Gender-responsive budgeting can contribute to equality

Gender-responsive budgeting is necessary to ensure the realisation of gender equality and empowerment ideals, as reflected in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 5.

The call came from a panel of scholars and gender mainstreaming experts who participated in a virtual event titled, ‘Innovating Financing for Gender Equity and Implementing SDG 5 in Africa’.

The discussion, held on October 27, was part of the public dialogue series initiated by the Alliance for African Partnership and was co-hosted by the University of Nigeria and the Center for Gender in Global Context at Michigan State University, with University World News as the media partner.

The Alliance for African Partnership was co-created by Michigan State University and African thought leaders in 2016. It is a consortium of Michigan State University and 10 leading African universities.

Zohra Khan, the United Nations’ women’s global policy adviser on governance, said many governments had been slow to adopt policies to address gender equity concerns and, when such policies are enacted, they are never implemented properly as they do not have ring-fenced budgetary allocations.

“In this regard, intersecting gender inequalities have caused women to remain grossly underrepresented across many sectors of human development, despite their competitive skills and efforts from academia, business and government to increase their numbers,” said Khan.

In the African context, Khan said that, whereas there are many contributing factors that are slowing women’s progress, the under-investment in gender equity and women’s empowerment issues was central to the problem.

However, the situation could be improved through national and institutional gender-responsive budgeting.

She stressed that, at national or institutional level, planned gender equity and women empowerment projects should be allocated specific budgets approved at the highest governance level and should be implemented properly.

“There should be a real-time expenditure tracking system that monitors the use of the funds and reports on how those resources were reaching women and achieving gender equality outcomes,” said Khan.

Khan suggested that gender expenditure should also be audited. A forensic audit by authorities and a social accountability audit by civil society organisations, monitoring service delivery on the ground and how well resources were responding to women’s needs and priorities were necessary.

Gender equality tax?

In a presentation, ‘Bridging the Gender Gap Through Innovative Funding in Africa,’ Professor Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the head of the department of public law at the University of Nigeria’s Enugu campus, said women’s and girls’ potential in Africa is untapped as many of them continue to suffer social and economic injustices and their ability to succeed is cut short.

“Gender discrimination that includes gender-based violence, sexual harassment and harmful cultural norms continue to keep girls out of school, denying them decent education that would expand their earnings and purchasing power,” said Ezeilo, who is an expert on women’s and children’s rights.

Towards improving gender equity in higher education in Africa, Ezeilo suggested a minimal annual contribution of about US$2 per person on the continent.

By whatever means African governments would use to raise such funds, Ezeilo estimated that about US$1.4 billion per year could be made available to finance innovative tertiary education on the continent to bridge the gender gap.

“Currently, there is a lot of borrowing by governments, but very little of that money is being used to improve the quality of education in the universities, leave alone funding gender equity,” said Ezeilo.

She said investing for women and girls in higher education in Africa is too slow, despite recognition by the African Union through its Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, of the need for countries to put to an end all forms of gender discrimination, child marriages, female genital mutilation and other harmful cultural practices that discriminate against women and girls.

According to Ezeilo, African women’s voices are decreasing in higher education and research in most countries as a result of limited financial support for gender equity. She said the digital divide in higher education that was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic affected women in Africa, in particular.

Social justice struggles continue

Stephanie Nawyn, a professor of sociology at Michigan State University, called on gender-sensitive academics in African universities to continue with the struggle for social justice because gender equity issues go beyond just increasing the participation of women in leadership positions.

“It is also about eliminating the persistent, structural sexism in work environments in higher education, public service and private sectors,” said Nawyn, who is a co-director for academic programmes at the Center for Gender in Global Context that co-hosted the meeting.

In her recommendations, Nawyn urged gender-sensitive higher education institutions in Africa and elsewhere to earmark specific budgets and seek funding opportunities for women and other under-represented social groups in society.

She advised such institutions to aggressively expand participation of women in higher education and research by identifying potential donors to support women researchers.

In that aspect, Nawyn highlighted how the Center for Gender in Global Context has been developing gender-responsive proposals and grant ideas that are submitted to potential donors for funding.

Dr Aldo Stroebel, the executive director of strategic partnerships at the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, said the organisation has been supporting gender equality and racial and societal diversity.

The NRF is a member of the Global Research Council whose gender working group has set out policy guidelines for supporting women in research.

According to the Global Research Council’s position paper on gender equality, ‘Statement of Principles and Actions Promoting the Equality and Status of Women in Research’, members are expected to implement actions that support equality for women in research.

In that aspect, The National Research Council Foundation of South Africa, has, since 2014, been awarding bursaries and scholarships.

“The number of female students funded has increased to 55% while, in terms of racial diversity, the proportion of black students has increased from 69% to over 80%,” said Stroebel.

According to Stroebel, progress has been made in promoting women in research leadership as, out of 240 research chairs funded by the National Research Foundation, 55% are held by women.

But, according to Professor Anthonia Ifeyinwa Achike, the director of the Gender and Development Policy Centre at the University of Nigeria and the moderator of the meeting, there is an urgent need for African governments to do much more towards addressing equality and the status of women in higher education and research in order to attract more talent for development.

The Alliance for African Partnership was co-created by Michigan State University and African thought leaders in 2016. It is a consortium of Michigan State University and 10 leading African universities.