South Africa: SA 2012 national budget blind to women’s economic empowerment

A gender perspective of South Africa’s New Growth Path (NGP), 2012 State of National Address (SONA 2012) and the 2012 national budget presented this week reveals a common thread: – they are gender blind. These three economic mirrors of SA’s short and long term strategies do not reflect the different experiences let alone needs of women and men.

South Africa is a signatory to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development that has set 28 targets to be achieved in 2015. Many of these are economic targets. The Protocol emphasises the importance of women’s equal involvement in economic decision-making and the mainstreaming of gender in all economic policies and blueprints.

Gender Links analysis of the NGP states that “a centre piece of the SADC Gender Protocol, and all gender mainstreaming philosophies is that if gender is not made explicit in policies, the differential impact on women and men and conversely the policies required to correct this, will be lost.”

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Source: Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service