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Title: Belize
Author: UNIFEM
Date: 2002-2005
This report highlights the progress of Belize in gender budgeting at the national level. The analysis will be based on the Medium Term Economic Strategy Paper (MTESP) and the National Poverty Elimination Strategy and Action Plan (NPESAP). Consultations with government officials have revealed that they realize that the current budget processes and structures are inadequate not only for the achievement of gender equity goals, but also for the efficient administration of government resources and social and financial planning. UNIFEM’s initiative will focus on training NGOs and government officials in gender budgeting and technical analysis of national budget capital expenditures.
Implementing Partners: Women’s Department of Belize; UNDP/Belize; Ministry of Economic Development and key line ministries; Gender Integration Committee; Society for the Promotion of Education and Research (SPEAR); Women’s Issues Network of Belize (WIN/Belize)
Starting Date: July 2002
End Date of Report: February 2005
Background:
The analysis component of the initiative in Belize will be based on the Medium Term Economic Strategy Paper (MTESP) 2003-2005, and the National Poverty Elimination Strategy and Action Plan (NPESAP) 1998-2003. Policies and development targets are more easily analysed in these national documents, which may be considered the development components of the national budget. Consultations with government officials have revealed that they realize that the current budget processes and structures are inadequate not only for the achievement of gender equity goals, but also for the efficient administration of government resources and social and financial planning. The Government of Belize participated in a gender budgets project in an earlier pilot programme initiated by the Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec). UNIFEM’s initiative will focus on training NGOs and government officials in gender budgeting and technical analysis of national budget capital expenditures. The current national budget has a line item format and does not outline the specific policies to which the respective allocations are targeted.
Justification:
The initiative will be implemented by the Belize Women’s Department (national women’s machinery), which has a strong links with NGOs. It will serve as the entry point for the UNIFEM project in addition to the Society for the Promotion of Education and Research (SPEAR), and Women’s Issues Network, WIN - two highly visible, well-resourced and well-regarded civil society institutions. Organizational representatives will participate in the training exercises and ultimately form a monitoring committee to ensure the sustainability of the initiative. The Ministry of Economic Development, which is responsible for the country’s new Medium Term Economic Strategy Paper and ensuring the compatibility of new policies with the country’s economic strategy, appreciates the need for gender-responsive budget analysis as a tool for combating poverty. The initiative seeks to influence the 2004-2005 national budget through the introduction of open, participatory and gender–responsive processes.
Expected outcomes:
- Increased awareness of the institutional environment required for application of gender analysis to governments budgets
- Increased awareness among stakeholders of tools and mechanisms available to carry out and advocate for gender budgets analysis
What has been realized:
Increased awareness of the institutional environment required for application of gender analysis to government budgets
The initial stage of analyzing the Institutional Budgeting Framework from a gender perspective provided an analytical assessment of the budgetary constraints, and of the legal, political and socio-economic environment in which the budget is developed. It examined how the budget is oriented with the country’s system of financial management, the functions which it fulfils in the country’s economic strategy programme, and the process by which it is formulated, including the roles and competencies of the different actors involved. The final aspects of this stage of analysis relate to the mechanisms for monitoring and social control at the levels of both civil society and government.
The general findings of the paper point to the absence of a central government planning machinery which serves to link development planning with the budget process. They also indicate a fragmented system of line item budgeting which makes difficult the task of monitoring government expenditures for their gendered impacts. Also instructive to note as UNIFEM embarks upon the next stage of the initiative is Belize’s unstable economic position manifested in its high debt-servicing obligations, which also have severe implications for the level of investment that may be made in the domestic economy and in social sectors. The main recommendation of the paper is that given the substantial institutional limitations, the next phase of the initiative focus on facilitating the integration of gender into the National Poverty Elimination Strategy and Action plan (NPESAP), for which plans are already underway and which has attracted considerable resources and government commitment. The paper also identified budget reform as a crucial intervention to be made, since the current system impedes monitoring and evaluation on any level, precludes evidence-based planning and perpetuates poor economic governance.
Increased awareness among stakeholders of tools and mechanisms available to carry out and advocate for gender budgets analysis
In an effort to ensure the sustainability of the work on gender budgets beyond the project, UNIFEM attempted to create a Gender Budget Working Group (GBWG) comprised of the Women’s Department, the Ministry of National Development and other line ministries, UNICEF, UNDP, WINBelize and SPEAR. The UNIFEM consultant also worked closely on the research component of the project with two local consultants who form part of the country’s Gender Integration Committee (GIC). It was envisioned that the Women’s Department would serve as the convener of the GBWG during and after the life of the project. However, due to a lack of capacity experienced by the national women’s machinery, which in turn also influenced its ability to build consensus among new and existing partners, the GBWG has not to date been able to function as originally envisioned.
Project implementation is yet to be completed. However, the process of building commitment to the GBI as well as the production of the IFA has resulted in an increase in the number of policy makers who are aware of the need for an approach which takes account of the gender differentials in needs, experiences, opportunities and entitlements in the policy cycle.
Success Indicators:
- Initial budget statement produced articulating impact of budget decisions in focus sectors on gender equality & poverty
- Number of women trained in gender responsive budgets, monitoring & advocacy approaches
- Number of high level government officials trained in the application of gender responsive tools to budget formulation
- Periodic publication of a budget statement by the Gender Budget Group
- Policies supporting women’s equal access to employment opportunities & all forms of credit
- Policies addressing women’s specific health & housing needs & responding to previously existing gender gaps in access to resources
Last Updated: 21 March 2005
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Gender-responsive budgeting is a crucial tool for women’s empowerment. In Morocco, UNIFEM has worked with the government to create a more tailored approach in which budgeting can have a more effective and immediate impact. As this documentary illustrates, when the needs of women living in a particular geographical and cultural context are addressed, the entire community benefits. In the past four years, the Finance Ministry of Morocco has made substantial progress in developing both gender-responsive and results-oriented budgetary reform.
