Gender and race should guide public spending, advocates movement

The public budget does not reach men and women equally, nor whites and blacks. That’s what the guide “Gender and Race Sensitive Budgets”, developed by the Tide Setubal Foundation for states and municipalities and launched this week during the International Seminar on Women’s Budget: Expanding Horizons, in Brasília.

The main theme of the event, which took place in the Chamber of Deputies, was the importance of detailing the public budget for greater transparency and, above all, gender and racial equality in public policies.

The foundation’s document, prepared over the last two years and inspired by the experiences of countries such as Australia and South Africa, was delivered to deputies at the seminar and concludes that political choices end up being based on an unequal structure.

“The document also aims to promote visibility for women in the budget,” said Pedro de Lima Marin, coordinator of the Public Planning and Budget Program at the Tide Setubal Foundation.

According to him, the racial issue and inequality also need to be included in the public expenditure plan.

For Marin, this process is important to outline race and gender cuts in government programs and to reduce social inequality. “With this, we are clear whether the distribution of funds is balanced and whether public policies are really aimed at those who are in a situation of vulnerability. It is necessary to take this look at all stages of the policy.”

Budget distribution cannot be defined merely on the basis of technical and bureaucratic issues, according to Roseli Faria, vice-president of Assecor (National Association of Planning and Budgeting Career Servers).

“The life of society as a whole is affected by decisions on how public investments will be applied. There is a gender bias that makes specific programs necessary. We cannot forget about indigenous peoples and quilombolas,” says Roseli.

For her, a transparent and detailed budget is the key to fair public policies. “We fight for the democratization of the budget.”

In the opinion of Ana Carolina Querino, from UN Women, quantifying the public budget allocated is a fundamental premise for social policy to be effective.

“Objectively, no country has closed this gap [da desigualdade]. And this is due to a lack of mechanisms. The tools have matured over the last 25 years in Brazil, but there are still steps to be taken to reach the ideal and egalitarian model for men and women.”

Ana Carolina cites the 2020 estimate from the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), which calculated the global cost of ignoring gender discrimination in society: US$ 6 trillion (about R$ 30 trillion).

“This corresponds to 7% of global GDP. When we have this notion of public spending, we advance. Analyzing how the budget is designed and its impact on citizens’ lives is essential, since it is about transforming people’s lives.”

According to Unifem (United Nations Development Fund for Women, now UN Women), in the early 2000s, more than 40 countries sought to implement a gender-sensitive budget, nine of which were in Latin America, such as Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and, of course, Brazil.

Here, one of the first initiatives of this budget within the scope of the General Budget of the Union was the Women’s Budget project: Social Control and Gender Equity, formulated by CFemea (Feminist Center for Studies and Advisory), implemented between 2002 and 2015.

For Gilda Cabral, founding partner of the NGO, it is not enough for the budget for women and gender to be visible, it must be monitored by authorities and civil society. “Public policies are not fighting inequality or racism. Many women’s rights are being reduced.”

She explains that currently the methods of monitoring public accounts are unfeasible for social control. “When the budget is inspected, the end result is more effective public policies. This avoids wasting public resources.”

civil service

Pedro Marin says that basic information is lacking in budgets and highlights mental health. “Where are these facilities? Are they actually located in the region where there is a greater concentration of blacks? I can’t say, because there is no such data. women.”

Another aspect of the guide concerns civil service. According to the document, based on data from the São Paulo City Hall personnel management system, in July 2020, blacks represented 29% of municipal employees.

According to the foundation’s analysis, this indicates that there is underrepresentation of blacks in the São Paulo public service. Another data shows that, although the municipality has a quota policy in commission positions, black civil servants occupied 11% of first-echelon positions, such as mayor and chief of staff.

“Functionalism mirrors structural racism. That’s why the budget for women and race is so important. The State must look at this, because most of its civil servants are white. It is necessary to think about reparation policies to change this situation”, he says. Marine.

When questioned, the City of São Paulo states that the current administration has broadly intensified policies to combat structural racism and cites the appointment of three black women to the highest echelon of positions of trust: Aline Torres (Cultura), Eunice Prudente (Justice) and Elza Paulina de Souza (Security).

During the seminar in Brasília, federal deputy Marcivânia Flexa (PCdoB-AP) cited President Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) veto last year on the Women’s Budget, a device of the LDO (Budget Guidelines Law).

“There is no data on the beneficiaries of social programs. This lack of information does not allow us to show whether public policies are correct. The government is responsible for reducing inequality.”

For the veto, the government argued that public policies to reduce gender inequalities are part of the Fiscal Budget. The Women’s Budget was later reinstated by Congress, which overrode the veto.