Introduction – Why gender budgeting

Gender budgeting includes range of strategies examining whether gender rhetoric are reflected in government spending and taxation policy. It links gender equality with budget and promotes more equitable and transparent budgetary process and more efficient use of public resources. Thus, gender budgeting is very successful both in economic and gender sense. Besides, gender budgeting is not by itself pro state nor contra state. Sometimes, market could be better for women than paternalistic state.

Government budget’s functions are allocation of resources, distribution of income and wealth and stabilization of the economy. Government budget reflects the values of the country. In broadest sense, it shows total public expenditures (consumption, maintenance, investment) and revenues (tax money). Also, government different sectoral budgets show public expenditures and revenues for particular sectors (education, health, transport, agriculture, finance, defence, etc.). Budget is often done in gender blind economic framework with lack of socio-economic statistics, transparency and participation.

Whole economics is study of how limited resources are distributed, allocated and used by people within the economy at the levels of global (world), macro (states), mezzo (sectors, communities), micro (households, firms, individuals). Any analysis of economy in feminist sense is grounded in an understanding of unequal power relations between women and men and about need to transform those power relations towards gender equality. Gender analysis in economics provides tools that can identify gender inequalities within economy; define gender objectives for economic policies; and develop gender indicators to monitor how gender objectives are met.

Liberal feminist critiques focuses on the conditions of women within structures and institution and highlights ways in which women’s need and priorities are absent from descriptions of economy. Radical feminist critiques examines social structures and institutions and hierarchical gender relations; seeks to reduce existing disparities between women and men in income, resources and opportunities and challenges existing systems and institutions and underlying power relations.

In both senses gender budgeting is only one strategy towards gender equality and should be a part of a broader strategy to address unequal power relations. Gender budget analysis is financial connection between economic development (economic growth, poverty reduction, investments and savings) and gender equity (female poverty and accesses to resources).

Gender budget initiatives (GBI), or women’s budgets are gender aware analyses of government budgets and how it allocates resources for women and children. Gender budget is not separate budget for women (and children), but it is attempt to disaggregate expenditure and revenue according to their different impact on women and men.

GBI contributes to greater gender equity, accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness by mainstreaming gender into the budget process. Gender budget means looking at the government budget through a gender lens to see where is collection and distribution of public money unequal and inefficient. Thus, government should be concerned about gender issues both because of economic efficiency and gender equity.

There are some very useful tools for a gender budget analysis (Lecture I. van Staveren, FDE 300 (9) 2004: 3):

1.      Gender aware policy appraisal should analyze the policy objectives and shows are policies and their associated resources likely to reduce or increase gender inequalities. It is looking at the policy in relation with care economy and opportunity costs and follows its impact on gender lines.

2.      Gender disaggregated beneficiary assessments assume to find and to do the survey on the data in different studies to find out what are needs of women and children, their particular problems and gendered structure at the sectoral level (overview of sectoral inputs, outcomes and impact disaggregated to gender) always taking care economy and gender- differentiated cross-sectoral linkages into account.

3.      Gender-disaggregated public expenditure incidence analysis about budget itself to compare public expenditure for some programme with the distribution of expenditure between women and men, boys and girls to show who benefits (for example, percent of public spending for education for boys and girls).

4.      Gender disaggregated tax incidence analysis to examine both direct and indirect taxes paid by individuals and households, measuring gender difference in tax burden.

5.      Gender-disaggregated analysis of the impact of the budget on time use to examine the relation between the way time is used in the national budget and the households, taking into account care economy, time use studies, rural and urban differences and male and female children.

6.      Gender-aware medium term policy framework to incorporate gender into economic models and sectoral budgets

7.      Gender aware budget statement to ensure coordination through ministries of government, parliament and non-government organizations.

Budget is the most important government political decision, because it assumes allocation and reallocation of the resources. Budgets are instruments for allocation of resources according to social priorities. Therefore budgets should follow the principles of efficiency and equity. Budget policy could follow patriarchal values of the society or it could make attempts to transform them towards the gender equality.

Gender budgeting initiatives in Serbia – critical reflections

The first step in formulating the national budget planing is defining the problems which are main in Serbia, causes and consequences. This is a phase of identification of social responsible development strategy which should be adopted by the Parliament. Afterwards sugestions of additional stimulative legislatives, economical, and political measures, programmes and activities should be established through additional acts. Serbia still doesnot have suitable strategy of social development and new Constitution is in process of checking and changing. In the condition of political instability in the country and frequent changes of government this process is slow and inconsistent. Existing budget in Serbia is invisible. In the proces of establishing budget the problem of women unequality must be recognised. Thus, the aim of budget in Serbia is to be settled at diverse programmes which will include situations which should be solved, aims, activities, means, indicators and gender problems.

The next step is incorporating items which would be assigned to wome, or to dispose means regarding proportional gender representation budget holder. It assumes developed gender statistic, which Serbia also doesnot have with exceptions of (un)employment statistic. In any case, Serbia lacks gender strategy budgeting and other mechanisms, which will not make un-equality deeper but correct existing injustice.

In 2002 gender policy promoting group «The Voices of Differences»in cooperation with Institute G17 and Center for Human Rights, Women in Action, PAZ, STAR Network of Women Learning took out campaign for economical equality and growing power of women and from the economical unequity of women in Serbia, during which it commented existing and announced acts from the gender perspective points. At the beggining of 2003, United Nations Developing Programm, Belgrade office, organised ephemeral workshop for civil society members, in the gender equity area, especially from the preparing National Budget according to gender equity.

However, no government in Serbia since democratic changes in 2000 till now hasn't accepted gender budgeting as strategy. Obstacles are manysided, as a most important regarded those coming from political unpreparedness to accept such proposals. The gender equity questions are disregarded and dealed with as unimportant, and it seems that only pressure and EU conditioning can contributed gender problematic. Serbia is still at the beggining of forming institutional councils at local, regional and Republic levels. For example, Republic Council for Gender Equality, announced in 2000, never has started working because it has never be constituted as Government council. The third government did it, in October 2004. In the process of establishing are also gender equality councels at local levels in province of Vojvodina.

Gender budgeting in Serbia – Launching the initiative

In spite of the fact that in 2000 Serbia started a complex process of the transition to the market economy, fostering political, social and economic changes, based on harmonization of domestic legislative with the EU standards, gender equality has still not been recognized as an important political and economic issue. Accordingly to the former practice, the budgeting process is still gender blind, although not gender neutral by its effects. The particularities of and differences between women and men go unrecognized under the assumption that policy objectives and instruments are broadly applicable, and hence seen as gender-neutral. Hence, the gender sensitive budgeting is not implemented at all, while gender disaggregated statistics exists in a few policy fields, e.g. on structure of unemployed, the population, or life expectancy.  

The key driver of formulating the national budget planning and its executing, monitoring and evaluation is the Government, which passes formulated and defined Budget Proposals to the Parliament that approves them. The Executive Council of the Province of Vojvodina and the Parliament of Vojvodina are the key players in the Province of Vojvodina in budget planning and executing, while local municipalities are authorized for formulating and executing budget programs at the local level. The analysis of the legislative shows that it adopts the assumption that the equality between women and men is achieved during the former socialist period, and that the discrimination based on sex is a solitary and not a mass occurrence. Therefore, the state, when determining a policy, does not recognize a need to develop any program or policy aimed at elimination of discrimination based on gender. Hence, there is no developed strategy, measures or mechanisms built to measure any effect of adopted and implemented policies regarding women and girls, men and boys. As a result, the real economic and social position of women is not visible in the public, but only in a few estimations of feminist researchers, women’s groups or international organizations as the UNIFEM, and UNECE.

Having in the mind that the way in which the national, regional and local budgets are usually formulated ignores the different, socially determined roles and responsibilities of women and men, and that there is a need to have a state liability towards implementation of the adopted human rights legislative through the budgetary commitments, the Women’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights (WCDHR), Serbia, and the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF), Bulgaria, have implemented in 2003 as partners a joint project “Budgetary Implications of Domestic Violence in Bulgaria and Serbia”. The project was supported by the Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) Innovative Grant in 2003.

The goal of the project was to initiate a system for estimating and monitoring budgetary implications of domestic violence in Bulgaria and Serbia, which would represent the first attempt for methodology of gender budgeting in these countries, contributing to the establishing of consistent gender equality policies. Domestic violence was identified as one of the major women’s issues in the both countries that have, amongst other, implication on economic and social position of women. The challenges of changing legislation regarding domestic violence in both countries under the pressure of women’s groups were considered as a fertile soil to initiate studies on budgetary implications of domestic violence and thus introduce gender budgeting as a strategy for gender equality policy.

In spite of the outspread of the phenomena of domestic violence, Serbia lacks adequate social and legal treatment of domestic violence and an efficient and consistent mechanism of protection. In 1998 the Victimology Society of Serbia presented the New Model of Laws on Domestic Violence ^[1] , based on the research findings and reports on trial monitoring, as well as on research on international and domestic law. The New Model presented harmonized changes of five relevant laws: the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, family law, civil procedure law and the law on weapons and munitions. As a result of a number of awareness raising and advocacy campaigns in the next several years, the first changes in the law regarding domestic violence in Serbia happened and in March 2002, a new criminal offence called domestic violence, which is prosecuted ex officio, was introduced into the Criminal Code ^[2] .

However, budgetary implications have not been explored so far. They are crucial for estimating the costs of the response by the state and NGOs in relation to the future implementation of the legislation. That would ensure both the adoption and the implementation of the law and would create a realistic picture of the effectiveness of the existing strategies and of the needs in the future.

The project was implemented by sending out calls to NGOs, women’s groups and individuals for initial papers on this issue in both countries. As the final outcomes of the project, initial papers were reviewed by experts and adopted as a basis for a methodology for an extensive research budgetary implications of domestic violence. Along with the direct effect on the response to domestic violence, this initiative had established a good and very concrete base for starting gender budgeting in Bulgaria and Serbia in other fields, too, and the co-operation between civil society and the state in this specific area. The aim of the project was to bring the attention of the society and specialized institutions and agencies at gender responsive budgeting as a key strategy to be adopted by the government.

In Serbia, the outcome of the project was an initial study on budgetary implications on domestic violence. The subject of the study of budget implications of domestic violence in Serbia encompasses budget allocations for implementation of activities in the field of prevention and elimination of domestic violence, especially the resources necessary for prevention and elimination of domestic violence.

The accepted methodology, developed by the Novi Sad Women’s Center and WCDHR, refers to the way we learn of the phenomenon of violence; therefore we suggest that the way we learn of this phenomenon and its budget implications should be by follows phases:

-          Analysis of the problem of domestic violence (frequency, victims, reaction of government institutions, measures of prevention, sanctioning) which would include gathering data and reports on existing research and data by women’s groups, Victimology Society of Serbia, hot lines, shelters, Council for gender equality of the Government of Serbia and various institutions and organizations (e.g. with certain donors, international organizations, etc.), and by interviewing subjects whose work is related to the issue of domestic violence (officials of the Treasury Department, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Protection, Ministry of Justice, members of the Council for Gender Equality within the Government of Serbia, members of the Council for Gender Equality within the Provincial Executive Council of Vojvodina,  Provincial Secretariat for Labour, Employment, and Gender Equality within the Provincial Executive Council of Vojvodina

-          Designing a case study aimed to identify and analyze costs of domestic violence from the moment it occurs until its resolution

-          Designing a standard questionnaire that could be applicable in all cases of domestic violence identify all situations that require expenses, that is, imply various costs for both private entities and government institutions that came into existence because of violence, that is, which are direct or indirect result of violence, and it should include the category of lost profit.

-          Defining the context – policy of elimination and prevention of domestic violence and budget policy in Serbia. Understanding international standards in the field of human rights and eliminating domestic violence, comparison against the regulation of Serbian legislature, as well as establishing responsibility and role of the country in eliminating and preventing domestic violence on the basis of international legal instruments and international standards of exercising and protecting human rights

-          Overview of acts and procedures of government institutions which should be applied in cases of domestic violence on the basis of international regulations which are, however, not being applied

-          Estimate of expenses of those procedures and interventions that are not being applied and they should be. Sum of expenses of interventions which are applied with those that are not being applied, and they should be, gives the most accurate picture of the expenses of domestic violence in one case. Following further analysis of occurrence and frequency of violence would give a close picture of the cost of domestic violence

-          Estimate of direct and indirect users of budget funds (who the indirect and direct users of budget funds are and how their work is related to the phenomenon of domestic violence) for implementation of the Criminal Law and the Law of Torts, Law on Marriage and Family Relations

-          Estimate of time and budget dimensions of the expenses of domestic violence for the entire society on the basis of gathered data, that is, the amount of money spent over a certain period of time (e.g. one year) on fighting domestic violence, as well as budget expenses on the basis of analysis of the gathered data

-          Estimate of the relation between the needs of budget support for the programmes of prevention and elimination of domestic violence and current budget allocations on the basis of the analysis of the gathered data, that is, the amount of money needed for elimination of domestic violence on the basis of the prevention programme

-          Defining obstacles for estimating and calculating budgetary implications of domestic violence, making proposals and recommendations.

As guiding principles for the budget analysis from the gender perspective we have defined:

-          Establishing statistics on victims of domestic violence,

-          Sensitivity for gender based segregation, cultural standards and practice, and gender norms, and the way policies support them and encourage their reproduction,

-          Interdepartmental cooperation of government agencies and policies

-          Awareness of the existence of gender issues and ability to discover and analyze hidden aspects of gender inequality

-          Methods and means for setting goals and priorities in policies

-          Awareness of complexity of gender inequality in the process of setting goals

-          Ability to define policies in conformity with certain social phenomena.

As main obstacles in estimating and calculating budgetary implications concerning this field we have identified:

-          Lack of a National plan and strategy for eliminating and preventing domestic violence

-          Lack of statistics on victims of domestic violence

-          The problem of approach to information about budget and government administration /budget transparency/

-          Lack of records on cases of domestic violence in health institutions, police, investigation authorities, public prosecution, courts, and misdemeanor bodies, and poorly trained personnel in this field within these institutions

-          The problem of calculating the expenses

-          Lack of systematic research in this field, except individual researches and surveys by women groups, Victimology Society of Serbia, and women experts in this field

The main achievement of the project was that it was the first introduction of the gender budgeting in Serbia, as an innovative strategy for prevention and elimination of domestic violence, and protection of its victims. In the same time, these were the same reasons that have created difficulties during the implementation of our project. There are a very few experts in Serbia who are familiar with the issue of gender budgeting, so they were few adequate reactions to our call on proposals. Majority of women’s groups have not had nor experience neither expertise in gender budgeting.  We estimate that this initiative will establish good base for starting gender budgeting in Serbia, and that it will enhance cooperation between civil society and policy makers.

These activities are developed within the framework of the Gender Budgeting Initiative, a regional cooperation in CEE/NIS aimed at fostering gender budgeting launched at the 2003 NEWW-Polska ^[3] and NEWW Gender Policy Conference “Women and Economy” which took place in Gdansk, Poland.

Our follow-up plans include:  finalizing the detailed Study on Budgetary Implication of Domestic Violence, as the initial Study Proposal was the first step in this direction; introducing the Study to the public, the government and other stakeholders; translating to Serbian tools on gender budgeting; training on gender budgeting for women’s groups, women in politics and women in media; advocating and lobbying for implementation of gender sensitive budgets.     

Gender budgeting initiative in Bulgaria - Proposal on financing initiatives aimed at the protection of women who have suffered violence

In principle, when a concept is being developed the objective is to find a medium-term and/or long-term perspective to major problems within a system threatening either its existence or development. Currently, such a problem can be seen in finding adequate prerequisites to a steady development of specialized services targeting the protection of women who have suffered violence. In this country, the above-mentioned services are the prerogative of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The state represented by its national and regional (local) authorities gives some support as well, but not beyond the scope of its general policies and activities directed at decreasing all varieties of violence in society. The problem of domestic violence has not been so far well identified by the government(s) as a separate problem demanding the corresponding specific measures to be taken. Accordingly, even the funds provided for small-scale and less significant initiatives “melt” into the implementation of general strategies that promote women and ban violence, or otherwise, these funds are simply cut down or reallocated.

NGOs combating family violence are, for the time being, mainly financed by foreign donor organizations and programmes. Complying with universally accepted rules and with standards established in international practice, foreign fiscal and technical support is offered at the early stages of structuring the respective organizations and for the start of their activities. It is presumed that, further on, representatives of the state, municipalities, and businesses will properly assess the importance of the respective activities and will foster their steady development. Considering the fact that the initial stage of these activities has almost expired, it is crucially important to acknowledge the necessity to regulate survival techniques after the donors have “turned the tap off”.   

The proposal on financing initiatives for the protection of women who have suffered violence involves methodological, organizational, legal and socially acceptable alternatives of sources and ways of financing the initiatives for the protection of women suffering domestic violence. The leading principle when outlining those alternatives is to guarantee a steady development of the organizations assisting the victims.

1. NGOs expenditures targeted at women's protection

NGOs combating violence within the family require serious financial subsistence. It has so far (as already mentioned) come mainly from foreign sponsors. Experts claim that in 2002 the budget is over one million BGN. Small-scale organizations (employing 1-3 people administrative staff) and a limited range of activities existed on 25-30 thousand levs in 2002. Larger organizations with a wider scope of initiatives (excluding shelter and/or crisis centre) required between 70 and 90 thousand levs. A major share in the expenditure structure is taken by psychological and legal counselling of the victims. Individual psychological consultations cost 10-15 levs each and the same applies to the average cost of the consultation within a group. A legal consultation costs 18-20 levs per person daily. With social rehabilitation and re-integration sessions the calculation is 10 levs to a participant and per session.

It is expected that the sector's financial needs will increase in the future. The grounds for this are the well-built large-scale NGO sector structure, as well as the accumulated positive inertia in its development. The services the sector offers answer the combined needs for violence prevention, stabilizing and rehabilitating the victims. These are psychological consultations (individual, familial and group ones); psychological services and legal actions (primary consultations, initiating divorce proceedings; minor and average physical injury suits; filing complaints to the respective authority); services towards social rehabilitation and reintegration (advocacy in governmental and other institutions; assistance with finding employment, etc). Alongside the services women and their children are guaranteed a temporary stay in shelters (temporary accommodation). Three branches of this kind were functioning in early 2003. These are the two shelters at Nadya Centre (Sofia) and at "Ekaterina Karavelova" Women' s Association (Silistra) and the Crisis Centre at Animus Foundation. Each of them provides facilities for sheltering women and their children over certain periods of time and the stay combines with treatment, psychological support, psychiatric counselling, placement of children into children's homes, advising women on finding job and other types of help if necessary. There is a high demand for a temporary stay in these centres.

The range of these services is being constantly renewed and supplemented. Efforts made to help out victims of domestic violence have their real social projections, and the services themselves - established social impacts. The services, which the NGO network offers, are popular among and sought by those who need them. Maintaining these positions of the sector will also call for an increase of its expenditures. NGO possess a substantial potential encompassing well equipped offices (judging by our national standards), highly qualified specialists ready to deal with sensitive issues, successfully developed and applied methods of psychological and other help, as well as procedures and ways of organizing it. Maintaining the facilities now available, keeping and renewing the staff of experts, will also impose the necessity to improve the sector's budgeting. In the opinion of specialists working in the sector for protection of women who have suffered violence the ever-expanding range of services offered by the NGO sector may, in itself, be a catalyst for a higher demand. This will also require an increase in the costs incurred by the functioning of these organizations.

Reporting the results of a special survey ^[4] of the NGO sector for protection of women who have suffered violence and the additional above-mentioned grounds, we have every right to conclude that the NGO require a regular and serious financing corresponding to their developmental demands. Remaining in "survival regime" will deprive victims of actual protection of their basic rights as citizens.

This group of NGO has very limited abilities to self-finance itself via paid activities and services, which was objectively proved by repeated studies. The grounds for this are the following ones:  a very low paying capacity characteristic for these victimized women who most often come from humble origins and belong to ethnic minorities; the low general activity of the private business and its limited abilities to finance such initiatives; the feeble financial stimuli which are supposed to encourage sponsorship. The necessity of state financial back-up for NGO against violence in the family becomes obvious. Furthermore, it is worth noting that NGO can be a reliable partner of the state in combining efforts to protect women.

In the draft for The Law for protection against domestic violence (Art.6) the role of the state is strictly and correctly specified. What is expected is that the state should create conditions for implementation of programmes to prevent domestic violence and assist its victims. Executive authorities are expected to carry out selection and training of persons responsible for the protection. They will work together with physical persons and juridical entities registered under the Social Assistance Act, Art.18, para 2 and 3 to protect the rights of individuals who have suffered domestic violence. State institutions retain the opportunity to play a leading role in designing and carrying out the strategies during the protective activities.

2.Guidelines on financing the protection of women who have suffered violence

A standing problem in any type of financing is whether there are tangible legal grounds for it take place. Those grounds, which exist in Bulgaria for the time being, are neither complete, nor conclusive. Such an 'a priori' state of affairs hinders a lot the overall activities of the sector active in the field of violence.

2.1. Financing at the national level

2.1.1. Financing based on special funds

Creating a specialized fund can prove to be a basic instrument when financing women protection activities. Distribution of fund resources is, in essence, a granting scheme that exists as long as it can rely on donor funds and own revenue. To start functioning the fund needs at least one million levs at its disposal. Provisions for creating a fund should be made in The Law for protection against domestic violence. We shall assume from now on that The Law has already been enforced and that The Rules on its application are unambiguous as to the existence of such a fund. What are the key features of its design?

The Fund will be managed by its Board of directors including representatives of the interested parties and of governmental institutions. Simultaneously, a Supervisory Committee will be established, which is a traditional part of such enterprises. In their procedures these bodies will be led by the letter of the law and by the good practice of more experienced similar funds. A major prerequisite to fund structure implementation is the availability of a given juridical organization supporting its existence. This should be some kind of an anti-violence NGO alliance that will be financed by the fund. Setting up such a fund is a completely achievable task, considering the widely spread national network of NGOs.

A successfully functioning kind of organization at this stage of our country's development is the 'foundation'. A possible working name for this foundation is "NGOs - against violence". After establishing such a structure (or a similar one) there will also be an organizational prerequisite (alongside the above mentioned Board and Council) for the Fund to operate normally.

In view of the above mentioned arguments regarding the necessary interference of the state, and most importantly, because the activities have a social profile and the people seeking protection have a very low paying capacity, it is advisable to plan an annual subsidy from the Government Budget (GB) in the fund's revenue part. The amount of the subsidy will be negotiated between representatives of the Fund and GB and justified through the corresponding expenditure plans.

A second possible source is along the line of other (including own) revenues. This is support from foreign and local donors, proceeds from the fines paid by violence perpetrators, endowments made by individuals or government entities, membership dues and the like.

Fund resources may be targeted to the following directions:

* Financing of projects in specialized areas of anti-violence activities; carried out complying with competition principle;

* Paying for specific protective measures, such as formal council for the defence of women in law suits; expenditures intended to meet psychological counselling and therapy, expenditures on preventive work, on guardianship, as well as similar expenditure  embracing major services and care-giving activities that NGO provide for women;

* Social benefits (both money and goods) as one-time aid towards family maintenance; and also, for medicines and dressing materials; for textbooks and notebooks for use by the violence victims' children, for transport, and the lot;

* Other expenses which are likely to be imposed by needs of the public and the NGO sector (maintaining the facilities at crisis centres and shelters; printed materials; correspondence costs, etc.)

The structure of expenditures proposed above will cover the support of basic NGO activities.

2.1.2.( Micro-credit) co-operative societies

Another possible way to organize the NGO sector financing is through the micro-credit co-operative societies that have recently become popular. This is a mechanism of non-gratuitous funds distribution. It is based on competition principles and ensures the organizations their economic stability. The most attractive side of this mechanism is that (effective management provided) it presupposes a steady process of functioning. This results from the opportunity to accrue own income from the rates of interest coming from credit granted for various projects. At the same time, there is no need to issue bank license. Obtaining one is a heavy and time-consuming procedure; moreover, it requires a substantial initial capital. With micro-credit societies, members of NGOs against violence are expected to join the society (the law on co-operative societies imposes that their members should only be individuals). On applying for credits to use by their organization, those individuals respectively form a group and apply as a group of persons including all engaged with NGO work (or that specific part of them who are going to use the credit) thus identifying themselves with this organization. Paying the commensurate interest should be envisaged when giving credits, and the debtor together with the loan capital pays this back.

It is only when a micro-credit society starts operating that it needs help on the part of GB. Subsequently, the society is expected to reproduce its initial capital and keep on working. Besides, it can additionally attract donor support. Membership dues paid by the society's members constitute another serious source of means.

The mechanism of micro-credit societies can only be used to finance paid NGO activities. At present, these include some legal services. It is possible to look for opportunities to hold paid consultations with a psychologist, to organize specialized training, to pay for publishing printed materials, etc. As far as these NGOs only have limited opportunities to raise money from paid services, financing through micro-credit society can have an additional importance for NGO activities.

The mechanism of micro-credit societies may be useful in assisting victimized persons to set up a business of their own. The can become members of the society, too, and apply with it for credits. Their membership fees may be deducted in advance from the loan they get or from salaries. However, it is necessary in cases like these to plan a comprehensive training course, to find reliable guarantees for paying the loan back, and to provide a strict supervision over funds spending.

2.1.3. Financing services for persons who have suffered violence through budgeting by the corresponding ministries related to the problem

Further on in this report what is meant by the group of ministries is: the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (with the Employment Agency), the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Home Affairs (with the National police). The list is by no way a conclusive one, it is a subject of constant perfection through identifying the interested entities, persons and their specific interests.

There are two possible premises when outlining the financing procedure. The first one obtains on condition that on a national level there is no fund to finance the protective initiatives and, eventually - the possibilities for credit. State institutions are expected to envisage expenditures for a full range of general and specific services (measures) and other activities aimed at the victims of violence as well as designing a policy for the relevant sector. This will enable the structures of state institutions:  to provide services to the victims, to pay for the lawyers who provide legal assistance, for the professionals who ensure treatment and rehabilitation of the victims, for prevention campaigns, support for children's education and possibly getting them into boarding school, subsidizing new employment for such victims and preferences on their enrolment on training courses. All these initiatives should be incorporated in the plans for future work of the above-mentioned institutions.

The budgets of institutions may also include means to distribute on a competition principle between NGOs applying on projects. These NGOs will also be given the chance to apply for additional funding on projects with outside financing. They will act as auxiliaries to state administration and will fulfil strictly specific functions in their work with the victims of domestic violence.

The second option presumes the availability of a state-subsidized fund. Only initiatives with crucial importance and  impact  nationally  and proposing the policies for this sector will then be eligible and financed through the budgets of ministries and institutions. This can happen both through purposeful directing of these means to the relevant governmental structures and through implementing the above-mentioned schemes which NGOs will use to apply for financing of projects.

A critical reading of current legislation shows that neither the first, nor the second alternative is accepted. Besides, there is no all-embracing framework as to what parameters the state employs in its policy to stimulate the development of these activities. For instance, Art.1, para 2 of the Social Assistance Act (SAA) reads that it settles 'consolidation and development of public solidarity in hard life situations', which also implies those associated with women who have suffered violence in the family. According to Art.16, social services are based on social work and aim to support the assisted persons in their efforts to cope with everyday activities and social integration. This is a part of the care necessary for women who, having left their families, seek help accommodation, facilities for bringing up children and providing for them, finding job (or starting work after long unemployment).

According to Art.6, items 3, 4 and 5 of SAA, the Social Assistance Agency at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy will inspect the observance of established criteria and standards to follow when providing social services; will authorize setting up and closing of specialized institutions for social services; will register physical persons with registration under the Trade Law and juridical persons providing social services. The Rules on the Act application have yet to clarify this registration procedure, the criteria content, and the possibility to register NGO protecting women who have suffered violence.

According to Art.18 of the SAA, social services are carried out by the state, the municipalities, by physical persons registered under the Trade Law and by juridical persons. However, the two latter groups can provide social services only following their inclusion into the register of the Social Assistance Agency. Since no constraints exist as to the range of these services, NGO working with women who have experienced violence in the family could also be entered into this register after the respective clarifying of the rules for participation in it. In actual fact, however, NGO also work with victims' children (below 18 years of age), which requires their registration under the Law for Child protection. It is obvious that Art.18 needs an amendment making special provisions for an opportunity to register organizations under the Law on protection against domestic violence (after its adoption) on condition that they also provide services to the women's children. This is one of the arguments necessitating the speedy enforcement of this law.

According to Art.18. par 5 social services can be provided with joint participation of the state, municipalities, physical persons registered under the Trade Law, and juridical persons on a contract basis. This implies a possibility to combine the potential of NGOs against violence with the one of other interested organizations in the public sector. The rules for this joint work have not been specified yet; neither have the responsibilities of the parties involved.

According to par 7 of this Article, NGO can apply for funds to the Social Assistance Fund if they have an approved project. In most cases, this option of financing on competition principles could be utilized with wavering success. To ensure a better financial security it is possible to introduce the "limit" practice popular in other countries whereby the municipality is obliged to spend defined budget limits on the purchase of social services, including those on protection of women who have suffered violence.

If there were doctors engaged by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) who works for the NGOs, it will not present a problem to arrange that the NHIF cover part of the expenditure on psychological recovery of the victimized women. Another option is to draw additional agreements between the NHIF and NGOs ensuring referral of women entitled to special recommendation notes for preferential payment treatment or free treatment which is covered by the National Health Insurance Fund.

To sum up, at the national level, it is necessary for the state to actively participate in assisting the victims of domestic violence alongside assisting the NGOs protective activities for them through: organizing therapy for victims of domestic violence; employment commencement and the very process of finding job for the women; therapy for women and sending their children to children's homes or to school; disseminating information on domestic violence with preventive purpose and, also, to facilitate the access of the interested individuals to help; the state should contribute to enable any changes required in the legislation and their co-ordination; it should envisage adequate forms to subsidize and credit these activities. Irrespective of the specific mechanism of the funds transfer to be agreed upon in future, there is no alternative to the participation of the state. The studied expert opinion of those engaged in the NGO sector is in favour of founding a specialized fund with state participation for the support of these activities.

Municipal level

At this level, the financial support for NGOs working against domestic violence can be achieved by contributing money and goods. It has, so far, been expressed mostly in goods by supplying aid for crisis centres and shelters. Municipalities provide them with premises and equipment. On the model of child protection desks operating at municipal level, centres tackling psychosocial issues may open to cater for women who have experienced violence within the family. Putting this proposal into practice demands a thorough assessment of activities, which are not effective enough to be undertaken by NGOs, and which can, therefore, be assigned to municipalities (the governmental sector), but without suppressing the functions of the NGO sector by the government.

Another proposal is to find full-time employment positions at municipalities for social workers, psychologists and pedagogues who work with NGOs. Implementing such a proposal would facilitate care for victimized women, provided NGO activists are given the opportunity to choose their co-workers on competition principle. What seems a feasible proposal considering municipal financial deficits is to recruit full-time employees only for NGO administrative staff. An even more economical option, which may be considered at the beginning, is to appoint one single person on administrative full-time position.

NGO self-financing initiatives

Limited as they may be, there still exist possibilities for NGOs to offer paid services, technical assistance and materials. To identify and use them effectively NGOs should be prepared to show a higher initiative and commitment. Funding projects by home and foreign donors will remain a basic form of financing in the future.

Conclusion

There are ways enabling the organization of functioning and socially effective mechanisms of financing NGOs in their work against family violence. The choice should be based on well-studied needs in order to find the relevant justified solutions. In the expert opinion of the authors, currently the most suitable one is applying a fund structure. It will allow for the state to retain its position as a policy designer within the field, acting simultaneously as a main guarantor for its successful functioning. Ministries and institutions will be in charge for (among other things) the support of large-scale national activities and campaigns combating violence within the family. At the same time, this mechanism will make possible the decentralization process in funds utilization and the employment of democratic principles of distribution and supervision, a relatively autonomous development of NGO sector dealing with  domestic violence and its structural stability and financial sustainability.

NOTE:

Paper presented at the IAFFE Conference "Central and Eastern Europe: A Feminist Economic Dialogue on Transition and EU Enlargement", January 21 - 22, 2005, Budapest, Hungary

References:

1. The Gender Responsive Budget Initiatives (GRBI),  http://www.gender-budgets.org/ (10.04.2003)

2. Debbie Budlender, Rhonda Sharp & Kerry Allen: Commonwealth Secretariat:  Budlender, Debbie and Rhonda Sharp with Kerri Allen, 1998.  How to do a gender-sensitive budget analysis: Contemporary research and practice.

3. Sweetman, C., ed., 2002,  "Gender Budgets: What's in it for NGOs?", Gender and Development 10 (3): 82-87, Oxford: Oxfam

4. Simel Esim UNIFEM, Gender-Sensitive Budget Initiatives for Latin American and the Caribbean: A Tool For Improving Accountability and Achieving Effective Policy Implementation http://www.genie.ids.ac.uk/static/esim_budgets.htm

5. Gender Analysis of Budgets, 2002, ICRW/UNIFEM Background Brief January, http://www.unifem.undp.org/ee/Gender_Budgets/Conference

6. Noeleen Heyzer, 2001, Gender Responsive Budgets. What is Gender Responsive Budget Analysis? UNIFEM-OECD-Nordic Council-Government of Belgium

7. Gender Advocacy Programme, South Africa, Making the Act Work, A Research Study into Budget Allocations for the Implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, December 1999

8. ICWR, How to Make the Law Work?, Budgetary Implications of Domestic Violence Policies in Latin America, Synthesis Paper, July 2003

9. Nikolic-Ristanovic, V. (ed.) (2002) Domestic Violence in Serbia, Belgrade, Victimology Society of Serbia

About the authors:

Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, PhD, assistant professor of European Economics and Gender and Economics at the Advanced School of Business, and at Postgraduate Gender Studies at the University of Novi Sad in Novi Sad, Serbia. She has published several books and a dozen articles addressing gender in transitioning economies.
Contact: tanjadjk@eunet.yu

Mirjana Dokmanovic, international lawyer, consultant on human rights and gender issues, coordinator or the Women’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Subotica. She has coordinated  numerous projects aimed at fostering human rights and women’s rights. She has published several books and a number of articles addressing gender and human rights.
Contact: mirad@eunet.yu

Genoveva Tisheva, Executive Director, Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation.
Contact: bgrf@fastbg.net

^[1] Nikolic-Ristanovic, V. (ed.) (2002) Domestic Violence in Serbia, Belgrade, Victimology Society of Serbia

^[2] Article 118a of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia

^[3] Network East-West Women (NEWW) is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. With members in more than 30 countries NEWW is among the largest and most respected networks in CEE/NIS, and is a trusted source of expertise, resources and information about gender in democratizing societies. The international secretariat is run by the NEWW-Polska in Gdansk. More information on NEWW Gender Budgeting Initiative at  http://www.neww.org.pl/en.php/achivements/budzet/0.html

^[4] The survey was conducted by the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation  in the beginning of 2003