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Gender-responsive budgeting: Where has Sri Lanka gone wrong? 

08 Aug 2021

By Imesh Ranasinghe Closing the gender gap has been one of the longest struggles since the beginning of the 20th Century. At the beginning of the last decade, Sri Lanka was at the forefront of that struggle, ranking 31st on the Global Gender Gap Index in 2011. Unfortunately, 10 years later, Sri Lanka has gone back on the progress it made, ranking 116th in 2021.  It was revealed that, as per the Budget 2018, the former Ministry of Women and Child Affairs spent over Rs. 310 million to develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to close the gender gap. However, research conducted by the independent think tank Verité Research on 12 gender-related KPIs developed by the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs in 2018 showed that 10 out of the 12 KPIs showed no progress. The 12 KPIs were developed by the Ministry while committing to achieving Goal 5 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. Verité Research Assistant Nigel Gray said one of main reasons for the absence of progress in most of the KPIs was the lack of monitoring and evaluation by oversight agencies.  “Neither the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs that developed these KPIs, nor the Ministry of Finance, to whom the ministries were required to their submit progress, provided us with an overview of the metrics they used to assess the progress of these KPIs,” Gray said in a webinar organised by Verité. 83% (10) of the KPIs showed no progress while 17% (two) showed weak progress. “If we look at the most recent Budget Speech of 2021, we see that these reports do not have KPIs listed under them. In addition to that, we see that quite a few of these proposals did not specify expenditure allocation as well. So, there is uncertainty on how well these proposals are tracked as well as how much money is allocated to them,” Gray said. The 12 KPIs include: 1) female labour force participation; 2) female headed households; 3) gender disaggregated data systems; 4) NVQ qualification; 5) female entrepreneurs utilising SME (small and medium enterprises) loans and subsidies; 6) policies aimed at employing female migrants; 7) females in decision-making positions, 8) gender-friendly working environments and daycare facilities; 9) gender concerns in rescue, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction of disasters; 10) women and child bureau units in police stations; 11) gender discriminatory laws, policies, and procedures; and 12) addressing sexual and gender-based violence. No progress and money not accounted for In response to a Right to Information (RTI) petition filed by Verité, the Ministry of Finance stated that the Ministry of Primary Industries and Social Empowerment had submitted information regarding the progress of the KPI to increase the number of female-headed households that have built houses through financial assistance programmes. Responding to a concern raised regarding the KPI to increase the number of public institutions that maintain gender disaggregated data systems, the Ministry of Finance stated that the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs had submitted information regarding the progress of this KPI; and in response to another RTI request, the State Ministry of Women and Child Development, Pre-Schools and Primary Education, School Infrastructure, and Education Services stated that 12 public authorities had submitted information regarding the progress of this KPI. These public authorities include the Department of Land Use and Policy Planning; Intellectual Property Office; Ministry of Internal and Home Affairs and Provincial Councils and Local Government; Ministry of Primary Industries; Ministry of Plantations; Ministry of Youth Affairs, Women’s Affairs, Rural Development, Co-operative Development, and Industries; Ministry of Land and Parliamentary Reforms; and Ministry of Ports and Shipping. As the information provided by the Ministry of Finance was insufficient to make an assessment on the progress of this KPI, it was classified as having made no progress. Money spent but no progress  Rs. 93 million was spent to increase the number of institutions that have taken measures to provide a gender-friendly working environment and daycare facilities, but there was no progress. Responding to a RTI request filed by Verité, the Ministry of Finance stated that the Sri Lanka Ports Authority has spent Rs. 2,066,000 annually on a daycare centre facilitating 26 children, for which a specific time period was not mentioned.  The State Ministry of Women and Child Development, Pre-Schools and Primary Education, School Infrastructure, and Education Services had also responded to an RTI request, stating that two programmes were conducted in relation to this KPI and that Rs. 92.88 million was spent on these programmes. It was in relation to gender equitable financial flow and the construction and development of daycare centres by the former Ministry for 2018 and 2019, it said. Referring to another KPI, the State Ministry said Rs. 70.39 million was spent on increasing the number of female entrepreneurs engaging in sustainable enterprises utilising SME loans/subsidies for 2018 and 2019. “These programmes relate to the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in the North and East, as well as projects under the Sri Lanka Women’s Bureau.” Referring to the KPI on the allocations made to complement the Multi Sectoral National Action Plans to address sexual and gender-based violence, the State Ministry said that 31 programmes were conducted in relation to this KPI for the period 2018-2019, for which expenditure amounted to Rs. 61.72 million. These included some programmes that were aimed at reducing gender-based violence, the National Integrated Child Protection Action Plan to reduce child abuse, awareness on the elimination of child sexual abuse, strengthening the co-ordination mechanisms between programmes aimed at the prevention of and response to gender-based violence, guidelines for the maintenance of women’s shelters, starting a conversation with the Transport Ministry regarding sexual harassment in public transport, and creating modules to inform and reduce sexual harassment in public transport. Two programmes were conducted during 2018-19 at a cost of Rs. 38.12 million to increase the number of women and children bureau units in police stations that are equipped to handle women and child issues in a sensitive and effective manner. Furthermore, on the KPI pertaining to the number of gender discriminatory laws, policies, and procedures that are amended, enacted, and/or implemented, the Ministry of Justice stated that no gender-specific legal amendments or enactments were passed during the assessment period (2018). However, the State Ministry of Women and Child Development, Pre-Schools and Primary Education, School Infrastructure, and Education Services stated that total expenditure of Rs.12.3 million was incurred in relation to this KPI for the period of 2018-2019.  Based on the response by the Ministry of Justice, this KPI has been classified as having no progress. In assessing these KPIs, the report by Verité said that an annual increase in the number of institutions that had taken measures to improve gender-friendly working environments and daycare facilities, between 0-10%, was assessed to be weak progress while an increase of more than 10% was assessed as strong progress.  As a result, information from both the Ministry of Finance, and the State Ministry of Women and Child Development, Pre-Schools and Primary Education, School Infrastructure, and Education Services was insufficient to make an assessment on the progress of the KPI. Therefore, these KPIs too have been classified as having made no progress. Weak progress  Relating to the KPI on increasing the percentage of female participation in the labour force, the website of the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) has provided information on female labour force participation for 2018 and 2019. The Female Labour force participation rate for 2018 was 39.3% and in 2019, it was 42.9%. In response to the RTI request, the Ministry of Finance stated that five public authorities had submitted information regarding the progress of this KPI. These ministries were the Ministry of Ports and Shipping, Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, Provincial Agriculture Ministry (Sabaragamuwa), Ministry of Land and Parliamentary Reforms, and the Ministry of Public Administration, Primary Industries, and Social Empowerment. Meanwhile, the State Ministry of Women and Child Development, Pre-Schools and Primary Education, School Infrastructure and Education Services stated that three programmes, related model village projects, ecotourism, and self-employment were conducted in relation to this KPI for the period 2018-2019 at a total expenditure of Rs. 28.03 million. Frequent cabinet reshuffles make things messy  Apart from the lack of monitoring and evaluation by the government authorities in meeting these KPIs, other challenges include inefficiencies due to cabinet reshuffles. Sri Lanka has been no stranger to frequent cabinet reshuffles made by successive governments. The frequent “splitting and combining of ministries”, results in a lack of co-ordination and accountability in the central government, the report pointed out. In August 2020, following the presidential election and the appointment of a new government, the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, which was one of the key oversight bodies responsible for the implementation of the aforementioned KPIs, was removed. Instead, the State Ministry for Women and Child Development, Pre-Schools and Primary Education, School Infrastructure, and Education Services was established under the Ministry of Education. While this change occurred outside the assessment period for this analysis, it indicates a cause for concern, as the responsibilities of the former Ministry of Women and Child Affairs may have been diluted across other ministries following this change. This example is just one of many cabinet changes that have taken place over time. The aggregation of these frequent changes sheds light on the difficulties in identifying which ministry is responsible for a particular function in government, thereby hindering the ability to hold agencies accountable for poor performance.  Conclusion  It is probable that the lack of progress of the KPIs is linked to the lack of monitoring and follow up. If there was an active effort to monitor progress, it would create a stronger incentive for implementing agencies to execute the directives that they are tasked with. After all, even a positive policy initiative will have limited outcomes for society if there is no effective monitoring and feedback mechanism, even within internal government agencies. The issue of poor implementation due to the lack of oversight is aggravated by the lack of public disclosure of information pertaining to the progress of these KPIs. The lack of public oversight on how public funds are utilised limits the public’s ability to hold the authorities accountable. What is even more problematic is that some initiatives have had recorded expenditures and yet provided no evidence of progress or monitoring of activities.  For example, the KPI of the “number of gender discriminatory laws, policies, and procedures that are amended, enacted, and/or implemented” recorded no progress for the assessment period based on an RTI response by the Ministry of Justice, despite having reported an expenditure of Rs. 12 million. This indicates an abdication of responsibility in the management of public finance. UN SDG 5 on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls is one of the 17 SDGs to be achieved by countries by 2030. This report has shown that despite initiatives being brought forward in Sri Lanka, the lack of monitoring and accountability significantly hinders the ability in moving towards ensuring greater gender equality. 


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