Gender Responsive Budgeting and Women's Reproductive Rights ...

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Budget work and rightsBudgets reflect planned government spending at national and sub-national level spending. With respectto reproductive health, they reflect intended spending on delivering services. Rights discourse addresses,among other things, equitable access to quality services in a range of areas. When discussing women’srights, rights work also raises the issue of spending to address discrimination and disadvantage. Overrecent years the discourse on human rights has increasingly recognised the importance of looking atresource availability, and thus budgets. This section clarifies some of the issues identified in humanrights discourse that have implications for government budget policy making.“Dignity Counts” is a publication that reflects collaboration between three organisations – the InternationalBudget Project, the International Human Rights Internship Program, and Fundar, a Mexican organisationworking on both rights and budgets. The introduction explains what human rights advocates and budgetanalysts can gain by working together.For human rights advocates, adding the budget angle to their work can:• add the technical strengths of budget work to the moral arguments of human rights;• help identify practical problems and solutions;• help assess whether government is using available resources as effectively as it could;• provide developed proposals, including estimates of costs, for government consideration;• strengthen advocacy with legislators, communities and other groupings.For budget analysts, adding the human rights angle can:• be a reminder that the ultimate goal is the welfare of human beings;• provide the values against which to assess budgets;• give legitimacy to the work because of widespread recognition of the need to look at issues .of poverty and social justice;• assist in choosing between different budgetary and policy options;• strengthen the demand for transparency and accountability;• find more partners and thus have greater impact.18S O M E K E Y L I N K A G E S
Box 3: Using rights concepts in health-related budget work“Dignity Counts” uses the health budget in Mexico as a case study to illustrate how budget and rights work can be combined.The analysis focuses on government’s obligation with respect to:• progressive achievement of the right to health;• full use of maximum available resources to achieve fulfilment; and• specific guarantees in the health-related article (number 12) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social andCultural Rights (ICESCR).“Progressive achievement” and “full use of maximum available resources” are key concepts in budget-related rightswork. Progressive achievement recognises that governments have limited resources (money) and may not always be ableimmediately to guarantee a right. But it says that they must not move backwards with respect to the right. Full use ofmaximum available resources again recognises that resources may be limited, but says that government must use whatis available to its fullest potential to achieve rights.In terms of progressive achievement, the analysis showed that the federal government increased the amount allocatedto health between 1998 and 2001, but that by 2002 the amount had fallen back near to the level of 1998. The MexicanNGO Fundar then disaggregated the total amount into the different institutions as each type of institution serves a differentpart of the population. They found that in 2002, 65% of total health spending went to people who fell under the socialsecurity system, despite the fact that these people accounted for only half the total population.In terms of use of maximum available resources, Fundar found that spending on health had decreased relative to grossdomestic product (GDP) and relative to total government spending. In contrast, they found that spending on areas notdirectly related to human rights (such as Finance, Foreign Affairs and Tourism) had increased.For the ICESCR analysis, Fundar looked at what government had allocated for the reduction of stillbirths, infant and childmortality; for prevention and treatment of diseases; and for creating conditions to ensure that health services and carewere available. Regarding the program which covers maternal health, the organisation found that the budget allocationswere biased against the poorest states.Fundar has a project which focuses on budgets and maternal mortality. It works on this project in alliance with women’sorganisations which focus on reproductive health and rights. The alliance has achieved very concrete results. In the firstyear of the project, decentralised (state) allocations for maternal health increased by 900%. The Ministry of Health’snational program to fight maternal death (Arranque Parejo en la Vida) also issued a series of manuals on how to addresspossible emergency events.In addition, a new strategy is being followed by the Mexican NGOs involved. They are now advocating for a change inthe mainstream maternal mortality strategy (which is follow-up of high risk pregnancies and qualified attention duringdelivery) so that it includes emergency obstetric care.Reference: Fundar–Centro de Analisis e Investigacion, International Budget Project and International HumanRights Internship Program.Dignity Counts: A guide to using budget analysis to advance human rights.Fundar, 2004S O M E K E Y L I N K A G E S19
Page 3: TABLE OF CONTENTSForeword..........
Page 6 and 7: BoxesBox 27 Evidence on the impact
Page 8 and 9: AcknowledgementsIwould like to than
Page 10 and 11: AcronymsIPPF International Planned
Page 12 and 13: The resource pack builds on, rather
Page 14 and 15: What is Gender responsive budgeting
Page 16 and 17: Box 1: Advocating for Afro-descenda
Page 18 and 19: Some key linkagesThe first part of
Page 22 and 23: GRB and CEDAWThe 1979 Convention on
Page 24 and 25: The ICPD’s Program of Action prov
Page 26 and 27: Reproductive health services can of
Page 28 and 29: • attention to the needs of HIV-p
Page 30 and 31: Primary health care and reproductiv
Page 32 and 33: Improvements in health can contribu
Page 34 and 35: What are the economic consideration
Page 36 and 37: Box 8: Money alone is sometimes not
Page 38 and 39: Box 9: The costs of home-based care
Page 40 and 41: Using the budget angle to advance o
Page 42 and 43: Box 11: Maternal mortality and emer
Page 44 and 45: assessment to what is needed to mak
Page 46 and 47: Box 12: Civil society tracking educ
Page 48 and 49: Box 15: What is the cost of combati
Page 50 and 51: Participatory budgets and genderUNI
Page 52 and 53: What do budgets look like?This sect
Page 54 and 55: often use very different formats, w
Page 56 and 57: Ministry ofHealthGenderdimensionOut
Page 58 and 59: Frameworks and toolsThis section gi
Page 60 and 61: 1. An analysis of the situation of
Page 62 and 63: Mexican guide to formulating health
Page 64 and 65: Beneficiary assessment is a way of
Page 66 and 67: The community-based monitoring syst
Page 68 and 69: Actors, activities and focusThis se
Page 70 and 71:
Box 25: Public representatives are
Page 72 and 73:
• Estimation by the Ministry of F
Page 74 and 75:
The revenue sideThis section looks
Page 76 and 77:
User feesUser fees for government s
Page 78 and 79:
might stipulate that a certain prop
Page 80 and 81:
focusing on programs for their own
Page 82 and 83:
PEPFAR will only provide funds for
Page 84 and 85:
Box 29: Ensuring that women benefit
Page 86 and 87:
Transfers consist of two main types
Page 88 and 89:
Disaggregation of budget numbersFin
Page 90:
In conclusionAs emphasised at the o
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