Opportunities and recommendations
Despite the challenges mentioned in the preceding sections, it must be noted that devolution in Kenya is barely seven years old. County governments and members of the public alike are still trying to understand and navigate the new constitutional landscape. Devolution opens up opportunities for women and other disadvantaged groups to participate in policy planning, budget allocation and monitoring of expenditure,55 and there is still an important opportunity for county governments to integrate gender-responsive mechanisms into their developing budgetary and planning processes. Some counties, notably Kisumu and Kirinyaga, have made significant strides in generating sex-disaggregated data to inform their policy planning,56 and in developing frameworks to ensure that county budgets and plans are gender-responsive.57 Several lessons could also be learned from other national contexts, indicating possible avenues for progress.
Key opportunities for policy reform are as follows:
- An increasingly common practice in countries outside Kenya is the development of ‘gender budget statements’,58 which are typically presented before a given country’s parliament together with the budget itself. A gender budget statement details the social and economic impact that the previous budget has had, and the forecast impact of the proposed budget on enhancing gender equality. Publishing gender statements would allow county governments in Kenya to more effectively track the impact of their budgets. This could, in turn, inform the national agenda and assist national-level budget planning. Thus far, however, Kirinyaga is the only county focusing – as part of its long-term strategy – on the development of gender statements to be tabled alongside budgets.59
- Kenya’s county governments can learn from the South African60 example and engage with relevant stakeholders, such as local community organizations and women’s groups, to leverage resources, knowledge and information. This is already happening to a limited degree, with the governments of Kisumu, Kajiado and Mombasa counties focusing on strategies to enhance public participation and engagement in budgeting, and developing initiatives to partner with civil society.61 They have an opportunity to engage organizations that have readily available information on the gender dynamics in each county.
- CBEFs provide a critical entry point for enhancing public awareness of gender-responsive budgeting. County governments must operationalize CBEFs, ensure that representatives receive regular training on budget processes, participatory budgeting and gender-responsive budgeting, and publish regular reports on progress. Through CBEFs, county governments can establish and coordinate sectoral working groups, consisting of major stakeholders, to assist in the review of budgetary processes and the promotion of public awareness. Stakeholders could include professional bodies such as the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, community organizations, civil society organizations and development partners.
- Devolution in Kenya created 47 county assemblies, constitutionally mandated to provide oversight of county executives and their spending priorities. Most county assemblies have limited capacity, and need training on the budgetary process and its impact on gender equality. County assemblies can also partner with civil society and community organizations to provide the technical expertise and data necessary to make informed decisions when developing and reviewing policy and legislation. South Africa’s Women’s Budget Initiative is a good example of a legislature–civil society partnership that can provide a template for policy in Kenya.
- Most successful gender-responsive budgeting approaches are initiated by finance ministries.62 A good entry point for gender-responsive budgeting in Kenya, therefore, is the Treasury, which is constitutionally mandated to drive development and to assist county governments in developing capacity in public financial management.63 The Office of the Auditor General could also play a role alongside the NGEC in scrutinizing whether public funds are allocated and spent in a gender-responsive manner. Such a ‘joint audit’ could highlight gaps between government policy commitments and investments. Ministries, departments and agencies at both national and county levels of government are more likely to integrate gender-responsive budgeting when there is a uniform approach supported by clear directives.64 The Treasury may need to establish a committee or taskforce mandated to create regulations, monitoring tools and guidelines, to be implemented at both levels of government, in order to enhance cooperation and coordination.
- It is imperative that officials are adequately supported in the development and implementation of gender-responsive fiscal policies and budgets. The NGEC’s activities, for example, have been impaired by a lack of adequate resources. It can only carry out its constitutional mandate in an enabling environment. Funding must follow functions.