C o m m o nwealth Secre t a r i at

Gender

Budget

Initiative

Professor Diane Elson Background papers

Gender BudgetInitiative

Background Papers

Professor Diane ElsonGraduate School of Social Sciences,

University of Manchester

C o m m o nwealth Secre t a r i at

Commonwealth Secre t a r i a tM a r l b o rough HousePall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX, United Kingdom

© Commonwealth Secretariat, June 1999

All rights re s e rved. No part of this publication may bere p roduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted inany form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,including photocopying, re c o rding or otherwise without thep e rmission of the publisher.

The views expressed in this document do not necessarilyre flect the opinion or policy of the CommonwealthS e c re t a r i a t .

Designed and published by the Commonwealth Secre t a r i a t .Printed in the United Kingdom by Abacus Dire c t .W h e rever possible, the Commonwealth Secretariat usespaper sourced from sustainable forests or from sources thatminimise a destructive impact on the enviro n m e n t .

Copies of this publication can be ord e red direct fro m :The Gender & Youth Affairs DivisionCommonwealth Secre t a r i a tM a r l b o rough HousePall MallLondon SW1Y 5HXUnited KingdomTel: +44 (0)171 747 6545Fax: +44 (0)171 930 1647E-mail: gad@commonwealth.int

Web sites:h t t p : / / w w w. t h e c o m m o n w e a l t h . o rg / g e n d e rh t t p : / / w w w. t h e c o m m o n w e a l t h . o rgh t t p : / / w w w. y o u n g c o m m o n w e a l t h . o rg

Gender-Neutral, Gender-Blind, orGender-Sensitive Budgets?Changing The Conceptual Framework to IncludeWomen’s Empowerment and the Economy of Care

Introduction

The Budget, on the face of it,appears to be a gender – neutralpolicy instrument. It is set out int e rms of financial aggregates – totals,and sub-totals of expenditure andrevenue, and the resulting Budgetsurplus or deficit. As usually pre s e n t-ed, there is no particular mention ofwomen, but no particular mentionof men either.

H o w e v e r, this appearance of gender-neutrality is more accuratelydescribed as gender-blindness. Theway in which the National Budget isusually formulated ignores the diff e r-ent, socially determined ro l e s ,responsibilities, and capabilities ofmen and women. These diff e re n c e sa re generally stru c t u red in such a wayas to leave women in an unequalposition in relation to the men intheir community, with less econom-ic, social and political power.

The presence of gender diff e re n c e sand inequalities means that ag e n d e r-blind Budget in practicetends to have diff e rent impacts onmen and women, boys and girls; andin turn they tend to have diff e re n tresponses to the Budget. Dependingon how the Budget, and the publics e rvices which it finances, ares t ru c t u red, the outcomes for menand women can be unequal. Forinstance, although the Educationbudget of a country may have nointention of favouring boys overgirls, the actual outcome may in factfavour boys over girls, as the data inBox 1 shows.

If the Budget is gender-blind, thenthis not only contravenes goals ofgender equality, it also makes it mored i fficult for the Budget to havepositive impacts on economic gro w t hand human development. A gender-sensitive Budget makes goodeconomic sense, because it enhancesthe contribution the Budget canmake to economic growth, humandevelopment and to the empower-ment of women. This is discussed inm o re detail in the companion to thispaper (Elson 1996).

The existing conceptualframeworks and statistics used tocreate budget scenarios are gender-blind. They fail to recognise that:

• women’s contribution to themacroeconomy isunderestimated because ofmissing and biased markets andincomplete statistics.

• there is an unpaid economy(which has been variouslylabelled ‘domestic’, ‘socialreproduction’, ‘reproductive’) inwhich women do most of thework of maintaining the labourforce and keeping the socialframework in good order – bothvital services for the paideconomy.

• the parameters of aggregateproduction, savings, investment,imports and exports in the paideconomy may be sensitive todifferent patterns of genderrelations and gender distributionof resources.

Research is under way to developgender-sensitive conceptualframeworks and national economicstatistics which can reveal linkagesand feedbacks between genderrelations and macroeconomicoutcomes. (See, for instance,Waring, 1989; Cagatay, Elson andGrown (ed), 1995; Special Issue ofFeminist Economics, November1996).

H e re we draw upon that re s e a rch toclarify a conceptual frameworkwithin which the issue of a gender-sensitive budget may be appro a c h e d ,with emphasis on• measuring women’s contribution

to the economy

• engendering macro e c o n o m i cm od e l s

• gender and Budget strategy

3

Box 1

Incidence of Public Expenditure on Education

Public expenditure Public expenditure per male per female

Pakistan 56 rupees 26 rupees

Kenya 670 shillings 543 shillings

Source: World Bank, 1995:27

Measuring women’scontribution to themacroeconomy

M o re of women’s work than ofm e n ’s work is not counted bynational economic statistics becausea great deal of women’s work doesnot take place in large marketoriented formal sector establish-ments. Instead it consists of:• subsistence prod u c t i o n

• i n f o rmal sector employment

• domestic or ‘re p roductive’ work

• v o l u n t a ry community work

Subsistence pr o d u c t i o n is prod u c-tion for home use of goods which inprinciple could be marketed – suchas food, clothing, pottery. In princi-ple it should be included in them e a s u rement of the gross nationalp roduct (GNP). But in practice it isf requently omitted because statisti-cal surveys do not properly count it.

I n f o r mal sector employment i smarket-oriented employment insmall workshops, family businesses,subcontracted work undertaken inthe home (’homeworking’) andwork as domestic servants. Itincludes three types of occupationalstatus – employee, self-employed,(both of which are paid) and unpaidfamily worker (in which the workerdoes not herself receive money) butthe family member (often the malehousehold head) directing thebusiness does receive payment. Inprinciple, informal sector employ-ment should be included in theg ross national product, but likesubsistence production, it is oftenomitted because of the short c o m i n g sof statistical surv e y s .

Domestic work or ‘r e p ro d u c t i v ew o r k ’ is the work of managing ahousehold, cooking, cleaning,fetching fuel and water, keepinghome, clothing and domesticequipment in good re p a i r, andcaring for family members andfriends and neighbours. In principle,it is excluded from the gross nation-al product: it is defined in the UNSystem of National Accounts aslying outside the prod u c t i o nb o u n d a ry. But it is vital for keeping

the social framework in good re p a i r,and for maintaining and re p rod u c-ing the labour forc e .

Vo l u n t a r y community workincludes unpaid activity in all kindsof civic associations, both secularand church based. It includese v e rything from self-help groups ofmothers getting together to run ac h i l d re n ’s play group or securei m p rovements in neighbourh o ods a f e t y, to support work for larg ei n t e rnational charities. Again theseactivities are in principle excludedf rom the GNP – and often arere g a rded as leisure activities. But formany poor people, especially poorwomen, such activities are vital toget access to needed re s o u rces andp rovide some security. Vo l u n t a rywork makes a vital contribution tosustaining the social framework,p a rticularly the sense of civicre s p o n s i b i l i t y.

R e p roductive work and voluntarycommunity work could in principlebe done by men or women – butthese kinds of work have beensocially constituted as more theresponsibility of women than menin most countries.

As re p o rted in the Special Issue ofFeminist Economics November 1996,a great deal of pro g ress is beingmade in many countries in measur-ing women’s subsistence andi n f o rmal sector activity, so as toinclude it in the GNP; and inmeasuring women’s domestic orre p roductive work and voluntarywork so as to construct a

S ATELLITE ACCOUNT measur-ing unpaid output. (See Box 2 forestimates of the market value ofw o m e n ’s unpaid work in relation toG N P ) .

Neither national accounts, norsatellite accounts, in themselves canindicate what policies are appro p r i-ate. A conceptual framework orm odel is re q u i red in which to usethem. But statistics are import a n tfor making inputs and outputsvisible – without this visibility it isd i fficult to get them included inm odels and seen as significant bypolicy makers.

Engenderingmacroeconomic models

The circular flow of income is thesimplest way of modelling ane c o n o m y. The complex computer-based models used to create budgetscenarios are almost invariably morecomplex versions of a vision of them a c roeconomy as a circular flow ofincome which is re p resented indiagram 1. In this vision of thee c o n o m y, production and invest-ment is carried out bymarket-oriented firms. Thisgenerates cash income for thehouseholds which own, or work in,firms. Households then either savetheir income, or consume it byspending it on goods produced byfirms. Households are assured to actas if they were completely unifie d ,pooling their incomes and makingsavings and consumption decisionsso as to maximise the total benefitto the household as a whole.

The role of government is to levytaxes, make transfer payments, andp rovide public services. The mod e ls i m p l i fies this role by assuming taxesa re paid by households and transferpayments such as pensions, childb e n e fits, unemployment benefits aremade to households, while publics e rvices are provided by govern-ment, using goods and serv i c e sp roduced by firms. The economyoperates so as to equate savings andinvestment, but not necessarily atfull employment of those who wantpaid work, and full utilisation of the

4

Box 2

Accounting for the unpaideconomy

Estimates for developed countries

suggest that unpaid work produces

an output equivalent to at least

half of GDP.

Global estimates suggest that

women’s unpaid work produces an

output of $11 trillion per annum,

compared to a global GDP of about

$23 trillion.

Source: UNDP, 1995:97

capital stock produced by pre v i o u sinvestment. The extent whicheconomies automatically tend to fullemployment is a matter of consider-able debate among economists. Butall are agreed that episodes ofunemployment can last a long time.

In this vision, households do notp roduce. Their only function is tosave or spend. They are onlyconsumers. Nor does govern m e n tspending create growth for thef u t u re. Its main role is to re d i s t r i b u t eincome and to increase aggre g a t edemand (if G is greater than T: abudget deficit) or reduce aggre g a t edemand (if T is greater than G: abudget surplus). The stock ofnatural re s o u rces, the stock ofl a b o u r, and the social framework ofcivic responsibility is taken forgranted and no work is re q u i red tomaintain these re s o u rc e s .

Of course, in many cases, especiallyin the agricultural sector, thehousehold and the firm are fusedtogether in a family business. Butc o n c e p t u a l l y, the model distinguish-es the family aspect from thebusiness aspect.

I m p o rts and exports can bei n t roduced into the model, in asimilar way to savings and export s .I m p o rts, like savings, are treated as aleakage from the economy, awithdrawal of funds, while export s ,like investment, are treated as an

injection of funds into the economy.For simplicity, net import expendi-t u re is attributed to households;while export demand is met byfirms. The economy is in equilibri-um provided that the value ofsavings plus imports is equal to thevalue of investment plus export s .But equilibrium does not guaranteethat full employment, absence ofp o v e rt y, and adequate humandevelopment will always bea c h i e v e d .

Gender and the circular flow ofincome

Gender can be introduced into sucha model by disaggregation. The mostobvious disaggregation is to distin-guish male and female-headedhouseholds and male and female-headed firms. The financial flo w sinto and out of these gender- d i ff e r-entiated units could then inprinciple, be distinguished. It wouldbe possible to answer questions sucha s :• what pro p o rtion of govern m e n t

spending is directed to female-headed firms and whatp ro p o rtion to male-headed firm s ?

• do male-headed firms displayd i ff e rent investment and exportbehaviour from female-headedfirm s ?

• do male-headed firms displayd i ff e rent income generating

behaviour from female-headedfirm s ?

• if public pro c u rement policy werechanged so as to offer moreo p p o rtunities to female-headedfirms, what would be the implica-tions for investment, exports andincome flo w s ?

• what pro p o rtion of nationalincome accrues to female-headed, and what to male-headed households? are thes h a res in income the same as thes h a res in population? or dofemale-headed households getd i s p ro p o rtionately less income?

• does the savings and expenditurebehaviour of male and female-headed households differ? forinstance, do female-headedhouseholds have a gre a t e rtendency (given the same level ofincome) to spend in ways thatd i rectly benefit children; or tosave a larger pro p o rtion of theirincome; or to consume lessi m p o rt s ?

• does the incidence of taxes andtransfer payments differ asbetween male and female-headed households?

• would human re s o u rce develop-ment be improved by aredistribution of income tofemale-headed households?

A gender disaggregated S o c i a lAccounting Matrix could in principle

5

Diagram 1

The circular flow of national income: a gender-blind model

savings (S)

consumption expenditure (C)

Incomes (Y)

investment

expenditure (I)

taxes less transfers

(T)

government

spending (G)firmsgovernmenthouseholds ➤ ➤

be constructed to conduct this kindof analysis. This would re q u i re theallocation of re s o u rces to re a n a l y s eexisting household surveys ands u rveys of business (such as thecensus of prod u c t i o n ) .

H o w e v e r, this kind of disaggre g a t i o nhas limitations. It does not lookwithin households and firms so as toanalyse gendered patterns of decisionmaking within them. There isabundant evidence that neitherhouseholds nor firms are units inwhich all share common goals andpool all their re s o u rces. More o v e r,within male-headed households andfirms there can be widely diff e r i n gd e g rees of women’s empowerm e n t .

Within male-headed households,t h e re is a strong tendency for incomes t reams and consumption andsavings patterns to be gender diff e r-entiated. A great deal of case studyevidence suggests, for instance, thatin a wide variety of settings, extraincome going to the mother in a twop a rent household is more likely to bespent in ways that directly benefitc h i l d ren than extra income going tothe father (Dwyer and Bruce (ed),1988). More generally, the nature ofthe decision making role of womenis likely to be a critical factor in thep a t t e rn of household expenditureand savings.

Within male-headed firms, there is as t rong tendency for men’s pattern ofworking life to be taken as the norm ;and for the organisation of prod u c-tion and income in ways that bestsuit men, even if there is there b ysome loss in productivity (Ti b a i j u k a ,1994, Bruegel and Perrons, 1995).H e re again, the nature of thedecision-making role of womenwithin male-headed firms is likely tobe important in the pattern ofincome generation (eg pre s s u re forinvestment in the skills of all thew o r k f o rce not just men; pre s s u re forinvestment in technology thatenables women as well as men tohave safer, less stressful, morep roductive working lives).

To incorporate this dimension ofgender into the model of the circ u l a rflow of income, it would be necessary

to disaggregate male-headed house-holds and firms according to women’sd e g ree of decision making powerwithin them, ie according to criteriaof women’s empowerment. We couldthen ask the same set of questions asb e f o re, but in terms of male-headedhouseholds and firms with high andlow degrees of women’s empower-ment. However, there are many morepractical difficulties in constructing asocial accounting matrix disaggre g a t-ed according to degree of women’se m p o w e rment. There are mored i fficulties in defining and measuringd e g rees of women’s empowerm e n twithin male-headed org a n i s a t i o n s ,than there are in determining whe-ther an organisation is male-headedor not (even though the latter is notalways straightforw a rd ) .Conventional household and firms u rveys do not collect data in waysthat focus on empowerm e n tquestions; and quantitative surv e y shave considerable limitations asi n s t ruments for investigating decisionmaking. Consideration needs to begiven to testing a variety of possiblep roxy variables.

The principle of disaggre g a t i o ncould also be applied to the govern-ment, distinguishing male andfemale-headed committees, depart-ments and services; anddistinguishing male-headed commit-tees, departments and serv i c e sa c c o rding to the degree of women’se m p o w e rment within them.

A more detailed examination ofbudgetary decision makingprocesses, distinguishing differentlevels of government, would make itpossible to answer questions onsuch as: Is a greater voice forwomen in budgetary policyassociated with different patterns oftaxation, transfer payments andgovernment spending? Do thesedifferences have implications formacroeconomic and humandevelopment outcomes?

Limitations of gender-disaggregatedmodels of the circular flow ofnational income

No matter how much this model ism od i fied by gender disaggregation and

consideration of women’s empower-ment, one major flaw remains. Iti g n o res the domestic (or ‘re p rod u c-tive’) work and voluntary communitywork, which together constitute anunpaid ‘care’ economy. This unpaidc a re economy is vital in developingand maintaining the health and skillsof the labour force; and in developingand maintaining the social framework:the sense of community; of civicresponsibility; the rules, norms andvalues that maintain trust, good w i l land social ord e r.

These activities tend to be taken forgranted and not brought into thediscussion of economic policy. Theya re often thought of as ‘social ro l e s ’rather than economic activities. Butthey are economic in the sense thatthey re q u i re the use of scarc ere s o u rces; and in the sense that theyp rovide vital inputs to the publicand private sectors of the economy.These activities are also gendered, inthe sense that they are almostinvariably re g a rded as a specialresponsibility of women; and aswomen have begun to focus am a c roeconomic policy, it is theabsence of the care economy inm a c roeconomic thinking they havenoted (Sen,1995).

We can incorporate the careeconomy into macro e c o n o m i cthinking by focusing on the circ u l a rflow of national o u t p u t s e e i n gnational output as a product of theinteraction of three sectors, theprivate sector commodity economy;the public service economy; and thehousehold and community caree c o n o m y. The creation of wealth ina country depends on the output ofall three sectors. Sometimes there isa tendency to assume that thew e a l t h - c reating sector is the privatec o m m odity economy; while thepublic service economy and thehousehold and community careeconomy spend what the privatec o m m odity economy has prod u c e d .This mistaken view results fro mconsidering the circular flow ofnational income (diagram 1) inisolation from the circular flow ofnational output (diagram 2). Thet h ree sectors of the economy arei n t e rdependent. The private

6

c o m m odity economy would beunable to create wealth for use bythe government and by families andcommunities, if the government andfamilies and communities did not int u rn create wealth for use by theprivate sector. The wealth of ac o u n t ry consists not only of thec o m m odities produced by theprivate sector, but also the publics e rvices produced by the govern-ment (law and ord e r,communication networks, healthand education) and by the careeconomy (human capacities, socialcohesion). This interdependence isshown in diagram 2.

The private sector c o m m o d i t ye c o n o m y p roduces market-orientedg o ods and services primarily inresponse to the pro fit motive. Itincludes the private formal sectorand the informal sector. In princi-

ple, these sectors should be fullyc o v e red in the national accounts. Inpractice, there is under counting ofi n f o rmal sector activities. Men andwomen both work in the commod i-ty economy. Overall the formal partof it is relatively male-intensivethough less so than formerly and thei n f o rmal part relatively female-intensive. The public serv i c eeconomy produces a social andphysical infrastru c t u re which is usedfor consumption and investment inthe commodity economy and thec a re economy. These serv i c e sc o rrespond to public sector outputin the national accounts. The publics e rvice economy is market-orientedto the extent that its employees arepaid wages, and it is fin a n c e dt h rough taxation, user charges andb o rrowing (and, sometimes, byi n c reases in the money supply). Butit is less market-oriented that the

c o m m odity economy because itdelivers many services free at thepoint of consumption. Ideally itshould be citizen-oriented, butu n f o rtunately it is often bure a u c r a t -oriented. Men and women bothwork for wages in this sector.Overall it is less male-intensive thanthe formal commodity economy,though probably more male-intensive than the inform a lc o m m odity economy.

The c a re economy p roduces familyand community-oriented goods ands e rvices as part of the process ofcaring for people. Work in the c a ree c o n o m y is not paid, though it maybe supported by transfer paymentsf rom the government (such aspensions and child benefit). It isregulated by social norms ratherthan by commercial or bure a u c r a t i ccriteria. This economy is excluded,as a matter of principle, from theUN System of National Accounts.Both men and women work in thec a re economy, but overall it isrelatively intensive in the use offemale labour. The care economycontributes to the welfare of theindividuals receiving care, but it alsocontributes to the activities of thec o m m odity economy and the publics e rvice economy by supplyinghuman re s o u rces and by maintainingthe social framework (supplyingwhat some economists call humancapital and social capital to thec o m m odity economy and publics e rvice economy). The relative sizeof the three sectors can vary depend-ing on the level of development andeconomic strategy pursued.

Like all pictures which drawboundaries, this picture is somethingof an oversimplification, since thec o m m odity economy is not totallyguided by commercial principles;and the public service economy doesnot always serve the public; nor isthe care economy totally guided bys e l fless altruism. Nevertheless, thereis an important diff e rence betweenbeing paid to look after children as aprivate sector nanny or childm i n d e r, or as a public sector nurseryschool assistant, and looking aftero n e ’s own children (for furt h e rdiscussion, see Himmelweit, 1995;

7

Box 3

Women’s voices in Budgetary Policy

The Women’s Budget Initiative in South Africa produced the following

assessment for their country:

South Africa is in many ways outstanding in terms of the representation of

women in public life – it stands seventh in the world in terms of the

proportion of women in the national parliament. There are three women

cabinet ministers out of a total of 27 and two deputy ministers. A quarter of

the members of the national parliament are women. However, there is still a

relative absence of women in positions of power to influence decision making

in public expenditure and taxation.

Within the central government, the key institutions are the Department of

Finance, the Department of State Expenditure, and the National Budget

Committee. The crucial position in these institutions are the Director General,

the Deputy Director General and the chief directors. In the Department of

Finance, there is one woman at this level; in the Department of State

Expenditure there are none. The National Budget Committee in 1995/96 had

about twenty permanent members, of which four were women (two of them

members of parliament). In the national parliament, the chair person of the

Joint Select Committee on Finance is a woman, but women account for less

than a quarter of the members of the Committee.

At the provincial level, there are no female premiers, 14 women members of

Executive councils out of a total of 90 (16%), and 83 women members of

Provincial legislatures out of a total of 334 (25%). Overall women account for

just over a quarter of the members of provincial Finance Committees.

As Debbie Budlender, Project Editor for the Women’s Budget Initiative points

out:

”Admittedly, not all women are sensitive to gender issues. The presence of more

women in powerful positions will not necessarily guarantee a more women-

friendly budget. However, there is a greater likelihood that with more women,

more of the issues will be raised”.

F o l b re, 1995; McCloskey, 1996).This is not only a personald i ff e rence. The costs of child care inthe commodity economy and thepublic service economy show up inthe national accounts, and are takeninto consideration in policydecisions. But the costs of child carein the care economy do not show upin the national accounts aret h e re f o re not taken into account inpolicy decisions. As a result, there isno clearly visible answer to thequestion “Who pays for the kids?”raised by American economist,Nancy Folbre .

One way of providing an answer thatmakes sense to economists is thro u g hthe extension of input – outputa n a l y s i s to include the inputs used byand outputs provided by the familyand community care economy. Thisanalysis is in pro g ress for Australia( I ro n m o n g e r, 1 9 9 5 ) .

As we have pointed out, conventionalm a c roeconomic models (which arebased on diagram 1) ignore the careeconomy as a producer of humancapabilities and upholder of the socialframework. They do include ahousehold sector in the framework butonly as a source of personal consump-tion and personal savings. The onlyconstraint which the household sectorcan impose on such models is theconstraint of insufficient demand tobuy the output of the market-orientede c o n o m y. In effect by ignoring thec a re economy, macroeconomists tre a tit as if it is able to supply whatever

quantities of human capacities andsocial support are re q u i red by thec o m m odity economy and the publics e rvice economy, re g a rdless of thelevel of investment in the caree c o n o m y. If it can do this, then it issafe to ignore it from the point of viewof macroeconomic policy, andm a c roeconomists are right to do so.The assumption is equivalent to anassumption that women’s time isavailable in unlimited quantities, (inm o re technical terms, that the supplyof women’s labour is perfectly elastic)(Elson, 1995a). In effect, convention-al macroeconomic theory treats thec a re economy in the same way theLewis model of development treats the“traditional” sector as a sector that cansupply whatever is re q u i red withoutthe need for investment. In the Lewism odel (Lewis 1954), the ultimatevision is of the “mod e rn” sectorcompletely taking over from the“traditional” sector. But that is neitherdesirable nor possible in the case ofthe care economy, since by their veryn a t u re human capacities and thesocial framework cannot be andshould not be produced entirely alongc o m m e rcial or bureaucratic lines.

T h e re will always be and shouldalways be an important role for thec a re economy. The question is ratherwhether there will be suff i c i e n tre s o u rces in the care economy toenable it to respond to the demandsmade on it. If the care economy iso v e r b u rdened, there will be negativefeedbacks to the commodity andpublic service economies which will

reduce their productivity andi n c rease their costs, because ofinadequate maintenance of humanre s o u rces and of the socialframework. The tangible signs of thiswill be work days lost and lowerp roductivity through ill health ands t ress; rising public and privatee x p e n d i t u re on insurance, policing,social workers, repairs to make gooddamage to public and private pro p e r-ty and health services to make gooddamage to human capacities. Thesenegative feedbacks will affect thelevel and growth of output of thepublic and private sectors. Beyond apoint, investment in the careeconomy will be necessary to incre a s eits capacity – it cannot be treated as abottomless well from which watercan always be drawn. This invest-ment can come both through thep rovision of public sector services andt h rough the provision of decent jobsin the private commodity economy.

Much of the investment re q u i red bythe care economy is best suppliedt h rough public services free at thepoint of delivery since it consists ofsocial and physical infrastru c t u re(health and education services, water,sanitation, lighting , roads, electricityetc) which need to be accessed bywomen who do not have muchp u rchasing power. Historically, thei m p rovement of productivity in thec a re economy has gone hand in handwith provision of such public serv i c e s( F o l b re, 1994). But the public serv i c eeconomy is financed by taxes on thef o rmal sector commodity economy

8

Diagram 2

The circular flow of national output: a gender aware model

consumption and investment commodities

human capacities and social framework

social and physical

infrastructuresocial and physical

infrastructure

private commodity

economy

public service

economy

household and

community care

economy

➤

which overall is male-intensive;w h e reas the public services mosti m p o rtant to the well-functioning ofthe care economy tend to be moreused by women. This creates theconditions for a potential mismatchbetween the level of public invest-ment re q u i red to improve thep roductivity of the care economy,and the level of tax re v e n u ef o rthcoming to finance this. It cre a t e sthe conditions which may generateb u d g e t a ry strategies which rely one x p e n d i t u re cuts which simplytransfer costs from the public sectors e rvice economy where they do showup in the national accounts to thec a re economy where they do notshow up in the national accounts buta re visible to those who think tolook, in a deterioration in the healthand capacities of families andcommunities. Ultimately thesepolicies will be self-defeating if theya re pushed too far – the socialframework will give way, or othercategories of public expenditure (onpolice and prisons for instance) willrise, undermining the budget strategy.

Budget strategy and humandevelopment

A useful guide to empirical fin d i n g son the relationship between budgetd e ficits/surpluses, growth andp o v e rty is provided by two re c e n tpapers for the ILO, Van der Hoeven(1995) and Pyatt (1993).Connections can be made betweenthe framework of analysis they useand the gender aware frameworkdeveloped in the previous section.Let us first consider their fin d i n g s .

i Sound macroeconomic policiesdo have a positive impact on therate of growth.

H o w e v e r, it is not easy to deducef rom the evidence any generalp rescription about the appro p r i a t esize of budget deficit/surplus. Themain reason for this is that not onlydoes the budget affect the rate ofg rowth, but also the rate of gro w t ha ffects the budget. Public expenditureand public revenue are not whollywithin the control of even the best

o rganised government (i.e. they arenot wholly exogenous to the gro w t hp rocess). The rate of growth aff e c t sthe amount of revenue any part i c u l a rtax stru c t u re will generate; and theamount of expenditure that anyp a rticular stru c t u re of social securityb e n e fits will generate. If gro w t hfalters, revenues will tend to fall ande x p e n d i t u res rise, thus tending toi n c rease the budget deficit, irre s p e c-tive of fiscal policy. There is thus ap roblem of two-way causation, whichmakes drawing policy conclusionsd i fficult. Much depends on thes p e c i fic circumstances of part i c u l a rcountries. Budget deficits can havenegative impacts on savings andinvestment (”crowding out” in thej a rgon of economics), and thusreduce growth. But this is not alwaysthe case. Taxes can be designed inways that support savings and invest-ments, and a deficit in the publicsector can counter-balance a surplusin private sector which couldo t h e rwise lead to a deficiency ina g g regate demand and an under-utilisation of the economy’s prod u c-tive potential. In this way, budgetd e ficits may sometimes encourageprivate sector savings and investment( ” c rowding in” in the jargon ofe c o n o m i c s ) .

ii Fiscal contraction (reduction ofbudget deficits) can have anegative impact on economicgrowth and poverty

This negative impact comes via areduction in spending on publicsector investments in infrastru c t u reand human re s o u rces, which in turnhas a negative impact on privatesector investments, which isdiscouraged because of lack ofc o m p l e m e n t a ry factors ;of prod u c-tion. And also via a negative impacton demand in the market whichdiscourages more long term invest-ment, and leads to unemployment.In the jargon of economics in manyc i rcumstances public sector invest-ment does not discourage (or“ c rowd-out”) private sector invest-ment. Rather, public sectorinvestment encourages (or “cro w d s -in”) private sector investment, botht h rough supply side and thro u g hdemand side eff e c t s .

i i i Public sector services can havepositive growth externalities

The “new growth theory ”(sometimes called “endogenousg rowth theory”) shows how expendi-t u re on certain kinds of public sectors e rvices can have an even morep o w e rful positive impact on the rateof growth by creating external eff e c t swhich raise the productivity ofprivate sector investments andcounteract any tendency fori n c reased private sector investmentto result in declining marg i n a lp roductivity of capital. One exampleis public expenditure on educationand training. This not only raises thep roductivity of an individual whoreceives the education, but also thep roductivity of all the people withwhom that individual interacts. (Forinstance, if I am computer-literate, itenable other people to save time ande ff o rt by communicating with me viacomputers. This effect is external tome, and I cannot capture all theeconomic re t u rns to investment inmy computer literacy. This will tendto lead me to under-invest in mycomputer literacy if I have to fin a n c ethe necessary training myself. Publicp rovision of the training willo v e rcome this problem and thro u g hpositive externalities tend to raisethe rate of growth. This implies thatpublic expenditure on educationshould be treated as investment,rather than consumption)

iv National Budgets cansimultaneously promote bothhigh and sustainable rates ofgrowth and a more equaldistribution of income andbetter human development

The key to doing this suggests Pyatt(1993) is to design budget policy soas to maintain sufficient eff e c t i v edemand to create a buoyant labourmarket, while at the same time re -d i recting the pattern of publice x p e n d i t u re towards investment inhuman re s o u rces, appro p r i a t ephysical infrastru c t u re and enviro n-mental protection. This means it isi m p o rtant to consider not just thesize of the deficit, but also thecombination of expenditure andrevenue which produces it. If the

9

main emphasis in improving themanagement of the budget is placedon cutting back expenditure whichpaying little attention to the need toraise more revenue, then it is likelyto be more difficult to combineg rowth and human development. AsPyatt (1993) arg u e s ,

”it is probably the wrong emphasisin most countries for two reasons.One is that the need, and even thedesirability, of cutting back on somecategories of expenditure must be setagainst the need to increaseexpenditure under some otherheads. There is therefore a case fora shift in the pattern of expenditurewhich does not imply a reduction inthe aggregate given the option toraise more revenue. The other isthat there is a tendency in practicefor expenditure cuts to fall on thepoor, while increases in taxes fallmore on the rich”.(p40)

Pyatt concludes that budgetarypolicy should re flect a concern fore fficiency in the use of re s o u rces anda concern to mobilise new re s o u rc e swhile re o rganising the pattern ofe x p e n d i t u re s .

This is an excellent point ofd e p a rt u re, but a gender- a n a l y s i sneeds introducing into the design ofpolicy so as to ensure that:i e fficiency in the use of re s o u rc e s

is properly defined. All too oftene fficiency is defined only inrelation to the use of paid labourin the private and public sectorsof the economy. Caring labour infamilies and communities is leftout because it does not have amarket price. Measures whichseem to increase efficiency in theuse of paid labour can in factsimply be transferring costs to theunpaid care economy. The overalle ffect can be a reduction ine ff i c i e n c y, resulting from humanre s o u rce depletion and deteriora-tion of the social framework

i i mobilisation of new re s o u rc e stakes account of the fact thatw o m e n ’s labour is not an under-utilised re s o u rce, but an over-utilised re s o u rce, in limitedsupply; and that households arei n t e rnally diff e rentiated and tendn o t to pool a l l their re s o u rces. This

means that the impact of diff e re n ttaxes will vary by gender – incometax will have more immediateimpact on men, while VAT onbasic household consumer good swill have more immediate impacton women. The ultimateincidence will depend on intra-household re l a t i o n s .

i i i re o rganisation of the pattern ofe x p e n d i t u res takes account of thefact that some externalities aregender specific. Given theexisting division of labour,w o m e n ’s work in the careeconomy produces services withb e n e fits far beyond families,raising prod u c t i vity in the privatec o m m odity economy and thepublic service economy. There isa particular need to enablewomen to increase their prod u c-tivity in the care economy, butt h e re are no market pricessignalling the re t u rns to suchi n v e s t m e n t .

i v the issue of sustainability isu n d e r s t o od very bro a d l y, goingbeyond financial sustainability toencompass the sustainability ofthe social framework, and of theeconomy of care that is soi m p o rtant in maintaining it.

Gender and Budget strategy

A key issue of aggregate budgetarypolicy is the extent to which a budgetd e ficit is sustainable. This is conven-tionally judged in terms of whether itwill tend to lead to fin a n c i a lp roblems, such as acceleratingi n flation; balance of payments crises;an increasing and unsustainable debtb u rden. Inflation and balance ofpayments problems are likely if thepublic and private sectors are alre a d yfully utilising their capacity; labour isfully employed; and the govern m e n tkeeps increasing the money supply tofinance a growing deficit. If the defic i tis instead financed by borrowing, thiswill be less infla t i o n a ry, but may tendto drive up interest rates especially iffinancial markets have been dere g u-lated. This in turn means that moreand more future tax revenue will bep reempted to service the debt. It mayalso deter private investment,

“ c rowding out” private investorsbecause they cannot aff o rd the highi n t e rest rates. The sustainability of abudget surplus is not conventionallyjudged to be a problem because asurplus does not tend to lead tofinancial problems. But it may lead tounemployment, low levels of capacityutilisation, and an overburdening ofthe care economy, with consequentsocial and economic problems, and ab reakdown in social cohesion.

The likely sustainability of a budgetd e ficit can be tested by using acomputable macroeconomic model tosimulate the likely outcomes with arange of diff e rent values for variables.But the answers will depend on theassumptions built into the model onsuch issues as the extent to whichi n c reases in money supply lead toi n flation; or increases in borro w i n gdrive up interest rates; or increases ini n t e rest rates deter private sectorinvestment. Negative feedbacks fro mo v e r b u rdening the care economy arenot built into such mod e l s .

The sustainability of a budget defic i tin practice is also influenced by moreintangible factors such as the climateof opinion and the institutionals t ru c t u res of a country; what Ta y l o r(1988) calls the Social Matrix, andKhan (1993) calls the interf a c ebetween institutional org a n i s a t i o nand policy regime. That is, thesustainability depends on the config u-ration of power and values as well ason the size of the deficit itself. Theextent to which any given defic i tleads to financial problems isi n fluenced by factors such as theo rganisation of financial markets and“market sentiment”, and the org a n i s a-tion of wage negotiations and thed e g ree of importance attached to the“social wage” provided by publicsector services. It is influenced bywhether there are co-operative orcompetitive responses to Budgetaryp o l i c y, and the kind of “socialb a rgaining” that takes place aboutp o l i c y. There are important feedbacke ffects from the expectations andactions of major players in thee c o n o m y. For instance, the sustain-ability of a deficit in a country withd e regulated financial markets dependsa great deal on the ‘confidence’ which

10

dealers in those markets have in thesustainability of the deficit. If theydecide it is not sustainable then theywill tend to take actions – such asmoving their funds overseas – whichmake their fears self-fulfil l i n g(Campos and Pradhan, 1996,Appendix 1). In a dere g u l a t e deconomy a great deal depends uponexpectations in the financial marketsabout how an economy works, whatkinds of things will lead to a fin a n c i a lcrisis and what can be assumed to beconstant no matter how budgetarypolicy operates.

One of the factors that is usuallyassumed to be constant is the socialframework of norms, rules and values(what some economists call the ‘socialcapital’). For instance to work well aneconomy needs there to be a fund ofg o odwill, trust, and acceptance of andobedience to the law; plus someinstitutions that provide social stabili-ty and security, even though theeconomy is changing; institutionsthat can cushion individuals againstshocks and see them through times oftransition and re s t ru c t u r i n g .

Family and community institutions inthe care economy are important pillarsof the social framework, generatingand maintaining it. However, thesocial framework may not be invariantto the macroeconomic policy – highand rising deficits that generateh y p e r i n flation may tend to lead thesocial framework to crumble; but soalso will severely defla t i o n a ry policiesin which the deficit is cut rapidly ande x t e n s i v e l y, creating widespre a dunemployment and idle capacity.Some economists are now beginningto pay attention to the interre l a t i o nbetween macroeconomic polices andthe social framework (which they tendto call “social capital”) and to askwhether in some circumstances toorapid a deflation, as well as too rapidan inflation, runs down to dangero u slevels the fund of goodwill and accept-ance of social norms that is needed foreconomies to function well. They donot however connect the mainte-nance of the social framework tow o m e n ’s unpaid work in the careeconomy as we have done here .

N e v e rtheless economists who arew o rried about depreciation of social

capital do see the need to consider thesustainability of the budgetd e ficit/surplus in a wider framework,not just emphasising its implicationsfor financial variables such as the rateof inflation and the balance ofpayments, but also for growth andhuman development. There is anu rgent need to develop operationalm a roeconomic models that takeaccount of these feedbacks. The workof Palmer (1995); Elson (1995b) andWalters (1995) can be drawn on as apoint of depart u re .

Changing Budget Priorities

To move from gender- s e n s i t i v em odels to gender-sensitive practicesmeans changes in Budget priorities.As Pregs Govender (member of theSouth African parliament) writes inher introduction to the Wo m e n ’sB u d g e t , ‘The budget re flects the valuesof a country – who it values, whosework it values and who it re w a rd s …and who and what and whose work itd o e s n ’t’ (Budlender (ed.) 1996:7). Tobring about changes in priorities,development of new tools to appraisebudgets and the building of bro a dbased coalitions to support the use ofthese tools to bring about change, asdiscussed in detail in the companionto this paper (Elson, 1996).

Yet the first stage in changing priori-ties is to change understandings.H e re we have looked at nationalBudgets through women’s eyes,disclosing interconnections whicha re missed from gender-blind visions.Including women’s empowerm e n tand the economy of care withinm a c roeconomic policy frameworkscan contribute to the sustainabilityand development in ways that in thelong run can benefit us all.

BibliographyB u d l e n d e r, D. (ed) (1996) The Wo m e n ’s

B u d g e t, Institute for Democracy in SouthAfrica, Cape To w n .

B ruegel, I. and Perrons, D. (1995) ‘Where dothe costs of unequal treatment for womenfall? An analysis of the incidence ofunequal pay and sex discrimination in theUK’, in J.Humphries and J.Rubery (eds.)The Economics of Equal Opport u n i t i e s,Equal Opportunities Commission,M a n c h e s t e r.

C a g a t a y, N., Elson, D. and Grown, C. (1995)‘ I n t roduction to Gender, Adjustment and

M a c roeconomics’, World Development, Vol 23,No 11, pp 1827-1836.

Campos, E and Pradhan, S (1996) ‘Theimpact of budgetary institutions one x p e n d i t u re outcomes’, Public EconomicsDivision, Policy Research Depart m e n t ,World Bank, Wa s h i n g t o n .

D w y e r, D and J. Bruce (eds.) (1988) A HomeDivided: Women and Income in the ThirdWo r l d, Stanford University Pre s s ,S t a n f o rd .

Elson, D. (1995a) ‘Male bias in macro -economics: the case of stru c t u r a ladjustment’ in D. Elson (ed.) Male Bias inthe Development Pro c e s s (Second edition)Manchester University Press, Manchester.

Elson, D. (1995b) ‘Gender awareness inm odeling structural adjustment’, Wo r l dD e v e l o p m e n t, Vol 23, No 11, pp 1851-1 8 6 8 .

Elson, D. (1996) ‘Integrating Gender Issuesinto National Budgetary Policies andP ro c e d u res within the Context ofEconomic Reform: some Policy Options’,paper for Fifth Meeting ofCommonwealth Ministers Responsible forWo m e n ’s Affairs, Trinidad, November.

Feminist Economics, (1996) Special Issue onUnpaid Household Work (in honour ofM a rg a ret Reid), Vol 2, No 3.

F o l b re, N. (1995) ‘”Holding Hands atMidnight”: The Paradox of CaringL a b o u r’, Feminist Economics, Vol 1, No 1,pp 73-92.

F o l b re, N. (1994) Who Pays for the Kids? –Gender and the stru c t u res of constraint,Routledge, London.

Himmelweit, S. (1995) ‘The Discovery of“Unpaid Work”’, Feminist Economics, Vo l1, No 2, pp 1-20.

Hoeven, van der, R. (1995) ‘Structural adjust-ment, poverty and macroeconomic policy;a review of experiences in the 1980s’, ILO,G e n e v a .

I ro n m o n g e r, D. (1996) ‘Counting Outputs,Capital Inputs and Caring Labor:Estimating Gross Household Prod u c t ’ ,Feminist Economics, Vol 2, No 3, pp 37-64.

Khan, M. (1993) S t ructural Adjustment andIncome Distribution: Issues and E x p e r i e n c e s,ILO, Geneva.

Lewis, W. A. (1954) ‘Economic Developmentwith unlimited supplies of labour’ ,Manchester School, pp 139-191.

M c C l o s k e y, D. (1996) ‘Love or Money?’,Feminist Economics, Vol 2, No 2.

P a l m e r, I (1995) ‘Public Finance from aGender Perspective’, World Development,Vol 23, No 11, pp 1981-1986.

Pyatt, G. (1993) ‘Fiscal policies, adjustmentand balanced development’,I n t e rd e p a rtmental Project on Stru c t u r a lAdjustment, Occasional Paper 8, ILO,G e n e v a .

Sen, G. (1995) ‘Alternative economics from agender perspective’, D e v e l o p m e n t, Vol 1.

Tibaijuka, A. (1994) ‘The Cost of Diff e re n t i a lGender Roles in African Agriculture: ACase Study of Smallholder Banana –C o ffee Farms in the Kagera Region,Tanzania’, J o u rnal of AgriculturalE c o n o m i c s, Vol 45, No 1, pp 69-81.

Ta y l o r, L. (1988) Varieties of StabilisationE x p e r i e n c e, Clarendon Press, Oxford .

UNDP (1995), Human Development Report1 9 9 5 , O x f o rd University Press, New Yo r kand Oxford .

Walters, B. (1995) ‘EngenderingM a c roeconomics: A Reconsideration ofG rowth Theory’, World Development,Vol 23, No 11, pp 1869-1882.

Waring, M. (1988) If Women Counted – ANew Feminist Economics, Harper and Row,New Yo r k .

World Bank (1995) To w a rd Gender Equality:The Role of Public Policy, Washington DC.

11

Integrating Gender Issues into NationalBudgetary Policies and Procedureswithin the Context of Economic ReformSome Policy Options

Introduction

Over the past decade there has been ag rowing recognition of the thei m p o rtance of macroeconomic policyin shaping women’s living standard sand their prospects for economice m p o w e rment. Macroeconomic policycan worsen or I prove the livings t a n d a rds of diff e rent groups of womenand contribute to narrowing orwidening gender gaps in incomes,health, education, nutrition etc. TheCommonwealth was a pioneer inrecognising and investigating theimplications of macroeconomic policyfor women (Commonwealth ExpertG roup, 1989).

T h e re has also been growing re c o g-nieion of the way in which genderinequality can constrain the outcomesof macroeconomic policy. For instance,by constraining women’s supplyresponse to economic re f o rms, and byconstraining women’s ability to investin human re s o u rce development(Haddad et al, 1995; Cagatay, Elson,G rown (ed), 1995; World Bank, 1995;P a l m e r, 1995).

The integration of a gender perspec-tive into macroeconomic policy hast h e re f o re both an equality and ane fficiency dimension. The aim is tocontribute to the better design ofp o l i c y. A better designed macro e c o-nomic policy would create a virt u o u sc i rcle in which macroeconomic policyitself contributes to the reduction ofgender inequality, and hence lessensgender constraints to successful macro-e c o n o m i c outcomes. The aim is thesimultaneous improvement of gro w t hand human development perf o rm a n c ein ways that also contribute to thee m p o w e rment of women.

This paper offers some options for theintegration of a gender perspectiveinto fiscal policy which is one of themost important areas of macro e c o-nomic policy. The focus is on thenational budget with the mainemphasis on public expenditure. Awide range of possible options isexamined, which may be selecteda c c o rding to national circ u m s t a n c e s .

Gender Inequality as anEfficiency Issue

T h e re is growing awareness thatgender inequality is not only costlyto women, but it is also costly toc h i l d ren, and to many men. It exactscosts in lower output, lower develop-ment of people’s capacities, lowerl e i s u re and lower well-being. Ifwomen were economicallye m p o w e red, it would be possible foreach country to have some combina-tion of more output, moredevelopment of people capacities,m o re leisure and higher levels ofwell-being. In that sense genderinequality is ineff i c i e n t .

R e s e a rch on agricultural prod u c-tiviey in Africa shows that re d u c i n ggender inequality could signific a n t l yi n c rease agricultural yields.

For instance, giving women farm e r sin Kenya the same level of agricul-tural inputs and education as menf a rmers could increase yieldsobtained by women farmers by morethat 20 per cent (Saito and Spurling,1 9 9 2 ) .

R e s e a rch on economic growth andeducation shows that failing to

invest in education lowers gro s snational product (GNP).• E v e rything else being equal,

countries in which the ratio offemale-to-male enrolment inp r i m a ry or secondary education isless than 0.75 can expect levels ofGNP that are roughly 25 per centlower than countries in whicht h e re is less gender disparity ineducation (Hill and King, 1995).

R e s e a rch on gender inequality in thelabour market shows that eliminat-ing gender discrimination inoccupation and pay could incre a s enot only women’s income, but alsonational income.• For instance, if gender inequality

in the labour market in LatinAmerica were to be eliminated,not only could women’s wages riseby about 50 per cent, but nationaloutput could rise by 5 per cent(Tzannatos, 1991).

Gender inequality also reduces thep roductivity of the next generation –the World Bank re p o rts mountingevidence that increases in women’swell-being yield productivity gainsin the future .• The probability of children being

e n rolled in school increases withtheir mother’s educational leveland extra income going to mothershas more positive impact onhousehold investment in nutrition,health and education of childre nthan extra income going to fathers( World Bank. 1995).

R e s e a rch shows that gender inequal-ity hampers a positive supplyresponse to structural adjustmentm e a s u res by:

12

• reducing women’s incentives top roduce tradable goods andi n c reasing womenls time burd e n s( B rown, 1995).

Wo m e n ’s time burdens are ani m p o rtant constraint on growth anddevelopment – women are an over-utilised, not an under- u t i l i s e dre s o u rce. The benefits of re d u c i n gthis gender-based constraint can bec o n s i d e r a b l e .• For instance, a study in Ta n z a n i a

shows that reducing suchconstraints in a community ofsmallholder coffee and bananag rowers increases household cashincomes by 10 per cent, labourp roductivity by 15 per cent, andcapital productivity by 44 percent (Tibaijuka, 1994).

It is important to be clear thatrecognising gender inequality as ane fficiency issue does not mean seeingwomen instrumentally as a re s o u rc eto be used by others for incre a s i n gp roductivity and growth. Rather themessage is that if women themselveshave more control over re s o u rc e st h e re will be gains for society as awhole; but if gender inequalitypersists, there will be continuinglosses for society as a whole.

Macroeconomic Policy andthe Gains from IntegratingGender Equality Concerns

M a c roeconomic policy can incre a s e ,reduce, or leave unchanged thelosses to society from genderi n e q u a l i t y. It can do this botht h rough direct eff o rts and indire c te ffects. Let us re t u rn to some of theexamples of the previous sectionand see how this might happen,t h rough affects which alleviate orexacerbate gender inequality.

Productivity of women farmers inAfrica

M a c roeconomic policy couldi n c rease this by promoting a higherlevel of agricultural inputs andeducation for women and re d u c ethis by resulting in a lower level of

inputs and education for women.An increase in provision couldcome dire c t l y, by an increase inpublic expenditure on schooling andextension services for women, andan increase credit (and possiblyinput subsidies) to women. Ani n c rease could also come indire c t l y,if macroeconomic policies pro m o t e di n c reases in family income whichp e rmitted families to educatedaughters to the same extent assons; or promoted incre a s e dp rovision of physical infrastru c t u re(like water, sanitation, electricity)which releases more of adultw o m e n ’s time for learning how touse new inputs. However, macro e c o-nomic policy could also result in alower level of education and inputsfor women farmers. This mightcome directly from reductions inpublic expenditure on education,and restrictions on credit andabolition of subsidies. It might comei n d i rectly through policy-inducedfalls in family income whichrestricted ability and willingness toeducate daughters; or by pro m o t i n greduced provision of physicali n f r a s t ru c t u re – increasing women’stotal time burdens so that they wereless able to spend time learning howto use new inputs.

Gender disparities in education

M a c roeconomic policies cani n c rease losses in potential GNP ifthey increase gender gaps ineducation. This can happen dire c t l yt h rough reduced expenditure oneducation, and indirectly thro u g hi n c reases in family povert y.H o w e v e r, losses can be reduced ifm a c roeconomic policies pro m o t ei n c reases in expenditure oneducation especially at the primarylevel; and at the same time re d u c efamily povert y, so that families cana ff o rd to send daughters to school.

Labour market inequalities

M a c roeconomic policy can re d u c elabour market inequality directly byextending public sector employmentfor women, since gender inequalityin employment in the public sector

is generally less than in the privates e c t o r. It can reduce labour marketinequality in pay and conditionsi n d i rectly by promoting female-l a b o u r-intensive growth. However,c a re has to be taken that inequali-ties in total workload – paid andunpaid – are not at the same timei n c re a s e d .

The supply response to structuraladjustnent measures

M a c ro e c o n o rnic policy can intensi-fy rather than alleviate the ways inwhich gender inequality constrainsw o m e n ’s supply response to stru c t u r-al adjustment measures. Genderinequality can constrain the supplyresponse if women have many otherdemands on their time – prod u c i n gf o od, fetching water and fuel, caringfor children; and if they have theprime responsibility for cushioningtheir families against insecurity andchange. These constraints will bei n t e n s i fied directly if macro e c o n o m-ic policy reduces provision of socialand infrastructural services andt h e re f o re increases women’s timeb u rdens. They will be intensifie di n d i rectly if macroeconomic policyi n c reases the insecurity and changeto which families are subject.

The gains from integrating genderequality concerns

As these examples show, it isi m p o rtant to analyse whetherm a c roeconomic policy increases orreduces the losses to society fro mgender inequality. There are clearlygains to society if macro e c o n o m i cpolicy can be designed in ways thatreduce gender inequality.

The gains to society from thereduction of gender inequality canbe taken in a mixture of ways:• i n c reased output of goods and

s e rv i c e s ;

• i n c reased leisure ;

• i n c reased capacities to enjoyg o od health, to exercise skills andp a rticipation in decision making,to live a satisfying life;

• i n c reased conservation of thee n v i ro n m e n t .

13

Macroeconomic Policy andthe National Budget

M a c roeconomics looks at aneconomy as a series of aggregates ofg o ods and services: the GNP, export s ,i m p o rts, savings, investment, publice x p e n d i t u re on services and incometransfers, public revenue (from taxesand user changes).

M a c roeconomic policy generallyattempts to steer the economy as awhole so as to achieve sustainablei m p rovements in national output andincomes (e.g. full employment, risingincomes, stable prices).I rn p rovements will not be sustainableif they are based on unsustainabled e ficits in the balance of paymentsand in the national budget (whichbrings together public expenditureand public revenue). So a great dealof attention is focused on these twind e ficits, as well as on the rate ofi n flation, the rate of unemployment,and the rate of gro w t h .

T h e re has sometimes been a tenden-cy to assume that there is no need form a c roeconomic policy to pay explic-it attention to human developmentobjectives. Problems of poverty andinequality would be resolved by“trickle down” of benefits from them a c ro e c o n o rnic aggre g a t e s .H o w e v e r, there is growing re c o g n i-tion that “trickle down” is notautomatic; and that concems ofp o v e rty and inequality, includinggender inequality, need to be bro u g h td i rectly into the framework ofm a c roeconomic policy.

T h e re are three key forms ofm a c roeconomic policy:• exchange rate policy

(e.g. currency appreciation andd e p re c i a t i o n ) ;

• m o n e t a ry policy (e.g. moneysupply and interest rates);

• fiscal policy (e.g. taxation andpublic expenditure ) .

These three types of policy are usedin combination in stabilisation ands t ructural adjustment pro g r a m m e sand in re s t ructuring economies tomeet the challenges of changingi n t e rnational patterns of investment

and production. Fiscal policy is themost promising entry point forg e n d e r- i n t e g r a t i o n .

T h e re are a variety of instruments offiscal policy:• Revenue Instr u m e n t s : Ta x e s :

e.g. income tax, expenditure tax(e.g. VAT), wealth tax, land tax,t a r i ffs on imports, capital gainstax, inheritance tax. Userc h a rges: e.g. for electricity, water,education, health.

• E x p e n d i t u r e Instr u m e n t s :Transfers: e.g. pensions,unemployment benefit, matern i t yb e n e fit. Subsidies: e.g. foodsubsidies, export subsidies.S e rvices: e.g. law and ord e r,health, education, ro a d s .

Typically these are all bro u g h ttogether in a national budget whichis pre p a red annually and sets out taxand expenditure plans for the comingy e a r. If expenditure is greater thanrevenue there is a deficit; if revenue isg reater that expenditure, a surplus. Itis often accompanied by a review ofbudget outcomes and macro e c o n o m-ic perf o rmance in the previous year;and projections of budget outcomesand macroeconomic perf o rmance forf u t u re years, in a medium termframework. For countries underg o i n gstabilisation and structural adjust-ment programmes this will be re l a t e dto the Policy Framework Paper.

The budget, on the face of it,appeaars to be a gender- n e u t r a lpolicy instrument. It is set out int e rms of financial aggregates –totals, and sub-totals of expenditureand revenue, and the re s u l t i n gbudget surplus or deficit. As usuallyp resented, there is no part i c u l a rmention of women, but no part i c u-lar mention of men either.

H o w e v e r, this appearance of gender-neutrality is more accuratelydescribed as gender-blindness. Theway in which the national budget isusually formulated ignores thed i ff e rent socially detemined ro l e s ,responsibilities, and capabilities ofmen and women.

The existing conceptual frameworksand statistics used to pre p a re nation-

al budgets are gender-blind (See, forinstance, Waring, 1989, Cagatay,Elson and Grown (ed), 1995). Theyfail to recognise that:• w o m e n ’s contribution to the

m a c roeconomy is undere s t i m a t e dbecause of missing and biasedmarkets and incomplete statistics;

• t h e re is an unpaid economy(which has been variouslylabelled ‘domestic’, ‘socialre p roduction’, ‘re p roductive’) inwhich women do most of thework of caring for and maintain-ing the labour force and thesocial fiamework or social capital( n e i g h b o u rh o od networks andv o l u n t a ry organisations, form a land informal) – both vital serv i c-es for the pald economy;

• the parameters of aggre g a t ep roduction, savings, investment,i m p o rts and exports in the paideconomy may be sensitive tod i ff e rent pattems of genderrelations and gender distributionof re s o u rc e s .

l n t egr ating Gender into theN ational Budget: SomePo l i cy Options

F o rmulation of a national budgetinvolves decisions at three levels:i A g g r egate macro - e c o n o m i c

s t r a t e g y . Is the overall deficit orsurplus appropriate? Is them e d i u m - t e rm framework sustain-a b l e ?

i i Composition of expenditures andre v e n u e s . Is the mix of spendingand taxing appro p r i a t e ?

i i i E f fectiveness of service delivery .Does the public sector provide there q u i red level and pattern ofs e rvices to firrns, families andc o m m u n i t i e s ?

A range of tools for integratinggender at these three levels ofdecision making are available. Theycan be used alone or in combina-tion, depending upon thec i rcumstances of the country. Themost readily implementable optionsrelate to efficiency of serv i c ed e l i v e ry and composition ofe x p e n d i t u res, but some tools are also

14

available in relation to taxation anda g g regate macroeconomic strategy.A comprehensive strategy could usethe full range of tools to produce ag e n d e r- a w a re budget statement anda gender- a w a re medium termeconomic strategy, implemented bya Gender Management System. Butm o re partial strategies can also bringabout considerable impro v e m e n t s .

I n t egr ating Gender into theAppraisal of the Eff e c t ive n e s so f S e rvice Delive ry

The effectiveness of expenditure isconventionally judged in terms of theachievement of intended results atlowest possible cost. From a genderperspective, it is important to ask:“ results for whom?” and “costs forwhom?”. Do the outcomes meet theneeds of women as well as men; aremen and women equally satisfie dwith the quality of services pro v i d e d ?Is quality assessed in ways that takeaccount of the needs of users for“ u s e r-friendly services”? Are the costsand benefits measured in a compre-hensive way? Do the intended re s u l t sinclude reduction of gender inequali-ty? A range of techniques areavailable or might be developed fora d d ressing these questions:• needs assessments;

• analysis of ‘quality of serv i c e ’i n d i c a t o r s ;

• b e n e fic i a ry assessments;

• assessment of’invisible’ costs;

• assessment of benefits of equalo p p o rtunities in service delivery.

Needs assessments

Needs assessments attempt toestablish what is needed and whereit is needed and are typically carr i e dout by gathering quantitative dataon the demographic characteristics,income levels, and services availablein localities throughout the countryand combining these into povert yindicators of various kinds. Thep roblem is that the data are oftennot disaggregated by gender, and theneeds are not defined from the pointof view of the users of serv i c e s .M o re o v e r, the need for time is not

generally considered and time-p o v e rty is neglected. However, auseful point of depart u re is pro v i d e dby some of the more part i c i p a t o ryand gender- a w a re World BankP o v e rty Assessments (e.g. Wo r l dBank 1994); and by a variety of casestudies conducted by Wo m e n ’sStudies Institutes and women’so rganisations, using part i c i p a t o ryappraisal method s .

Analysis of quality Service indicators

This is typically done by constru c t i n ga series of quantitative indicators( e n rolment rates in schools; bedoccupancy rates in hospitals; numberof connections of households to waterand sanitation system). There are wellknown problems: it is easier tom e a s u re inputs than outputs (all ofthe above measures are really inputm e a s u res: we really need to know howmany students passed their exams;how many patients were cured; howmany households had reliable suppliesof clean drinking water?) More o v e r,behaviour changes as to maximises c o re on the chosen indicators – butthis may lead to worsening of indica-tors not chosen; for instance, the timeneeded to access the service is oftenneglected. In addition, the indicatorsmay not measure the qualities thatmatter most to users of the services. Itis obviously essential to make sure theindicators are disaggregated by gender.

B e n e fic i a ry assessments

A benefic i a ry assessment tries toa s c e rtain the views of actual andpotential beneficiaries, to see howfar service provision meets their ownp e rceptions of what their needs are .B e n e fic i a ry assessments are bestconducted using qualitativei n t e rviewing or focus gro u pm e t h ods. Care must be taken toconduct them in ways that perm i tand encourage women to expre s stheir views. It is part i c u l a r l yi m p o rtant to assess whetherm e a s u res which are supposed toi m p rove effectiveness actually doi m p rove the quality of service from ab e n e ficianes perspective.

Assessment of‘ i n v i s i b l e’ costs

F rom a gender perspective it isi m p o rtant to define costs so as toinclude costs in terms of time as wellas money costs. Many curre n tchanges in the organisation of serv i c ed e l i v e ry appear to improve eff i c i e n c ybut in reality transfer costs from them o n e t a ry budgets of the public sector,w h e re they are visible, to the timebudgets of women in farnilies andcommunities, where they are general-ly invisible. Every proposal toi m p rove the efficiency of a serv i c eshould be scrutinised for the re a lextent of its “cost saving” measure s .For instance, when medical serv i c e sa re re o rganised so as to save costs byd i s c h a rging patients more rapidlyf rom hospitals – does this simplytransfer costs of care from paidhospital staff to unpaid women infamilies and communities? If so, thisis not a saving in costs, but a transferof costs.

Assessment ofb e n e fits of e q u a lo p p o rtunities in service delive ry

Public sector employrnent policiescan help to transform genderrelations throughout the economyby innovative equal opport u n i t i e sand family-friendly employmentpractices. A gender-blind costb e n e fit calculus may see thesepolicies as “too expensive”. Ag e n d e r-sensitive cost-benefitcalculus will see that such policiesset standards and promote betterpractices throughout the economy,reducing the extent of genderdiscrimination in labour markets,and enhancing women’s ability toinvest in the human re s o u rc edevelopment of their children, withresulting efficiency gains.

Public sector pro c u rement policiescan also help offset existing genderdisadvantage, producing benefit sthat ripple through the larg e re c o n o m y. Pro c u rement policies insome countries (such as SouthAfrica) are already linked to equalo p p o rtunities policies directed atreducing disadvantages of race aswell as gender. Measures include:• simplifying the tender pro c e s s ;

15

• easier access to tender inform a t i o n;

• unbundling of large contracts.

Consideration may also be given tothe use of ‘price pre f e rences’, andquota or target systems.

I n t egr ation of Gender intoAppraisal of the Compositiono f Public Expenditure andTa x at i o n

D i ff e rent patterns of expenditureand taxation have diff e rent implica-tions for women and men, andd i ff e rentially affect their abilities tocontribute to the production for themarket and the care of families andcommunities. In the language ofeconomies, these diff e rent pattern s‘ c rowd in’ or ‘crowd out’ supplyresponses of men and women tom a c roeconomic strategies.

Rhonda Sharp, an Australian policyanalyst who has worked extensivelyon gender and Federal and StateBudgets in Australia suggests aconceptual framework for re p o rt i n gthe expenditure of each govern m e n td e p a rtment within three categoriesof expenditure – expenditure specifi-cally targeted at women; equalo p p o rtunity initiatives in the publicsector; and gender impact ofm a i n s t ream budget expenditure .Pictorially she presents it this way:

Public ex p e n d i t u re incidence analy s i s

A useful tool for helping to assess thedistribution of public spending bygender is Public ExpenditureIncidence Analysis (or BenefitIncidence Analysis). It can pro v i d eone way of assessing how gender-inclusive such expenditure actually isby comparing the distribution ofspending between men and women,boys and girls.

The first step is to analyse the net unitcosts of providing any service: i.e. theannual total costs of public pro v i s i o nof the service minus the proceeds ofany cost re c o v e ry measures (e.g. userchanges) and then to divide this totalby the annual number of “units of the

s e rvice provided (e.g. the nurnber ofhospital beds or school places). Thesecond step is to analyse the pattern ofutilisation of the services – forinstance how many “units” wereutilised by poor households and howmany by rich households.

The information on net unit costs ofs e rvice provision can be bro u g h ttogether with the information onutilisation rates to calculate the levelof net re s o u rce transfer to poorhouseholds and to rich households.This statistic is called the Incidenceof Public Expenditure by lncomeG roup. In principle, this pro c e d u recould be extended to measureIncidence of Public Expenditure byG e n d e r, by examining the pattern ofutilisation of services by gender, aswell as by household incomeg rouping. This has been done forhealth and education in Ghana byD e m e t ry et al (1995).

Data is re q u i red on the amount spentat national, regional and local levelon provision of a particular serv i c e ,collected from the relevant publics e rvice providers. This is often surpris-ingly diffcult to assemble anddecentralisation of expenditure tolower tiers of government tends tomake it more difficult. Contractingout of public services may also cre a t edata problems. Definition of ana p p ropriate unit of service is re l a t i v e l yeasy for some services, such as health(e.g. visits to doctor) and education(attendance at school). But veryd i fflcult in the case of “overhead” types e rvices, such as most physicali n f r a s t ru c t u re. Data is also re q u i red onutilisation rates from regular nationalhousehold surveys. Unfort u n a t e l y, notall household surveys collected dataon utilisation of public services. Thedata may not be collected on a genderd i s a g g regated basis. Thus, it may ben e c e s s a ry to improve the availabledata base in collaboration with theM i n i s t ry of Finance, the NationalAudit Commission (or similar bod y )and the Office of Statistics.

Tax and Benefit Incidence

G e n d e r- d i s a g g regated incidenceanalysis may also be conducted for

taxation and income transfers. Hereagain it may be necessary toi m p rove the available database andto improve understandings of theway in which household budgets aremanaged. Good studies ofhousehold budget management areavailable for a number of countrieswhich reveal that full pooling andsharing of all household income isfar from being the norm, so that inmany cases men and womenmanage diff e rent income stre a m sand have diff e rent expenditureresponsibilities. As a result, in manycountries, the incidence of incometax would fall more directly on menthan on women; whereas indire c ttaxation (such as VAT) on basichousehold goods would fall mored i rectly on women. Similarly,income transfers in the form of foodsubsidies or child benefits paid toc a re-givers impact more on women,w h e reas income tax allowancesimpact more on men.

Budgetary Institutions

B u d g e t a ry institutions play ani m p o rtant role in the determ i n a t i o nof patterns of public expenditureand taxation; and economic re f o rmi n c reasingly includes re f o rm ofbudget processes, with emphasis oni m p roving accountability andt r a n s p a re n c y. It is there f o rei m p o rtant to appraise the institu-tional gender-balance in budgetarydecision making and the interf a c ebetween the Gender ManagementSystem and the BudgetManagement System. Here ani m p o rtant tool is an analysis of thes h a re of the total budget which goesto the Ministry Responsible forWo m e n ’s Affairs, compared to otherMinistries; and within eachm i n i s t ry, the share of its budgetc o n t rolled by its Gender Focal Point(or comparable office). Gendercannot be ‘mainstreamed’ if thosewho have responsibility form a i n s t re a rning gender are not givenbudget allocations with this goal.Consideration could be given toi n t roducing purc h a s e r / p ro v i d e rrelations between Gender FocalPoints or Ministries Responsible forWo m e n ’s Affairs, and other off i c e s

16

The Gender Focal Points couldthen have a budget with which tocommission provision of gender-balanced services from the othersections of their Ministry.

G e n d e r- awa re policy ap p r a i s a l

G e n d e t - d i s a g g regated incidenceanalysis is not readily applicable tosome forms of expenditure, becausethe services provided are not individ-ually consumed but collectivelyconsumed. Here gender- a w a re policyappraisal can be used instead. Forexample, much of the expenditure ofthe Ministry of Trade and Industry orTr a n s p o rt or Power will be difficult tosubject to gender disaggre g a t e db e n e fit incidence analysis. But thetypes of facilities provided andpolicies pursued by these Ministriescan be appraised from a genderperspective. The key question iswhether the policies are likely toreduce gender inequalities andimbalances. A good model is pro v i d-

ed by the Wo m e n ’s Budget Project inSouth Africa, a joint initiative of theP a r l i a m e n t a ry Finance Committeeand non-governmental org a n i s a t i o n s(NGO) gro u p s .

Wo m e n’s Budget Stat e m e n t

A Wo m e n ’s Budget Statement can bean important tool for bringingtogether information on the implica-tions of government expenditures forwomen. Such a statement does notp roduce a separate budget for women.Rather it attempts to disaggre g a t ee x p e n d i t u re according to its impacton women. As pioneered inAustralia, participating govern m e n td e p a rtments were re q u i red to identifythe impact of their proposed expendi-t u re on women. A Wo m e n ’s BudgetStatement was then synthesised bythe Office of the Status of Wo m e n .The production of a Wo m e n ’s BudgetStatement thus re q u i res a high degre eof co-operation and some degree ofcommitment throughout the

m a c h i n e ry of government. Thec reation of the conditions for thisp robably re q u i res a substantial andwell organised coalition of support e r sboth inside and outside of govern-ment. A number of strengths andweaknesses of the system used inAustralia, have been identified byAustralian policy analysts (Sharp,1990; Sawyer, 1996).

S t re n g t h s• Educational role in sensitising

d e p a rtments to implications oftheir policies for women, andhelping them to reduce their‘ g e n d e r- b l i n d n e s s ’ .

• Lever for production of gender-s p e c i fic data.

• Useful re s o u rce for women ing o v e rnment for entering intodebates about specific budgetaryp o l i c i e s .

17

Specifically identified gender-based expenditures of government departments and authorities

• women’s health programmes;

• special education initiatives for girls;

• employment policy initiatives for women;

• and so on

Equal employment opportunity expenditure by government departments and authorities on

their employees

• training for clerical officers or women managers;

• rewriting job descriptions to reflect equal employrnent opportunity principles;

• provision of creche facilities;

• parental leave provisions;

• and so on

General or mainstream budget expenditure by govemment departments and authorities

assessed for its gender impact

• Does the education budget, minus the above two types of expenditure, reflect gender equity

objectives?

• Who are the users of hospital services?

• Who receives agricultural support services?

TOTAL BUDGET

+

=

+

We a k n e s s e s• Inability to effectively analyse

the impact of ‘mainstre a m ’e x p e n d i t u re on women – noguidelines were provided forD e p a rtments on how to do this.

• Inability to address issues ofoverall design of budgetary policy– e.g. how much should expendi-t u re be cut – which expenditureshould be cut.

• I g n o res revenue side of budgetand interactions between budgete x p e n d i t u re in diff e re n tMinistries for overall situation ofw o m e n .

• Does not provide quantifia b l em e a s u res of impro v e m e n t so v e rt i m e .

The effectiveness of a Wo m e n ’sBudget Statement could be impro v e dby making use of some of the analysisand indicators suggested in thisp a p e r. Indeed some of these measure shave akeady been introduced in part sof Australia. For instance, for the1989/90 South Australian Wo m e n ’sBudget, departments were asked top rovide their own intemal indicatorsof pro g ressive changes, and to detailthe expected future outcomes ofc u rrent expenditures but tackling theissue of overall budgetary strategyre q u i res going beyond a Wo m e n ’sBudget Statement.

I n t egr ation of Gender intoAppraisal of o verall Budge tS t r at egy and Medium Te rmEconomic Fr a m ewo rk

The appraisal of aggregate budgetarystrategy revolves around the sustain-ability of the budget deficit orsurplus. This is conventionallyjudged in terms of whether a defic i twill tend to lead to fin a n c i a lp roblems, such as acceleratingi n flation; balance of paymentscrises; an increasing and unsustain-able debt burden. The sustainabilityof a budget surplus is not alwaysjudged to be a problem because asurplus does not tend to lead tofinancial problems. But a defic i twhich is too low or a surplus whichis too high, may lead to unemploy-ment poverty and low levels of

capacity utilisation. This overbur-dens families and communities, withconsequent social and economicp roblems; and intensifies losses dueto gender inequality.

The likely sustainability of a budgetd e ficit is often tested by using acomputable macroeconomic mod e lto simulate the likely outcomes witha range of diff e rent values forvariables. But the answers willdepend on the assumption built intothe model. Negative feedbacks fro mo v e r b u rdening families andcommunities are not built into suchm odels, nor are negative feedbackdue to the efficiency costs ofworsening gender inequalities.

Maintaining the social framewo rk

One of the factors that is usuallyassumed to be constant is the socialframework of norns, rules and values(what some economists call the ‘socialcapital’). For instance, to work well aneconomy needs there to be a fund ofg o odwill, trust, and acceptance of andobedience to the law; plus someinstitutions that provide social stabili-ty and security, even though theeconomy is changing; institutions thatcan cushion individuals against shocksand see them through times of transi-tion and re s t ructuring. However, thesocial framework may not be invariantto the macroeconomic policy – highand rising deficits that generateh y p e r i n flation will tend to lead thesocial framework to crumble; but soalso will severely defla t i o n a ry policiesin which the deficit is cut rapidly ande x t e n s i v e l y, creating widespre a dunemployment and idle capacity.Some economists are now beginningto pay attention to the interre l a t i o nbetween macroeconomic polices andthe social framework and to askwhether in some circumstances toorapid a deflation, as well as too rapidan inflation, runs down to dangero u slevels the fund of goodwill and accept-ance of social norms that is needed foreconomies to function well.

A critical factor in the maintenanceof the social framework is theunpaid work that women in part i c u-lar devote to bringing up children to

be responsible members of society;and in strengthening family andcommunity networks and voluntaryo rganisations. A critical factor inthe destruction of the socialframework is the amount of idletime that young men have becausethey are denied paid work.

Timc budgets and negat ive feedbacks

A gender- a w a re budget strategy canbe promoted by monitoring the timebudgets of a country ’s citizens as wellas the financial budget of thec o u n t ry. This inforrnation may beavailable from regular households u rveys. If not, then time usequestions, disaggregated by genderand age will need to be added. Inthe short run, useful data may beg a t h e red by women’s org a n i s a t i o n susing rapid appraisal techniques atselected sites.

A rmed with time budgets, it ispossible to frame another questionto set alongside the question of thesustainability of the deficit in thenational budget: is the deficit inw o m e n ’s time budget between thedemands of unpaid work, and thetime left available for it, sustainable?Or are the human re s o u rces ofwomen, and girls, being depleted?

If this deficit becomes too high,t h e re will be negative feedbacke ffects to the market economywhich reduce productivity andi n c rease costs, very often leading tothe need to increase public expendi-t u re to repair damage to the socialframework, for instance expenditureon insurance, policing, socialworkers, repairs to public pro p e rt y.Ultimately this undermines thesustainability of the budget strategy.

Thus if the budget deficit has beenreduced by expenditure cutbackswhich place great reliance onw o m e n ’s re p roductive and voluntarywork to substitute for public serv i c e s ,while at the same time making mensurplus to re q u i rements, then there isa danger that its sustainability willp rove illusory in the long ru n .C e rt a i n l y, budget policy will not bep roviding a good foundation for the

18

longer run achievement of gro w t hcombined with human development,because it is depleting human andsocial re s o u rces. The same interac-tions might also occur if budgetpolicy leads to high and acceleratingi n flation, which can also put toomuch strain on the time budget ofthe care economy, using up larg eamounts of time in re o rg a n i s i n ghousehold management in the face ofc o rrosive uncertainties about prices.

The critical point is that a gender-a w a re approach to the overallbudget strategy suggests that themaintenance of the socialframework should not be taken forgranted in judging the sustainabilityof budgets. Collecting time budgetdata is one way of making theconnection. If time budgets lookunsustainable, then this points tosome reconsideration of the size ofthe national budget deficit, the tax-e x p e n d i t u re mix and thecomposition of expenditure .

G e n d e r- awa re altern at ive buldge t sand medium terrn economicss t r at eg i e s

Development of gender- a w a rea l t e rnative budget scenarios isanother possible tool. Depending onthe nature of the model used tosimulate budget outcomes, some ofthe parameters may well be sensitiveto the configuratlon of gender contro lover re s o u rces and the distribution ofre s o u rces between women and men.For instance, the evidence on genderequality as an efficiency issue suggeststhat the productivity of investmentcould be raised by changing thegender distribution of re s o u rces infavour of women. More o v e r, if womenhave a greater propensity to save thanmen, redistributing income toward swomen would raise the aggre g a t esavings rate. Exploring this possibilityre q u i res some technical knowledge ofm odelling and co-operation with theeconomists in the Ministry of Financewho work with the model used in anyp a rticular country.

A complementary strategy would beto examine the gender- re s p o n s i v e-ness of the institutional stru c t u re or

social matrix in which the overallbudget strategy is embedded. Ifwomen have more voice in thesocial bargaining that impliclty orexplicitly surrounds macro e c o n o m i cpolicy making, then more co-operative, less infla t i o n a ry re s p o n s e sto any given deficit may result. Forinstance, owing to diff e rences intheir roles, women may have ad i ff e rent view than men of thet r a d e o ff between wage increases andmaintenance or improvement ofpublic sector services that supporttheir caring roles. They may be morep re p a red to accept limitations inwages increases in re t u rn for mainte-nance of public expenditure thanmen. A greater weight for women’spoint of view will, other thingsbeing equal, lessen the risk of ani n fla t i o n a ry spiral. This is notsomething that can be bro u g h tabout quickly, but it should bepossible to create opportunities forwomen to express their prioritiest h rough instruments such as attitudes u rveys, focus groups, publicmeetings, and the media. This needsto be matched by an increase in therole of women in parliament andinside government in determ i n i n gbudget policy.

The outcome could be a number ofd i ff e rent budget scenarios, depend-ing on the gender distribution ofre s o u rces and the level of empower-ment of women. The relevance ofthis last point is that the possibilityof budget policy that is “sound”,while promoting a human-centre dpattem of growth depends not onlyon seemingly mechanical economicfactors, but also on social and politi-cal factors. Successful budget policydoes re q u i re certain technical skills,and is constrained by availablere s o u rces, but it is also an exercise inpolitical economy, in social barg a i n-ing and coalition building, andc reating informed consent (”socialcontracts”, “social compacts”)a round a shared vision of develop-ment. An alternative gender- a w a rebudget and medium term economicstrategy may be a powerful focus forsuch a vision.

From Tools to Actions:Identifying Options, SettingGoals and MonitoringP ro gre s s

Decisions on budget policy areusually taken by a small group ofMinisters and officials concentratedin the Prime Ministers off i c e ,M i n i s t ry of Finance, and CentralBank. Ministers and officials whoa re outside this group, need toengage in policy dialogue top romote the use of the tools identi-fied in this paper to bring aboutchanges in budget policy, so as toreduce gender inequality.

The Commonwealth Secretariat hasa l ready taken measures to facilitatethis policy dialogue by submitting are p o rt on Macroeconomic Policyand Gender Issues to theCommonwealth Finance MinistersMeeting, 24-26 September 1996.

Policy dialogue needs to beb roadened through a multi-pro n g e dstrategy to address several targ e tg ro u p s :• spending Ministries;

• general public;

• w o m e n ’s gro u p s ;

• re s e a rchers, academics, policya n a l y s t s ;

• gender analysts;

• e c o n o m i s t s ;

• development co-operationa g e n c i e s .

The aim would be to stimulatedemand for integrating gender intobudget policy.

Ministers Responsible for Wo m e n ’sA ffairs may wish to increase under-standing of how and why budgetscan be made gender- a w a re, by:• O rganising a conference of

o fficials from the MinistryResponsible for Wo m e n ’s Aff a i r sand the Ministry of Financetogether with local andintemational re s e a rc h e r s ,academics and policy analysts todiscuss tools for integratinggender into national budgetp o l i c y.

19

• P romoting a Workshop to bringtogether economists usingrn a c roeconomic models to designbudget policy and economistsand gender policy analystsdeveloping gender- s e n s i t i v em a c roeconomic concepts, withthe aim of producing a number ofd i ff e rent gender aware budgets c e n a r i o s .

• O rganising a ‘Budget Hearing’with women parliamentariansand women’s NGOs to allowwomen to voice their views onthe current budget.

Piloting the Use of G e n d e r-A wa re Budge t a ry To o l s

To re fine the tools identified in thispaper and adapt them to the varietyof diff e rent national conditions, it isdesirable to conduct a series of pilotstudies in 1997, to test the stre n g t h sand weaknesses of the forrns ofappraisal identified here, and thepossibility of using them to bringabout change.

The pilot studies will ideally involvecollaboration between the MinistryResponsible for Wo m e n ’s Aff a i r sand the women’s org a n i s a t i o n s ;together with spending Ministriesand the Ministry of Finance; withtechnical assistance from theC o rnmonwealth Secretariat; ands u p p o rt where appropriate fio mdevelopment co-operation agencies.

The following types of pilot studieswould seem to be particularly useful.Each study should result inrecommendations for the gender-a w a re re s t ructuring of publice x p e n d i t u re, so as to produce bothe fficiency and equity gains.• b e n e fic i a ry assessments, conduct-

ed in collaboration with women’sNGOs and women parliarn e n t a r-ians, of service delivery andbudget priorities;

• gender disaggregated publice x p e n d i t u re incidence analysisconducted in collaboration withMinistries such as Education,Health, Agriculture and Wa t e rR e s o u rc e s ;

• g e n d e r- a w a re policy evaluationsof the policies supported bybudget appropriations, conductedin collaboration with appro p r i a t eMinistries (e.g. Trade andI n d u s t ry, Power, Tr a n s p o rt) andw o m e n ’s organisations. Thiscould cover employment andp ro c u rement strategy, as well ass e rvice delivery ;

• p roduction, in collaboration withthe Ministry of Finance, of aWo m e n ’s Budget Statement,analysing the gender implicationsof the pattem of public expendi-t u re, drawing upon evidencep roduced by the three pre c e d i n gpilot studies;

• analysis of the interaction of thenational budget and the timebudgets of diff e rent categories ofmen and women, boys and girls;this could be done in collabora-tion with the National StatisticalO ffice using survey data; and incollaboration with women’so rganisations using rapid apprais-al techniques;

• p roduction of alternative gender-a w a re budget and medium termeconomic scenarios, in collabora-tion with the Ministry ofFinance, taking account of thepositive and negative effects ofnational budgets on the socialf r a rnework (or social capital),and on women’s supply re s p o n s eto economic re f o rm .

The conduct of the pilot studies,and the use of the inform a t i o ngenerated, should be integrated withthe Gender Management Systembeing adopted in each country, ino rder to promote needed changes inbudget policy at all levels.

The tools addressed here are mainlyc o n c e rned with public expenditure ,as recommended by theCommonwealth Secre t a r i a tR e f e rence Group for this project. Itmight be appropriate to have afollow-up project to address transferpayments, taxes and user charg e s ;and to focus as much on thedeveloped as upon the developingcountries of the Corn m o n w e a l t h .

B i b l i o gr ap h yB rown, L (1995) Gender and the

Implementation of Structural Adjustment inAfrica: Examining the Micro - M e s o - M a c roL i n k a g e s, International Food PolicyR e s e a rch lnstitute, Washington DC.

C a g a t a y, N, Elson D and Grown, C (1995)‘ I n t roduction to Gender, Adjustment andM a c roeconomics’, World Development, Vo l23, No 11, pp 1827 – 1836.

Commonwealth Expert Group (1989),Engendering Adjustment for the l990s,Commonwealth Sectetanat, London.

D e m e ry, L, Chao, S Bemier R and Mehra K(1995) The Incidence of Social Spending inG h a n a. PSP Discussion Paper 82, Wo r l dBank, Washington DC.

Haddad, L, Brown, LR, Richter, A and SmithL (1995) ‘The Gender Dimensions ofEconomic Adjustment Policies: PotentialInteractions and Evidence to Date’, Wo r l dD e v e l o p m e n t, Vol 23, No 6, pp 881-896.

Hill, A and King E (1995) ‘Wo m e n ’sEducation and Economic We l l - B e i n g ’ ,Feminist Economics, Vol 1 No2, pp 21 46.

Palmet, I (1991) Gender and Population in theadjustment of African economies: planningfor change, ILO, Geneva.

Saito, K and Spurling D (1992), D e v e l o p i n gAgricultural Extension for Women Farm e r s,World Bank Discussion Paper 156,Washington DC.

S a w e r, M (1990) Sisters in Suits: Women andPublic Policy in Australia, Allen andU n w i n .

Sharp, R and Bro o rnhill, R (1990) Wo m e nand Govemment Budgets’, A u s t r a l i a nJoumal of Social Issues, Vol 25, No 1, pp 1-4 .

Tibaijuka, A (1994) ‘The Cost of Diff e re n t i a lGender Roles in African Agriculture: ACase Study of Smallholder Banana-Coff e eF a rms in the Kagera Region, Ta n z a n i a , ’Joumal of Agricultural Economics, Vol 45,No 1, pp 69-81.

Tzannatos, Z (1991) ‘Potential Gains fro mthe Elimination of Gender Diff e rentials inthe Labour Market’ in Georg eP s a c h a ropoulos and Zafiris Tzannatos(eds) Wo m e n ’s Employment and Pay inLatin America R e p o rt No 10. LatinAmerica and Caribbean Te c h n i c a lD e p a rtment, World Bank, Wa s h i n g t o nD C .

Waring, M (1988) If Women Counted – a NewFeminist Economics, Harper and Row, NewYo r k .

World Bank (1994) Zambia Povert yA s s e s s m e n t, World Bank, Washington DC.

World Bank (1995) To w a rd Gender Equality:The Role of Public Policy, Washington DC.

Wo m e n ’s Budget Initiative (1996) R e p o rt ofWo m e n ’s Budget lnitiative Wo r k s h o p, CapeTo w n .

20