Minister Gordhan delivers SA’s 2016/17 Budget
Many commentators have called Financed Minister Pravin Gordhan’s 2016/17 National Budget the most difficult balancing act of the minister’s political career. Minister Gordhan matched an overwhelming amount of demands against constrained resources – all within a fiscally depressed economic climate.
Minister Gordhan’s budget maps out government’s plans for the next three years. Given the constraints, complexity and competing demands, the foundations of the plan are limited to a focused number of priority areas which the current administration regard as meriting investment.
Minister Gordhan explained that the choices in the budget are informed by “an inclusive and social contract, encompassing an equal burden of tax and a progressive programme of expenditures”. He went on to elaborate that inclusivity is “about both prosperity and equity”; it is about ensuring the country’s resources are used to create opportunities for all whilst pursuing economic growth and development through trade and industry.
In short, inclusive growth requires a balanced approach to development which gives equal priority to human social development alongside business development, particularly those areas and aspects of human social development that equalise opportunities for South Africa’s historically marginalised communities.
When faced with having to make hard decisions about what areas of social development we should invest in to yield the most sustainable and equitable foundations for human and economic development, the evidence is clear. Equitable access to quality Early Childhood Development services must be prioritised as it is an essential developmental lever with the capacity to equalise opportunities at a time when it matters.
The National Development Plan, the ECD Diagnostic Review and the draft National ECD policy are unanimous in their recognition of the catalytic development value of ECD. There is no doubt that ECD must be a strategic priority of government’s immediate three year plan. Minister Gordhan’s budget does, in a very limited way, act on this directive.
However the ECD-development paradigm informing decisions about the allocation of our country’s resources is inadequate and the resulting investments insufficient to give effect to the national ECD vision and make sure, that, in the words of Minister
There is high level political and academic consensus, not only that we need to prioritise ECD, but also that to ensure an inclusive, equity-driven developmental platform, that priority must be given to certain specific ECD services and programmes.
In the longer-term, the comprehensive ECD plan and programme envisaged by the policy must be resourced. However, if we are to see substantial and sustained returns in the term of the NDP, we must prioritise those ECD service and programmes that are necessary to include and equalise opportunities for the most marginalised pregnant women and young children. Notably, there must be a massive increase in availability and access to nutritional services, parenting support and out-of-centre programmes providing quality early childhood care and education for the youngest children and children living in under-serviced vulnerable communities and households.
These ECD areas have been neglected at a programming and funding level. The policy commits to restoring the balance and prioritising the roll out of programmes, at scale, in these neglected areas. However, to make sure we see, in the words of Minster Gordhan, “action [and] not just words” the policy commitments must be supported by a substantial increase in allocations of the public purse to implement these essential, non-negotiable foundations of equitable human development.
The current budget do not deliver the resource-commitments needed to translate the policy from words into action.
Whilst Minister Gordhan recognises the need for investments in social developmental initiatives, the focus of the budget is on trade and industrial innovation. The social developmental initiatives are given a few bare paragraphs committing to increasing investments in education infrastructure, residential services in metropolitan municipalities, improving health and education infrastructure. In amongst this sketch, the budget recognises the importance of early childhood education and proposes an very minimal R 813 million to increase the number of children in ECD centres by 104 000 in the MTEF period.
This falls very short of the required levels and scope of investment necessary to secure universal availability and equitable access to the non-negotiable services that must be in place to catalyse equitable development. The commitment simply does not cover the non-negotiables: Nutrition, parenting support and out-of-centre early childhood care and education, leaving a vacuum between policy intent and what we can possibly action, based on the allocations in in the current MTEF.
The Policy Post is written by Patricia Martin, the director of Advocacy Aid, a consultancy that provides advocacy support to the development sector. Patricia has worked as a child rights advocate and policy analyst for more than a decade and has a special interest in ECD policy and programme development and monitoring.
