Gender, Economic Policies And Public Finance Programme (GEPPF)

The Gender, Economic Policies and Public Finance (GEPPF) programme, aims to foster women’s participation in the economy, including policy formulation and implementation in the national and local budgeting process. The Gender, Economic Policies and Public Finance (GEPPF) Programme is premised on the need to mainstream gender in governance policies to achieve social and economic justice. The programme’s strategic aim is to promote women’s human rights and empowerment, including access to, ownership and control over resources in Zimbabwe and globally. The GEPPF programme is operating at three levels; Local, National and Regional.

Programme Performance Goals
"Contributing to women’s empowerment through promoting gender sensitive socioeconomic policies, programmes and budgets for development, in particular poverty reduction and improved societal welfare".

Programme Outcomes

• Increased knowledge and technical capacity of national and local government officials and policy makers to address women’s empowerment and human development concerns in macroeconomic policies, programmes and budgets
• Increased knowledge and effective participation of women and Civil Society Organisations in influencing public policies and budget priorities
• Increase in pro poor and women’s empowerment resource allocation in the national budget, with related impact

Programme Strategies
The Programme employs the following complementary strategies:

• Human Capacity Building

The human capacity building component specialises in strengthening capacity of government and policymakers in crafting gender sensitive budgets and macro-economic frameworks and sector policies. The human capacity building component also focuses on civic education in gender budgeting to build a critical mass to demand accountability from the duty bearers.

• Policy Analysis and Research

ZWRCN is a lead player in the research field focussing on social and economic issues affecting women. The research component is the backbone of ZWRCN’s evidence based programming and forms the basis for advocacy initiatives to convince government technocrats and policymakers on the need to address gender gaps through gender budgeting and policy reforms. Research also enables ZWRCN to provide information to peers, women and the media on the status regarding gender and development in Zimbabwe.

• Advocacy

ZWRCN plays a pivotal role in Zimbabwe and the SADC region in advocating for gender and economic justice. ZWRCN is informed by a robust advocacy strategy which encompasses pre and post national and local government budget consultations, setting up of provincial budget committees, facilitating public dialogue meetings and lobbying meetings with various Parliamentary Portfolio Committees. ZWRCN’s advocacy initiatives have been strengthened through formation of strategic partnerships and alliances with key individuals and institutions which include:

1. 1. Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
   2. The Zimbabwe Gender Budgeting Network (ZGBN)
   3. The Southern African Gender Budgeting Network
   4. The SADC Gender Protocol Alliance
   5. Parliament of Zimbabwe

• Institutional Strengthening and Support

The essence of the work with regard to this core activity is strengthening the institutional structures and mechanisms, to open spaces for greater participation in socio economicn policy by citizens especially women.