The Women’s Budget

Evgeniya Alekseeva

How does the alloccattion of resources in the state budget influence the life and well-being of women? This question has been raised by two South African organizations – the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) and the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA). They took initiative to carry out a gender analysis of budgets in all state departments. This initiative received a name of «the Women’s budget» and became an academic research which is to provide recommendations and to adjust budget according to the state constitutional values. Since then gender analysis of different state departments budgets of South Africa has been carried out each year in South Africa and it draws attention of the public worldwide. It is impossible to cover all aspects of the initiative in this short article, that is why I would like to focus on results of budget research of two departments: the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Health. I have chosen these departments because I found a similar situation related to the work of the same departments in Russia. Considering examples of the work of these departments in South Africa, it is possible to see the way researchers work, assess the questions they ask, analyze conclusions they made, and examine recommendations they gave to the government.

Women in South Africa

South Africa is a developing country where the regime of apartheid has been thrown away not so long time ago. The majority of population comprises black Africans who live in poverty. Women represent the most disadvantageous group among other disadvantaged rural, illiterate and unemployed groups. The statistical data and observations on the streets of cities and in rural areas confirm this state of affairs. On budget day every year, we hear the usual question: How will the latest budget affect men? The question emphasizes the fact that women are ignored and their interests are not given consideration to, women’s interests are confused with men’s interests. Yet, whether it is possible to confuse interests of men and women if, for example, men earn one and a half or two times more than women (if comparing monthly earnings of white men and African women then the gap in income is huge). The educational level is also different – only 18 % of African women and 22% of African men have a completed matric, whereas the percentage for white women and men are 66% and 75%.

Repeating the experience of women world wide, women in South Africa perform considerable part of unpaid work: cooking, cleaning, nursing children and the sick, fetching water and wood, and other activities. Unfortunately, economists do not take into consideration these activities. However, if women stop to perform these tasks the whole economy will collapse. People will not be able to survive without this day-to-day routine, which is traditionally accepted as women’s responsibilities. It takes time and efforts to change the situation socially constructed during many centuries. As a result, when a woman begins working outside the household she experiences a double burden. Thus, women have limited time to raise their qualifications and limited chances to have high paid jobs. For example, over a third of South African women who work for money are in the social services (nursing, teaching and domestic work), while men are engaged in the work in a production sphere. Men hold high-ranking positions in economy, politics and social sphere. Less than 5% of women hold the position of director in campaniles listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Very few women (particularly white women) hold high-level positions and have the opportunity to influence decision-making process in the sphere of economics. Almost half of African women (47%) want to earn money but do not have opportunities. This figure could have been higher if the Ministry of Economics had considered women who have to rear children at home because of absence of functioning child rearing facilities.

The Analysis of Programs and Recommendations of the Department of Trade and Industry.

The task of the Department is to promote production and trade. The program policy influences the every day life of all South African people, however, very often the outcome of the policy is that women find themselves disadvantaged. For example, economic stimuli the government offers may make a company create or decrease number of working places. One of these stimuli is tax holidays. Those who benefit from the policies of the Department depend on where tax holidays are used: in agriculture where the majority of workers are women or in metallurgy where the majority of workers are men.

The department allocated about R2,4 billion in the 1998/9 budget, it is a little over 1% of total government spending for 1998/9. Nearly 46% of the department’s budget is poured into the Foreign Trade Relations and Export Promotion Program. Most of the money was spent on subsidies to South African manufactures who export their goods to other countries under the General Export Incentive Scheme (GEIS). The scheme benefits big South African companies with male-domineering stuff and workers but does not benefit women. Moreover, experts argue that GEIS does not provide government with profit because it costs a lot of money and it does not assist in promoting exports. In the place of GEIM the department has developed new schemes which include: expanding the export marketing assistance program to assist South African companies in selling their products outside the country; supporting new business ideas and technology department; bringing down new investors’ costs by offering incentive schemes and tax holidays; promoting exports by the SMME sector.

A third of the total Department of Trade and Industry’s budget financed its Trade Facilitation program. A big part of the department activity has been directed to work towards liberalizing South Africa’s foreign trade relations. Liberalization of trade means abolition of tariffs on goods produced by foreign firms in exchange of abolishing of tariffs on goods produced by South African firms. This experience lowers the cost of goods and increases sales. The advantage of having tariffs is that South Africans buy goods produced in their country and, consequently, more jobs for local workers have been created. It is not clear yet to what extent trade liberalization will affect South African women. Judging by experiences of other countries, it is possible to assume that more women will be employed. Export industries are often labor intensive, so that entrepreneurs find it profitable to employ many women workers because female work is low paid. On the other hand, industries that have been highly protected from international competition by tariffs will be most affected by trade liberalization. The most protected industry in manufacturing in South Africa has been the textiles, clothing and leather industry – where women are employed. Already thousands of women have lost their jobs because of competition from imported goods and the number of unemployed women will rise after trade liberalization. Government, labour and business representatives have started to discuss a social plan which will look at ways to help workers who lose their jobs. Such help would include training and helping to find new jobs.

Still another important part of the Department work is its Regional Industrial Development Program (RIDP). The program was closely linked to the apartheid government’s bantustan policy, which aimed to control the movement of African people. As most people living in the bantustans are women (most men work in cities), the RIDP had an important impact on their lives. The previous government wanted to create economic growth areas outside the main cities – to try to keep black people out of the cities. It used many incentives, like allowing companies to offer poor wages (particularly for women) and working conditions, to cut the expenses and to attract industries to the rural areas. On the one hand, the program investments offered women job opportunities in poverty-stricken places: women work for low wage under bad conditions but it was better than unpaid domestic work or farm work. On the other hand, some experts say that city women lost their jobs when companies decided to move to rural areas.

The Regional Industrial Development Program was changed in 1991 and now it does not target the creation of cheap jobs in the poorest areas. In place of the program, the government has introduced new schemes, such as a tax holiday for large investors who in their turn have to create new jobs. To spur the creation of new jobs, the government has introduced the program for small size and medium size businesses – the Small Medium Manufacturing Development Program (SMMDP). The department has allocated R50 million for the tax holiday scheme and the same amount of money for the SMMDP. Up until now, many of the firms that get assistance have been in textiles where women dominate. The department is monitoring the companies that get support at present.

One of the important sectors of economy is small medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs). The Department of Trade and Industry allocated 3% of the budget to the SMME sector. Though women benefit from the SMME program, it should be stated clearly that women do low-skill, low-paying work. The reasons for that are: men have greater access to credits; women have less time to put into their business because of their unpaid work at home; often when women’s businesses become profitable, men take them over; stereotypes and prejudices against women create obstacles to their success.

There are three main categories of SMMEs: