A Gender Mainstreaming Approach to South Africa’s Budget Response to COVID-19

Abstract

abstract In 1995, the fourth ‘World Conference on Women’ was held in Beijing, China. This marked a watershed moment in the international efforts to promote women empowerment and gender equality as it birthed the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic which has seriously impacted the entire world. In South Africa, throughout the decades, care work has been largely carried out by women. It therefore comes as no surprise that studies have found that women are leading in the forefront of essential care work during this pandemic, including through work as frontline health workers and as primary caregivers in the household. Additionally, women’s unpaid and underpaid work goes unrecognised in South Africa, despite the significant contribution care work has in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and overall economic development. The Beijing Declaration called for budgetary commitments by governments to address the social-economic needs of women. It is the position of this article that South Africa’s budget should reflect care work and cover that through an adequate social wage and better formalisation of the care work industry. The article discusses three key areas where a gendered response is needed, the Child Support Grant system, the working conditions of Community Health Workers, and public service delivery, respectively. The article also offers recommendations on how South Africa can employ gender budgeting. Overall, this pandemic presents an opportune time for economic and structural reform and a feminist lens to these reforms is well overdue.