TGNP and its FemAct partners have been pioneering a Gender Budget Initiative (GBI) since mid-1997. The GBI was developed in the context of cost sharing and retrenchment policies implemented as part of the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) in the 1980s. These programmes precipitated vital social services, particularly health care and education, being dramatically cut while liberalisation and privatisation caused massive layoffs of government workers. Concurrently, the majority of civil society was feeling marginalised from policymaking and budgetary processes in the country.

Created out of this context, the aim of GBI is to advocate for a more people-oriented development strategy and participatory and equitable allocation of resources. The strategy is to influence and transform planning and budgetary processes to utilise participatory techniques, and to take into account the practical and strategic needs of marginalised communities, in particularly women, poor men, and youth.

GBI aims to fulfill the following major objectives:

• To promote examination of policy, decision-making processes and resource allocation/utilisation with a gender perspective.
• To promote the design and adoption of tools for gender mainstreaming of budget policies and budgets.
• To strengthen lobbying and advocacy skills of civil society actors to campaign for participation in resource allocation processes.
• To organise and carry out a lobbying campaign to influence policymakers and other key actors such as donor partners.
• To provide popular information to educate and solicit support from the public.

HIV/AIDS AND ITS RELATIONS TO GENDER, AND RESOURCES AT MACRO, MESO AND MICRO LEVELS

1. Gender, Resources and HIV/AIDS

AIDS cannot be separated from the extreme poverty, lack of resources and the burden of work for women, nor can it be separated from the problems of female subordination, oppression and exploitation through the perpetuation of patriarchal cultures and traditions which underpin most of our societies to the present day.  The socio-cultural framework shapes the manner in which men and women interact with each other in all aspects of life, including sexual relations. Furthermore, institutional settings at the national and local levels influence the socio-cultural frameworks, necessitating a gender analysis that challenges policies, laws and institutions that perpetuate patriarchy at all levels of society. Thus, the coming sections provide a gender and resource-based analysis of the HIV/AIDS epidemic at the institutional/policy level, followed by an analysis of respectively women and men’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS at the household level.

2.  Macro-Frameworks, Institutions and Policy

When addressing issues of gender, resources allocation and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, it becomes apparent that some of the overwhelming obstacles are at the international level. At the same time, national-level policies, frameworks and institutions play an essential role in either worsening or remedying the situation within the country, justifying the following analysis of both levels.

3.  International Level

The macroeconomic policy contexts, within which policy approaches to deal with the HIV/AIDS problem are designed, functions as a great barrier for the development of transformative policy approaches. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) enjoy tremendous influence in shaping the macroeconomic landscape, not least for the developing countries. The notorious Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), which were imposed on developing countries as a condition of loans and aid in the 1980s are an example of this.

 4. The National Level

At the national level, the majority of communities are impoverished and disenfranchised from decision-making.    The move to liberalise the economy has entailed limiting the role of state in managing the economy including provision of welfare-related services such as education and health. Austerity measures being implemented under the SAP have been translated into budget cuts in all sectors including social services, which have negatively affected both the quantity and quality of these services. The government budget is very small, and in all sectors the lion’s share of the budget goes to recurrent expenditures, such as salaries and other personal emoluments, rather than development expenditures. Because men occupy top-level positions in all organs of the state, the government budget is essentially benefiting those few men who also control the decision-making processes. In addition, cost sharing policies have essentially removed existing social safety nets and are not sensitive to the gaps that exist in the society including social gaps, gender and rural/urban development gaps.  As a result, there are insufficient resources and government mechanisms to address development issues of national importance, including HIV/AIDS.

5. Household level:  Gender Analysis of HIV/AIDS and Resource Allocation

All of these policy, budget and institutional gaps ultimately interplay with patriarchal structures and impact at the household level, serving to perpetuate inequality as well as to enhance the spread of HIV/AIDS.  On the whole, despite gender equity policies, women in Tanzania continue to enjoy fewer rights and privileges than men. Few women access positions of power and influence. Their access to education and training is constrained by existing socio-cultural norms and values, while their right to property is limited by patriarchal ideologies. The gender gap that exists between men and women is mirrored in national allocation of resources, mobilisation of such resources and their distribution.

Women, Girls and HIV

Due to a context of poverty and structural gender inequalities, women are uniquely vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in Tanzania.  Due to inequalities of resource allocation, women and girls often have many unfulfilled economic needs.  They are also in a situation where they have a heavy workload of unpaid labour within the home as well as economic responsibilities outside the home, making it difficult to negotiate issues of sexuality. On the whole, despite some changes in land legislation, most women lack legal rights to inherit and own property.

About the Organisers:

TGNP and FemAct

Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) advocating for social transformation to generate gender equality and equity, equal opportunities, and equal access to - and control over - resources by women, youth and other marginalised groups. The organisation works to build a vibrant and strong civil society that actively strives to achieve high sensitivity to issues of gender, democracy, human rights and social justice at local, national and international levels. For this purpose, TGNP has created an effective pressure group in collaboration with other NGOs. The Feminist Activist Coalition (FemAct) is a coalition of over 30 non-governmental organisations that has been committed to facilitate social change in Tanzania and beyond since 1996. The coalition aims to set, strategize, and implement a collective civil society agenda for progressive and gender-focused transformation of economic, social and political policies, processes, and programmes.  TGNP has served as the Secretariat of the coalition since its inception.