Ms Imelda Douf: Centre for Family Studies

SECTION 3

for women must be understood in the context of other forms of injustice and human rights abuses; • The promotion of structural and personal change:

The male power that sustains women’s disempowerment and gender inequalities is about more than the actions and attitudes of individual men, it is indicative of a larger system of patriarchy.

In supporting CPUT’s present efforts to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, it is worth noting the effectiveness of a multi-pronged approach in producing sustainable change. Although popular one-off events have a role to play, a longerterm view of change also is required. In addition, there must be accountability among the leadership on the success or otherwise of the institution’s gender and social transformation efforts.

In seeking to mainstream gender into university policies, strategies and plans, it is important to allocate sufficient resources for planning and programmes; build strategic partnerships and alliances with key stakeholders; and promote positive role models and mentorship for male students. In addition, a code of good conduct should be established to inculcate a human rights culture and address the knowledge, attitudes and practices of university staff.

4.5. Summary of remarks on mainstreaming gender-responsive budgeting in universities: Ms Imelda Douf: Centre for Family Studies

Real change can also only occur if the process is supported by adequate resources. If a university is serious about being responsive to gender equality issues, it needs to embed its responses in the institution’s financial cycle – that is, the entire budget. In this regard, support for gender equality must go beyond merely funding particular events or commemorations, such as women’s month in August. Gender equality is not an event. In seeking to establish genderresponsive budgeting for the university: • There must be a policy commitment and buy-in from senior managers, which has taken place at CPUT. This should entail aligning the policy on gender equality with the budgetary cycle and reporting financially on gender equality issues accordingly. • A comprehensive finance strategy must be adopted. The chief financial officer (CFO) must be involved in producing a gender-responsive budget. To this end, the CFO must provide guidelines to all departments, units and projects and build the capacity of the staff involved as required. In this regard, the CFO’s responsibility is to think about how the supply chain works across the university in relation to gender equality – and to develop a budget accordingly. • An appropriate institutional structure should be established in support of the efforts of the CFO and senior managers in implementing gender-responsive budgeting. However, it should be noted that such a body should have a purely advisory role in relation to making the university’s budget more gender responsive and should not become involved in organising events and activities, as often tends to happen. The university’s budget must be linked to the institution’s goals, so that when the university reports on what it has achieved and is yet to achieve, this is linked to budgeting. • There must be an institutional commitment to genderresponsive planning and budgeting among all academic and non-academic staff. Everyone must assess whether their spending is promoting gender equality and take responsibility to ensure that it does. For example, those responsible for seeking tenders for services should consider the gender equality commitments of prospective providers. Students may also be engaged in this process. • Appropriate expertise should be sought. Genderresponsive budgeting is a technical process, so the institution may need to make use of external economic and gender expertise to do it right. • Expenditure tracking systems should be established to determine the levels of expenditure on gender issues throughout the financial cycle. • Appropriate allocation of resources should occur within the budget for processes that can promote gender equality.

There are several areas in which resources can easily be allocated in a gender-responsive way – for example, in issuing tenders to, or hiring services from, women-owned companies. The Rand value of such efforts needs to be measured to gauge the extent to which resource allocation across the university is reducing gender inequality. • The budget cycle process should include gender analysis of exactly how much money has been spent on promoting gender equality and whether the spending has been effective in helping the institution meet its gender-equality targets.