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Cameroon |
JUSTICE
The improvement to budgetary priorities
should benefit all CamerooniansMrs Armande Din Bell is a Member of Parliament (MP). She says: «If you want to know in which direction a country is moving, you need only consider its budget, and the position it gives to women and children». In similar fashion and in ever greater numbers, the elected representatives, finance officials and militants from non-governmental organisations (NGO)s fighting for women’s rights in Cameroon, are analyzing the impact of the country’s budgetary choices on women.
In order to promote greater budgetary equity, they are using a new method for calculating public expenditure: «Budgetary analysis suitable for the needs of women».
«Gender-specific» budgetary analysis
This «gender-specific» budgetary analysis highlights disparities in public expenditure aimed at men and at women. It is a method that considers not just the funding totals for the various ministries, but also expenditure priorities within each one. This analysis may establish, for example, that budgetary cuts in the agricultural sector would do greater harm to disadvantaged women farmers.
Revision of the budget will therefore raise household income, increase farming profits and generally improve the quality of life in rural areas. Those who advocate such a method, state that along with more accurate targeting of objectives, and using public funds more effectively, it would ultimately benefit both sexes. Mrs Rose Abunaw who is Parliament’s Deputy Speaker, goes further: «Today, the budget will be planned and prepared in the light of its effects on both sexes».
In a press statement at the opening of the 2nd annual session of Parliament, on 2 June 2003, Mrs Din Bell said: «Budgetary decisions highlight political priorities. You can always talk about helping in the fight against poverty, but it is your budgetary decisions that demonstrate whether you are allocating the funding needed to this priority».
The fight against poverty and correction of sexual inequality must be given priority in Cameroon, she commented, and these priorities must, in principle, be demonstrated at every level of government action.
She went on to explain that Cameroon’s women are on the bottom rung of the country’s socio-economic ladder, so their future depends on every financial decision the State makes, not just the portion of the budget allocated to special programmes for women.
«We are not asking for a separate budget for women», says Mrs Din Bell. «We will look at all items of expenditure, and ask: “How can this budget resolve the most important of the country’s problems?” We have to look at these choices, not only from a macro-economic point of view, but at an administrative level, and within administrations we have to consider the budgetary choices to be made among programmes, and within programmes».
«Gender-specific» budgetary analysis was created by a group of women economists, leaders of NGOs campaigning for women’s rights. Mrs Din Bell who became an MP on 30 June 2002, introduced the idea to Parliament.
At the opening of Parliament’s second session this year, a group of MPs were firmly committed to the initiative, thus adding a certain political weight. But it is principally the challenging research and economic analysis that explains its success. It has turned out to be fairly difficult to collect information, since administrations and economists rarely bother performing an analysis of data by sex.
Forming alliances
Civil society has filled the gaps in information. Two NGOs, the Cameroon Association of Women Lawyers (ACAFEJ) and the Support Centre for Women and Rural Populations (CAFER), are now among the leading partners with Parliament, in developing the Initiative for a Women’s Budget (IBF). «NGOs have the means and the time to undertake research and produce an analysis. MPs, for their part, provide access to information, and are mainly concerned with major political questions». Without a constant presence within government, «the analysis may have been shelved or used only within a closed circle of militant feminists».
In its first year, from June 2002 to June 2003, the IBF studied the budgets of six ministers. Since then, the project consultants have looked at the whole of the national budget, and those of ten Cameroonian provinces.
Their work highlighted many cases of discrimination against women, and negligence as regards public expenditure. At the end of March 2003, the IBF discovered that although 52% of adult women and 40% of adult men in Cameroon are illiterate, only 1% of the education budget this year was allocated to basic literacy teaching for adults. The IBF consultants judged that this funding was inadequate and that it harmed both men and women.
An evaluation of the budgetary allocation of 2003 for funding public works, showed that a job creation and staff training programme in rural areas, run by the Ministry for the Environment and Forests, was recruiting women for a little more than half the new jobs created. Conversely, a similar programme administered by the same ministry in another part of the country was only recruiting women for 14% of the available positions.
Moreover, the analysts found that this programme normally recruited women for the lowest paid jobs -– a phenomenon not restricted to the public works sector. The study also showed that, overall, women only hold 27% of management positions in the national administration, and 38% in provincial administrations.
Union and ability to plan ahead
are a power to be reckoned withThe IBF activists admit that the government of Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge, has reacted positively to this kind of analysis, despite the risk of political embarrassment. Mrs Din Bell says this is partly explained by the election of women to around 20% of seats in Parliament. She states: «If there were only a few women MPs, they would have suffered enormous pressure to adopt the dominant male culture».
But the numbers game does not on its own explain adoption of the new budgetary process and other measures on behalf of disadvantaged groups. «Many of the women elected to Parliament played an active part in the fight against inequality», says Mrs Bell. «We began with a view of a society that provides for the essential needs of its people, that offers work and dignity, that encourages everyone to achieve their fulfilment».
Far from being just a pressure group, the IBF is one social transformation project among others. «This perception is essential to our success», she explains.
This year, moreover, the governing political party showed its support for the IBF by organising a national meeting of women’s representatives in Yaoundé, on 12 June 2002.
The Minister for Finance and Budgetary Affairs was thus encouraged to undertake this budgetary analysis when producing the national budget. The fact that the IBF is now seen as a great national success, may be because «throughout the country, people are talking about women and about the budget as never before.
People are asking what effect will that have on women in disadvantaged areas? This question comes up regularly, and it is directly related to the problems of women. It is the most important effect», observes Mrs Djine, ACAFEJ‘s national president.
«Demystifying» the budget
With the help of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), setting-up «gender-specific» budgets has been debated by ever-greater numbers of MPs and women’s rights defenders.
Activists among Cameroon’s women began to look at their national budget in 2002, according to Mrs Pauline Biyong, President of the League for Women’s and Children’s Education (LEWCE), at the end of a UNIFEM regional Workshop on «Women and Budget issues».
«The first thing we found is that we as women, like the population in general, have scarcely any idea how a budget is drafted, and how budgetary administration works. We have used this important opportunity (promotion of the new method of budgetary analysis to find out about the budget and demystify it for the general public».
Most Cameroon people think the budget concerns only the government. «We explained to them that the budget matters to everyone, that the allocation of public funds must meet the needs of women and men. We explained how it is drawn up and how it works, and we found that it is a hierarchical operation, very technical and dominated by men».
In May 2003, a group of women MPs, researchers, NGO members and employees in the public sector, formed the Network for Female Activism (RAF), which has organised Workshops on «Drafting Gender-specific Budgets» aimed at government officials and civil society.
At the outset, it was largely a non-governmental initiative, explains Mrs Biyong, intended to motivate a group of people, and ensure their participation. But a decisive event occurred this year, when the government asked the RAF to help integrate these new methods into official budgetary policies intended for planners. At the opening of the parliamentary session in June 2003, the Prime Minister asked for training courses to be given on these methods.
With this official recognition, the RAF was entrusted by the Finance and Budgetary Minister with analyzing six key sectors in the national budget, dealing with society, education, water, agriculture, women and children, and regional and local administration.
Consequently: «In the health sector, we noted that large sums allocated to medical treatment of female problems, such as breast cancer, pregnancy and so on, did not reach the intended beneficiaries. We talked about this, and I am happy to say that the public authorities are now dealing with it. There is much to do still, but they are trying to invest more money in women’s health».
Mrs Biyong observes however, that because of poverty, the government has few resources for increasing its income. In addition, budgetary priorities clash with the strict conditions governing development aid from donor countries, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. «Support given to the government by international financial institutions such as the World Bank, is very restricting. The requirements imposed are contrary to the interest of women as well as of men», she says.
Political mobilisation is essential
Mrs Din Bell recognises that with «gender-specific» budgeting entering its first year, there is still much work to be done on political mobilisation in Cameroon. «All we have done up to now has been to familiarise a small group (of women activists) with the workings of the budget, without managing to mobilise the general public on these issues. It is a huge task, in which many more people must participate», she states.
In the end, government and Parliament have to find the institutional resources to define precisely what are the roles of men and women in society. They have to aim at greater equity in public expenditure. «When we begin to build these resources, we are on the right road», concludes the Minister for Women, Mrs Catherine Bakang Mbog.
- Sylvestre Tetchiada, Cameroon, September 2003 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment