Resource allocation for the realisation of women’s rights : building on previous gender budgeting initiatives in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa has ratified several international instruments that impose an obligation on the country to allocate sufficient budgetary resources to realise women’s rights. Gender budgeting has been recognised as a means through which states can implement this obligation. South Africa was the first African country to have adopted gender budgeting initiatives and despite being successful in the initial years, the initiatives phased out and did not become integral to the budgeting process. In this article, I propose sustainable gender budgeting initiatives for a better realisation of women’s rights in South Africa. While the article highlights the challenges, I put forward recommendations for integrating gender budgeting in the national budgeting process.