ABS Gender Responsive Budgeting in Local Government Budget Advocacy Manual

Background

The Accounting for Basis Services project’s primary objective was to strengthen community engagement with local government to ensure equitable, just and effective use of municipal funds. Amongst others, this implied providing budget analysis and capacity building support to six communities (KwaZenzele, Lesedi LM; Masakhane, Emalahleni LM; Chris Hani, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality; Glenmore, Ngqushwa LM; Mpolweni, Umgungudlovu District Municipality; and, Kwa-Nxamalala, Msunduzi LM). For ABS project partners, learning about the theory and practice of budget analysis and advocacy has been an integral element of the project. The purpose of this was two-fold: to enhance the knowledge and capacity of ABS project partners, and to transfer the knowledge and skills to community partners. ABS project partners were exposed to a number of capacity building events and to ongoing budget work support. In March 2018, the ABS Project partners engaged in a Gender-Responsive Budgeting workshop. This manual is the result of that workshop.

This Manual

This manual supplements an earlier manual, A Guide to Local Government Budget Advocacy, developed by the Cape Town office of the International Budget Partnership (IBP). Like this manual, the IBP manual accompanied capacity building provided to the ABS partners. The IBP manual is South Africa-specific and draws on the ABS project as well as other local government budget work that IBP has supported in South Africa in recent years. The IBP Guide can be accessed at: https://bit.ly/2FXYxVs This manual does not repeat the basics covered in the IBP manual, but should instead be used alongside it.