Lack of monitoring deters utilisation of funds: MJF

To achieve gender equality, the government introduced gender budget in 2010 with women's empowerment in focus. Since then, 44 ministries have been listed as recipients of funds specifically for facilitating women's education, health and employment.

While sketching out a gender-sensitive budget for 2017-18, the government set aside about 64 percent of the fund allocated for the youth and sports ministry for women's development. But at the end of the fiscal year, revised budget shows share of expenditure for women came down to half of what was meant for them initially.

In the absence of monitoring and evaluation, the authorities could not be held accountable for proper use of the allocated funds. So the realities remain far from the objectives, according to a ministry-wise budget analysis commissioned by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF). The findings were made public yesterday at a national dialogue on 'gender responsive budgeting' in a Dhaka hotel. Planning Minister Muhammad Abdul Mannan was present as chief guest and Asa Torkelson, representative from UNFPA, as special guest.

Analysts -- Sayema Haque Bidisha of Dhaka University's economics department and Shermind Nilormi, of Jahangirnagar University's economics department  -- recommended evaluating the impacts of budgeting process through “gender lens”, to find out if that helped narrow the gender gaps.

Dr Fahmida Khatun, executive director, Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), in her presentation on “Estimating Unpaid Work in Bangladesh's GDP: A Conceptual Framework for Household Satellite Accounts Approach”, referred to a CPD research that estimated the value of women's unpaid household work at 76.8 percent of GDP in 2013-14 fiscal, when another woman would be hired and paid to replace the woman in the family doing unpaid work.

Like the sports ministry, the land ministry also spent only half of the budgetary allocation on women in the last fiscal.

This is the backdrop against which MJF as a civil society organisation decided to work with ministries of women and children affairs, labour and employment, land, youth and sports, expatriates' welfare and overseas employment, and social welfare to help attain the goals of gender budget.

The government made the highest allocation for women's advancement -- 29.65 percent -- in the budget for 2018-19. Zooming in on the projects, the analysts found there were still some key areas left out of the spotlight. For example, no measure has been considered to help female farmers who are participating more in agriculture now compared to their male counterparts.  

Apart from ensuring that gender budgets are better implemented, the rights organisation also suggested raising awareness on women's contribution to their families and society through unpaid care work.

The disproportionate share of unpaid care work creates barriers to women's higher education and employment as they fail to enter the labour force because of the burden.

Once women's unaccounted work is translated into monetary value and integrated into national GDP, it will make society realise the significance of care services and change attitude towards women, said Shaheen Anam, executive director of MJF.

“To advocate for women's empowerment, MJF initiated a programme called 'equality through dignity'. We believe, if women receive respect for their work, they will become more confident… Change in society's perception [of them] will help curb violence against them,” she added.

Public investment in infrastructure like clean water, social protection and care services will help women manage time for paid work and encourage redistribution of care work.

By empowering women and bringing about gender equality, the government can reduce violence against women, said Asa Torkelson, representative from the UNFPA.

Planning Minister Abdul Mannan said the government is very sensitive to women's development and is working for change. “Change cannot happen without including women in development and growth,” he said.

If the budget is equally and justly distributed, all will be benefitted, especially those who have been deprived for long, the minister added.