Gender Mainstreaming in Development: Engendering Budgets

Rationale and Justification for Engendering Budgets

Overview

This section is aimed at winning over the government staff into the inevitability of engendering the resource allocation and management process.  It therefore argued by stating the fact that most economic planners often base their planning on aggregates such as households as the basic units of analysis in their planning approaches. The challenge from gender analysts thus was the argument that this notion of assuming that the household is a harmonious and aggregated entity as regards individual and sex based differences neglected the impact and influence of intra-household dynamics. Other dimensions at the household level that economists should take into full consideration therefore include: types of household headship (e.g., whether male or female, matrifocal, child headed or grandparent headed, etc); dis-harmony in intra-household power and resource sharing (e.g., male members imposing their whims over especially female members of the household), have significant implications for policy and planning.   

Budgets are tools that governments use in order to achieve economic and development goals. Allocation of resources entails the government deciding on the size of resources to allocate towards the various services provided- as well as how these resources shall be pieced up among different obligations. Budget policies are used as a means of addressing income or wealth inequalities in most communities. Budgets are done through prioritizing certain objectives over others (e.g. choices on whether to promote employment, stable prices, stable interest rates, etc). They form a strong pillar for macro-economic policies. The impact of budgets needs to entrench, alleviate or redress inter and intra household inequalities between women and men, especially if the underlying assumption is that there is fair distribution of resources and benefits.

Justification for gendering budgets

Women and men have different roles and functions in society drawn from the socialization process and therefore have different needs. In effect, the socialization process creates differences between the sexes in access to and control over resources. Because these differences are gender based, they cannot be redressed if not consciously targeted. It is also observed that gender inequality is inefficient and has serious implications for productivity and well-being. Macroeconomic policy can intensify rather than alleviate ways in which gender inequality constrains women’s ability to increase production.

Further, many government policies ignore the contribution of the ‘care- economy’[1] and only measure other macroeconomic aggregates such as investment and savings, imports and exports along with government expenditures and revenues. This is a significant omission especially considering the time-use studies have estimated that the value of global unpaid work is USD11trillion. Economists and policy makers have argued that ignoring this represents a bias. New macroeconomic thinking recognizes that the ‘care economy’ is an important contributor to production.  Monetizing these activities could significantly improve the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Emerging Issues

This session raised a number of important questions and issues. These included:

Integrating the Care-Economy

·         Does monetizing the reproductive care economy activities send right ‘development’ messages? (e.g., is it not that a higher GDP may in essence represent a ‘fictitious’ situation whereby a country is perceived as better developed while it is actually not?) . This raised a litany of questions such as:

ü  How do we ensure coherence between the care activities with other factors such as taxation in the System of National Accounts (SNA)?

ü  Does spending on health, water and education automatically impact positively on women?

ü  The Local Governments Act (1997) requires all people aged 18 years and above to pay taxes, but most women in this age category do not pay tax. Could this be the reason as to why mostly men make decisions on revenue raised from taxation?

ü  Do women not pay taxes for men? If women’s work is not paid, where should they raise money to pay tax?

ü  Does economic empowerment of women lead to more independence for women and therefore motivate them to ‘break-away’ from men? Are men burdens to women?

ü  What does the fact that fewer women are accessing health facilities or benefiting from extension services reveal about public expenditure on these sectors?

§  The above questions did not supply straight answers but rather provided deeper insights on what needs to be done to support GBIs. It was observed that additional work had to be done to discern the advantages and disadvantages of capturing the care economy in the SNA. Participants also noted the need to clarify whether gender budgeting was concerned with ensuring 50:50 sharing of resources between women and men, and further whether gender budgeting aimed at efficiency or equity outcomes.

Accounting Technicalities

§  The challenge of accounting for care activities is that they must be ‘numerical’ or ‘quantified’ in order to be captured in the SNA. On the issue of misleading messages arising from inclusion of care economy values in the SNA, participants questioned whether or not the estimation of say Per Capita Incomes in Uganda as amounting to USD 300 implied that every Ugandan had this money. A critical concern was whether it was good accounting practice to ignore the value of work that nearly a half of the Country’s population are engaged in simply because no monetary value is not attached to it.

Importance of the Care-Economy

§  The important contribution of the household economy to the market economy and the need for both of them to co-exist. They also noted that it was extremely critical to analyze the impact of taxation on the different categories of the population, women and men, young or old.

§  Some participants were not clear about value addition of gender mainstreaming, although the workshop design focused on the ‘how to do aspects’. What explains this is probably that some of the participants had not been adequately exposed to gender training prior to the workshop. The key lesson that may be drawn from this acknowledgement is that contrary to the expectation that the need for gender planning is clearly understood by all duty bearers in the various sectors, targeted gender training is still necessary in both Sector Ministries and Local Governments.

Innovative Calculation of the GDP

§  Productive sectors needed to function effectively in order to leverage substantial funding of social development activities. They further argued that although calculation of the Country’s GDP shows non-monetary elements, the tools of analysis and calculation are not engendered and therefore grossly ignore the important function of the care economy, which is estimated to engage nearly half of the country’s population (mainly women). The notion of gender budgeting was an innovation that aimed at redressing this gap among others. However an important issue that still required thought was whether or not calculation and inclusion of the care economy in the system of national accounts would automatically or directly benefit women.

Demonisation of Men

§  Most gender discourses had a tendency to belittle what men do, or ‘demonized’ them. They opined that there was need to reorient the discourse and lay emphasis on complementarity, and that such deliberations must portray some level of cultural sensitivity. However, subsequent discussions pointed out that there was nothing like a national culture that provides the yardstick for what constitutes cultural sensitivity. The issue at hand was the national budget, which as a principle, must impact on all nationals equitably, irrespective of sex. It was noted that most of the cultural practices that denied women access to and control over resources were patriarchal and a bargain with patriarchy calls for a more pronounced role of men in order to realize significant change.

Monitoring Gender Mainstreaming

§  Various attempts at gender mainstreaming had been done in some sectors but it was not clear what the outcomes were. This observation points to the need for documenting experiences of gender mainstreaming so as to provide useful case studies or a wide spectrum of best practices to be replicated or adapted by other actors.

Engendering a Government Budget

  

Having established the rationale and justification for engendering budgets, the workshop focused on how an engendered budget ought to look like. This therefore session provided a conceptual, historical and practical overview of engendering government budgets, as well as the associated challenges.  Government resources have a different impact on women and men. The session urged that economic policies have a strong bearing on the livelihoods and living standards of all community members. Most policy changes tended to either narrow or widen gender differentials in terms of incomes, health, education, and nutrition among others. Closer examination of budgets from a gender perspective helps to identify gender gaps in access to and distribution of public resources. Engendering budgets thus targets the redefining of priorities in accordance with actual gender needs and thereby enable resources to be allocated likewise. Through gender mainstreaming, the budget responds to the needs of the entire population more effectively.

As correctly motivated in the section above, the engendering of budgets is inevitable because of the necessity for establishing:  gender equity and efficient use of scarce resources; due to following up on governments commitments towards redistribution of resources more equitably; and, due to the fact that gender inequality hampers socio-economic growth, and makes the economy pay for the resultant inequitable application of resources in terms of reduced labour productivity and condensed national output tomorrow. This session therefore underlines the fact that investing in women has a significant inevitable impact on situations such as: Infant Mortality Rate, nutrition and reducing demographic expansion.

Concept of Gender Budgets

The session stated that the concept of gender budgeting originated in Australia in the early 1980s. The Australian government made it mandatory for all departments to indicate, in their budget submissions, how their interventions would impact on gender inequality. This practice was adopted in South Africa, The United Kingdom, Tanzania, and Uganda among others. In most of these countries, the initiatives have been mainly advanced by civil society agencies[2].  Gender budgeting involves both an analysis of allocation between and within sectors to determine impact. It identifies gender-based expenditure by government. Gender Budget Initiatives can identify equal employment opportunity expenditure e.g. re-writing job descriptions to reflect equal employment opportunity principles.

Main achievements of GBIs range from actual expenditure re-allocations, to opening up the traditionally secretive budget process to much greater transparency and accountability. In addition there has been re-prioritization of expenditure (e.g. as in Philippines where a minimum of 5% of each budget is reserved for gender mainstreaming); and affecting policy changes (e.g. the working family tax credit in the United Kingdom); plus exposing policy weaknesses (e.g. in Sri Lanka where the initiative revealed weak targeting of women in agriculture).  Other benefits from engendering the budgeting process, include: exposing general budgetary weaknesses (e.g. in Uganda where it has been shown that Local Government budgets are spent on emoluments of government officials); sharpening approaches to gender mainstreaming (e.g., in Tanzania, the Ministry of Finance issued general budget guidelines for gender mainstreaming during the 1999 budget process); plus, developing economic literacy and participation through for example production of simplified budgeting guides.  

The Challenge

The challenge towards engendering budgets involve the following questions on choices: whether the government or CSOs should lead the engendering process ( from the Tanzania experience a collaboration effort was found to be more productive); constant follow up action in the engendering process (e.g., there is usually a gradual fade away effect in the close monitoring of the engendering process); and, ensuring broad participation at all levels and at all times (e.g., it is quite easy for the government to gradually lose its emphasis on community participation aspect). It is un-debatable that the concept of gender budgeting is integral to and a powerful tool for gender mainstreaming. Gender budgeting is not synonymous with women’s budgets, but an effort to assess the impact of budgets on women and men.

Emerging Issues

§  Clarification on the linkage between gender mainstreaming and other vulnerable groups such as the youth, persons with disability and the elderly. It was clarified that whereas the youth, elderly, children and others are groups of people, gender does not refer to a specific group. In essence, gender issues cut across all these socio-economic groups, around the entire life cycle.

§  Need for effective partnerships between Government and CSOs, especially as regards sourcing development assistance. They further noted the need to identify best practices from other Countries, for instance on how to lobby key decision makers to reserve quotas for gender mainstreaming.

§  Need to link gender concerns with major policy thrusts such as privatization of some key sectors e.g. agriculture, water and sanitation etc. A contra-argument to this was that conversely, a critical gender analysis of privatization (as well as other policy thrusts) was necessary to establish its impact on women and men. The need to strengthen participatory budgeting processes from the grassroots to national level was emphasized, as well as broadening the understanding of linkages between gender budgeting and poverty eradication.

§  How should the defence expenditures be engendered? It was noted that addressing gender issues in defence related to the approach used in conflict resolution, as well as the handling of post-conflict situations, particularly how the needs of women and men involved in or affected by conflict matters/ defence services are met.

§  Different countries have varied approaches to gender budgeting, but the only similarity is the purpose for which it is done: ascertaining how public budgets impact on women and men.  

 Framework and Tools for Analysis of Gender Issues in Budgets.

The prime aim of this session was to take the participants on a tour of a framework for making analysis of gender issues from a technical angle. This session wanted to provide familiarity with tools for unpacking the gender dynamics at the micro, meso, and macro levels of national economic development policies. The process utilized the ILO developed SEAGA tool. This tool makes a socio-economic policy analysis by defining intra-and inter sectoral gender issues; it examines policy alternatives on gender impact, costs and feasibility; looked at types of macro-economic, structural and meso-level policies; and, lastly provided a foundation for making choices on options for engendering the socio-economic planning and development processes.

Tool One: Field, Intermediate, Macro Level Analysis

Macro Level Analysis

At the macro level it is essential to focus the gender analysis on: international agreements and policies, national policies and legislation, and economic and social plans. Particular interest was directed towards the socio and economic aspects of major macroeconomic policies, e.g., revenue raising measures, government expenditures, monetary and exchange rate policies, and Balance of Trade and financial flows with the rest of the world.

Intermediate Level Analysis

Analysis at this level focuses on: structures, institutions and services that function to operationalize the link between the macro and the field levels. Analysis at this level includes examining organisation structures, integrating gender into management, service provision planning, and incorporating information from the field.

Field Level Analysis

On the field level, the analysis should focus on: men and women as individuals and in groups; and on socio economic differences among household and communities as a whole. It aims at strengthening the role of individuals, groups and communities in the development process. Other analytical tools in this framework included:[3]

·         Stakeholder Analysis (e.g., discerning who are the primary and secondary stakeholders, and involving them accordingly).

·         Livelihood Analysis (e.g.,  looking roles of different stakeholders, and how people meet their basic needs through resources they access or control).

·         Resource and Constraints Analysis (e.g., seeing how people meet their basic needs and pursue their long term requirements, by checking whether resources are not obstructed by policy decvisions at other levels).

·         Gender Analysis (e.g., determination of roles, access to and control of resources, and responsibilities pertaining to different actors).

·         Circular flow of income (e.g., critiquing the limited view of conventional economic analysis as implying only the formal sector rather than the including actual involvement and contribution from the informal sector and household domestic levels).

·         Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Framework (e.g., a framework revealing the levels of gender equality and empowerment pertaining to men and women in their respective communities).

This session concluded with a diagrammatic overview on the conditions of women. The diagram sought to provide a vivid highlight on the dynamics of the conditions and positions of women in society, this overview was deemed as crucial in building up a more comprehensive overview of the interplay between gender relations, resource allocation and gender based needs of community members.  

Diagram:

Structural Framework On Conditions Of Women

Gender Relations		Workload		Single heads of households
Subordination, Inequality, economic denial		Double workload, combination and domestic and gainful employment		Poverty, Loss of male authority
Discrimination		Gender Roles		Division of Labour
Health care, education, credit, wages, factors of production		Invisibility, low status, dependence		Housewife, subsistence, processor, supplier, care provider, transporter
Cultural Factors		Modernisation		Global Market Interaction
Patriarchal values and behavior, patriarchal marriages and family laws, male dominance of properties		Displacement of women by men, under rated/ under valued subsistence roles, social marginalisation		Gender specific division of labour, male dominance of markets or cash targeted produce, male migration, withdrawal of male contribution at household level

  

Emerging Issues

§  Concern on the practicability, prioritization and choice of the tools to use since they were several and that there were different levels of analysis- viz, macro, intermediate and field levels. To this, it was clarified that the choice of tools should be context/ situation specific. The tools capture gender relevant information at any level of analysis.

§  Observed that gender budgeting was not a requirement under the budget call circular and therefore GBIs were likely to have no significant impact. Whereas this was noted as a fact, participants opined that the budget call circular tasked MGLSD develop and issue guidelines on crosscutting concerns within its mandate to other sectors and local governments for use by the Sector Working Groups during the budget process. It was the considered opinion of the workshop that these guidelines were a clear entry point for gender budgeting.

§  Considering the instructive force of the budget call circular however, it was suggested as imperative that the circular was explicit on gender budgeting, rather than anticipate the issuance of guidelines from a line ministry. It was further envisaged that the emerging Social Development Sector Strategic Investment Plan (SDIP) would provide substantial support to GBIs. MGLSD and PEWG were challenged to be more pragmatic in ensuring that Sector Working Groups engendered their sector budgets. As regards Local Governments, it was observed that the Harmonized Planning Guides for Local Governments too emphasized the principle of gender mainstreaming.

§  In the Ugandan context, efforts to disaggregate information by female and male-headed households had not been very useful because contrary to hypotheses indicating that female-headed households were poorer, studies had proved that the reverse was true. It was therefore recommended that focus should be on intra-household dynamics. Whereas this observation may hold water, participants held the opinion that interpretation of survey results required a better appreciation of: the kind of instruments used for data collection; who the respondents were; the environment within which the responses were obtained; and who actually administered the survey instruments.

§  Lack of conceptual clarity on gender mainstreaming. It was not clear to some participants whether the goal of gender mainstreaming was equity or equality and how this differed from the human rights approach. It was explained that the ultimate goal of gender mainstreaming was gender equality, and that equity (social justice) was only the means of realizing equality between women and men. Gender equality was noted to be a fundamental human rights principle enshrined in the Constitution of Uganda, as well as International Human Rights instruments.[4] It was further clarified that gender mainstreaming was not mutually exclusive from a human rights  approach, but rather a part of it. 

[Extracted from a report titled "Engendering Budgets, In-Country Training Workshops." The report was on a series of training workshops for Uganda Government staff on the necessity of engendering budgets. The training was one input in a process by the Uganda Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, towards creation of gender conducive environment for effecting gender mainstreaming in the budget making process and budgets. The workshops were facilitated by Edward H. Mhina. April 2003]

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[1]               Activities carried out in the household, mostly by women and children, but which do not bring additional income to the household (unpaid work)

[2]               In Uganda, FOWODE, a local NGO has been at the lead of GBI over the last three years

[3]               Refer to the reference guide- MFPED, Training Manual on Engendering Budgets for detailed explanations on these tools.

[4]               These include among others- UDHR, ICESCR, ICCPR,  and CEDAW.

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[1]      Session was done by Ms. Maggie Mabweijano, Assistant Commissioner, Gender and Community Development, MGLSD).

[2]               For instance see: Ester Boserup  ‘Women’s Role in Economic Development, 1970

[3]               The process of expanding human capacities, opportunities and choice

[4]               In the Ugandan context, the Poverty Eradication Action Plan

[5]               British Council Study of effective Leadership (2002)

Gender Review Study on Rural Roads Sub-Sector

According to critique by various actors and stakeholders, both internal and external, the previous Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP I), provided inadequate emphasis to cross cutting issues such as Gender, Environment and HIV/AIDS. PRSP (I) did not account effectively for many of the key priorities of women, youth and the destitute. For instance, need for improvement of maternal health services, support for food production or marketing within the country, and eradication of gender discriminatory practices within social services and economic infrastructure were not satisfactorily handled[1].

On the other hand, PRSP (I) progress reports clearly reflect the need for increased mainstreaming of gender and other cross cutting issues into sector policies in quest to eradicate poverty and other socio-economic misgivings. Main weaknesses in the PRSP (I) as regards gender content were widely noted in various sporadic efforts to add on explicit gender inputs at alternating intervals. Progress reports on the PRSP outline Government’s commitment to: promote gender equality; to ensure that poverty data analysis is engendered; and, that gender sensitive indicators are used in monitoring.

The Government therefore on 15^th October 2003, launched a public appraisal of the PRS as a precondition for development of PRS II.  The process aims at bringing on board all stakeholders and the public at large into informing the sectors on their imperatives for reducing poverty. The process is aimed at enabling these stakeholders share with other actors in a consultative way, on substantive issues of gender, environment and HIV/AIDS. The purpose is to bring on board these issues systematically for incorporation into the new PRS II strategies for the concerned sectors. The process is thus expected to imbue the involved actors with basic gender analysis capabilities in order to facilitate them contribute into the PRS Review processes.

This gender review study of the rural roads sub-sector is therefore designed to looking into the current gender and poverty related issues and the trends over the last three years as regards the roads sector component of the PRS I. The study shall focus on: assessing achievements in regards to gender aspects identified in the first PRS; trends in implementation in the past 3 years; lessons learned from the experience so far; challenges and constraints on furthering the process; existing gaps in gender and poverty; existing plans, strategies and programmes for gender and cross cutting issues; as well as provide recommendations for the way ahead.

The study shall therefore provide suggestions on how gender mainstreaming and cross cutting issues in the rural road sector could best be incorporated in the PRS II document. The suggestions shall be in the form of: a selection of practical interventions; gender disaggregated monitoring indicators; and eventually, essential  measures for enhancing positive outcomes in addressing gender and cross cutting issues, as well as minimize poverty through the rural roads sub-sector.   

Accessibility, Mobility, and Rural Travel Planning

Access to social and economic facilities, goods and services is a daily prime concern of all human beings. This daily endeavour demands facilitation of movement of people to the goods, services and facilities providing them.  Rural households, as well as urban households, meet their needs and priorities most effectively if the means for accessing them are in place. However, in order for this to happen, a multi-sectoral integrated planning approach that puts into consideration all aspects of household access needs is required. It is an established fact that poor access to subsistence, economic and social needs leads to isolation and therewith poverty. Mobility needs at the household level require the provision of appropriate transport infrastructure.

Present conventional approaches to rural transport needs assume that rural road improvements lead to improved access, and that continued state investment in the physical infrastructure for motor vehicles enables the transport needs of every community member being catered for. This approach subordinates road planning to the needs of agriculture, and therefore roads are justified towards agricultural harvests only. The approach neglects the fact that women and girls are prime movers in most rural areas, but they are not considered as prime targets for transport planning. It is obvious that most transport activities take place in and around villages, and have little use of the formal road network.

Current studies in rural or village level transport and travel patterns have revealed that there are specific gender aspects to be taken consideration of. These aspects include: division of labour (e.g., women doing a larger share of trips and burden of head-loading), infrastructure (e.g., poor access to essential services), and ecological conditions (e.g., dispersal of firewood and other goods and services such as water, markets, farming fields, etc). 

Integrated rural accessibility planning therefore defines access needs of rural households in connection to social and economic services that households require. The method integrates mobility needs at the household with the siting or location of essential social and economic goods and services.  This approach pays attention to purpose of travel, availability of services, condition of the transport infrastructure, means of transport, and the availability of social and economic services. The planning identifies development needs, problems, and priorities which can be addressed by improving access to facilities and services.

The starting point is the access needs of rural households. Key access interventions that are considered in improving access include: rural infrastructure (e.g., tracks, foot paths and footbridges); rural transport mobility (e.g., low cost IMTs); environment for rural mobility (e.g., facilitating purchase of IMTs, training in operation and maintenance); accessible locations or sites for facilities and services (e.g., water supplies, sanitation services, health centers, market facilities, grinding mills, etc); and, environmentally friendly measures (e.g., Energy efficient stoves, woodlots, etc).

It is such articulated issues that the rural roads sub-sector should address, rather than ending its analysis on the provision of roads for its unlinked sake. In order to further the analysis let us view how the sub-sector identifies and deals with rural roads.

Rural Roads and Rural Transport

According to the Ministry of Works, the road sector is considered as a major contributor in facilitating socio-economic development of poor rural areas. The road sector is said to contribute towards 5% of the overall GDP and handles 70% of internal freight traffic and 60% of transit cargo. Existing data shows that Tanzania’s road network comprises of 85’000 kilometers, distributed as follows:

• 10’300 kilometers of trunk roads.
• 24’700 kilometers of regional roads.
• 2’450 kilometers of urban roads.
• 20’000 kilometers of district roads.
• 27’550 kilometers of feeder roads.

However, only 4’000 of the above kilometers are paved (5%).  In closer detail,  the Ministry of Works (through TanRoads and Road Fund),  is responsible for 35’000 kilometers of the roads in Tanzania, while PORALG (through its local authorities), deals with the remaining 50’000 kilometers.

The Tanzania Development Vision 2025[2] states infrastructure development should involve the private sector and communities generally. It goes on into saying “development of the road network is absolutely essential for promoting rural development”. It is not stated whether these goals augur well with the stated accessibility needs of the rural based communities as explained above, or whether the interventions should merely meet the requirements of a limited proportion of rural resident Tanzanians.

Development and maintenance of the rural roads and transport infrastructure was previously assumed being gender neutral. In our time, various studies have revealed that men and women have varying transport needs and constraints that are affected differently by rural transport interventions. Rural women, who balance the productive, social, and reproductive roles in their local societies, are highly in need of a gender responsive rural transport infrastructure that can enhance their income generation and participation in decision making activities[3]. It is in this spirit that rural roads are extensively championed by different stakeholders as instrument for alleviating poverty. The purpose is to raise living standards among the poorest inhabitants in rural areas by engaging them in the rehabilitation of existing feeder, district and regional roads through labour promoting methods and technology.

Labour intensive technology is one of the most convenient tools for poverty reduction through the road sector. Ministry of Works has already acknowledged appropriateness of using the Labor Based Technology in rural roads as a way forward to development in the rural sector and alleviating poverty. Labour based technology, in comparison to capital intensive technology, creates more employment, increases incomes to rural residents, and helps re-distribute incomes[4]. 

Policy Guidelines for the 1996/97 National Labor Based Road Sector Programme identify direct and indirect benefits of using labour based methods. These benefits were listed as:

·         Creation of jobs in rural areas where other wage earning opportunities are few.

·         Reduced dependency on heavy equipment that is often difficult to maintain, especially when working in areas remote from main suppliers, workshops and manufacturers agents.

·         Reduced requirement for foreign exchange, as more of the costs are local costs.

·         Boost to local economy through the spending power of worker’s wages.

·         The acquisition of skills by workers employed on road construction and maintenance.

·         The provision of work opportunities for women as the recruitment of road workers is usually organized close to worker’s homes, a situation necessary for most women.

·         Encouragement of a sense of ownership of the roads by the rural people through their involvement in their construction and maintenance.

·         Assisting with poverty alleviation to the extent that the laborers who seek work on the roads are often poorer people who have few other options, for example those who have little or no land to cultivate.

·         Reducing migration to urban areas, particularly through large scale national programmes that offer a steady number of work opportunities in rural areas.

It is hereby obvious that the advantages of employing labour based methods in the maintenance of rural roads, as well as other types of roads, have been well articulated by the Ministry of Works much earlier. Such revelations have been amassing from within and without the country, as can be attested by the Case Study from Uganda in the Box below. The challenge henceforth, remains in implementation and up scaling. With support from various donor agencies and other multinational organizations, the Government of Tanzania has made progress in rehabilitating rural roads by using the Labor Based Technology (LBT) techniques and is now in the process of strengthening infrastructure-related institutions and policies.

Rural Roads Sector and Experiences in PRSP

The overall objective of the road sector[5] is “to have a road network that is well maintained, serving all parts of the economy, and one which is well integrated to other modes of transport providing services that are relatively inexpensive and safe”. The strategy selected to achieve this objective includes: rehabilitation of sections of the road network currently in poor condition to good condition. The aim was to start with roads which serve the most vulnerable districts (in most vulnerable 12 regions[6]), and focusing on the potential for agricultural production.

Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (March 2000)

The Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper[7] (March 2000) first and foremost highlights the process (e.g., consultations with stakeholders, civil society and development partners), for the development of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, which was to be produced by August 2000.besides stating that the paper was not to replace existing sectoral programmes but instead strengthen the prioritization of actions on targeting poverty in each sector, the paper indicated the need for each sector to set poverty reduction targets and monitorable indicators and shift budgetary allocations to meet the specified poverty reduction targets.  The paper hence touches on the enactment of legislation, of December 1998, for dedicating 90% of the Road Fund towards maintenance, as a major policy accomplishment. The paper also mentions establishment of a National Road Agency (TanRoads) in July 2000, as a way for ensuring effective and efficient management of the country’s road network from a poverty reduction perspective.

Draft Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (July 2000)

By July 2000 another more detailed Draft PRSP was issued by the government. The document identifies poor rural transport, especially “roads are not good enough to attract private transporters to operate”, as one of the causes for poverty (page 13). Furthermore, the document reiterated the focus on poverty reduction by the road sector as being application of “labour intensive technology and increased use of local contractors” in the rehabilitation and maintenance of all rural roads network. Nevertheless, it is disturbing to see the emphasis that “priority will be given to rehabilitating to weather standards a total of 4’500 kilometers by 2003 under the Urgent Roads Rehabilitation Programme in 12 identified regions” (page 28). This focus seems to overstretch the definition of rural roads as well as the list of the most deprived regions into proportions that won’t be easily achieved bearing in mind the resource envelope at hand.

Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (October 2000)

The Final PRSP, the National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), was issued in October 2000. The document provides a more comprehensive and consolidated overview of the poverty reduction consultation process and measures to be implemented by the various sectors in Tanzania for the next three years. Poor roads were identified in the document as one of the main causes for income poverty. Rural road network in Tanzania within the context of PRSP constitutes most of the Regional, District and Feeder Roads amounting to about 74’000 kilometers. Potential impact of improved road network infrastructure on poverty reduction cannot be dismissed. Indeed, poor conditions of rural roads are a critical constraint to development of the agriculture sector, upon which the majority of the rural poor depend on for their livelihood. Poor conditions of roads limit accessibility and raises costs of accessing facilities, services and goods. 

In the section on rural sector development and export growth, the PRSP categorically states that “local communities will play a more active role in rehabilitating and maintaining rural roads” (page 21), a fact that provides proof on the intended goal of involving, through employment, more rural residents in the rural roads sector. The paper also indicates that particular attention was to be directed at deprived regions. The proposed budgetary allocation for the rural roads sector was: 46.9 billion shillings in 1999/00; 86.8 billion shillings in 2000/01; 92 billion shillings in 2001/02; and, 76 billion shillings in 2002/03. The proposed funds were supposed to cater for subventions to local government authorities, Road Fund allocations to districts, and Ministry of Works Sub-Vote on Other Charges. The projected results after the three year period were supposed to consist of:

• 4’500 kilometers of rural roads rehabilitated in twelve regions identified as the poorest (e.g., Dodoma, Kagera, Lindi, Kigoma, Coast, Mtwara, Morogoro, Mara, Tanga, Rukwa, Tabora and Singida).
• Routine and periodic maintenance promptly undertaken on all rural road networks.

The improvements were anticipated to be achieved through increased budget allocations to rural roads. Secondly, through application of labour based technology in the rehabilitation and maintenance activities. Thirdly, through increased utilization of local contractors. Lastly, through strengthened capacity for managing district roads by local contractors.  

The First Draft Progress Report on PRSP I (2000/01)

The May 2001 Draft Progress Report on the PRSP I[8] assessed the government’s particulars on the contents of the rural road component in the PRSP and the cost estimates on interventions required to meet targets with regards to district, trunk and regional roads. The Progress Report also responded to specific issues raised by stakeholders concerning substance and practicability of the rural roads programme. Generally, the resource envelope for the roads sector experienced a shortfall averaged at 47% of the required amount for the road sector in totality, as well as 22% of the requirement for the rural roads in specific (Table 23). The assessment encouraged the Government to develop an outlook on interventions required for seeing improvements on rural roads through to 2010. The outlook included a costed programme for the three-year period ending fiscal year 2003/04.

The Draft report also presents plans to review the roles of the Regional Consultative Committees (RCC) and the Regional Road Board with the aim of avoiding duplication in their respective mandates. Efforts were being made to strengthen the offices of District Engineers and clarify the role of the TanRoads in this sub-sector. However, while the launching of the Road Fund, Road Fund Board, and TanRoads was a welcome development, the construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance of trunk and regional roads continued to be constrained by shortage of resources. For instance the resource gap for the rural roads maintenance and rehabilitation was projected as being: 593.5 million shillings in the 2001/02 fiscal year; 924.2 million shillings in the 2002/03 period; and, 713.7 million shillings in the 2003/04 period.  Altogether, the roads sector was facing a resource gap of: 37 billion shillings in 2001/02; 43.5 billion in 2002/03 and 45.2 billion in 2003/04. The government also tried to refocus on the poverty reduction objective under PRSP in linking it to the improvement of regional roads, domestic and cross boarder traffic, and traditional exports.

It was against that backdrop that the Government pledged to set aside 1.8 Billion shillings on a monthly basis (starting May 2001) in order to improve transport links to the northwestern and southern regions, of the country. The initiative was to be accompanied with efforts to accelerate implementation of externally funded road projects, and to bolster resources of TanRoads.

The Second Draft Progress Report on PRSP I (2001/02)

The Second Draft Progress Report[9] of the PRSP I, contains clear and detailed achievements in the road sector. While the focus was to improve the condition of the road network with special attention to the most vulnerable and poor regions of the country, the detailed planned interventions for the roads sub-sector were identified as being:

• Allocation of 1.8 Billion shillings on a monthly basis to improve the transport link to the northwestern and southern regions of the country.
• Increase of normal budget allocations to facilitate rehabilitation and maintenance of eight most vulnerable and poor regions of the country
• Rehabilitation of feeder, district, and regional road network in the poorest eight regions.
• Special attention to footpaths, tracks and trails and to mobilize communities in carrying out needed improvement.
• Carry out routine maintenance, emergency repair and spot improvement in all districts to ensure uninterrupted use of roads.
• Develop and prepare a program similar to the “Urgent Road Rehabilitation Programme” (URRP) for the districts, feeder and urban roads.
• Improve the capacity of district engineers to manage execution of road maintenance works at district level.

The above planned interventions were all presented in a manner that failed to create a definite link to cross cutting issues or poverty reduction. 

Budget Speech and Provisions on Cross Cutting Issues 

It is also imperative to assess the Ministry of Work’s commitment to addressing cross cutting issues in its annual resource allocation statements as captured in the budget speech read in Parliament by the Minister. These statements provide an indication on what development issues the ministry focuses on annually and how it intends to deal with the issues.

The 2001/02 Ministry of Works Budget Speech

The 2001/02 Budget Speech[10] allocated seven paragraphs (or 4 pages), to addressing labour based technology matters (e.g., 2 paragraphs), as well as women participation (e.g., 4 paragraphs). The labour based paragraphs touched on the distribution of 435 manuals (out of 500 copies), to regional engineers, district engineers, contractors, consultant engineers as well as other stakeholders. The minister also mentioned the resolve to strengthen the Appropriate Technology Institute in Mbeya (Kiwira), and the issuance of guidelines on labour based technology to all stakeholders.

Besides reminding that the ministry had engaged efforts to increase women’s participation in road works since 1992/93, the minister stated that already 20% to 35% of labour in road works was contributed by women. The intended focus was to increase women’s employment in road works; mobilize more girls into science subjects; and, train 30 government workers to mobilize school girls into science and technical subjects. The minister also mentioned that Denmark had assisted the ministry to create strategies for women involvement up to village level through WEQA (Women Evaluators and Quantity Surveyors Association). The ministry had planned to engage gender budget training in the stated year.

The 2002/03 Ministry of Works Budget Speech

The 2002/03 Budget Speech[11] allocated six paragraphs (or 4 pages), to addressing labour based technology matters (e.g., 3 paragraphs), as well as women participation (e.g., 3 paragraphs).  On the labour based technology, the focus remained on distribution of guidelines; dissemination of a Labour Based Technical Manual (Volume 4);  assisting Mbeya’s ATTI center with equipment; developing a National Framework for labour based technology; and, developing the Labour Based Documentation Center.

On the women participation side, the minister mentioned that progress achieved was mainly: 14 regions were now involved in piloting women’s involvement in road works to between 20% and 35% of labour force (e.g., Lindi, Mbeya, Iringa, Ruvuma, Morogoro, Dar Es Salaam, Coast, Kagera, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Shinyanga and Mbeya).  NORAD[12] was stated as assisting in gender training of 35 Directors and Deputy Directors in the Ministry. Meanwhile Finnida (in Lindi and Mtwara), DANIDA (Pwani), SDC (Morogoro), UNDP (Mwanza), and EDF (Ruvuma and Iringa), have all facilitated creation of groups of women small scale contractors and therefore increase the involvement of women in road works to around 35%. The minister ended by saying that the ministry shall continue with gender budgeting training and aims at increasing women’s involvement in the road works sector from 35% to 50%.

The 2003/04 Ministry of Works Budget Speech

The 2003/04 Budget Speech[13] allocated three paragraphs (or 3 pages), to addressing labour based technology matters (e.g., 2 paragraphs), as well as women participation (e.g., 1 paragraph). On the labour based technology side, the minister linked poverty reduction with labour based methods, by stating that “kutumia nyenzo na nguvu kazi zinazopatikana humuhumu nchini” is a way of increasing incomes for rural residents. The minister said the focus in the past year was: follow up on the labour based technology interventions in various regions; training District Engineer on DROMAS ( District Roads Management System);   facilitating the ATTI center in Mbeya;  and the preparation of a policy that shall guide the application of labour based technology in Tanzania (the Framework Document had already been prepared).

On the women participation side, main observations by the minister were that all regions were now involved in addressing promotion of women’s participation in road works through use of various IEC materials. The goal was still to increase women’s participation from the present 35% to 50% in 2005.  Mobilisation of secondary school girls into science and technical subjects, as well as gender budgeting training were the other ongoing interventions. The latter was supposed to cover, TanRoads managers from all regions as well as budget officers from the ministry.

The Medium Term Plan for Growth and Poverty Reduction

The “Medium Term Plan for Growth and Poverty Reduction”[14] identified opportunities and potential for the road sector development as including: a large pool of cheap labour; plentiful sources of construction materials such as gravel, aggregates, lime, sand, water, etc; as well as, articulated policies for sustainable development and poverty reduction.” (page 66). The plan identified the road network as one of the key sector for economic growth and proposed that the reduction of poverty will in the medium term period be adopted from the following objectives for the road sector:

• Support the development of human resources.
• Build a competitive climate in the road construction industry, and,
• Train and assist local contractors in capacity building to enable them compete equally for construction works.

 Among the 12 the strategies[15] identified for implementing the seven objectives, were:

•         Mobilizing rural communities to carry out the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of rural roads.
•         Promote the use of local private sector consultants and contractors.
•          Mainstream gender issues in road sector policies, plans and budgets.
•         Evolve efficient road maintenance technologies especially those which are labour intensive.

As was stated in the Household Budget Survey, “Income poverty has only significantly declined in urban areas. While the proportion of people living below the poverty line has decreased, their numbers has increased.” The survey showed that 87% of the poor population lives in rural areas, with 36% of Tanzanians living under the basic needs poverty line.

Lessons Learnt in Rural Roads Sector

Generally the road sector is a complex area. As things stand at the moment, the sector is proliferated with quantitative set of criteria fro prioritizing rates of return to improvements of existing networks.

As seen in the preceding sections above, it appears that the sector is handicapped in regards to creating strong associations to poverty and labour based elements. This is proved by the fact that goals and targets in the road sector component are always based strongly on physical lines rather than socio-economic gains at individual, household and community level. Criteria used to allocate road projects, though argued on regional deprivation indices, raises distributional concerns.

Arguments tendered for the justification are based on internationally traded commodities (cashew nuts or cotton), reduced transport costs (mainly for trucks not buses), and competitive internal trading systems (which are imply more aggressive entrepreneurs gaining). All of the itemized are factors that favour the better placed rural or urban residents instead of otherwise. Households based outside the market system normally do not benefit because impact depends on geographical location and actual economic potentials. The problem is that the economic based criteria used for developing roads favours the more affluent individuals, politically well disposed communities or resource rich areas.

Local Government Authorities

• Local Government Authorities lack capacity to manage district, urban and feeder roads.

Ongoing reforms in local government authorities should go further to establishing a mechanism that will ensure that the road network under their jurisdiction is managed properly by local authorities. It should then be the role of the Director of Roads to ensure that all local government authorities use the same decision making process as other roads in terms of selecting and prioritizing investments in the road construction, maintenance and improvement.

Ministry and District Road Plans

• The delay in rolling out is that the programme needs funds for rolling out. It is therefore important that PO-RALG take the lead to identify funding for this important activity. The Ministry has planed for the Urgent Road Rehabilitation Program (URRP), under the Trunk and Regional Roads Network and the Ten Year Road Sector Rehabilitation Programme (10 Year Plan), while the District and Feeder roads have developed District Roads Management System (DROMAS), which needs to be rolled out to other Districts.

Resources and Capacity

• Thus lack of resources and inadequate capacity are issues to be addressed for the success of the programme. There must be a deliberate move by the Government to underscore the importance of strengthening capacity at the district level. Strengthening local government capability through training and allocation of skilled manpower.

Employment of Women in Trunk Road Projects

• With respect to poverty reduction strategy the Ministry is currently employing more than 700 people (mostly laborers) at the Chalinze – Melela roads rehabilitation project. Out of these about 12% were women, which have an impact on poverty reduction. While on the Makuyuni – Ngorongoro Road that is being upgraded to bitumen standard about 500 people (mostly labourers) are employed and although only 2% were women, but the impact on poverty reduction is considered present.

Income Opportunities to Women

• In the Southern Highland Zone, several small scale contracts were awarded to village contractors and communities involving women. In Arusha for example 50% of small scale contracts executed were awarded to women. The effect is that income is generated to local communities, which ultimately contributes to poverty reduction in the country. 

 Financial Resources

• Limited financial resources to raise the condition of roads to maintainable status, implying a need to go beyond the Road Fund Resources.

 Road Sector Reforms

• More needs to be done with respect to road sector reforms to ensure smoothness of operations in road works in road works and road network administration.
• Enhancement of technical and managerial skills by the Local Government Authorities. 

Challenges and Constraints

 The government is implementing measures to address outstanding problems in the sector by carrying out the following initiatives:

Resources for the Road sector

·         Inadequate budgetary allocation to road rehabilitation and periodic maintenance and spot repairs for the entire planned network.

Use of Labour Based Technology and Methods

·         Use of Labor Based Technology which promotes employment of women and men, in rural areas, in rehabilitation, routine, periodic and spot improvement for the whole network has not been very successful. Constraints include resistance by engineers at district and national levels in accepting labour based methods instead of equipment based methods.

 Employment of Women in Maintenance Work

·         National average on women employment in the road sector (30%), does not tell the entire story on variations within different districts and regions.

 Capacity Building at District Level

·         Improvement of capacity of District Engineers to manage execution of road maintenance works at district level, should also include their acknowledging and appreciating the necessity of applying labour based technology and methods within road works in their districts.

Engendering Various Manuals

·         Need for preparation of technical manuals for road rehabilitation and maintenance works, contract administration & managements, technical standards and work specifications, unit rates, procurement procedures, environmental guidelines, road sign & safety, gender and social issues, M&E etc., to 113 districts.

 Popularisation of Village Based Accessibility Needs

·         Late up scaling and dissemination of VTTP programme package tools to 113 districts (including training, baseline access study, capacity building, guidance notes etc.

·         Footpaths tracks and trails and to mobilize communities in carrying out needed improvement not given sufficient emphasis.

[Extracted from a report titled “Priority Sector PRS Review from a Gender Perspective: Ministry of Works.” By Edward H. Mhina and Richard Kundi. Dar Es Salaam, April 2004.]

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[1]                       Bell, E.; Gender and PRSPs: With experiences from Tanzania, Bolivia, Viet Nam, and Mozambique; 2003

[2]                       Page 20, The Tanzania Development Vision 2025, The President’s Office Planning Commission, Dar es Salaam. 1999.

[3]                       World Bank; Transport and Gender Equality: Gender and Development Briefing Notes; www.worldbank.org/gender/transport/

[4]                       Halifa Msangi and Geert Muijser; Experience of using Rehabilitation and Maintenance of District and feeder Roads (Medium Term Impact on people and the Government of Tanzania); 2003; 10^th Regional Seminar for the Labor Based Practitioners.

[5]                       Page 23 onwards: United Republic of Tanzania; Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper: Draft Progress Report 2000/01 (Summary); May 2001 (Summary).

[6]                       The most deprived regions (in regards to food security; income and production; education; health and nutrition services, were Dodoma, Kagera, Lindi, Kigoma, and Coast Regions. Page 12, of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), October 2000.

[7]                       United Republic of Tanzania; Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP); 14^th March 2000

[8]                       United Republic of Tanzania; Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper: Draft Progress Report 2000/01 (Summary); May 2001 (Summary).

[9] United Republic of Tanzania; Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper - Second Draft Progress Report 2001/02; March 2003

[10]                     Pages 52-55: Hotuba Ya Waziri wa Ujenzi, Mheshimiwa John P. Magufuli (MB), Akiwasilisha Bungeni Mpango wa Maendeleo na Makadirio ya Matumizi ya Fedha kwa Mwaka 2001/02. Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania. 2001

[11]                     Pages 27-31: Hotuba Ya Waziri wa Ujenzi, Mheshimiwa John P. Magufuli (MB), Akiwasilisha Bungeni Mpango wa Maendeleo na Makadirio ya Matumizi ya Fedha kwa Mwaka 2002/03. Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania. 2002

[12]                     MoW’s recommended guidelines on women’s participation are based on a study that was prepared by IDSWSG for NORAD in March 1987, based on the rural Roads Maintenance Programme (RRMP) in Mbeya and Tanga regions.

[13]                     Pages 35-38: Hotuba Ya Waziri wa Ujenzi, Mheshimiwa John P. Magufuli (MB), Wakati Akiwasilisha Bungeni Mpango wa Maendeleo na Makadirio ya Matumizi ya Fedha kwa Mwaka 2003/04. Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania. 2003

[14]                     Page 66: Medium Term Plan for Growth and Poverty Reduction. 2003/04 and 2005/06. Volume 1. Macro and Sectoral Policies, Strategies and Objectives.

[15]                     Page 68: Medium Term Plan for Growth and Poverty Reduction. 2003/04 and 2005/06. Volume 1. Macro and Sectoral Policies, Strategies and Objectives.