Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Uganda: the Certificate for Gender and Equity

B. CASE STUDIES

Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Uganda: the Certificate for Gender and Equity

A gender-responsive budget is a budget that ensures the gender-equitable distribution of resources and contributes to equal opportunities for all. It requires analysis of the impacts of budgets by gender and implies transforming budgets to ensure gender equality.715 Before 2005, Ugandan general budgets were gender-neutral, allocating funds for development programmes in a general way. However, neutral budgets may have unintended consequences, including increasing gender inequality. The Gender Audit and the Mainstreaming Strategy for the Local Government identified in 2002 that budgets were not adequately responding to the needs, constraints and interests of men and women, boys and girls and disadvantaged groups.716 In this context, the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development issued Gender and Equity Budgeting Guidelines in the Budget Circular for the 2005/06 financial year.717 However, these were not sustainable and did not address gender and equity concerns, in the absence of a coordinating and independent body.718

In 2007, the Equal Opportunities Commission was established to be responsible for M&E and for ensuring that policies, laws, plans and programmes of organs of state at all levels, public authorities, private enterprises and NGOs complied with equal opportunities for all and adopted affirmative action in favour of marginalised groups.

Together with CSOs and notably led by the Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), it was found to be necessary to adopt a policy framework to make GRB mandatory. FOWODE is a women-led organisation created in the 1994/95 constitution-making process in Uganda that provides a platform for Ugandan women’s learning, networking, sharing of experiences and advocating for gender equality and equity in decision-making. FOWODE has positioned itself as a champion for women’s rights protection, participation in political decision-making and engaging in macroeconomic governance issues such as GRB. FOWODE took an active part in the negotiation phase to draft the Public Finance Management Bill by strongly advocating for the inclusion of a Certificate for Gender and Equity to ensure sector compliance with GRB.719

FOWODE adopted an integrated approach of research, enhancing the capacities of technocrats and legislators to understand the importance of mainstreaming gender in plans and budgets.720 The organisation presented a position paper on mainstreaming gender into the bill721 and provided briefings on gender equality issues and impacts of budgets to members of parliament, in addition to its annual analysis of local government budgets.722 A gender-responsive training was also organised to share key skills, enabling parliamentarians to effectively evaluate and analyse budgets in a gender-sensitive manner.723 Further, tactical meetings with the speaker of parliament as well as discussions with the most relevant committees of parliament – the Committees on the Budget, Finance and Natural Resources – were conducted. FOWODE also involved the media extensively.724 These intensive advocacy activities followed partners including the Ministry of Gender Labour & Social Development, the Equal Opportunity Commission, the Uganda Women Parliament Association and especially the GRB Champions in Parliament.725

FOWODE’s intensive work supported by, among others, the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus and the Ministry of Gender Labour & Social Development contributed to insertion of the requirement for the Certificate of Gender and Equity in the Bill and adoption of the proposal by the Committees on the Budget, Finance and Natural Resources. The 2012 Public Finance Management Bill was finally adopted in December 2014 and enacted in March 2015 as the Public Finance Management Act.726

Under the Act, a Certificate drafted by the Minister of Finance, in consultation with the Equal Opportunities Commission, must be issued to complement the budget framework paper (Section 9 (6a)) and the annual budget (Section 13 (11g)). Each Certificate must certify that the budget framework paper and the annual budget are gender- and equity-responsive and specify the measures taken to equalise opportunities for women, men, persons with disabilities and other marginalised groups.

However, barely six months after adopting the Act, the Cabinet planned amendments, including a proposal to repeal the Certificate for Gender and Equity for ministerial policy statements. Indeed, the Ministry of Finance found the requirement to have a Certificate for each ministerial policy statement to be highly bureaucratic and to delay the submission of the policy statement. Consequently, the Equal Opportunities Commission explained to the Committee on Finance, Planning and Economic Development of Parliament that repealing the certificate would go against the inclusion of marginalised groups and would overlook the principle of equity that constitutes one of the principles of good governance. Hence, the Ministry of Finance should engage the Commission to agree on a timeframe to issue the Certificate to ensure policy statements’ timely delivery.727 Further, FOWODE conducted a one-month campaign, lobbying parliamentarians including the Finance and Budget Committees and GRB Champions in Parliament to reject the proposed amendments. Discussions with sectoral committees were organised, as well as radio and TV interactive talk shows.728 These joint efforts were successful: the Certificate for Gender and Equity was not repealed.

For ministries, departments and agencies to meet the minimum requirements of gender and equity budgeting, they must score at least 50% in the Equal Opportunities Commission’s assessment. For Financial Year 2017/18, overall national compliance with gender and equity requirements was 50%. For Financial Years 2019/20–2023/24, the national budget framework paper complied at 61% with the gender and equity requirements. The lack of sanctions contained in the law for non-compliance may lead to a feeling of impunity, which may explain these results.729

Despite ongoing challenges, the Act and the Certificate constitute a major advancement in terms of the inclusion of gender and equity issues in budgeting. In 2019, FOWODE was honoured by the Equal Opportunities Commission and UN Women, receiving an award for outstanding contribution towards GRB in Uganda.730