Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations

C/o Keimar Bldg. Level 4, Giovanni Mamo Street, B’Kara BKR 2961

Tel:00356-79564598; e-mail: ; website: www.mcwo.net

VOA REG NO : 100

The MCWO is a full member of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL)

30 September 2011

The Minister of Finance, the Economy and Investment

Dr Tonio Fenech

MCWO Feedback on the

Pre-Budget Document 2012

The Budget is a forecast of government expenditure and revenue for the following fiscal year. It is the key instrument for the execution of government economic policies that will directly or indirectly affect all citizens in their daily lives. Budgets are not merely technical documents; they reflect how governments set their priorities and shape and implement their policies. They are one of the most important tools for policy-makers to implement their decisions. Budgets are therefore indicators of a government’s commitment to address women’s needs and to achieve gender equality.

The need for gender-sensitive budgets has been acknowledged on several occasions on an international level.

□  Para 345 of the (1995) Beijing Platform for Action states that “for all financial arrangements the integration of a gender perspective and adequate financing of specific programmes should be guaranteed.”

□  Moreover, Para 346 states that governments should make “efforts to systematically review how women benefit from public sector expenditures; adjust budgets to ensure equality of access to public sector Expenditures, both for enhancing productive capacity and for meeting social needs”. They should “allocate sufficient resources, including resources for undertaking gender-impact analysis.

Furthermore, A UNIFEM (the women’s fund of the United Nations) Communiqué states: “The goal is to mobilise political and financial support to strengthen the capacities of governments as well as civil organisations to carry out these initiatives and to support the global vision of gender responsive budget initiatives in all countries by 2015.”

“Today we can observe a growing number of initiatives in EU countries, as well as first efforts at EU level.” (Gender Budgeting by European Women’s Lobby, Feb 2004):

□  “In May 2003, the Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men adopted an opinion on gender budgeting.

□  An own-initiative report by Fiorella Ghilardotti on gender budgeting was also adopted by the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities of the European Parliament in June 2003.”

These commitments have to be translated into action by governments at all levels. It has to be recognised that gender equality issues are relevant for the work of all ministries and all programmes, as they concern all types of public spending and income, not only in the areas that specifically aim at improving the position of women.

MCWO’s Proposals

Although conscious of the need for the drawing up of a gender budget taking into consideration all aspects of budget items and sectors, MCWO is focusing on the most major areas of concern due to its resource constraints.

Enabling women’s continuous participation in the labour market

In Chapter 4, The Pre-Budget Document 2012 lists a number of initiatives that have been introduced since 2005 including fiscal incentives and childcare services in order to give women the necessary support to remain in the labour market. However, it is stated that “closer analysis suggests that the maximum employment rate is attained in the 25-29 years cohort, and that beyond this cohort a steady erosion in the female employment rate is evident. This steady erosion has persisted, notwithstanding the tax incentives and the introduction of child-care centres over the years.”

The document continues “Government is determined to continue to strengthen its investment in the economy, by adopting an approach which puts the needs of the human capital and the economy at the forefront of its actions.” However, nothing is said on what this approach is and in what way these needs will be met.

Therefore, the MCWO proposes:

1.  An evaluation of all the incentives introduced since 2005 in order to assess their effectiveness. This exercise should lead to an overall plan of action with a clear objective to plug in all the loop holes that are still hindering women and men from finding a work/life balance. Government should consider all costs incurred to carry out such a plan as an investment that will give an added return over the years.

MCWO suggests that this action plan should also include the following 10 basic needs:

1a) Affordable childcare services of good quality including subsidies to parents particularly to those with low income and to single mothers

1b) Attractive incentives for employers to provide childcare services for their employees

1c) Extension of after-school programmes providing extra curricular activities, for all children in all localities; these are currently too few and not effective enough to enable women with young children to remain in the labour market

1d) Flexible working hours with justification to be given when such requests are refused

1e) Tele-working with justification to be given when such requests are refused

1f) Working on a reduced timetable with justification to be given when such requests are refused

1g) Increase of maternity leave from 15 to 20 weeks with the state shouldering financial costs

1h) Introduction of two weeks paid paternity leave

1i) Social security benefits given to single women re-entering the labour market should be reduced at regular intervals until the probation period is over

1j) The ETC Gender Equality Unit should be reinstated to continue work on focusing on women and work.

Developing Malta’s Human Resource

Potential through Education and Training

In line with government policy on gender mainstreaming, it would have been more effective were Table 5.1, showing the number of participants in each scholarship scheme for every year,

2. To include a breakdown by gender of how government is investing funds in human resources (page 63).

The same can be said for the section 5.5 on the Investment in Youth Budget.

3. More data broken down by gender and investment should be included to help policy makers obtain a clearer overview of distribution of investment. This should also empower the state in its quest for gender equality.

Violence against Women

It was estimated that the annual cost of domestic violence in the 27 EU member states could be as high as €16 billion, or €1 million every half hour whereas the annual budgets of EU Member States for prevention programmes of male violence are 1000 times less (Psytel, 2006 Daphne Project on the cost of domestic violence in Europe).

Thus MCWO strongly suggests that:

4.  The Commission on Domestic Violence should be given more financial and human resources and not depend mainly on European Funds for its sterling work.

Since its establishment in 2006, the Commission has been working with a part-time secretary. MCWO is of the opinion that the cost of violence to women, children, family members and society entails more commitment and investment by the state.

Renee Laiviera

Chair, MCWO

79564598