Budlender, D., 1998, The South African Women's Budget Initiative, New Delhi: Management, Development and Governance Division of The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Should the government budget take into account the differences between men and women? Rather than proposing a separate budget for women, the Women's Budget Initiative, implemented in South Africa, argues that the government should allocate resources in a way that balances out the different burdens and advantages that men and women experience in their everyday lives. This paper presents some aspects of the South African experience. It describes the methodology used for the gender budget analysis, covering expenditures specifically targeted on gender lines, expenditures which promote gender equity and mainstream expenditures. It provides a theoretical framework and suggests some alternatives to reprioritise resource allocation, especially in education, public works programmes, excessive government expenditure and defence. Several alliances, especially between parliamentarians and non-governmental organisations, have contributed to the success of this experience, which can be replicated in other countries.

The Women's Budget Initiative (WBI) in South Africa is introduced - the idea, rationale, theoretical approach and political background. The main part of the book examines how core government programmes influence the lives of women compared to men, and provides statistics about the disadvantaged position of women in South Africa. The economic impact of the gender division of labour on women is explored and related to budget decisions in the areas of work, welfare, housing, education, public service and taxation.

This book can be purchased from Idasa directly, or alternatively, this book is available from Women, Ink. Please see Networking and Contact details for more information.

Budlender, D. (ed.), 1999, The Second Women's Budget, Cape Town: Idasa

New developments in the South African government structure and procedures are highlighted, in particular the establishment of its gender machinery and budget reform processes. A review is made of thinking on gender-sensitive economic policy, with proposals made on how and where to engender the budget process. The second part of the book gives detailed analyses of the budget votes of the departments of Health, Land Affairs and Agriculture, Safety and Security, Justice and Correctional Services, Transport, Energy and Home Affairs, for their different impacts on women and men.

This book can be purchased from Idasa directly, or alternatively, this book is available from Women, Ink. Please see Networking and Contact details for more information.

Budlender, D. (ed.), 1998, The Third Women's Budget, Cape Town: Idasa

Three introductory chapters review the state of flux in the social and political context of South Africa, current budgetary policy, planning and reform processes, further developments in the gender machinery, and developments in the Women's Budget Initiative itself. A framework is given for understanding gender equity considerations in the system of intergovernmental fiscal relations, with the recognition that in such a decentralised system detailed analyses of provincial and local government budgets as well as national budgetary allocations are vital. Four government departments under the direction of the Minister of Finance have their budgets analysed from a gender perspective. The remainder of the book focuses on specific analyses of the budget votes of government ministries for their likely gender impact. These cover: Public Works; Public Enterprise; Communications; Arts; Culture; Science and Technology; Sport and Recreation; Constitutional Development; Defence; Water Affairs and Forestry; and Environmental Affairs and Tourism (i.e. those votes not previously analysed in the First and Second Women's Budget books). Finally, the budget votes for Parliament, the Offices of the President and Deputy President, the South African Communication Services and the nine premiers are assessed. The volume concludes with recommendations for further research on local government and on the influence of donors on gender-sensitive budgeting.

This book can be purchased from Idasa directly, or alternatively, this book is available from Women, Ink. Please see Networking and Contact details for more information.

Budlender, D. (ed.), 1997, The Fourth Women's Budget, Cape Town: Idasa

Do women fully benefit from the spending on local government services? This fourth Women's Budget makes a shift to examining the local government level in South Africa. It examines whether and how services are provided, what spending is prioritised, and the impact of revenue-raising and spending on women, men, girls and boys in five different municipalities. Whilst services at the local level have the potential to lighten the load of women's unpaid and domestic labour, and generally make their life easier, not all of the municipalities studied were able to provide even basic services to everyone. Despite some progress in incorporating gender equality concerns into local government and its spending priorities, delays in providing essential services such as water, sanitation, electricity, refuse disposal, roads and transportation to rural areas have particularly affected poor women and their dependants. In addition, the book includes an analysis of job creation and a chapter analysing donor funding to government from a gender perspective.

Five diverse municipalities (out of 840) were examined, carefully chosen to reflect large and small, rural and urban, ex-homeland and metropolitan areas. As sectors involving significant expenditure and/or having strong gender implications, the researchers focused in on water, sanitation, electricity, and refuse removal in Lusikisiki, Greater Middelburg, Port Elizabeth, Greater Lebowakgomo and Cape Town. The gender analysis of the budgets involved examination of gender-specific spending, equal opportunity or affirmative action spending, and the bulk of the remaining spending (sometimes called "mainstream" spending). The analysis of local government budgets is hampered by a number of factors, including the complexity of the relationship between levels of government, including shared responsibilities for service delivery with other government spheres (district council, provincial or national department).

Findings included:

• Significant steps had been made by some municipalities to incorporate gender equality concerns into local government and its spending priorities (such as in Port Elizabeth, and in focusing funds on water and pre-schools in Lusiksiki).
• In rural areas, where poverty tends to be worse, local government is more likely to be underdeveloped and the costs of delivering services are much higher.
• Poorer municipalities were endeavouring to deliver a core set of services but not reaching all citizens. In Lusikisiki there were no refuse removal services, with a likely impact on health expenditure (and women's time spent on caring for sick family members).
• Wealthier municipalities were able to offer a wider range of services, which would be luxuries to the poorer municipalities.
• Despite a commitment to equality in delivery of services, race issues have sidelined gender equality concerns in Cape Town. More focus on providing bright street lighting could make the streets safer for women and reduce the high incidence of rape.
• A general need for local government to consult women more on their priorities was identified.

This book can be purchased from Idasa directly, or alternatively, this book is available from Women, Ink. Please see Networking and Contact details for more information.

For further details on the factors that hamper the analysis of local government budgets in South Africa see BRIDGE's 'Gender and Budgets Overview Report' in this Cutting Edge Pack.

Diop-Tine, N., 2002, 'Rwanda: Translating government commitments into action', in Budlender, D. and G. Hewitt (eds), Gender Budgets Make More Cents: Country Studies and Good Practice, London: Commonwealth Secretariat

In the context of post-genocide re-construction, the Rwandan Government of National Unity and Reconciliation has made a commitment to tackling gender imbalances through its National Gender Policy and Gender Plan of Action. The Rwandan GBI is located in the gender ministry of the government and focuses on examining existing policy frameworks such as the PRSP, the Medium Term Economic Framework (MTEF) and Rwanda's national plan 'Vision 2020'. Initial planning for the GBI was undertaken in preliminary workshops held by the gender ministry with key figures from the finance ministry, line ministries and women's organisations. Discussions with these stakeholders are to be continued throughout the initiative. Training workshops were then held for officers in the ministry of finance and line ministries, and for non-governmental organisations and local government officers. A pilot phase from 2002-2004 will concentrate on selected ministries such as Agriculture, Education, and Water and Energy. Government officers will be provided with regular assistance in the engendering of the budget in their ministry. Strengths of the Rwandan initiative include a strong political will, gender awareness of staff in ministries, leadership of the gender ministry and strong collaboration between the Ministry of Gender and the Ministry of Finance. However, problems of limited capacity and expertise and high staff turnover in ministries remain.

Mullagee, F., Nyman, R., Budlender, D. and Newman, N., 2001, 'Developmental social welfare: who benefits, who pays?', Cape Town: Idasa

The concept of "developmental social welfare" (DSW) is a key component of the South African welfare department's policy on budgeting for poverty relief. It is an approach that emphasises implementation and sustainability of poverty relief programmes, building capacity and participation among beneficiaries, and involving civil society groups. This paper, from the sixth year of the South African Women's Budget Initiative, outlines the results of a gender analysis of two case studies that use DSW for poverty relief funds. The first is of two "Flagship" programmes - income-generating initiatives for unemployed women with children under five years of age. One involves making handicrafts to sell to tourists and local consumers in urban areas, and the other is small farming of a community garden site in a rural area. Although neither Flagship programme was generating income at the time this paper was written, the community farming project had resulted in increased empowerment of the women due to their earning of wages. They had not valued their work in the home as it is unpaid.

The second case study, "Working for Water", is of a public works project which is seeking to reach a quota of 60 per cent women in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF). The project has targeted individuals in female-headed households, introducing services such as provision of childcare for workers. Since the participants and beneficiaries in this project are employees of a government department and therefore received a fixed income, the programme has proved more sustainable than the "Flagship" programmes.

Although DSW has the potential to combine income generation with skills training, procedures and systems must be in place to run these projects adequately. The "Flagship" programmes have illustrated that the timescale of how long it takes to actually begin generating income must be understood by all at the beginning of the project and strategies need to be developed for what to do should the project fail to generate income. External monitoring systems must also be in place to ensure budgets are spent correctly and that labour standards are being upheld.

Klugman, B. and McIntyre, D., 2000, 'From policy, through budgets, to implementation: delivering quality health care services', paper written for the South African Women's Budget Initiative

What are the issues that must be addressed in the analysis of a sectoral budget? How can national, provincial and local budgets be linked to achieve better policy-making and implementation? This paper from the South African Women's Budget Initiative shows how gendered budget research can throw up important information on policy-making and implementation in the health sector. The research was conducted through workshops and interviews with government officials, government and health researchers, and representatives of the South African Local Government Association. The different perspectives of the various interviewees provided important contrasts and insights on how the relationships between people at different levels affects health service delivery. The establishment of how national, provincial and local policy-making could be linked was a key factor, as was whether all people's knowledge and experiences were being taken into account in decision-making or whether it was primarily a "top down" approach. Key findings included:

There was an overwhelming quantity of new policy to implement and a consequent lack of time for consultation.

• Local authorities were marginalised and lacked sufficient financial management capacity.
• Health worker morale and attitudes were a significant factor in the quality of health service delivery indicating the need for a coherent human resource strategy.
• The importance of an awareness of resource implications among policy-makers was identified along with the need for health managers to know more about the budget process.
• Greater empowerment at the local level and better communication between levels must be achieved.
• Realistic assessment of spending capacity given current funds is essential

Krug, B. and van Staveren, I., 2001, 'Gender audit: whim or voice', Women in Development Europe paper

How can monitoring of the budget expose gender discrimination, even in supposedly "neutral" sectors such as transport and energy? This paper, writing about the South African context, argues that women need to be part of the process by which governments are held to their policy commitments. However, discrimination does not only occur when governments fail to meet these commitments. Sometimes state activities have hidden consequences for women, which need to be uncovered through analysis. This paper shows the importance of looking at sector budgets such as energy and transport that are assumed to be "gender-neutral", as well as health and education. For example in the case of the energy budget, where the largest consumer of energy, namely private households, does not appear in analysis of the energy sector, which focuses instead on electricity. In the domestic context, electricity is often limited to a few purposes due to its price - gas, paraffin, and wood collected from forests being used instead. The focus of the energy budget thus caters overwhelmingly to the needs of the commercial sector and factors such as enclosure and increased privatisation - which mean higher time and monetary costs for women - are not reflected in energy budgets or policy. Likewise in the transport sector, urban transport and road construction take up most of the transport budget, with public transport designed for the eight-hour-day worker in terms of routes and timetables. This fails to take into consideration the needs of women, who are often employed in agriculture, shift work or caring roles. A gender analysis would point not only to the differing needs of and constraints on women's and men's lives and productive roles, but would also help to expose the inefficiency of existing allocations which may well not be adequately reaching their constituents. The paper concludes that a re-allocation of resources following gender analysis could lead to an improvement in overall wellbeing.

Mukama, R. (ed.), The Gender Budget 1998/99, Kampala: Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE)

What does a gender budget analysis look like? FOWODE in Uganda has completed the first phase of its Gender Budget Project, which examines the differential impact of Uganda's budget on women and men, girls and boys. This book is an account of this first phase, which concentrates on an analysis of the 1998/1999 budget in three sectors - agriculture, education and health. FOWODE's initiative aims to transform the budget-making process to achieve greater equality between men and women, and contribute to poverty alleviation. This initiative also assesses the extent to which the budget meets the needs of people with disabilities. The results have been used to lobby parliamentarians during the 1999/2000 budget debate (summary based on write-up on book cover).

Please contact FOWODE for more information about this publication. Please see Networking and Contact details for their contact information.

Sharp, R. and Broomhill, R., 2002, 'Budgeting for equality: the Australian experience' Feminist Economics Vol 8 No 1: 25-47

This article is available in full with the kind permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd:
(For subscribing to Feminist Economics see: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/routledge/13545701.html)

How sustainable are gender budget initiatives located inside government? In 1984 feminists in the women's policy machinery launched the first and longest-running gender budget initiative in the Australian federal government. Whilst there was a degree of success on each of the three interrelated goals of the initiative, the constraints on achieving these goals highlight the contradictions and dangers of a solely inside-government initiative. One goal was to make governments accountable for their commitments to gender equality. There was success in developing better progress indicators and data. However, the initiative was most effective when monitoring the policies and legislation in the government policy statement on women. The failure of initiatives to engage civil society groups, including by making results accessible, meant a lack of external pressure to hold government to account. Another goal was to change the budget and policies to further gender equality. During the main activity of the initiatives (1985-1996) expenditures on areas of significance to women grew substantially. However, progress was constrained by the political nature of the budget process in the context of shifts to a more conservative government and the introduction of neo-liberal economic policies. The article concludes that whilst the government has moved away from formal gender budget exercises, the goals are still a priority for women's policy units, community groups and researchers.

Budgets are fundamentally political exercises. Politically, the task involves nurturing the remaining influence feminists still have within the structures of the state while building stronger commitment and support within the community for developing economic policies that radically address the challenging task of transforming gender relations in Australian society. p44

Budlender, D., Buenaobra, M., Rood, S. and Sol Sadorra, M. (eds), 2001, Gender Budget Trail: The Philippine Experience, Philippines: The Asia Foundation

What progress has been made by the Philippine's GBI since its start in the late 1990s? This research funded by the Asia Foundation examines the national and municipal levels. In particular it looks at progress of the government's gender budget directive which states that 5 per cent of budgets must be allocated to the promotion of gender equality. The vagueness of the directive and its status as a memorandum (rather than a legal directive) has meant only one third of national government agencies have implemented this gender and development (GAD) budget allocation. The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), one of the lead agencies in assisting the implementation of GAD budgeting, is significantly under-resourced given a remit covering 334 agencies and 1,700 local governments. The authors recommend that the Ministry of Finance takes a lead role to ensure greater compliance with the GAD allocation and that more resources are devoted to planning government activities which promote gender equality.

(Summary based on review in the Association for Women in Development [AWID] Resource Net: Friday File, issue 64)

Please contact The Asia Foundation for more information about this publication. Please see Networking and Contact details for their contact details.

Flor, C. and Lizares-Si, A., 2002, 'The Philippines: getting smart with local budgets [Level 1]', in Budlender, D. and G. Hewitt (eds), Gender Budgets Make More Cents, London: Commonwealth Secretariat

How can gender budget work be conducted at the local level? One way is to design projects where civil society organisations work closely with local governments in a mutually beneficial arrangement. The initiative in the City of Bacolod in the Philippines is an example of where the budgetary know-how of government officials is used by an NGO in return for GAD input and training. In this project the NGO, Development Through Active Women Networking Foundation (DAWN) has analysed both the GAD element of the budget and the budget as a whole, including functions, objectives, activities and decision-making of departmental programmes, and has made suggestions to government officials in the light of this analysis. DAWN's research, funded by the Asia Foundation (TAF) was planned in regular workshops which included games, exercises and role playing, introducing the tools that would be used for the analysis. Research was then conducted through reviewing the relevant documentation, focus group discussions and interviews with government officials (within budget planning and other departmental roles), civil society leaders and village heads. The final report's recommendations included the importance of looking at the interconnectedness of the departments and their budgets, and the need to introduce gender and development considerations into additional key departments such as those responsible for data gathering, Human Resource Management Services, and the Police Command. A further result of the project has been that the capacity built in the research process itself has increased the experience and confidence of DAWN in conducting advocacy work more generally.

See also Goetz and Jenkins on accountability processes in India and VeneKlasen on budget advocacy in Indonesia in the section on Advocacy, Participatory Processes and Accountability, and the chapter on Korea in Gender Budgets Make More Cents.

Senapaty, M., 2000, Government of India Budget 2000-2001 and Gender, London: Commonwealth Secretariat, paper presented at the Inter-Agency Workshop on Improving the Effectiveness of Integrating Gender into Government Budgets

The Government of India's Budget 2000-2001 was presented by the Finance Minister on February 29, 2000. This paper presents the first step towards a gender-sensitive analysis of the budget. The paper categorises Government of India's (GOI) latest Budget 2000-2001 in terms of (a) budget allocations exclusively for women, (b) provisions made in the annual budgets of Ministries and Departments containing sub-components on women, and (c) expenditures by Ministries on general services available to both men and women with no specific focus on women. The budget allocation exclusively focussed on women constitute only one per cent of the total Government of India Budget, but there are schemes that have sub-components for women. Overall the general budget still needs to be disaggregated in terms of the impact of resource allocation on men and women. A comprehensive analysis on this issue would, however, also require a detailed analysis of budgets of all Ministries/Departments at all levels of government and impact of their programmes on both men and women.

Díaz, D., Sánchez-Hidalgo, D., Freyermuth, G. and Castañeda, M A., 2002, 'Maternal mortality: an unresolved problem' ('La mortalidad materna: un problema sin resolver'), Mexico City: FUNDAR

This case study provides an example of the results of a gender budget analysis on a key indicator of social inequality - maternal mortality. The report analyses health budget allocations on this issue in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, which have the highest rate of maternal mortality in the country. Maternal mortality is closely related to issues of access to health care and emergency services and yet published accounts from the Department of Health in 2002 did not include maternal mortality in its indicators. Research conducted by FUNDAR examined the extent of maternal mortality and related it to expenditure and effectiveness of different programmes dealing with maternal mortality. A detailed breakdown of the budgets exposed the need for an increase in expenditure on second level care (typically in a hospital setting) and better access to emergency services and blood banks. It also pointed to the need to achieve better coverage of the populations targeted by the programmes dealing with maternal mortality. The research also highlighted that, despite scarce resources, the Mexican government has been able to allocate additional money to issues that are not necessarily social priorities. It points to the fact that, if women's health is to be considered a priority issue, money can and has to be re-allocated.

Pearl, R., 2002, 'The Andean region: a multi-country programme', in Budlender, D. and G. Hewitt, Gender Budgets Make More Cents: Country Studies and Good Practice, London: Commonwealth Secretariat

UNIFEM-Andean Region has facilitated this multi-country gender-responsive budget initiative at the municipal level in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. This is a time of increasing decentralisation in the region, with associated mechanisms for citizen participation, municipal accountability and transparency. This chapter outlines the experiences of four research initiatives, which discovered the lack of attention paid to gender in the budget processes. In Villa El Salvador (Peru) researchers analysed the ten-year development plan from a gender perspective. They also analysed the proportion of women's work and time use in municipal services. In the Glass of Milk Programme for example, women's unpaid work was equal to 20 per cent of the total programme budget. In La Paz (Bolivia) the Popular Participation Law that requires citizen involvement in policy decisions provided a useful entry point. In Quito (Ecuador) researchers found that only one of the eight zones of the municipality explicitly incorporated gender within the budget process. Lessons learnt from this cross-country initiative include: initiatives should start with a review of gender inequities and women's needs; civil society partners should be involved from the start; engaging and training civil servants from the beginning is crucial; civil society should follow up using measures such as vigilance committees; and a political climate whereby government is open to inputs from outside is necessary.

Sugiyama, N. B., 2002, Gendered Budget Work in the Americas: Selected Country Experiences, Austin: University of Texas

Integrating gender into budgetary debate cannot only yield better information and analysis of a budget's impacts, but can also serve as a tool to advocate for more equitable public policies. Researchers and advocates in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Chile have attempted to influence the debate around policy priorities and to assess the impact of government spending on women and girls, men and boys. The methods included analysing municipal expenditures and using the media to highlight the invisibility of women in the budget. Most projects have responded to opportunities brought about by greater democratic openings, decentralisation, the rise of new forms of direct citizen participation, and the better integration of gender concerns in government. Organisations and researchers profiled in this study had to familiarise themselves with budget documents, understand and decide on a methodological approach and build strategic partnerships to ensure that they had budget and gender analysis skills to draw on. This paper describes initiatives in four countries as well as outlining lessons learnt from these experiences and barriers to future work.

See Tools, Guidelines and Training Materials for the San Francisco work on gender budgets and CEDAW.