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GENDER-RESPONSIVE BUDGETING
Speaking to SALGA TV on the occasion of Women’s month, Cooperative Governance and Traditional A airs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma shared her thoughts on the vital links between gender-responsive planning and budgeting at the local level and gender equality
Local governments can play a vital role in accelerating progress towards gender equality. Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Cooperative
Governance and Traditional A airs (CoGTA), says municipalities can contribute to this goal by building their capacities to mainstream gender in their programme planning and budgeting processes.
WHAT IS GENDER-RESPONSIVE PLANNING AND BUDGETING?
Dlamini-Zuma’s opening remarks took a deep dive into the aims and objectives of gender-responsive planning and budgeting and why local government, as a representative structure of the community and citizens and the level of government where people rst look to solve their immediate social problems, is uniquely positioned to be a key player in driving this.
She said a gender mainstreaming approach towards local policies and practices would see local government planning and budgeting processes mainstream gender dimensions into their various stages of development.
She added that this would help municipalities establish priorities and better allocate resources that would respond to gender equality commitments and targets.
“This is a very important tool for the emancipation of women. Gender-responsive planning and budgeting means that you can calculate every rand that goes towards women’s empowerment issues,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
Gender-responsive budgets are not necessarily separate budgets for women, but instead mainstream budgets that are conceived, approved, executed, monitored and audited in a gender-sensitive way, Dlamini-Zuma explained. She stressed that this would mean that municipalities would have to think about their nances in a new way and position them as mechanisms that respond more pointedly to the needs and priorities of women and girls in society.
Dlamini-Zuma said that the mainstreaming of gender issues throughout the Integrated Development Plans (IDP) process would ensure that budgets are inclusive and respond to women’s needs. She said since the IDP informs municipal budgets, the IDP process should therefore be gender-sensitive.
“The local government sector is uniquely, although not exclusively, placed to promote gender equality because it can do this through municipal IDPs right at the beginning. Municipalities can also do research and look at how their grants, budgets, policies and strategies impact women,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
To do that, she said, IDPs must identify the kinds of gender issues that exist in municipal areas and ensure the full participation of women in their planning processes so that local strategies and projects can respond to gender development issues.
“In the context of local economic development, gender-informed resource allocations will enable us to see the impact of budgets on women to nd out if they contribute to gender equity and development,” the minister said.
In essence, municipal IDPs should be aligned to the goals and aims of the National Policy Framework for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality (2000), she explained.
“IDPs must identify the kinds of gender issues that exist in municipal areas and ensure the full participation of women in their planning processes so that local strategies and projects can respond to gender development issues.” – Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TO CONTRIBUTE TO GENDER EQUALITy
Dlamini-Zuma re ected on women’s under-representation in both elected and appointed positions in local government.
The latest Statistics South Africa 2019 non nancial census on municipalities report painted a worrying picture of the structure of the municipal workforce, particularly on gender representation across various levels of management.
In 2019, 254 of South Africa’s 257 municipalities had a sitting mayor. Of these, 90 (35 per cent) were female and 164 (65 per cent) were male. Similar numbers were seen in the gender breakdown of councillors where 59 per cent were male and 41 per cent female. In addition, 71 per cent of section 56 managers were male while only 29 per cent were female.
The minister said that municipalities are also employers and therefore can strengthen the use of gender criteria in their hiring processes. She added that political parties must allow for the greater participation of women, so that gender parity can be displayed in the makeup of councils and the number of mayors.
“Political parties must field women on their lists of candidates for the local government elections. The South African Constitution says that there must be equality so, in reality, it should be 50/50 in councils,” Dlamini Zuma said.
“There must be women represented in every echelon of local government.” ▪
