Project Plan

PROMOTING COLLECTIVE ACTION FOR GENDER REPONSIVE BUDGETING IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA (PNG)

1. Introduction
The use of the term ‘Collective Action” has intensified in the last few decades to describe a paradigm shift in the practice of community development and other fields. This new perspective emphasised on a ‘bottom up’ approach than that of the traditional top down decision making in community development. That is, through promoting active participation of local community groups in public policy development and implementation. This is to acknowledge that local community groups and individuals are more knowledgeable about their own local situations and hence would be the most relevant stakeholders to involve in developing realistic solutions to address those problems through mobilising efforts and available limited resources.

In this paper, the proposal to advocate “gender responsive budgeting” (GRB) in Papua New Guinea (PNG) will be discussed in order to explain how collective action would be promoted among stakeholders. The paper looks at firstly the essence of collective action in community development. Secondly, how it can be promoted to achieve the objectives of the project through a presentation of the project plan. This includes the identification of a system which the initiative would be housed as well as other systems it aims to have impact on. Thirdly, it provides a brief implementation plan detailing how the initiative would be undertaken as a process, applying ‘participation’ and ‘consultation’ as collective action techniques during the initial phase. The paper finally concludes by stating that initiating community programs through collective action is not an easy path as navigating through complex web of views, perceptions, relationships, components, and systems in itself is complex and dynamic which must be seen through multiple perspectives. By doing this would provide a clear pathway for the initiative to begin from a particular angle.

2. Collective Action
Traditionally, community development initiatives were designed and implemented from top to the bottom (from executive government down to community). In this process, citizen participation in community development initiatives was very limited or none in existence. However, the last few decades have been a period of tremendous change to these traditional approaches as a result of new paradigm shifts in policy making and new characteristics of world economy imposed on governments, such as globalisation. This highlighted the importance for local actors to mobilise themselves in order to become active participants in the decision making processes concerning issues that affect their lives through encouraging collective action (Fontan, Klien & Tremblay, 2004).

Collective action is commonly referred to as having people doing something together, which involves having a collective intention (Gilbert, 2006; Allen, 2002). It is a self generating, and citizen-centred way to promote greater community spirit. In addition, it is an essential part of any approach to bring about improvements in communities. Different community programs can be organized through strategic collective action (Gilbert, 2006), such as local women literacy groups, women’s credit schemes, environment sustainability advocates, local youth groups, at a broader level, women mobilising to advocate against family and sexual violence—all of which are vehicles for collective action.

It is important in community organisation as it develops a sense of community membership and belonging, increased influence, and a shared emotional connection (Allen, 2002). It also brings about a greater sense of control through the power of large numbers of community members working together for social change and holding larger institutions accountable for providing them with the resources and services they need to have a healthy life. It enables groups to mobilise limited resources to pursue their collective goals which also increase their ability to manage these scarce resources and achieve maximum results (Allen, 2002).

However, mobilising different people and groups to promote collective action is time consuming and requires ongoing communication to maintain the interests (Foster, Fitzgerald, Brandell, Nowell, Chavis, & Egeren, 2006).

What then is “community”? There are also many different ways to describe what one means by community. The greatest impact from any community comes from how we perceive it - or our “sense of community” (Allen, 2002). A sense of community provides for a sense of belonging and membership. The sense of belonging and membership is vibrant if the bonding is effectively maintained. Therefore, any community initiatives pursued holds the interested stakeholders together as they have a common interest to share and achieve. Thus, it can refer to groups and individuals who mobilise resources and efforts together to pursue a common goal such as, networks, partnerships or collaborative processes (Tan, 2009; Allen, 2002). For instance, the individuals, groups and organisations who are interested in pooling their resources together to promote gender equality at the macro level and gender responsive budgeting at the micro level form a ‘community’.

3. The Project – Promoting ‘Gender Responsive Budgeting’ (GRB) in PNG
Women advocates around the world from both developed and developing countries are pushing for GRB to be recognised in policy decision making processes of governments as part of their aspirations for women empowerment. This initiative was first recognised and introduced by the Australian Government in 1984, followed by Canada in 1993 and South Africa in 1994. Since then, more than fifty countries around the world have adopted some form of gender sensitive budgeting (Deen, 2008). Furthermore, the United Nations (UN) Beijing Platform for Action in 1995, which calls for the inclusion of a gender perspective into budgetary decision-making mechanisms, had enabled greater recognition by many governments worldwide (Deen, 2008; Bakker, 2006) . These exercises focus on the following core goals: Firstly, mainstream gender issues within government policies; second is to promote greater accountability for governments’ commitment to gender equality; and finally to change budgets and policies (Sharp and Broomhill, 2002) to reflect gender equality in service delivery.

GRB refers to the way governments respond to gender equality through its budget decision making processes. It attempts to break down national and sub national budgets according to their impact on women and men, boys and girls (Bakker, 2006; Sharp, et al. 2002; Robinson, 2006). In addition, it involves the review of both the expenditure and revenue side of the budget, and provides a means of holding governments accountable to their commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of women made under commitments such as, the Beijing Platform for Action. It is also a tool for governments to assess how policies may need adjustments and where resources are needed to address gender inequalities (Robinson, 2006; Bakker, 2006).
However, it does not call for separate budgets for women, but rather viewing government budgets through the eyes of gender.

3.1. Why promoting GRB in PNG
PNG has been a signatory to a number of UN commitments to gender equality and more inclusive economic development over the last few decades, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and others. Despite these, there remain significant gender inequalities in life experiences and distribution of opportunities among women and men in all sectors of society in the country, including lack of equal participation in politics, policy decision making, budgetary processes, and employment (Organisation for Economic Co-operation &Development, 2009). Furthermore, the Social Institutions and Gender Index ranked PNG number 80, out of a total of 102 non OECD countries rated in 2009. Moreover, according to the list of countries provided by the UN that have embraced the notion of GRB, only Australia and Fiji Islands were included from the Pacific Region (Deen, 2008). This indicates that there is an ongoing struggle to promote gender equality in the country. With the numerous development challenges that are experienced by Papua New Guinea, advocating for an initiative such as, “gender responsive budgeting” is significantly stepping into ‘unknown territory’.

3.2. Previous work on GRB in PNG
PNG has a well-established policy framework that requires the promotion of equality in all aspects of development including socio-economic, political, employment and others (Loveridge & Kotvojs, 2004). The PNG National Goals and Directive Principles enshrined in its Constitution outline a commitment to equality for all. The National Women’s Policy was developed in 1990 to contribute to these goals and principles through achieving ‘increased participation by women as both beneficiaries and agents in the development process and improvement in the quality of life (Loveridge, et al., 2004). The government further recognises this by committing itself to several international conventions promoting gender equality as outlined above. Accordingly, it made some legislative and policy changes in its attempt to implement these commitments that include gender focussed sectoral policies which were often advocated by international entities. In addition, one of the significant legislative break-through in 2008 is the approval of a bill that called for three (3) nominated women to represent women in Parliament according to the specific provisions of the national constitution. Whilst this indicates a light at the end of the tunnel, the framework for implementation raises some concerns regarding the criteria for the nomination, identification of constituencies the women will be nominated to represent, and the sources of extra resources and capacity to accommodate this major change in the public service machinery. On the whole, there is very little evidence of any tangible results because the government continue to fail in ensuring that this gender targeted policy initiatives secure budgetary support, which is most often influenced by an embedded cultural perspective that perceives women as second class citizens (Loveridge et al., 2004).

There is also no specific work being undertaken in the area of economic policy in advocating for gender equality, mainly because of lack of knowledge and technical capacity on the part of non government agencies. Thus, the GRB complimenting with those existing programs would go a long way in enhancing the knowledge and capacity, and collectively initiate solutions for these cultural barriers and systemic weaknesses.


4. Systems Analysis
The general view of systems thinking and complexity approaches according to Midgley and Richardson (2007) is that, they make everything in the universe directly or indirectly connected with everything else. Similarly, Barton, Emery, Flood, Selsky and Wolsten (2004) noted that systems thinking are made up of small particles that work together for the overall objective of the whole. Thus, a systems approach is a way of thinking about these components in a given system.

Hence, systems analysis is a significant tool used to identify the individual components, their roles, capacity to perform, existing processes, relationships, and perceptions in order to initiate a change within that system (Covey, Gulledge & Keith, 1994) which would then have a significant impact on others it interacts with.

Accordingly, the mobilisation of stakeholders for collective action in promoting the GRB would have a direct impact on a number of systems. These include the women’s network, non government organisations, and the government system as well as civil society at large. The GRB is identified as a component of the women’s network or system as some form of activities have been undertaken in the last two years in this area in partnership with key government and international development agencies.

According to Wilson (1996), in order to effectively influence others to achieve change, individuals that make up an organisation have to be changed. Covey, et al. (1994) also noted that effective change can be achieved by focussing on the cultural change “inside-out” as a key to sustaining structural “outside-in” change. Hence, the GRB advocacy would use the ‘outside –in’ model which is from the non government towards influencing government systems by firstly engaging with the most important stakeholders to achieve cultural change. This include, key peak women organisations and their leaders, key government agencies and international development partners. Secondly, with support from this group, other systems will be engaged. The final stakeholder to reach is the government as a system and civil society, as is illustrated by Figure 1 below. Thus, the ultimate long term goal of the GRB after mobilising all the stakeholders is to ensure that GRB is integrated into policy, planning, and budgetary processes of government, piggybacking on the other policy and program initiatives already undertaken.

Figure 1: Relevant system in which GRB will be housed under and working outwards to influencing government policy.


(Diagram illustrating the above is difficult to be placed in this document)


4.1. Potential challenges
Though, the above illustration portrays different systems in their simplest, it is significantly complicated as navigating through differing perceptions, views, and mindsets of these systems pose fundamental challenges in order to ensure that all these differences can be sensitised into creating a common ground. As is noted by Toews; Kay; Murray & Neudoerffer (2001), a truly complex system cannot be adequately captured from any single perspective. Hence, pluralistic perspectives are required to understand this diversity of elements and components. Accordingly, the drive for collective action on the GRB would be using the “outside-in” model which poses a number of challenges. The first activity in this area was the hosting of a public forum in 2008 by a number of women’s groups based at national level which was perceived to be a failure as it did not attract key stakeholders to participate and failed to develop a way forward. This indicates a number of issues within the two parallel systems – the women’s network and government sector. Firstly, there is a lack of understanding of the concept both in government and non government sectors, such as the misconception of the GRB calling for separate women budgets. Hence, gathering of information and making it available to stakeholders would tremendously assist stakeholders in addressing this information and knowledge gap.

Secondly, there is a lack of capacity in terms of resources, technical expertise and skilled personnel, coupled with weak administrative and coordination structures in the women’s network. Thirdly, as Deen (2008) reflected, initiatives such as the GRB that aims to make an impact on important decision making processes of government need political will. Thus, the push for nominated women to be members of parliament by the current government of PNG is a step in the right direction to give greater recognition to the calls for gender equality.

Finally, as Sharp et al., (2008) pointed out from the Australian experience, the success of mainstreaming gender budgeting in the budgetary processes is to have well established women’s policy machineries within government bureaucracies. Despite having established women policy structures in the PNG public service machinery; they are significantly weak in their operations due to mainly lack of resource capacity. This indicates that to advocate for the GRB would be an uphill battle.


5. Project Design
5.1. Aims and Objectives
Through collective action, the project aims to raise awareness on the importance of Gender Responsive Budgeting at all levels of government in PNG. Thus, the short and medium term specific objectives include:

• Collating information on the concept which would form the basis for stimulating initial discussions.
• Identify a home for the initiative within the women’s network. That is, an agency that is currently undertaking similar activities in order to secure resource support, sustainability as well as for effective coordination.
• Create networks and partnerships among interested stakeholders.
• Develop a national framework for collective action for the initiative.

However, the long term aim would be to build effective networks, act as an information clearinghouse and build the capacity among groups and individuals to influence public policy, particularly, budgetary processes at different levels of government so that they are gender friendly.

For the above purposes to be accomplished, all the members of the GRB system must be effective and committed (Barton, et al. 2004; Covey, et al. 2004). For instance, in order for the GRB to achieve its objectives, it must have an effective information network, partnership, management and coordination as a system. This is consequently dependent upon the resources and capacity that flows in and out, setting of clear visions, the ongoing strengthening of collective spirit, and most importantly the government providing an enabling policy and legislative environment, all of which are demonstrated by figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Concept map of RGB system to fulfil its objectives
Flows of resources & information

(The concept map illustrating the above is difficult to be transferred to this page)

5.2. Project Action
The initial work will commence by gathering information on the concept using participatory and consultative methods. ‘Participatory’ methods are mechanisms whereby beneficiaries are involved to change problematic situations and influence all the components of development or social programs which affect their quality of lives (Ohmer, 2008; Bamberger, 1991). Participation thus enhances the sustainability and social acceptability of these initiatives as beneficiaries become owners of the decisions made concerning the projects (Bowen, 2008; Bamberger, 1991). Similarly, Soo-Hoo (1997) defined ‘consultation’ as a process that is used for developing the right solutions to problems confronting the consultee. McLaughlin, Brown and Young (2004), also viewed consultation as a process in which views of stakeholders are sought, but provides no obligation as to what will happen once the views are compiled.
The application of these two approaches will be for the Phase I of the project - the information gathering stage. This will be undertaken through a two pronged approach. Firstly, organisations that are operating similar initiatives in Brisbane will be identified and consulted to seek their views on the concept. Secondly, a discussion process online will be created to stimulate initial discussions to gauge the general views of the concept among the PNG student community of UQ, QUT and others back in PNG. This information will be compiled and will form a basis for further discussions and initial advocacy of the concept in PNG. Phase II will commence with the identification and sensitisation of key stakeholders in order to create a collective action flat-form to promote GRB.

Figure 3: Formulation of Stakeholder participation and consultation strategy for phase 1

(A table is involved here showing the brief details on the participation and consultation strategy but is difficult to transfer)


The table above will be reviewed to include other collective action approaches when undertaking phase 2, particularly ‘collaboration’ and ‘empowerment’ as the project would encourage partnerships and collaboration among stakeholders. The final mission is to empower citizens at large to constructively question the performances of government in service delivery in terms of observing gender equality.

5.2.1. Potential Risks
Creating a community that is ready and able to mobilize is time consuming, requires ongoing attention at multiple levels, and demands a flexible and responsive approach (Foster, et al., 2006). Similarly, community ownership also requires ongoing communication and is strengthened when programming efforts are run by the community. These are some of the key obstacles that have to be considered in undertaking this project which will be relying heavily on various stakeholders engaging to influence public policy at various government levels.

Moreover, in undertaking phase 1 of the project, the reliability of information or active participation by members of the PNG UQ student community, as well as others in PNG is expected to be low because of a number of factors: Firstly, the limited timeframe within which this component of the project must be completed and the student target group is busy in this period with their own academic assessments. Secondly, the discussion arena which is the ‘blog site’ may pose as a hindrance itself because of technicalities which is time consuming in order to contribute to the discussion. Third is the lack of knowledge on the concept, hence people may not feel comfortable to contribute to the discussions. Finally, the target group may be influenced by their views of women as second class citizens in the country – a cultural norm embedded in the mindsets of Papua New Guineans, which may pose as a negative factor. Similarly, because of the different stages in development, culture, beliefs and complexity in the whole social structure between Australia and PNG, the information collected here in Brisbane may need further tailoring to suit PNG.


6. Conclusion
In conclusion, this paper attempted to explain the importance of collective action in order to bring about change in the lives of community groups by influencing public policies or community development programs. To take it through a practical scenario, the proposal for advocating gender responsive budgeting in PNG was discussed in order to identify and analyse the systems in which it would be working through to have an impact on its target group which is ultimately the government system. From this, it can be noted that promoting an agenda through dynamic and differing systems and processes is in itself complex which cannot be understood from one angle but through multiple perspectives. This would enable the understanding of the various components of the systems. In working through these systems, it is either working within the system, inside-out or outside of the systems, outside-in to make a change. The GRB initiative will be facilitated from the outside of government but working into the government system in order to influence budgetary processes and public policy with the ultimate objective of achieving gender friendly budgets and policies. However, the ‘outside-in’ model poses many fundamental challenges, but the most key ones being, the capacity strength of the women’s network which ought to be highly supported by well established women policies. Secondly, there must be political will on the part of government that would encourage such programs to succeed. Without these being addressed, the systems would not be effective to achieve any tangible results, as is clearly demonstrated by the experiences of PNG.

Therefore, with the recognition of these limitations, the utilisation of the chosen collective action approaches, a carefully planned strategy and with the practical and theoretical understanding of the process of how community initiatives can be initiated and implemented, I believe that the GRB would go a long way in assisting women in PNG to influence budgetary processes and public policy so that they are gender friendly.