Background

Southern African Gender Budgeting Network is a brain child of ZWRCN through its Gender Economic Policies and Public Finance Programme. The Network draws its members from the Ministries of finance and gender, and civil society organizations in 8 countries, namely Botswana, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The network seeks to bring together government players and civil society actors in the Southern African region who are currently practicing gender budgeting, to create space in which they can start and continue to share experiences and practices in gender budgeting. The network is guided by among other instruments, theSADC Protocol on Gender and Development as it encompasses commitments made in regional, global and continental instruments for achieving gender equality. A key provision of the protocol is Article 15 that states that by 2015, SADC Governments shall ensure equal participation of women and men in economic policy formulation and implementation and allocate resources based on gender responsive budgeting to address the needs of men and women. This is anticipated to lend to the fulfilment of national and regional gender equality goals that these countries ascribe to.

Vision
Equitable distribution of resources for gender equality in Southern Africa

Mission
Building strategic alliances, advocacy, lobbying and networking between governments and civil society