Report on Delivery to Women

16. NATIONAL TREASURY

Internal Achievements

• The Ministry of Finance is playing a key role in the gender and macro economic policy pilot study.
• Economic policy affects men and women differently. There is a need to examine the impact all government expenditure has on men and women. There are various initiatives within the department of Finance which have begun to “engender” the budget and economic policy.

Achievements For South African Women

Policies and Legislation

• Policy and legislation have been amended to eliminate all overt gender discrimination.
• The Pension Fund laws for the public service have been amended to ensure that men and women contribute the same amount (7.5%) of their salaries to a pension fund, and derive equal benefits
• The department removed discrimination based on gender and marital status in the income tax code and introduced amendments to discriminatory pension funds laws.
• South Africa does not discriminate between men and women in the regulations and requirements pertaining to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit. Married women may enter into contracts in their own right.
• GEAR provides a framework within which poverty can be attacked and gender based inequality reduced in a context of sustainable growth.
• The Finance ministry is engaging, through the CSS, in research to measure the actual impact of economic policy choices on the poor and on women to enable government to evaluate and adjust its policies accurately. The CSS has published a report on “Women and Men in South Africa” which provides a gender analysis of data and statistics in South Africa.

Programmes and Activities

The National Treasury took steps to ensure that South Africa becomes one of six countries to participate in a commonwealth pilot project on integrating gender analysis into macroeconomic policy. The gender analysis in the 1998 Budget Review formed part of this pilot project. The department intended to have the data and analysis collated for the Budget Review to form the basis of a wider and more systematic gender disaggregated data collection and analysis process.

• At the National Treasury MTEF conference in 1997 a presentation on Gender and the Budget was included as part of the pilot project.
• The Budget Review incorporated a gender analysis on Land, Public Service, Public Works, SMME’s, Water Affairs and Forestry, Welfare and Health. It raised significant questions on the gender impact of specific programmes discussed.
• In this respect, the National Treasury gave effect to its commitment to “engendering” the Budget Review.
• The National Treasury committed itself to considering the reallocation of military expenditure to support women’s economic advancement at a cabinet meeting in 1996. The department has reduced expenditure on Defence from 9,1 percent of total government spending in 1992/93 to 5,7% of total government spending in 1997/8. The priority has shifted to social services which benefit predominantly women and children.
• The primary object of the National Development Agency (NDA) is to contribute towards the eradication of poverty and its causes by granting funds to civil society organizations to carry out projects or programmes aimed at meeting development needs of poor communities and strengthening the institutional capacity of other civil society organizations involved in direct service provision to poor communities.
• The Department does not have a formal gender policy, although internal policy procedures take into account gender issues. The department has established a Gender Desk which monitors and evaluates gender related issues.
• 62 % of the department’s employees were women. Out of a total number of 367 women, 96 are black. The representation of women within management is 27 %. Out of the total of 10 women in management, 3 are black.