PRECONDITIONS FOR GENDER BUDGETING ON MUNICIPAL LEVEL IN BULGARIA

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PRECONDITIONS FOR GENDER BUDGETING ON MUNICIPAL
LEVEL IN BULGARIA 
GENDER BUDGETING IN PRACTICE PRAGUE, 8TH
NOVEMBER, 2007

• YOVKA BANKOVA, PH.D.
• MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL POLICY
• BULGARIA

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MAIN POINTS

• National legislation on gender equality and
  antidiscrimination
• Legislative basis of municipal budgets and stages
  for the elaboration of municipal budget
• Opportunities given by legislation for gender
  budgeting on municipal level versus limitations
  in practice
• Financing of local and state delegated activities
• Decentralization and programme budgeting at
  municipal level
• Conclusions

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NATIONAL LEGISLATION ON GENDER EQUALITY AND
ANTIDISCRIMINATION

• Basic legislative acts
• Constitution of the republic of Bulgaria
• Labour code
• Social Insurance code
• Family code
• Penal Code
• Law on Countering Trafficking in Human Beings
• Law for Protection against Domestic Violence
• Law on the Ombudsman
• Law on Protection against Discrimination.
• The legal and institutional frameworks providing
  equal opportunities for women and men in Bulgaria
  are elaborated
• on the grounds of EU documents and directives
• according to the requirements of international
  agreements, signed by the Republic of Bulgaria.

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• Existing Bulgarian legislation in the area of
  gender equality is a good basis and a
  precondition for the implementation of gender
  mainstreaming and in particular for the
  development of gender responsive budgets.
• Expected adoption of the Law on equal
  opportunities for women and men will strengthen
  the framework and will collaborate to wider
  execution of gender equality principles in the
  budgeting process on local, regional and national
  levels.

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LEGISLATIVE BASIS OF MUNICIPAL BUGETS IN BULGARIA

• Main legislative acts
• Law on the Structure of the State Budget
• Law on the State Budget
• Law on Municipal Budgets
• Local Taxes And Fees Act
• Local Self-government and Local Administration
  Act
• Directive of the Minister of Finance on planning,
  implementation and reporting municipal budgets
• Directives on drafting middle-term budget
  forecasts (annually, after the Council of
  Ministers Decision on starting budget procedure)
• Decision of Council of Ministers on starting
  budget procedure for the next budget year
• Common characteristic gender neutral

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OPPORTUNITIES GIVEN BY THE LEGISLATION VERSUS
LIMITATIONS IN PRACTICE FOR GENDER BUDGETING ON
MUNICIPAL LEVEL (1)

• Implementation of gender mainstreaming and
  Gender Budgeting on local level depends on
• the initiative of mayors, mayors of mayoralties
  and responsible of the budget units at
  municipalities (Law on Municipal Budgets, Art.11,
  sections 1 and 4 )
• the active role and willingness of the
  participants of the Committees to the Municipal
  council (Law on Municipal Budgets, Art.11,
  section 8 ).
• But very often the lack of perception for gender
  related issues and benefits of Gender Budgeting
  by municipal officials is observed in practice.

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OPPORTUNITIES GIVEN BY THE LEGISLATION VERSUS
LIMITATIONS IN PRACTICE FOR GENDER BUDGETING ON
MUNICIPAL LEVEL (2)

• Local residents, NGOs and other civil
  associations could influence in the process of
  elaboration of the municipal budget
• possibility for monitoring by local community
  (Law on Municipal Budgets ,art.5) publicity
  principle in the elaboration and implementation
  of the Municipal Budget (Law on Municipal
  Budgets, art.11,section 1) regarding the
  opportunity for local community to participate in
  Municipal Budget planning with suggestions made
  in the course of consultations, meetings and
  public discussions (Law on Municipal Budgets
  art. 11, section 6)
• State, public and local self-government bodies
  should carry out policy promoting balanced gender
  participation and for representative
  participation of persons of ethnic, religious and
  language minorities, in management and
  decision-making (Law on Protection against
  Discrimination art.38)
• Nevertheless, such kind of initiatives are very
  limited in practice.
• The major problem is public inaccessibility of
  most official documents that are the basis of
  municipal budgets.

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OPPORTUNITIES GIVEN BY THE LEGISLATION VERSUS
LIMITATIONS IN PRACTICE FOR GENDER BUDGETING ON
MUNICIPAL LEVEL (3)

• The municipal draft budget have to comply with
  the adopted Municipal Council strategy and the
  Plan for the development of the municipality (Law
  on Municipal Budgets, Art. 11, Para 1, Point 1)
• Therefore, strategic documents on development of
  the municipalities should also be gender
  sensitive and those who are responsible for the
  elaboration of these strategies must be aware of
  and open to the gender issues.
• Legally, in the process of the implementation of
  the municipal budget, opportunities for
  restructuring of the expenditures are provided
  (Law on municipal budgets, Art. 26, Para 1).
• This could be used in order to make them much
  more fair for both sexes.

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FINANCING OF LOCAL AND STATE DELEGATED
ACTIVITIES (1)

• According to the Constitution, the municipality
  has an independent budget but the incomes to the
  Municipal Budgets and the directions of their
  utilization are determined on the State level.
• The governmental intentions in the area of tax
  policy are much more clear in comparison with the
  policy of expenditures, which is a large
  impediment to gender budgeting on national, local
  and regional levels.

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FINANCING OF LOCAL AND STATE DELEGATED
ACTIVITIES (2)

• Presently the local taxes are Real Estate tax,
  Inheritance tax, Donation tax, Vehicle tax.
• The revenues of these taxes represent about 0.5
  of GDP or 1/80 of the total consolidated State
  budget.
• Therefore, the tax basis is too tight and
  unequally distributed between municipalities
• Changes in the tax policy on local level will
  allow municipalities to influence the business
  environment on a local level and to finance
  important initiatives in the interest of gender
  equality.

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DECENTRALIZATION AT MUNICIPAL LEVEL IN BULGARIA
(1)

• Strengthening of the local autonomy
  (territorial, normative, institutional,
  financial, planning) is a result of the
  amendments of the Law on Local Self-government
  and Local Administration according to the
  provisions of European Charter on local
  self-government.
• In terms of Gender Budgeting institutional,
  financial and planning autonomy are the most
  important aspects of decentralization.
• Decentralization is accepted as an opportunity
  and a precondition for gender mainstreaming and
  in particular for gender budgeting. But the
  condition for optimal distribution of powers
  between central and local governments is a
  premise for stable and efficient management on a
  local level has to be respected.

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DECENTRALIZATION AT MUNICIPAL LEVEL IN BULGARIA
(2)

• Main priorities of the Decentralization Strategy
  for the period 2006 - 2015
• Raise the capacity and responsibility of the
  regional administration to pursue regional
  policies, to implement state government policies
  at the regional level and to secure concurrence
  of national and local interests (Priority 2)
• development of partnership, citizens
  participation, cooperation and publicity between
  regional and local governments and their
  interactions with central administration, the
  private sector and business (Priority 8).
• Legal opportunities that could assist to the
  realization of priporities
• an option expenditures to be restructured during
  the implementation of the adopted Municipal
  Budget is given by the legislative acts (art. 26
  and art.25 of Law on Municipality Budget)
• freedom of municipalities in regard with taxation
  to be increased (art.141, sections 3 and 4 of the
  Constitution to be adopted by the National
  Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria).
• But municipal officers readiness and willingness
  to use these opportunities to apply principles
  for gender responsive budgets is still under
  question.

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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUNICIPALITIES IN THE
REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

• National Association of Municipalities in the
  Republic of Bulgaria could be the unit authorized
  to lobby for more gender sensitivity of Municipal
  budgets as a partner in the consultations with
  the Ministry of Finance in defining the priority
  policies and middle-term budget prognoses for
  municipalities.
• Rights of National Association of Municipalities
  
• to represent municipalities before the central
  government and international organizations
• to protect the rights and defend their interests
  
• to draft proposals for amendment in legislation
  on local self-governance,
• to hold annual consultations with the Ministry of
  Finance on the draft State Budget in its part,
  concerning municipalities.

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PROGRAMME BUDGETING

• Programme budgeting means that every suggestion
  for financing of certain programme or project is
  accompanied by analysis, including assessment of
  benefits and expenses.
• Advantages in comparison to the so called
  historical way of budgeting
• well-grounded expenditures
• a chance to compare various programmes in order
  to choose the most efficient
• possibility to improve or discontinue the
  implementation of programmes that do not achieve
  the set goals
• greater responsibility of Programme Managers for
  achieving set goals
• achieve greater efficiency of budget
  expenditures
• greater transparency and accountability by
  publishing the programmes and their analyses,
  discussion with society, stakeholders, experts
  and civil society.

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PROGRAMME BUDGETING IN BULGARIAN PRACTICE

• on national level programme budgeting was
  launched for the first time in 2003 and at the
  moment it is applied by Ministries
• on municipal level up to 2007 pilot projects on
  programme budgeting are carried out only in two
  of the 264 municipalities in Bulgaria

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CONCLUSIONS

• Regarding the legislation, there are
  preconditions for development of gender
  responsive budgets on municipal level, but local
  initiative is very law.
• Implementation of gender budgeting could
  contribute to the successful fulfillment of
  budget planning objectives (more efficient
  management of cash flows, efficient control on
  spending effective distribution of resources
  amongst different budget units) and to respect
  the following principle Financing of local and
  state delegated activities is implemented by
  municipalities according the principles of
  legality, efficiency and publicity and in the
  best interest of the local community.
• The processes of decentralization and the
  programme budgeting on the local level in
  Bulgaria are another precondition for the
  implementation of gender budgeting and
  possibility to meet the requirements of
  municipality residents men, women and children.

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• THANK YOU
• FOR YOUR ATTENTION