MPs who attended a recent workshop on gender budgeting organised by the ZWRCN on said they had been empowered to make positive contributions to ensure that women get a fair share of the national cake in the 2015 budget. Beatrice Nyamupinga, Zanu (PF) MP for Goromonzi West, believes female MPs need to understand the budgeting process in order to be able to contribute in Parliament. “The challenge is that as legislators, the majority of us are not clear on when and how we should input into the budget process,” said Nyamupinga. “However, some of us who have been in Parliament for some time now understand the process.”
Starting point
She said gender budgeting was important in any economy that strives to empower women. “The allocation of adequate resources is the starting point towards ensuring gender equality,” said Nyamupinga.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development was allocated $10.1million in the 2014 budget, a figure which was described as way below the expected allocation.
Marbel Nkatazo, the MP for Murehwa North constituency, said the training had provided women with an opportunity to get first-hand information on how to best influence the 2015 budget. “I now understand when my input is considered and how to present the input to the responsible arms of government,” she said.
Jane Chifamba, Mashonaland East Senator, said the training had motivated her to start drafting her input for the upcoming 2015 budget.
“The allocation of adequate resources is the starting point of women’s empowerment,” said Chifamba. “This workshop taught me that gender budgeting should be mainstreamed in all sectors as the starting point for equality between men and women.”
Anna Shiri, the Senator representing people with disabilities, said the constituency she represented was mostly side-lined in the allocation of resources. “In the 2014 budget, our submissions to treasury were late. But because we are now aware of how and when to present our budget proposals, I am sure our issues will be considered in the 2015 budget,” said Shiri.
Other female parliamentarians hailed the training workshop and called for increased capacity building and skills development for female legislators by other organisations working with women. Pamela Mhlanga, the Executive Director of ZWRCN, said her organisation would continue working with female parliamentarians to bridge the information gap and provide skills development.
“Our aim is to make a difference and empower female legislators to represent their constituencies to the best of their ability,” said Mhlanga. “Our aim is to democratise the macro-economic framework through fostering women’s participation in the national and local government level budgeting processes.”
She said gender responsive budgeting sought to disaggregate the national budget based on its impact on different people in society. “Such a budget takes into account the differences in needs and interests of women and men, girls and boys, rural and urban, rich and poor, young and old, those with and without disabilities,” she explained.
Established in 1991, the ZWRCN is a non-governmental organisation that seeks to empower women in Zimbabwe through the provision of information that affects their economic, social and political spheres. The organisation, which has been implementing a Gender Budgeting and Women’s Empowerment Project (GBWEP) since January 2011 at local and national level is supported by the multi-donor Fund for Gender Equality (FGE) of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).
The project aims at promoting women’s participation in the economy, including policy formulation and implementation in the national and local budgeting process. It supports the implementation of national policies and budgets that are pro-poor and sensitive to the needs and priorities of women in particular and other marginalised groups such as people with disabilities, the youth and the elderly.
The ZWRCN runs a Documentation Centre within the Gender and Information Programme, with a wide collection of audio-visual material, books, periodicals and other material on gender and development and cutting-edge information services.
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Well done ZWRCN. It is important that capacitybe built among Zimbabweans to be able to make more input in not only the budgeting process at local and national levels, but to demand accountability for use of resources in line with workplans, strategies and results-based budgeting!