Budgets Fall Short on Gender Equity
By Francis Maingaila ♥️
Lusaka, Zambia24 — (8 December 2025)
Zambia’s national budgets continue to fall short on gender equity, with experts warning that government spending still does not fully address the distinct needs of women.
Despite increased awareness, gender considerations remain weak across planning, implementation, and monitoring stages, creating gaps that affect access to services, opportunities, and resources.
Speaking during the Gender Responsive Training for Policy Makers organized by the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) at the Urban Hotel, Dr. Herrick Mpuku, Chairperson of the Economic Leadership and Social Foundation, said that while national budgets include programmes targeting women and girls, they lack a clear gender priority across all sectors.
“Some initiatives exist for women, but they are not integrated across all sectors or budget stages,” Dr. Mpuku said.
He explained that Zambia’s national budgeting allocates resources for economic services, social services, and public administration, funded through taxes, grants, VAT, and duties.
Key expenditures include debt servicing, education, health, infrastructure, and social protection. However, gender analysis is rarely applied during these allocations, leaving important gaps.
Dr. Mpuku added that many public officials lack adequate knowledge of gender policies, and legislation supporting gender equality is often not matched with strong implementation or monitoring.
He said effective GRB requires gender to be integrated at all stages of the budget cycle, yet monitoring of gender outcomes remains weak.
He pointed to practical examples: women in SMEs struggle to access finance, land, and training; in education, girls—particularly in rural areas—face challenges in enrollment and retention. These challenges, he said, are symptoms of a budgeting system that does not fully apply gender-responsive principles.
Dr. Mpuku urged civil society organizations to build stronger capacity for gender-based budget analysis and called on government to demonstrate political will by working closely with CSOs to fully operationalize GRB.
Patriotic Front (PF) Lunte MP Mutotwe Kafwaya praised CSPR for organising what he described as a timely and insightful engagement.
He said the training would help MPs understand the budget process and advocate effectively for gender priorities.
He explained that although the Executive develops the national budget under the President, parliamentarians can influence outcomes if they understand when and how to make submissions.
“We must move from conversations to action. If we push harder and provide solid reasons for reallocations, it is possible to make changes,” Kafwaya said.
Kafulafuta Independent MP Jeffrey Mulebwa stressed that effective budgeting requires meaningful consultation with citizens.
“You cannot budget from the blues. People living with disabilities, women and other groups must be heard. Otherwise, the whole budget becomes rhetoric,” Mulebwa said.
He added that reduced support for persons with disabilities in his constituency has caused growing frustration among households.
UPND Nalikwanda MP Koonwa Sinumunji said gender considerations often fail because actors do not participate early in the budget cycle. Once the budget reaches Parliament, he said, “nothing much can be changed.”
He urged the Ministry of Finance to strengthen communication so stakeholders know when early consultations begin and can participate meaningfully.
Chibuta said gender-responsive budgeting improves fairness as well as the efficiency of public spending.
“Every kwacha allocated must translate into tangible benefits for all citizens, especially those historically marginalized,” she said.
She explained that beneficiary assessments help government understand whether services meet the needs of women, men, youth, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.
PETS, on the other hand, track whether funds reach intended beneficiaries and assess who benefits from public services such as education, health, and water.
Gender-aware budget statements, she said, improve transparency by showing past performance, planned activities, expected outcomes, and specific allocations targeted at reducing gender gaps.
Chibuta highlighted Rwanda and Uganda as leading GRB models in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rwanda’s Gender Monitoring Office, established in 2007, was cited as an example of strong institutional oversight that Zambia could adapt.
“Zambia can learn from these countries by prioritizing gender in budgeting, collecting sex-disaggregated data, and using citizen feedback in decision-making,” Chibuta said.
She noted that Zambia continues to struggle with gender disparities in access to health, education, and social protection, particularly in rural communities.
CSPR Programs Manager Brian Moyowanyambe, speaking on behalf of Executive Director Isabel Mukelabai, said the training comes at a critical moment in Zambia’s development.
“Zambia’s goals of reducing poverty, creating jobs, improving health and education, and providing social protection will only be achieved if women, men, girls, and boys benefit fairly from our national resource allocation system,” he said.
Moyowanyambe explained that public resources are often allocated without considering how different groups experience services. Applying a gender lens, he said, helps prioritise interventions that reduce disparities and promote women’s economic empowerment.
He said CSPR will continue providing technical support as policymakers implement gender tagging and other GRB tools within budget processes.
“Budgets reflect our values and priorities,” he said. “Are we investing in maternal health, quality education for girls in rural areas, and women entrepreneurs? If not, our work starts today.”
The training brought together parliamentarians, government officials, and civil society organisations and aimed to strengthen the capacity of policymakers to influence, analyse, and monitor national budgets through a gender lens.
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