Gender Mainstreaming (GM) in Legislative Processes

1. One Day Capacity Building for Female Parliamentarians 25th October 2011, Transcorp Hotel Abuja Organized by Hon. Minister, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs & Social Development Presentation by Saudatu Mahdi Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) Nigeria saudatu@yahoo.com, wrapa993@yahoo.com www.wrapanigeria.org Gender Mainstreaming (GM) in Legislative Processes

2. Objectives • Appreciate Concepts of Gender and Gender Mainstreaming (GM) • Link Legislative Responsibilities & Processes to GM • Identify strategies and entry points for GM in legislative processes • Highlight GM tools/activities to support lobbying, bill development, and bill presentation.

3. Definition of Gender Gender refers to: a) the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys b) the attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through socialization processes. They are context/ time-specific and changeable. c) Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a woman or a man in a given context. In most societies there are differences and inequalities between women and men in responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over resources, as well as decision-making opportunities. Other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis include class, race, poverty level, ethnic group, disability and age

4. About Gender Mainstreaming (GM) • What it is • Public policy concept (especially in a democracy where the benchmarks for good governance include, compliance with rule of law, accountability, and service delivery) • Measures the different implications for women and men • An inclusivity and accountability strategy of planned policy action, (including legislation and programmes, in all areas and levels of socio- political life of citizens whose felt needs are being addressed) • Principles • A Broader Concept of Gender Equality This requirement calls for a more holistic approach to gender policy in order to tackle the interconnected causes that create an unequal relation between the sexes in all areas of life (work, politics, sexuality, culture and male violence) • Incorporation of a Gender Perspective into the normal governance agenda (must be institutionalized through concrete steps, mechanisms and processes in all MDAs, institutions & organizations – 2010 FEC approval for Gender Desk Officers is an institutional arrangement for GM))

5. Context • Organizations – (statutes, leadership and policy structures, products, • Policy frameworks, • Legislation(AA provisions in national and political party constitutions and policy frameworks –such as the National Gender Policy) • Development programming NEEDS, SEEDS, MDGs Vision 20:20:20) • Actors • Parliamentarians, Policy makers in MDAs, Gender experts and Civil society, women and other vulnerable groups by their organised and persistent demands for inclusion and role in governance and development. (union actors and organization’s policy NUBI FE, NLC has a gender policy, the Nigeria Police is finalizing its gender policy, NGOs ) including the organized private sector) • Benefits • policy-making process is broadened • Policy process is reorganized (actors know how to incorporate a gender perspective or that gender expertise is included as normal requirement for policy-makers • A shift in policy mechanism (adoption of organizational cooperation on gender issues across all policy areas, levels and departments; use of appropriate policy tools and techniques to integrate the gender variable; monitor and evaluate all policies from a gender perspective; )

6. Gender Mainstreaming Processes • Government/institutions commit to GM and adopt principles for change • Conduct a Gap Analysis in existing structures, policy, legislation or procedure • Design/adopt mechanisms for GM • Set benchmarks, design tools for implementation, monitoring and evaluation • Locate in relevant situation/policy/institution/organization

7. Foundation for GM in Legislative Processes 1. Democracy and the rule of law (obligation for accountability to the electorate in different ways – gender mainstreaming for women) 2. Political party ideology and mechanisms for GM (leadership positions in party or legislature, opposition status, caucuses) 3. Legislative mechanisms for delivery of democracy gains (principal office positioning, Committee leadership & membership, Bills, Motions, Constituency projects, petitions, advocacy & reports to parliamentary platforms – WIP, IPU, CPU) 4. Quantity versus quality of female members & male gender champions (critical masses required to amplify and support inter and intra party lobbying for gender bills and budgeting) 5. Strategic membership of Parliamentary working committees (being where the decisions that impact on key gender needs, concerns) 7. Active presence, participation & value addition in parliamentary platforms & debates

8. Legislative Functions: GM Entry point 1. Law Making/legislation (Sponsor or support private member bills for laws to enhance entrenchment of policy and legal frameworks for GM) 2. Appropriation/Budgetary engagement (Budget analysis & input to enhance resource allocation and spending) 3. Oversight (Close monitoring & analysis of implementation of appropriation, policy compliance by relevant MDAs and institutions of govt) 4. Leadership & Membership of Standing Committees (Selection Committee, Appropriation, Rules and Business, Inter parliamentary/conference committee, etc) 5. Lobbying (Inter and intra party/ constituency etc) 6. Invoking Order/Presiding Rules/ Sections to expedite action on Bills

9. Critical Phases for GM in Legislative Processes • Sponsor/Originating point • Articulation • First Reading • Second Reading • Committee stage • Public Hearing • Committee of the Whole • Direct treatment of a bill by Committee of the Whole after 2nd Reading • Consideration of additional clauses • Final stage • Report stage 3rd Reading • Clean Copy of the Bill

10. Strategies 1. Budget tracking 2. Raise motions to call attention to gender issues 3. Form alliances across party lines & among all members including men 4. Address gender issues with traction and broad based concerns 5. Bridge building with other women and male change champions in decision-making positions including ex-women parliamentarians 6. Partnerships to enhance lobby with CSOs and development partners for technical support and content (Gender Technical Unit in the NASS)

11. Gender Analysis of Budget What it is and how it is done • Study of Budgets to determine how public spending affects women and men. • Is not limited to gender specific spending but is also concerned with gender-neutral spending to show (unintended) gender bias in the impact of programmes. • Is done at all levels of government by elected officers or civil servants. • Civil society & parliamentarians can play a key role in putting pressure on government to engender budgets. • It can focus on total or specific aspects of the budget. • Is achieved by the use of assessment tools and formats. • It has basic requirements for effective conduct.

12. Tools for GBA 1. Policy appraisal (examination of the policies of different departments to analyse how they increase or decrease inequalities between women and men) 2.Disaggregated beneficiary assessments (research through people who use services to determine whether the services meet their priorities) 3.Disaggregated public expenditure incidence (compare government programme spending with information from households about how it is actually distributed between men and women) 4. Gender-disaggregated tax incidence analysis (examination of the direct and indirect taxes to work out how much tax is paid by men and women) 5. Gender disaggregated analysis of the impact of the budget on time use (look at whether the budget takes into account the way in which time is actually spent by men and women in households -which means that unpaid work gets included) 6.Gender- aware medium term economic policy framework (monitoring to ensure that government economic models include a gender analysis).

13. Challenges of Legislative GM 1. Although may not be difficult to encourage the adoption of the vocabulary of mainstreaming monitoring or follow-up may suffer set backs at inter-agency level. 2. A consistent problem for all the organizations that adopt gender mainstreaming is the translation of the commitment into action starting with adoption of organizational or institutional gender mainstreaming policy 3.A mainstreaming fatigue within organizations caused by a lack of adequate training and support to build institutional capacity (requisite expertise, personnel and staff) 4. Loss of milestones and new positive action as everything is then lumped into GM