CASE

Participatory gender-responsive budgeting and community scorecards provide women, including those with disabilities, platforms to present their collective interests to policymakers, influence more inclusive budgetary allocation and improve service delivery in Kwale County, Kenya.

Problems and Purpose

Kwale County is among the poorest and most marginalized counties in Kenya, with a poverty rate of 47.4%, compared to the national poverty rate of 36.1% (Kwale County Government, 2018). Every fiscal year, the County government prepares budgets to guide revenue generation and the utilization of public resources. The process has been non-participatory with the decisions made mostly by men and elite members of the community. Women at the grassroots level, including those from marginalized communities and those with disabilities, have experienced great social and economic disadvantages and exclusion. Female literacy levels in Kwale County is at 47.4% (Kwale County Government, 2018) and coupled with regressive cultural norms, this denies women the right to participate in decision-making.

Empowering women with civic education on the budgeting process was identified as a means to train women on how to analyze the budget documents against their gendered needs and engage with legislators to present their collective interests on impactful development projects that the County government can fund and implement. Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) was thus adopted as an avenue for inclusion of the voices of women, youth, and persons with disabilities (PWDs) through participatory budgeting as well as fostering citizen-led accountability in communities to ensure that their voices are not only heard, but also acted upon.

Background History and Context

Taking gender issues into account has been recognized as central to closing the gender gap. This is seen through various policy pronouncements and commitments made by the government. Kenya has signed and ratified various legal instruments including Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) of 1979[1], the Beijing Platform of Action of 1995[2], the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) of 1994[3], the Maputo Protocol of 2003[4] and in the most recent 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs)[5], especially Goal 5 on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, adopted in 2015. Moreover, various laws and policies have been put in place to advance GRB, these include the Constitution of Kenya 2010[6], the Public Finance Management Act (2012)[7], the County Government Act 2012[8], and the National Policy on Gender and Development (2019)[9].

Despite all these advances, gender mainstreaming in the county and national government budgets remains elusive. Women's voices and issues are underrepresented in both political and public debate[10]. This undermines their participation in decision-making platforms for the planning, formulation, implementation and monitoring of the use of public resources. Systemic barriers including low levels of education and literacy, patriarchy and retrogressive cultural beliefs[11] that continue to shrink the space for female participation in decision-making platforms, including budgeting processes in Kwale County. Gender blindness in the County budgets is evident from the inequities in resource allocation, For instance, despite water, education, and health sectors receiving the lion’s share of the budget, the impact is yet to be felt among women and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Kwale County, with poverty indices and illiteracy levels remaining high. In the financial year 2021/2022, allocations were as follows: Water (21.91%), Education (15.88%) and Health (12.92%)[12]. The agricultural sector received a meagre 5.29% despite being a main source of livelihood for residents. Skewed allocations implies that the decisions are neither informed by gender analysis nor are women meaningfully involved to present their ideas and proposals on the development projects that the County government ought to fund (Mwendwa, 2020).

To address this, the Tupo.Tusikizwe (We are here. Listen to us) project[13] was initiated with the aim of amplifying the voices of women and PWDs to meaningfully participate in the budgeting process. The groups were trained on how to analyze County budgets against the community’s gendered needs, identify community resource gaps, and formulate lobbying requests for presentation to duty bearers in both the County Executive and Assembly.

Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities

The Tupo.Tusikizwe project is implemented by the Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW) with funding support from Voice. COVAW was awarded a total of 137,000 Euros for a period of two and a half years to facilitate implementation in Kwale county. Voice extended the support through capacity building of its grantees by engaging the Coady Institute to facilitate a targeted learning and accompaniment program to support quality project implementation. Key stakeholders include: the National Government representatives from the Department of Gender, Children Services, Youth and Social Protection; the County Government of Kwale (officials from both the Executive and Assembly); media; civil society organizations (CSOs), women-led groups and Disabled Persons’ Organizations [JL1] (DPOs).

The Government’s role is to publicize the budget documents. The village and ward administrators are consulted widely to avail the budget documents to enable the community to review them prior to submitting their proposals for consideration. Civil society organizations, women-led groups and DPOs take part in analyzing the budget documents, identifying gaps in resource allocation, jointly developing GRB lobby papers[14] and presenting to both the County Executive and Assembly. The media’s role is to amplify community voices by covering the events such as public participation forum, live interviews with the women champions[15] and CSOs, and to seek the views of the general public on whether budgets are equitably distributed.

Participant Recruitment and Selection[2]

Tupo.Tisukizwe is implemented in 10 Wards across 3 Sub-Counties in Kwale County, targeting women, youth and PWDs. Selection of the participants was informed by a Knowledge Awareness and Practice (KAP) Survey conducted by a consultant in Kwale County seeking to understand the level of awareness on GRB among the community members and County Officials and application of GRB principles in resource allocation (COVAW, 2023). The KAP Survey findings included: limited access to county budget documents; low awareness of GRB among the participants and county officials; limited engagement between the public and ward representatives; and limited participation of women in the budget-making discussions.

The Ward Administrators helped to identify village units that have been marginalized in accessing information and government services. This was followed by community entry meetings where two female champions were selected by the public and endorsed by the local administration. Criteria for female champions selection included: an individual who is committed to community work, has no criminal record, and can champion against women rights violations prevalent in her community. In the program, female champions play a pivotal role by taking charge of community meeting organization, grassroots support mobilization, and dialogue facilitation. Their involvement is essential for challenging gender stereotypes that hinder women from assuming leadership roles, addressing the public, and advocating for women's rights within the community. The role is voluntary, as no stipends are offered to the female champions, while participants at large receive refreshments in form of a packet of milk and a loaf of bread.

At the local level, GRB advocacy is citizen-led and a widely consultative process whereby women-led groups, DPOs and project staff hold monthly round table discussions to interrogate the County budgets and analyze them against the community’s gender needs. Selection of the meeting participants was undertaken at the community level with support from the local administration (i.e., chief and village administrator). Participants who have been trained on the county budgeting process and have been actively participating in the community dialogue sessions are prioritized during the selection process. [JL3]

During the community dialogue sessions, participants’ selection is guided by ensuring representation of women, men, youth, and PWDs from all the village units within the Ward. Thirty participants are invited during the sessions. Initially, a limited number was involved due to the COVID-19 regulations that required a social distancing and limiting public gatherings to contain the spread of the virus. The project reached out to existing DPOs within the wards, with support from the County Coordinator, National Council for Persons with Disabilities, who shared contacts of the active disability groups and submitted the contact details to mobilization its members to attend the meetings. Participants were not given any stipend during the meeting.

The Community Development Officers (CDOs) are also invited during the dialogue sessions. CDOs are County Government staff stationed at the Ward Administrator’s office and mandated to build capacity and empower community groups on socioeconomic development programs at the Ward level.

County Assembly members are actively engaged in targeted dialogues aimed at fostering community development and facilitating transparent interactions between the communities and their elected representatives. In this context only, 50 participants per ward – as opposed to the usual 30 – were mobilized across the 10 wards to articulate their priority needs for inclusion in future annual development plans. This initiative was strategically undertaken during the initial year of the Members of the County Assembly's (MCA) term in office. Additionally, Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs) were mobilized to convene with MCAs for a roundtable discussion, during which they presented their priority requirements and jointly devised collaborative strategies.

Methods and Tools Used[JL4]

As part of an overall approach focused on gender-responsive budgeting (GRB), Participatory Budgeting was used to seek the views of the public on resource allocations as well as providing an opportunity to present their proposals to advocate for equity in resource allocation. During the meetings, the project staff (Program Officer and Program Associate) would avail the budget documents to the participants. The staff, alongside the women champions, co-facilitated the discussions to unpack the budget documents content and present in a local language so that the participants get to understand and contribute to the discussions. Sectoral analysis of the proposed development project was made and key questions guiding the discussions were as follows:

· Where is the project located?

· Who will benefit (men, women, youth, elderly or PWDs)?

· How will they benefit?

· What value will this project have to the beneficiaries?

Virtual engagements took place via WhatsApp and X (Formally Twitter) to amplify the work on GRB, increase visibility, and ease the communication of budget documents and other necessary materials. The WhatsApp platform membership consisted of budget champions, selected civil society officials and women-led DPOs representatives who were identified via the County PWDs Network. Chats on X involved engaging the community budget champions and inviting like-minded individuals and organizations across the country to discuss engendering the County and National budgets and presenting advocacy asks to the legislators.

The Community Scorecard as a social accountability tool was extensively employed to ensure the accountability of public service providers across various institutions. Training sessions were conducted to equip champions and community members with the skills needed to effectively implement the Community Scorecard process. Project staff assisted community members in selecting the specific public service institutions where the Community Scorecard would be applied. Necessary materials and support were provided to facilitate the implementation of this activity.

What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation

The public engagement meetings were conducted both physically within the villages during community awareness raising sessions, and virtually through WhatsApp and X chats. Community awareness raising sessions were convened by project staff with support from the village administrators and women budget champions. They raise awareness to the community members from across the Ward, communicate the meeting date and venue to the public while ensuring representation of men, women, youth and PWDs from the village units. Additionally, the Community Development Officers are brought on board to inform the participants on the devolved functions of the County Government and how to identify and prioritize development projects in their Wards.

During physical gatherings, participants got an opportunity to present their questions, views and recommendations to the legislators. Diversity was achieved through the inclusion of vulnerable groups, especially widows, adolescent mothers, women with disabilities, and the elderly who are normally excluded during the County public engagement forums. The leaders used the opportunity to continuously sensitize the public on the available opportunities and services offered by the government. Open dialogue sessions between the community and leaders are also used to undertake social audits [JL5] to government-funded development projects at the ward level.

In the virtual engagements, the chosen platforms (X and WhatsApp) provided platforms where the public could deliberate with leaders and get immediate feedback on the issues raised. Being a bottom-up model, this approach proved successful where the leaders were able to further understand the specific needs of the community, as opposed to making closed-door decisions which in most instances do not reflect the solutions to problems faced by the community. During the onset of the discussions, government officials were reluctant in attending the meetings due to fear of being interrogated by the public on development projects either not being implemented, or their failure to consider public proposals on priority community projects. Supported by Voice, COVAW gained insight into the challenges confronted by government officials in governance. Consequently, the COVAW organized GRB training sessions to address these limitations. During these sessions, both government officials and select CSOs participated, providing the latter with a glimpse into expected community engagements and imparting skills in managing expectations through open and transparent discussions. The participatory budgeting method enabled the leaders to appreciate that communities are not homogenous and gender-specific needs exist. Hence, there is a need to have women and PWDs participate equitably in the budgeting process and ensuring their voices are heard.

Over time, as a citizen-led advocacy platform, the project's focus shifted towards promoting social accountability[18]. This shift occurred after Voice extended the project's duration by six months, allowing rights holders not only to analyze budget documents but also to hold their duty bearers accountable. Dialogues were organized, with the participation of county assembly members and executives, to address community concerns related to their respective villages[17]. To assess the impact of various projects on rights holders, social accountability tools such as Community Scorecards were implemented in government institutions including primary schools, Early Childhood Development Education centers (ECDEs), and dispensaries. These scorecards were used quarterly to evaluate the projects' effects and identify ways to enhance services within these institutions. In the process, the public (service users), with support from the female community champions and project staff, customize the scorecard to have at least five criteria and a rating assigned to each criteria. First, the scorecard is filled in with feedback from the public and later presented to the village and ward administrators detailing the concerns from the public and recommendations to improve service delivery.

Recommendations brought forth by the participants during the meetings are noted down by the community champions once the participants come to a consensus on the issues to be prioritized. With technical support from the project staff, the champions are guided on how to develop a memorandum to petition the government to adopt to informing resource allocation. The memorandum is presented physically, with a copy stamped and kept by trusted community members as well as via email to the Department of Finance and Economic Planning, County Budget and Economic Forum, County Assembly, and copies shared with the sub-county, ward, and village administrators. Feedback is sought through courtesy calls to the legislators’ office where round table discussions are held and selected community budget champions share their proposals with the leaders and in turn, the legislators respond to the issues raised. Depending on the urgency of the issue, interface meetings are convened where community representatives, women budget champions, and project staff meet the county officials to seek feedback on the issues raised.

As recommendations for community projects, the proposals carry the mandate for all stakeholders to ensure their integration into the annual development plans. Government officials take responsibility for the timely distribution of budget documents. Simultaneously, COVAW serves as a liaison, connecting with budget champions to share disseminated information and facilitate transportation to public participation venues across the 10 wards. This collaborative effort ensures that the proposed recommendations are advocated for and allocated resources for successful implementation. Case example [19].

Influence, Outcomes, and Effects

Public participation in budget planning and formulation presented an opportunity for participants to amplify their needs through concrete proposals on how the government should allocate resources to enable women, youth, and PWDs to access basic services and productive resources to live healthy and productive lives.

Participatory budgeting has enhanced participation of women in budgetary processes and their agency has increased, whereby they can now confidently present GRB lobby papers[20] to the legislators. Previously, the participation of women, youth, and PWDs was limited, as the forums were usually male dominated and mostly attended by elites and allies to the leaders. Through the GRB training conducted for the community budget champions, CSOs, and village administrators, the teams have gained an increased understanding on how to identify and prioritize development projects while taking into account the gendered needs of the community.

Community members now understand how to analyze government budgets from a gender perspective. The project team has continued to lobby the government to ensure equity in resource allocation across all sectors. For instance, in the bursary fund allocation, all wards are allocated a similar amount (Ksh. 20 million), and community members have advocated for allocations guided by parameters such as population size, education level of learners, and poverty levels so that equity can be realized and learners supported to complete their education and acquire relevant technical skills. Notably, two communities successfully lobbied for fund allocation towards setting up and equipping the maternity wing at Lunga Lunga laboratory in Mteza, and a girls’ hostel at Galana vocational training center[21].

Through consultative forums with the legislators, the leaders have come to appreciate that GRB can play a huge role in enhancing service delivery for diverse citizens by enabling them to access basic services and productive resources. Initially, the concept of GRB was not understood by most legislators, with a majority conceptualizing it as having extra financial resources to fund projects to support women, youth and PWDs. Leaders have become more receptive to community input, with women, youth, and PWDs getting invited to public participation spaces to engage and share input on public budgeting, planning, formulation and implementation.

The GRB initiative has enabled women to become actively involved in community initiatives including having interest in leadership roles. For instance, a female champion from the Mteza community stepped out and applied for an Assistant Chief post. She did not get the job but was later appointed as a community elder. This is a clear indication that the community has begun to appreciate the role of women in leadership as opposed to confining them to household responsibilities. As another poignant example of this, this initiative empowered communities to apply community scorecards to evaluate and select suitable candidates for electoral positions, leading to the election of Kwale County's first female member of the County Assembly.

Moreover, despite the project having been implemented only in 10 village units, the ripple effects of the initiative are being seen in other wards, whereby the administrators have sought COVAW’s support for GRB trainings. However, due to financial constraints, the project was unable to scale up to all the 77 village units in Kwale County.

Involving Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) in deliberative platforms aimed at addressing community concerns and ensuring accountability of public officials has also enhanced community voice. A total of 807 participants (comprising 510 women and 297 men) engaged in these forums. This initiative has also promoted positive working partnerships between government officials and community stakeholders.

Gender-responsive budgeting has had a significant impact on the formulation of budgetary plans within Kwale County's government, including the County Sectoral Plan (2023-2032) and the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) for the period 2023-2027. COVAW, along with a select group of rights holders, actively participated in the development of these County government budgetary documents, aiming to promote gender responsiveness across all sectors. Among the identified priorities were the establishment of Gender-Based Recovery Centers in every sub-county in Kwale County, increased funding for women's economic empowerment, as well as enhanced financial support for youth and persons with disabilities. Additionally, the initiative emphasized the improvement of education through equitable resource allocation for the bursary fund.

The Tupo.Tusikizwe project played a significant role in expediting the approval process of the Kwale County Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Protection Bill 2023, which in early 2024 was awaiting approval by the newly-elected County Assembly members. COVAW successfully mobilized rights holders to participate in the public consultation regarding the bill and emphasized its significance for vulnerable groups within society. This advocacy effort will redirect resource allocation to address gender-related issues that have previously been overlooked at the county level.

Analysis and Lessons Learned

The initiative has worked well and has potential for replication in other counties. The success of this initiative has been anchored in strong collaboration between the government and the rights holders. Among the lessons which can be drawn from this initiative are the following:

Inclusion of marginalized groups: Achieving gender-responsive budgeting becomes feasible when all community members actively participate in community development, leadership, and governance. The inclusion of marginalized groups has ensured their voices are heard and their input incorporated as the community champions for engendering government budgets. Amplifying the needs of adolescent girls and young mothers to access vocational training skills has culminated in the allocation of Ksh. 8 Million[22] to construct a girls’ hostel in Galana Vocational Center. This will increase the enrolment and retention of adolescent girls and young women to facilitate them acquire knowledge and skills to enhance their employability.

Media engagement: The use of community radio stations such as Radio Kaya and Msenangu[23] has helped in amplifying the key messages from the community. Community radio’s wide coverage is effective in reaching the public with key information, and this serves as a way to raise awareness on the need for public participation in decision making on resource allocation.

Ownership of the process: Budget champions are identified by the community members and endorsed by the local administrations. Working with them as co-facilitators during the community dialogue sessions created ownership of the process. Having homegrown community champions is key for the sustainability of the initiative. Additionally, the champions are able to support and lead discussions using indigenous languages, making it easy for participants, including the less educated, to follow discussions and freely share their input.

Collaboration between government and citizens: Convening round table discussions between the budget champions and legislators has helped the team receive timely and first-hand information on the status of the implementation of the public proposals on development projects. Conversely, the leaders get an opportunity to receive feedback about service delivery to the citizens and areas of improvement are identified and discussed jointly. This has further cemented the collaboration between the government and the citizens.

Multisectoral engagement: Engaging stakeholders across multiple sectors is crucial for gaining support in amplifying the voices of rights holders and integrating gender-responsive budgeting. This aproach was instrumental, for instance, in advancing the County SGBV (Sexual and Gender-Based Violence) Protection Bill 2023 in Kwale County, which is awaiting approval by the County Assembly in 2024.

Accountability: Effective project interventions are most successful when they are initiated by the community rather than by an organization. Citizen-led accountability, an approach driven by community members, emerged as a response to their pressing need to ensure the accountability of public officials. Their primary objective was to safeguard public funds and mitigate embezzlement, which had contributed to the county's poor performance over the past decade.

Ethical considerations: The importance of ethical considerations became evident as we prioritized the voluntary engagement of stakeholders on diverse social media platforms such as WhatsApp and X. We recognized the significance of sharing links with project stakeholders to foster community engagement and dialogue. Moreover, a valuable lesson emerged in providing concise descriptions that outline consent and commitment to abide by the key objectives of the group.

Meanwhile, Tupo.Tusikizwe has faced some challenges, including:

High illiteracy level among women: Budget documents are written in heavy, technical jargon that makes it difficult to comprehend. With high illiteracy levels among women in Kwale County, this posed a challenge in translating and simplifying the information. COVAW developed a GRB pamphlet that uses a simplified language and has local illustrations, which the public can relate with during the discussions[JL6] . The pamphlet has been shared with community champions and county government officials.

Limited knowledge on GRB among the legislators: A majority of legislators have a notion that the GRB principle entails setting aside extra resources to fund women’s projects. This limited understanding of GRB has led to slow uptake of community proposals, as most leaders do not comprehend the value-add of engendering government budgets. To address this, COVAW organized a one-week training with the village administrators who were taken through the County Budget Cycle, spaces for engagement with the community members, and how to guide the public to prioritize development projects based on gender needs. Further, County Assembly members underwent training in Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) with the aim of integrating this approach into all County budgets. Given their pivotal role in the allocation and approval of budgets, MCAs play a crucial part in shaping and promoting the adoption of Gender Responsive Budgeting practices.

Limited time and resources: A key lesson from this initiative is that gendering resource allocation is not a one-off activity. It requires consistency and commitment by both state and non-state actors by ensuring that concerted efforts are made to have the community needs reflected in resource allocation. Moreover, attention to the inclusion of all is vital, so as to ensure that diverse input from the targeted groups is taken into account. Similarly, influencing practice and policies requires time and resources. This initiative’s implementation period of two years was not sufficient to achieve broad, transformational change across all wards in Kwale. However, within a relatively short period, some evidence has been generated to demonstrate that GRB has great potential to influence resource allocation by the government, to make tangible change in the lives of women, youth, and PWDs, as well as to enable the public to hold the legislators to account for development commitments made. GRB is promising and presents a case for governments to be intentional in providing platforms for marginalized and excluded groups to be involved in decision making in order to equitably benefit from public resources.

References

· COVAW. (2023). COVAW Research on Gender Responsive Budgeting in Kwale. Internal document.

· COVAW. (No Date). Gender Responsive Budgeting as a Tool for Change in Kwale County. Available at : https://covaw.or.ke/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/COVAW-Research-on-Gender-Responsive-Budgeting-in-Kwale-County.pdf

· Kwale County Government. (2018). Available at: https://kwalecountygov.com/kwale/downloadapp/index.php/cdownloads/download/11-cbp-2019/36-cidp-2018-2022

· Mwendwa, M. K. (2020). Influence of Gender Mainstreaming on Women Participation in Implementation of County Development Projects in Kenya: A Case of Kilifi County. University of Nairobi.