Source: The Herald
Every government budget is a statement about the government's real values and priorities.
A government can have many national plans, gender plans, gender policy statements, a State Plan of Action on Gender, etc but these often exist as shelf papers if no resources are allocated for their implementation.

A budget can also be a shelf paper but an implemented budget or revenue plan gets things going and impacts groups of people differently.

Zimbabwe's US$4 billion-worth revenue plan for 2012 projects that US$600 million will be sourced from diamond proceeds.
This is in addition to other contributions expected from the mining sector, which is the largest source of income in the country at present. This week our gender analysis of the 2012 Budget focuses on the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development as well as the Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment.

The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development's budgetary allocation amounts to US$6,9 million of which only US$1 million was set aside for loans under the Mining Industry Loan Fund whose targets and beneficiaries are not clearly defined. Although there are programmes in the ministry that support women in mining, there is not much in the budget to suggest the correction of the gender imbalance in the sector.

Women in mining are on record as saying they are facing numerous challenges such as lack of mining equipment, including compressor sets, ball mills, excavators, water pumps and generators.

While efforts by Government to empower women to own mining claims and participate in the sector more actively have been commendable, there is still greater need for gender mainstreaming, both on small-scale and large-scale mining. The current efforts under the indigenisation and empowerment exercise to set up community share ownership trusts in mining areas need not replicate structures that marginalise women in mining communities. A specific gender mainstreaming budget line would have been more appropriate for this ministry.

The Ministry of Ministry of Youth, Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment received a total allocation of US$48 million out of which US$4,5 million was allocated towards the Youth Development Fund to be disbursed through CBZ Bank.
Also a fund has been set up by Old Mutual called the Youth Empowerment Fund to be administered by CABS. A grant of US$2 million was allocated to the Manpower Development Fund for internships. The US$20 million allocation to the Job Fund is also very welcome.

However, the major component of this budget estimate is employment costs at US$29,6 million, which is 61 percent of the total budget. The next significant budget allocation is the current transfers, which was allocated US$12,1 million, which translates to 25 percent of the total budget. Programmes allocation is a meagre US$300 000.

While the vote allocation ranks number 15 out of 37 it increased substantially by 56 percent from the 2010 Budget which was 0,91 percent. The ministry is applauded for allocating funds for the purchase of shares targeted at :marginalised and disadvantaged groups" of the society, increasing and promoting the skills base among the marginalised and unemployed youths with Vocational Training Centres allocated US$4,8 million.

The Youth Development Fund was allocated US$2 million; National Youth Service US$700 000; Employment Creation US$360 000 and the Youth Grants allocation is US$100 000.

The challenge underlying access to these funds is the criteria for selection and related requirements. In his 2012 Budget Statement, the Finance Minister applauded the establishment of the Youth Empowerment Fund launched on November 16, 2011. The fund, which has been established by Old Mutual, will be administered by CABS and should benefit "all creative youths irrespective of tribe, religion, ethnicity or political preferences".

It is such blanket categorisation of the beneficiaries, which often makes a big assumption that women will actively participate in the said funds. However, with largely patriarchal systems and institutions in place, the young women's portions are likely to be peripheral.

The youth empowerment and development funds administered through banks are likely to benefit more male youths than female youths as banks prescribe minimum requirements to access these funds such as collateral.

Most women lack assets they can present as collateral hence there is need for affirmative action that gives preferential treatment to young women without collateral.

There is therefore need for clear and strict systems for monitoring disbursement of funds and projects under these funds. Equitable access to shareholding under the indigenisation and empowerment exercise should desegregate beneficiaries across gender, class, geographical location and age. A quota set aside for the benefit of women under the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund would be ideal.

There are notable efforts by Government to mainstream gender in all sectors through the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development and the Ministry of Finance has issued engendered budget call circulars since 2007. These efforts can be further augmented if all ministries would be required to issue their gender performance statements together with their annual budget performance statements. This is practised in Australia, Gauteng province of South Africa and Rwanda, among others.
In most countries the percentage of the budget targeting women and girls is typically a very small percentage, between 0,5 and 1 percent of the budget. A few countries have mandated larger allocations. The Indian state of Kerala requires 10 percent of development expenditures to target women's priorities. The Philippines requires 5 percent of the budget of each public agency to address gender issues. The Indian 9th Plan (1995-2000) required 30 percent of expenditure on various poverty alleviation programmes to target women. Mexico in the late 1990s required that 50 percent of poverty alleviation beneficiaries be women.
South Africa's public works programmes require that 60 percent of beneficiaries should be women. Its skills development programmes require that 54 percent of beneficiaries should be women (and 85 percent black South Africans). It would not take much to emulate these few examples of gender responsive budgeting.

• Zimbabwe