JOINT MONITORING COMMITTEE ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE AND STATUS OF WOMEN (JMCIQLSW
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
Friday 16 September 2005 (at 09:30)
Documents handed out
Issue brief: Extract from 2001 issue brief (pp 5 and 6) (Debbie Budlender)
Issue brief 1: Money to implement the Domestic Violence Act
Issue brief 2: Using annual reports to promote gender equity
Sex and gender
The five steps of gender analysis of budgets
The three categories of gender budget analysis
What are gender-sensitive budgets?
The Care Economy
MTEF of 2004/5 and 2005/6 (Vote 23 and 24)
Committee attendance:
The Chairperson welcomed members and initiated a discussion about the problem the committee had with forming a quorum. The committee deliberated. The Chairperson requested that the secretary write to Mr GQM Doidge, House Chairperson, National Assembly, to request for a review of the committee membership. The Deputy Chairperson reported that Mrs Oliphant, Chairperson of Committees, NCOP, had been informed about poor attendance.
Having reached a quorum, the committee proceeded to adopting reports and minutes.
Mrs X C Makasi moved: That the committee adopt the Committee report on Hearings held with the National and Provincial Gender Machinery on 21 November 2003.
Agreed to.
The Committee deliberated about the minutes before them.
Ms X C Makasi moved: That the Committee adopt all committee minutes for 2005, up to 5 August 2005.
The Committee deliberated.
Agreed to.
The Chairperson read the Committee report on Budget Vote 1: "The Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women, having considered Programme 5 on Policy Co-ordination which is part of Vote 1 "The Presidency", referred to it, reports that it has concluded its deliberations thereon." Report to be considered.
The Committee deliberated.
Mrs I W Direko moved: That the committee adopt the report.
Agreed to.
Ms Budlender started the session with an exercise about gender terminology.
She proceeded to say that the collaboration on the gender Budget is gone. Gender Budgeting is what Government must do. The Department of Finance did it for two years and then stopped. She said that it was important to study the gender and sex concept because budgets are about policy. Policies respond to sex differences. She said that policies can either respond to gender stereotypes and traditional gender roles, e.g., assume that only women take care of children, or attempt to change them, e.g. encourage sharing of unpaid care work.
The Committee proceeded to study the concept of gender sensitive budgeting, by using the National Expenditure Framework of 2004 and 2005 (Votes 23 and 24), especially passages on Strategic Overview, Court Service and Auxiliary.
The Committee studied gender sensitivity in the Department of Justice, mentioning efficiency in courts, missing evidence, comfort centres in courts, and facilities for protection of witnesses in courts. The committee focused on the last paragraph "Transformation of the Judiciary" and said that the Department had improved from 2004, when they made broad statements, to 2005, when they gave figures.
On "Courts" the Committee found that the Department of Justice did not clarify which cases were handled, for instance family cases. Under "Documents Scrutinized", the number does not correlate and there was no information on what documents were scrutinized.
Members agreed that there must be more disaggregation in this type of information from Departments. They also questioned why the Saturday courts were stopped. The Public Protector offered no disaggregation of data. This should be easy for State Departments, because the Persal system is already in place. The data can be sourced from the system.
On the topic of the Legal Aid Board the Estimate does not say who gets the money [quantify and qualify the training, and who got the contracts?]. The Committee agreed that evaluation of the training explosion in the country was insufficient.
The Committee noted that the Commission on Gender Equality and the Legal Aid Board was noted under Auxiliary Services, and that budgeting and reporting about these bodies can be improved.
The Chairperson moved: That a full-day workshop on gender budget analysis was needed.
The Committee deliberated.
Agreed to.
The Committee adjourned at 12:27 until 25 October 2005
Summary of Resolutions:
PRESENT:
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
Ms I W Direko (Alternate)
Dr A N Luthuli
Mrs X C Makasi
Mrs M R Morutoa (Chairperson)
Ms P Tshwete
Democratic Alliance
Mrs C-S Botha
Ms J A Semple
INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
Ms S Vos
MINORITY FRONT
Mrs S Rajbally
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
Mrs E S Mabe
Ms J Masilo
INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
Mrs J N Vilakazi
Apologies:
National Council of Provinces
Ms P Hollander
Mr VVZ Windvoël
National Assembly:
Ms F Batyi
Mrs S M Camerer (Alternate)
Mrs F Hajaig (Alternate)
Mr D C Mabena (Alternate)
Mr F T Maserumule
Ms M M Mdlalose (Alternate)
Mrs D M Morobi (Alternate)
Mrs M L Ngwenya
Also in attendance
Ms Cindy Bailie, Monitor, Parliamentary Monitoring Group
Cindy Benjamin, Office Administrator, Sabinet Online, [email protected]
Ms Debbie Budlender, CASE (Community Agency for Social Enquiry)
AGENDA