THEME: Financing for Gender Equality

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THEME Financing for Gender Equality

• Dr. Jacinta Muteshi
• The Sixth African Development Forum (ADF VI)
• Action on gender equality, empowerment and ending
  violence against women in Africa
• 19-21 November 2008
• United Nations Conference Centre
• Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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Introduction Outline

• Raise comment on several issues related to
  financing for gender equality and womens
  empowerment
• What are the commitments that have been adopted
  by African countries on financing for gender
  equality and womens empowerment
• What actions have been done to meet these
  commitments/declarations
• What has worked well with regards to financing
  for gender equality and womens
  empowermentachievements, good or effective
  practices?
• What have been the challenges/obstacles and
  constraints facing financing for gender equality
  and womens empowerment?
• What needs to be done to address these gaps? What
  lessons can be drawn for the future?

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Introduction

• Domestic and external resource flows are the
  critical inputs into all development processes
• Development
• What is the nature of development sought?
• What social, economic, political frameworks will
  underpin?
• Control over and benefits from resources
  generated by development
• Thus it matters what/how resources are delivered
• GE/WE dimensions _at_ centre of deliberated
  frameworks
• Tools and techniques of gender mainstreaming key
  to improving resource delivery and resource
  management

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What are the commitments?

• The language of GE/WE has entered global,
  regional and national discussions of development
  practice
• AU commitment to assisting member states to
  address Gender equality Art 4 (1)
• In 2004 AU member states re-affirm commitment in
  Solemn Declaration on Gender equality in Africa
• Several key commitments Protocol to Africa
  Charter on Human rights-Rights of Women in
  Africa, CEDAW, Beijing Platform for Action, MDGs
• Commitments mean African governments take on
  core responsibility and obligation to incorporate
  gender perspectives into design, development,
  adoption, execution of all budgetary processes
• Donors have also established global commitments
  to support effectiveness of aid
• Will require that GE/WE be an explicit
  essential component for the delivery of the
  development effectiveness agenda

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Actions taken to meet commitments/declarations

• Most common actions
• Several countries eliminating disadvantages in
  law legal changes to conform with treaties
• Capacity development to re-educate arms of
  governments to re-invent practices of
  institutions to promote GE
• Creation of national gender machinery to support
  gender main streaming
• Compensating for shortcomings in patriarchal
  institutions e.g. specific funds for womens
  interests
• Public education to change mores and beliefs
• Integration of womens concerns into sector or
  national development plans especially where pay
  off is clear (education, health)
• We have irrefutable evidence that income support
  for poor households likely to be spent on meeting
  basic household needs if it is controlled by
  women and is therefore likely to be an effective
  poverty reduction strategy.
• We have also known for decades that the
  education of women has strong inter-generational
  human development benefits in both the
  educational attainment of their children and in
  health, nutrition and family welfare outcomes.
• We also know improved health, sanitation and
  better care of children depends on reducing the
  burden on poor women associated with inadequate
  water, housing and transport services (AWID
  2008)

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Actions taken to meet commitments/declarations

• Some countries consider gender in budgets
  triggering processes for gender responsiveness in
  public expenditures.
• Several African countries have adopted Women
  Budget initiatives or gender responsive
  budgeting to accelerate gender equality and
  pro-poor, equitable development.
• Good practice examples Tanzania, South Africa,
  Mozambique, Uganda

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Financing for gender equality What has been
effective?

• Where there is
• sustained action by gender equality advocates
• Investment in womens analytical capacity
• Policy makers gender analysis skills
• Donor support
• Financial support for advocacy and gender-based
  capacities as part of budget discussion and
  analysis.
• GE/WE incorporated into national planning
  documents
• Earmarking of budgets to address identified GE/WE
  issues
• Provision of M/E tools for public policy and
  programmes

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Financing for gender equality Challenges Faced

• The language of GE/WE has not deeply permeated
  conceptual thinking and interventions of
  development practice
• Dominant macro-economic models overemphasize
  growth but the wealth generated does not benefit
  the poor.
• A pattern of decreased social spending, tight
  fiscal policies privatization of state-owned
  enterprises and services have had
  disproportionate negative consequences for the
  poor, especially women.
• In many places where either government
  infrastructure has completely broken down, such
  as in conflict zones, or is increasingly becoming
  privatized no services or increased costs of
  existing services are taking them out of reach of
  the poor.
• The institutions that are mandated to carry out
  these economic growth models and development
  policies are criminally gender blind, often
  corrupt and unaccountable...to their primary
  stakeholder, the public (Aruna, 2008).
• Current financial crisis current responses
  exclusionary, outside UN, Regional bodies,
  re-directs energies away from addressing what is
  sustainable accountable to majority

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Financing for gender equality Challenges faced

• Analytical work illuminates the following
• Lukewarm political commitment to gender equality
  will translate into reduced financial support for
  womens empowerment
• National development strategies do not often draw
  sufficiently on existing expertise about gender
  and womens issues thus jeopardizing development
  goals
• National policies are rarely managed for gender
  equality results thus undermining their
  effectiveness particularly for increasingly
  vulnerable women and men the elderly, youth and
  those with disabilities.
• Where gender equality is not an explicit priority
  it becomes excluded from funding agendas and
• When CSOs and womens rights organizations are
  not strong, independent and well resourced there
  are fewer meaningful possibilities of citizens
  being able to hold their public officials
  accountable for their national, regional and
  international commitments to gender equality.
• Where we do not focus on total national budgets
  we narrowly limit ourselves to only explicitly
  identifiable womens allocations and thus the
  gendered nature of our lives is not addressed
  not recognized
• What possible confidence could one have in the
  effectiveness of development planning, strategies
  and processes to promote wealth creation,
  alleviate inequalities, increase growth,
  accelerate the achievement of our development
  goals and reduce poverty?

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Financing for gender equality Challenges faced

• A financing gap for interventions to promote
  gender equality and womens empowerment is
  undermining commitments
• Decreasing support for womens rights
  organizations by all sectors of funders
• Dependence of GE/WE interventions on external
  funding
• Gender mainstreaming in some cases led to cutting
  back of GE specialists and women specific
  programmes
• Shift in bilateral funds towards government, away
  from NGOs
• Political forces, agendas, ideologies
  neo-liberalism, religious fundamentalism,
  militarism constrain and change direction of
  resources
• Inadequate resources To realize MDG3 by 2015
  requires resources in range of 25-28 billion
  annually in low income countries
• (AWID, 2006)

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Financing for gender equality Why is it not
working?

• Few/negligible resources to promote GE/WE
  allocated to sectors important in achieving
  GE/WE sustainable agriculture, rural
  infrastructure and finance sectors
• Absence of monitoring the channeling and
  allocation of domestic/aid resources focused on
  GE/WE objectives and strategies
• Potential benefits of domestic aid resources
  not fully realized where gender perspectives not
  adopted or narrowly interpreted e.g. in SWAPs or
  PRSPS
• Gender inequality a multi-dimensional effort is
  difficult to cost costing often not undertaken
  yet understanding resource requirements is a
  vital first step to mobilize resources
• The potential of the new aid environment
  Direct/General budget support (GBS/DBS) and SWAPs
  not fully realized
• Desire to address GE/WE issues greater than
  ability to mainstream gender in actual policies,
  programmes, interventions earmarked budgets
• GE as a cross-cutting issue means it effectively
  disappears

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Financing for gender equality What Actions need
to be taken to improve financing for gender
equality.

• LESSONS DRAWN
• Understanding resource requirements for GE/WE is
  a vital first step to mobilize resources
• Developing the skills, expertise confidence of
  women/CSOs to engage the macro-economics of our
  contexts
• The new aid environments guiding principles can
  accelerate progress for GE/WE
• Where GE/WE part of National Development
  Plans/PRSPS it means governments take ownership
  of the GE/WE issues.
• Development of National Development Plans/PRSPS
  calls for collective dialogue between CSOs,
  Governments, donors opportunity for shared
  understanding of GE/WE issues across actors
  sectors.
• Adoption of managing for results based planning
  its focus on outcomes requires adoption of
  gender responsive budgeting backed by GE/WE
  monitoring indicators, budget action plans,
  targets collection of sex disaggregated data
• Direct budget support mechanisms for predictable
  aid flows can afford long term gender-related
  investments.
• SWAPs have provided a real opportunity to address
  gender issues in depth, targeting womens needs
  in agriculture, health, education BUT must begin
  to pay adequate attention to underlying
  structural conditions social power relations
  that lead to unequal access control for women

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Financing for gender equality Actions to
improve financing for gender equality.

• Gender responsive budgeting remains a compelling
  important tool for attaining resources for
  gender sensitive development outcomes
• However impacts of changes in womens mens
  life situation due to particular expenditures
  needs to be known
• Argument for continued project support along-side
  new aid mechanisms to keep GE/WE on agenda where
  there is little real government support
• Partnerships can accelerate progress
• Clarify role and accountability for external
  assistance to support scaled-up funding efforts
  in gender responsive ways
• Reinforce respect for womens rights related to
  education, property ownership, control of
  reproductive rights, and freedom from violence.
• We need a plan for financing for gender equality
  for African Member states

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Final Key Action to improve financing for Gender
Equality.

• To achieve true empowerment for women,
  "governments need to focus on supporting
  gender-sensitive institutional change in the
  institutions of governance" (Aruna Rao, 2007)

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Conclusion

• To advance our universal goals for Development,
  Peace and Security governments must breadth new
  life into and redouble efforts to implement their
  commitments to gender equality and womens
  empowerment. This requires
• Realistic and sustainable gender responsive
  interventions
• Ensuring sufficient resources to meet the minimum
  conditions for the promotion of just and fair
  social and institutional arrangements that enable
  women and men to not only survive but to also
  thrive.