Feminisation of Gender Budgeting: An Uphill Task for Zimbabwe

This paper analyses gender budgeting initiatives in Zimbabwe from 2008 when the Gender Budget Circular Call mandating all ministries to mainstream gender in their programmes and budgets came into effect. In order to analyse national budgets and budgeting process in Zimbabwe, the research used a qualitative methodology, which is, specifically, documentary research. Special attention was placed on critical sectors, such as health, agriculture, women’s affairs, water and sanitation, and education where disparity between men and women is apparent. The paper concludes that budgetary allocations for women programmes are inadequate, hence the need to feminise gender budgeting process in order to yield better results. However, feminisation of the gender budgeting process is not an easy task for Zimbabwe due to lack of up-to-date gender disaggregated data, lack of political will, and economic challenges that are limiting the fiscal space, among others. There is, however, an opportunity to draw lessons from other developing countries such as South Africa, Mexico, and Namibia as discussed in this study.