Between 1997 and 1999, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP ), an NGO based in Tanzania, has been engaged in researching how the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education & Culture, Ministry of Science, Technology & Higher Education, Ministry of Agriculture & Cooperatives, Ministry of Health and The President’s Office, Planning Commission, and the Ministry of Industries and Trade, allocate resources to men and women in the Tanzanian communities through budgetary processes. This “TGNP Gender Budgeting Initiative” participatory action research is part of TGNP ’s endeavor to trace gender gaps within the budgeting process and procedures, and therefore address these by means of lobbying and advocacy.
The main focus in this paper shall be on: the type of gender issues given prominence in Tanzania; achievements so far in addressing gender issues in macroeconomic and budget activities; the value of gender mainstreaming in government and other public development activities; and the direction for effecting gender budgeting knowledge and skills in the Tanzania landscape.
This paper does not give an official version of the TGNP or Government agencies involved in the GBI Action Research Project, instead it is created from the personal experiences of the writer as one of the researchers, as a full member of TGNP , and as an active and committed protagonist of gender equality and equity within the local and global development contexts.
Gender Issues in the Tanzania Context
Projected population figures for 1994, place the country’s population at 28 million people, with more than 76% living in the rural areas. It is now projected that the country’s population has reached 33 million inhabitants. 80% of the population was living in rural areas in 1988 (with 84% earning a part of their livelihoods from agriculture), by 1992, 78% were supposed to be living in the rural areas. At present about 40% of Tanzanians are supposed to be living in some form of urban setting with poverty, illiteracy and restrictive democratic structures as some of their immediate daily limitations. Women make up 51% of the total population and 48% of the total labour force. Women also constitute 85% of labour used in agricultural production, 5% of labour needed in industry and 6% of labour in services. Average life expectancy is at 51.2 years -with women living longer. Infant mortality for children under five years (per 1000 live births) was at 141 in 1991 and declined to 88 in 1996, infant mortality rate was at 92 in 1991 dropping to 88 per 1’000 live births in 1996.
Tanzania’s economy is regarded as performing relatively successful. Economic growth for 1998/99 was estimated at 3.6 - 4%, with most of the growth coming from the mining and tourism sectors. Inflation rate was 7.5% on an annual basis (the lowest in 22 years), with food items inflating at 4.7% and non food inflation at 8.5% (weight of food items in the inflation is at 71.2%). Tanzania’s total external debt was at $7.7 billion by end of June 1999, and the domestic debt was at $1.2 billion. Servicing of the external debt consumed 33% of Tanzania’s export earnings in 1999. Collection of taxes is assumed to have improved significantly (revenue collected was 700.4 billion shillings at June 1999 against expenditures of 835.9 billion shillings in the same period). However, while imports were valued at US$ 1.225 billion in June 1999, exports were a mere US $483.6 million (a deficit of US$ 641.7 million).
According to the projected GDP by sector in constant prices for the year 2000, agriculture is the largest sector (47.5%), followed by whole sale and retail (15.9%), finance and insurance (10.5%), manufacturing (9.0%), public administration (7.5%), and transport & communications (5.4%). However, the fastest GDP growth rates are expected to be experienced in the mining (22.4%), manufacturing (10.1, electricity & water (8.1%), construction (7.8%), and finance & insurance sectors (7.3%).
The priority activities in Tanzania as regards the three year based Mid-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Public Expenditure Review (PER), are: Education, Health, Water, Agriculture, Energy Roads, Land and Good Governance. Nevertheless, it is anticipated that these sectors shall receive only 56% of their required allocations in the 1999/2000 budget year (e.g., Education (38%), Agriculture (40%), Lands (43%) and Energy (48%), receiving less than 50% of their requirements). Instead, Roads (102%) and Elections (85%) being the most favoured. It is undeniable that the government is largely uncertain on how to transform macroeconomic gains into expenditures that benefit the specific or less privileged groups in the society such as women, youth and children.
According to the “National Poverty Eradication Strategy” (June 1998), “Tanzanian women are poorer than men despite the fact that women are the major actors in productive and reproductive activities.” (pg.5). The strategy acknowledges that while women produce between 60 to 80% of all domestic food supplies and cash crop, besides doing most of the domestic work, they are still hampered by the traditional and cultural barriers as regards access and control to land and other property. The strategy also includes various other interventions on gender issues and disparities in regards to: the poor gender division of labour (p.8); objectives in participation and equality (p.20); in governance (pp.24-30); in agricultural development (p.30); education provision (pp.38); promotion of employment (p.41); and, the composition of the poverty eradication committee (p.47).
Integrating Gender into Macroeconomics
There are several activities currently engaged by the government (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of State President’s office (Planning), the Ministry of Education & Culture, Ministry of Agriculture & Cooperatives, Ministry of Science, Technology & Higher Education, and the Ministry of Health), the civil society (Tanzania Gender Networking Programme and the FemAct Coalition), and donor agencies (the Netherlands Embassy and the Embassy of Sweden), in mainstreaming gender within the budgeting process in Tanzania. The mainstreaming exercise is a process that aims at creating gender awareness on gender issues in macro-economic policies and resource allocation matters, and to show how budgets act as tools or instruments for distributing socio-economic resources in a gendered pattern.
According to paragraphs 3.12 and 3.13 in the “Guidelines for the Preparation of The Medium Term Plan and Expenditure Framework for 2000/01-2002/3”, issued by the Planning Commission, the government directed its accounting officers in the ministries of education, Health, Water, Community Development, Agriculture, and Regional Administration & Local Government, who plan through the MTEF, to take consideration of the following gender budgeting aspects: capacity building (in gender analysis in projects and programmes); identifying priority gender concerns (in reducing gender inequality and inequities); indicating gender objectives (in their action plans); utilising gender disaggregated data (from sector planning units); and, setting gender monitoring indicators (quantitative and qualitative).
However, the Planning Commission acknowledges that capacity building and development of necessary tools for gender analysis and mainstreaming, are some of the main limitations. Therefore, technical support or extension from consultants (e.g., TGNP ), was to be provided to the involved ministries.
The objective of the follow-up activities is to create an enabling environment for adopting gender transformative approaches in the national policies at the macro-micro levels in order to bring about increased allocation of resources towards strategic areas where gender disparities persist, (especially in the education and health sectors). TGNP similarly plans on increasing awareness on gender issues within macro-economic reforms and policy making processes at intermediary and local level organisations. Activities targeted will include: development of popular booklets, dissemination and exchange of information and soliciting support and participation in GBI activities at different levels.
Strategies in Creation of Gender Budgets
Since budgets are concerned with distribution of resources, goods, services and obligations to members of a community, it is crucial to go beyond and see how these revenues and expenditures are actually beneficial to the male and female members of the respective community.
Gender budgets enable a scrutiny on whether the delivered services and income transfers actually support meeting policies on creation of gender equality and equity across all sectors. In other words, gender budgeting assists governments get a better perspective on how budgets should adjust or reallocate resources to effectively address priorities defined by the male and female members of community. Moreover, gender budgeting challenges traditional planning processes and opens them up into being more participatory, democratic and increasingly accountable.
The GBI process is also an invaluable platform for linking resource allocations to macro economic policy performance. According to a “Human Resource Development Survey”, carried out in 1993 (a Government of Tanzania & World Bank funded exercise), it was observed that female heads of household had smaller households, less family labour, higher dependency ratio, lower educational levels, less land, less ability to hire labour, and a higher propensity to rely on off-farm incomes in the form of casual labour engagements. Another World Bank & ODA supported poverty assessment exercise in 1995 (Participatory Poverty Assessment), revealed that female heads of households were generally substantially worse in every level of wealth or well being, compared to male heads of households, and they were economically more vulnerable and frequently more socially isolated. In light of the above factors, a gender budgeting exercise or process would resolve the above observed constraints which limit women’s efficiency and effectiveness in their productive capacity.
Although the ideology of male superiority and female subordination still persists, gender relations in Tanzania have changed somewhat since Independence. This is partly a result of the country being drawn into the global and regional forums for transforming communities. Tanzanian women have changed markedly in the 1980s onwards. “No longer do all women accept without question a position of inequality. Not all men own property or are in positions of dominance. Age, educational level, economic status, rural or urban residence and other social characteristics interact with gender to influence relations between women and men, between persons of the same sex and between old and young” (Sida:p.8). Nevertheless, key issues that affect women in Tanzania include:
a) low investment in sectors dominated by women (e.g., agriculture and health);
b) poor access by girls to higher and college education (e.g., 30% in high schools and less than 20% in colleges);
c) low female employment in the formal sector (e.g., between 20% to 40% of those employed with extreme low presence in);
d) low female representation in decision making or management positions (e.g., 45 female parliamentarians (16.36%), out of a total 275);
e) inconsistent, fragmented and unjust laws on gender relations (e.g., a three system legal practice in marriage laws - customary, statutory and religious);
f) proportionally low economic involvement of women in urban areas (e.g., only 44% are involved compared to 56% of the men);
g) concentration of women in high risk, make shift, low earning, vendor type occupations (e.g., 57% of women in informal sector are involved in marketing or food vendoring);
h) low overall participation in politics (e.g., only 5% of the 1335 candidates in the 1995 elections were female, only eight were elected, women constitute 48% of registered voters but in some areas only 30% registered to vote); and,
i) irregular legal guarantees for justice towards women (e.g., biases among some male members of the police force, corruption among judges, illegibility of legal text, and slow application of favourable legislation).
It is inevitable that choice has to be effected on what to concentrate or address among the above issues.
Direction of Gender Budget Initiative.
The GBI process in Tanzania has achieved the following results to date:
a) research and documentation of findings in the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education & Culture, Ministry of Science, Technology & Higher Education, Ministry of Agriculture & Cooperatives, Ministry of Health and The President’s Office, Planning Commission, and the Ministry of Industries and Trade;
b) dissemination of more than 200 copies of GBI research reports to MPs, key actors in above mentioned ministries, and to a range of civil society actors;
c) production of 5000 copies of a popular booklet on findings of the GBI exercise (“Budgeting with a Gender Focus”), to various strategic actors (e.g., NGO partners, FemAct members, MPs, planners, IGNs, PER members, donor partners, and regional organisations);
d) production and distribution of 150 GBI fliers in Kiswahili (distributed mostly to Kiswahili speaking members of TGNP ’s Intermediary Gender Networks);
e) supporting ministry staff and MPs in engendering policies and budgeting systems (e.g., regular dialoguing on GBI entry points with senior ministry staff in the National Budget Guidelines Committee, Public Expenditure Review Committee, Sectoral Budget Committees and Parliamentary Committees - especially the Local Government Accounts, Public Accounts, Finance & Economic Affairs Committees);
f) sharing information on GBI process at national and regional seminars, meetings and conferences (e.g., WB workshop on “Experience of GBI in Tanzania”, Africa Regional Conference on Beijing +5 Review - Addis Ababa Nov 1999, UNIFEM Regional workshop on Gender Mainstreaming in National Budgets -Nov 1999, etc);
g) testing and development of tools for monitoring gender sensitivity in budgets (e.g., gender disaggregated beneficiary assessment of services delivered and budget priorities; gender disaggregated public expenditure benefit incidence analysis; gender aware policy evaluation of public expenditure; gender aware budget statement; and, gender aware medium term macroeconomic policy framework);
h) inputs in the 1999/2000 budget speeches of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of State (Planning) reflecting gender related issues and gender integration guidelines;
i) 2 day workshop on GBI for MPs (e.g., 22 MPs, 18% female, - August 1999);
j) involvement in Public Expenditure Review and Tanzania Strategy Development forums; and,
k) research and dissemination of gender budgeting issues at local government level (Kondoa and Mbeya rural Districts).
Assuming that the GBI exercise is a long term gender transformation strategy with immediate and sometimes short term goals, it is anticipated its presence will be indefinite. Considering that the patriarchal system is alive and kicking, and occasionally violently resistant to realigning gender relations in the public and private arenas, there will be a constant need to design and perfect present and new interventions. As of present, actors within the Tanzanian scenario need to concentrate their efforts in the following areas:
a) standardisation and popularisation of tools used in gender disaggregated beneficiary assessment of service delivery and budget priorities in the piloted MDA Ministries (Education/Health/Water/Community Development/ Agriculture/ Regional Administration & Local Government);
b) annual follow-up and scrutiny of gender aware medium term macroeconomic policy framework through the PER and TAS forums;
c) yearly review of gender aware policy evaluation of public expenditures with the Ministry of Finance (e.g., through the Ministry’s programme performance budgeting system);
d) regularised scrutiny of gender aware budget statements (especially in: women’s priority public services such as health; gender inequality reduction ratios within education, policy making and legislation);
e) additional research on gender disaggregated public expenditure benefit incidence analysis (at the local government level within TGNP ’s IGN networks Districts);
f) producing an annual report on achievements and technical progress in gender budgeting interventions (e.g., in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and or Planning Commission);
g) insert gender budgeting as a component in capacity or skills building courses, seminars or workshops at Finance institutions (e.g., IFM and Business College), planning institutions (Institute of Development Planning and Institute of Rural Development Planning), and for donor funded activities within Tanzania (e.g., making it part of the agenda in evaluations, assessments and reviews).
In TGNP ’s 3-Year Plan (2000-2002), the prime objective shall be “to consolidate activities that influence changes on policies at the macro and micro levels”. The identified areas of concern are:
a) providing feedback on GBI findings in the researched sectors (e.g., to reach at least 30% of all MPs, and key government staff or partners);
b) documentation and popularisation of GBI research findings (e.g., to reach at least 30% of key actors in the researched sectors);
c) identifying new areas or sectors for GBI research (e.g., local government levels and other ministries);
d) facilitating lobbying and capacity building with local partners, NGOs, government staff and the donor agencies (e.g., gender sensitive planning at local government level); and,
e) networking and collaboration on GBI issues within and outside the country (e.g., linking with at least one East African country).
However, considering that some of TGNP ’s members and affiliates are involved in a wide range of other activities, it is to be expected that most of these other engagements will similarly benefit from the above, or even design and effect own varieties. One such possibility is the upsurge of GBI research among economists at the University of Dar Es Salaam, or the refining and fine tuning of research and mainstreaming tools appropriate for the urban and rural peculiarities.
Extracted From: “Inter-Agency Workshop on Improving the Effectiveness of Integrating Gender into Government Budgets. London 26th - 27th April 2000.” Country Experiences in Integrating Gender Analysis. “Experiences in GBI Research and Advocacy with Government Agencies in Tanzania.” By Edward Hiza Mhina. Tanzania Gender Networking Programme.
No comments:
Post a Comment