. 88 per cent of the programme budget) is taken up by transfer payments to the Commission for Gender Equality, leaving the programme with just over R7 million to achieve its objectives. This remaining R7 million amounts to 7.2 per cent of the total budget allocation. With strategic priorities and objectives such as adapting international and continental instruments into local gender equity initiatives and developing and managing women empowerment projects, it becomes debatable as to what the Department would be able to achieve with this limited allocation. Also, the Department mentions, but does not identify catalytic projects that it will undertake in this financial year. There is therefore no clear indication as to what exactly this entails. In her participation in the budget debate in June 2009, Minister Mayende-Sibiya indicated that the following strategic priorities are at the top of the Department's agenda:

•	Responding to the feminisation of poverty.

•	The creation of decent jobs and the economic empowerment of women.

•	Increasing the representation of women in positions of decision-making and management levels to 50%.

•	The eradication of violence against women.

In addition, the Minister also stated that an immediate deliverable of the Department was the establishment of a fund for women's empowerment aimed at enabling women to start their own businesses, as well as assisting NGOs and civil society in the undertaking of women empowerment programmes. However, following presentations by the Department on its strategic plan and budget, it has been indicated that given the financial resources allocated to the Department, the establishment of a new fund at this stage would not be feasible. The Department will work collaboratively with other Departments in this regard. It is not clear to what extent this fund has been established or what financial resources have or will be dedicated thereto. The strategic priorities and objectives as outlined in the ENE also do not match priorities relating to women as initially outlined by the Minister in June 2009.

The Commission on Gender Equality (CGE)

The Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) is an independent statutory body, established in terms of Section 187, Chapter 9 of the Constitution of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996. The powers and functions of the CGE are detailed in the Commission on Gender Equality Act 39 of 1996. In terms of Section 11 (1) of this Act, the CGE must fulfil the following mandatory obligations:

•	Monitor all organs of society to ensure that gender equality is respected, protected, developed and attained.

•	Assess all legislation from a gender perspective.

•	Conduct research and make recommendations to Parliament and other authorities.

•	Educate and inform the public through developing, conducting and managing education and information programs to foster public understanding on gender equality.

•	Investigate complaints on gender-related issues.

•	Monitor South Africa's progress towards gender equality and compliance with international norms.

•	Monitor and evaluate policies, practices of State organs, agencies and public bodies and private sector to promote equality and rights of women.

•	Liaise and interact with various institutions, bodies or authorities, as well as with civil society, to promote gender equality.

The CGE had previously been funded by transfer payments from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development under its Auxiliary and Associated Services Programme (Programme 5). A total of R48.3 million had been allocated to the CGE for the period 2009/10. However it is not clear how these funds were spent in relation to the CGE's constitutional mandate and the impact that it had on protecting the rights of women. It is not clear how the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has monitored the financial management and service delivery performance of the CGE, and whether the Department had ensured that this money was accounted for as it should. In addition no annual report was tabled for the Commission against which to measure progress and expenditure. Both the Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities and President Zuma in his State of the Nation Address have stressed monitoring and evaluation as a priority, and it will be important to ensure that the new Department holds the CGE accountable for it's financial and service delivery performance. It further needs to ensure that it complies with all the reporting requirements of the Public Finance Management Act and Treasury Regulations in terms of submission of reports such as annual reports and strategic plans.

Reference is made in the Estimates of National Expenditure of CGE service delivery targets that have been met between 2006 and 2009, however very little information on the period 2009/10 is highlighted. Once again, the lack of an annual report for the period 2007/08 and 2008/09 as well as no strategic plan; makes it difficult to measure and compare expenditure. It is also indicated that over the next three years transfer payments to the CGE will continue to take up half of the Department's budget. In this regard, it becomes crucially important that the Department develop monitoring mechanisms as soon as possible and also intervenes to ensure that the CGE reports as it should and that it's budget is efficiently spent.

Programme 3: Children's Rights and Responsibilities

The purpose of Programme 3 over the MTEF period is to ensure the realisation of children's rights and responsibilities by:

•	Providing leadership and support for planning, coordination, oversight and comprehensive reporting in the national children's rights and responsibilities programme.

•	Developing and maintaining a children's rights and responsibilities monitoring and evaluation framework.

•	Developing and managing catalytic projects for children's rights and responsibilities.

•	Facilitating public-private partnerships in the interests of children.

•	Participating in sectoral coordination and in national children's rights forums.

A total of R7.1 million has been allocated to this programme, constituting 7.3 per cent of the Department's budget. The Department has identified the following catalytic projects for the period 2009-2014

•	A comprehensive national Early Childhood Development (ECD) Programme to facilitate 75% reach of ECD, especially in rural, farm and poor communities.

•	Eradication of 75% of the street! begging children phenomenon through the establishment of sustainable systems for rehabilitation, reintegration into family and community life and the institutionalisation of preventative measures.

•	Strengthening of HIV and AIDS, gender and disabilities-related child rights, as well as safety on long distance travel to schools 

In terms of the identified catalytic projects, it is unclear how the Department decided on these priorities or how it plans to deliver on them given its limited resources. Notwithstanding this, in terms of a focus on ECD, the Expanded Public Works Programme, along with the Departments of Social Development and Education, are playing an integral role in the establishment of ECD sites and training of ECD facilitators. The Department should therefore clarify how it will be working in synergy with existing initiatives as opposed to duplicating them.

Furthermore, in addition to children living on the street, there is a need to establish how the decision was made to invest resources into this group of children as opposed to children exposed to other kinds of vulnerability. In South Africa, there are many children living in different contexts of vulnerability such as children living in dire conditions of poverty in the context of HIV and AIDS. In addition, many vulnerable children are also exposed to domestic violence as revealed in the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Children and Persons with Disabilities' public hearings in October 2009, yet there are no catalytic projects which address these issues. The Department needs to therefore demonstrate how, within the context of exceptionally limited resources, it engaged in a cost-benefit analysis to determine which groups of socially vulnerable children to focus on and how this fits into a five-year vision in this regard.

Given the above proposed projects as well as the broader objectives determined by the Department under this programme, it is doubtful whether the appropriated funds will be adequate. There are approximately 18.3 million children 13 living in South Africa. The allocated budget of R7.1 million for the children's programme amounts to an expenditure of R2.65 per child in South Africa. Although the needs of children are also addressed by numerous other service delivery departments such as Health, Social Development and Education, it is disconcerting to note that the programme responsible for the mainstreaming and coordination of children's rights has received 0.01 per cent of the country's budget, bringing into question the authority that the new Department holds in terms of implementation, oversight and monitoring and evaluation of children's rights.

Programme 4: Rights of People with Disabilities

Programme 4 is aimed at strengthening strategic leadership and management of the national and international instruments for the realisation of the rights of persons with disabilities and aims to ensure the progressive realisation of the rights of persons with disabilities over the MTEF period by:

•	Reviewing and facilitating amendments to policies and legislation with the potential to advance the rights of persons with disabilities.

•	Developing and maintaining a monitoring and evaluation framework for the rights of persons with disabilities.

•	Adapting continental and international instruments on persons with disabilities into local initiatives.

•	Developing and managing catalytic projects for the rights and responsibilities of persons with disabilities in line with constitutional and international mandates.

•	Facilitating public-private partnerships in the interests of persons with disabilities.

•	Coordinating and participating in forums on the rights of persons with disabilities regionally and internationally.

Similar to Programme 3, this programme has received an allocation of R7.1 million, most (42.8 per cent) of which will be spent on mainstreaming and capacity building. Persons with disabilities are among the most marginalised in South African society, and given that targets relating to the mainstreaming and empowerment of this socially vulnerable group remain unmet, concerted efforts and dedicated resources are needed to ensure their inclusion in all Government programmes and policies. The 2007 Community Survey indicates that there are an estimated 1.9 million people living with some or other form of disability in South Africa. This constitutes approximately 4 per cent of the total population.

Most Government departments have failed to attain the required 2% employment equity target for persons with disabilities, which the previous OSDP was responsible for monitoring. Minister Mayende-Sibiya has indicated that the Department would take on the challenge of meeting the existing disability targets. as well as finalising the Draft National Disability

13 Statistics South Africa, 2007 Community Survey

Policy. The Department has not been clear on specific programmes and projects aimed at empowering persons with disabilities and expenditure related hereto.

General

In total, 22 per cent of the Department's budget has been allocated to the programmes for women, children and persons with disabilities, with the remainder being spent on administration and transfer payments to the CGE. Although allocations have trebled from what was previously allocated under the OSW, ORC and OSDP, these allocations are still inadequate. In terms of improving the functioning and outputs from what had been achieved under these previous offices, much more resources would need to be made available. If the key challenges impeding the previous offices from delivering on their mandates were those related to inadequate human and financial resources, it is questionable whether the situation has improved taking into account the limited financial resources and human resource capacity of the new Department For the period 2010/2011 a total of R10 million has been allocated for human resources and the compensation of employees. Furthermore it is of concern that there appears to be little follow-through of the work undertaken by the previous offices. The Department does not make any mention in its strategic plan of continuing projects that had been initiated and driven by the previous offices in the Presidency.

In its strategic framework presented to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Children and Persons with Disabilities in October 200915 the Department indicated that it has a national, provincial and local government responsibility, and that the subsuming of the OSW, ORC and OSDP also includes the absorption of their provincial offices. It is not clear at this point how the Department proposes to manage its provincial and local government competencies, i.e. whether provincial departments or local offices will be established. It therefore remains concerning and questionable as to what the Department will be able to achieve with the budget as allocated.

Considering the scope and objectives of the Ministry and the target groups it is responsible for, it is concerning that it has received the smallest allocation of all ministries. This can be interpreted as highlighting Government's level of commitment to mainstreaming and equality.

Key Issues for Consideration by Parliament

There are a number of key issues that Parliament must engage with when considering the budget of the Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities. The first would be to interrogate the reasons for the Department receiving the allocation it has, particularly considering that it had indicated a proposed budget of R346 million 16 for the period 2010/11. Related to this, is the Department's expenditure on setting up costs and the compensation of employees which appear to consume the bulk of the appropriated budget after transfers to the CGE, leaving very little funds for the delivery of services related to the departmental mandate.

It is also important that the relevant parliamentary committees, i.e. the Portfolio and Select Committees on Women, Youth, Children and Persons with Disabilities, scrutinise the proposed programmes and outputs of the Department. The Committee also needs to get clarity on how the Department will work and interact with other departments, particularly as there are indications that the Department has national, provincial and local competencies. This entails a focus on outcomes as a performance measure as propagated by the new ministries on Planning and Monitoring and Evaluation.

The Department has indicated that compliance with regional and international obligations relating to women, children and persons with disabilities is a priority. This is a particular area for Parliament to monitor. South Africa has signed but not yet ratified the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. In terms of instruments relating to children, it is not clear what the status of the third country report on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is, or when this report will be presented to Cabinet and lodged at the United Nations. Similarly the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol to which South Africa is signatory, required the delivery of a country report in 2010.

Given the limited disaggregated data on women, children and persons with disabilities, the Department's commitment to the development of indicators and systems for collecting data is another priority which needs to be monitored. Clear outputs and timeframes must be indicated by the Department.

Parliament should also take cognisance of the strategic priorities and outputs of the Department and the CGE as it relates to women's empowerment and gender equality. It should also be noted that although there are similarities in some of the functions of the CGE and the Department as they relate to gender equality, caution should be taken to ensure that the CGE does not actually take over the functions ascribed to the Department or vice versa as this would lead not only to duplication of work, but also unnecessary expenditure of funds.

Progress on the development of the Women's Empowerment Fund and the National Disability Policy need to be indicated. Financial implications related hereto also need to be clearly outlined by the Department.

Given the vast scope of the Department's mandate, it is questionable whether it will be able to attain its goals in relation to their target groups with the resources provided. There is thus a need Parliament to oversee and ensure that similar resource allocations are not made to the Department next year. The Department must submit concrete plans with clear budgets to Treasury so that this does not happen again.

Research Unit I Budget 2010: Vote 7: Department for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities

References:

Abrahams, K, (2009) Office on the Rights of the Child: Review of Annual Report 2007/08, Research Unit, Parliament of South Africa, Cape Town, January 2009

Abrahams, K, (2009) Office on the Status of Disabled Persons: Review of Annual Report 2007/08, Research Unit, Parliament of South Africa, Cape Town, January 2009

Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities, (2009) Briefing by the Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities to Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Children And Persons With Disabilities, 14 October 2009

Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities, (2009) Briefing by the Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities to Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Children And Persons With Disabilities, 08 April 2010

Minister for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities (2009) Address to the National Assembly, Parliament of South Africa, Cape Town, 24 June 2004

National Treasury (2009) Estimates of National Expenditure

National Treasury (2010) Estimates of National Expenditure - Vote 7: Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities.

Portfolio Committee On Women, Youth, Children And Persons With Disabilities (2009) Briefing by the Office on the Rights of the Child, Office on the Status of Disabled Persons and the Office on the Status of Women on strategic plans and budget for financial year 2009/10, Minutes of Proceedings, 17 June 2009.

Statistics South Africa (2008) Community Survey 2007

The Presidency (2009) A concept paper towards strengthening the institutional mechanisms for advancing women's empowerment and gender equality in South Africa by the addition of a Women's Ministry, Submitted by Minister in the Presidency, 19 March 2009

Research Unit I Budget 2010: Vote 7: Department for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities