Gender Budgeting Responses on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): Lessons from Selected Countries

The chapter examines the budgetary responses to gender-based violence (GBV) by governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Global reports indicate that Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for most of the countries with high incidences of gender-based violence. Reports on the prevalence of GBV in Sub-Saharan Africa reveal high incidences of female genital mutilation in countries like Ethiopia (65.2%), Cote D’Ivoire (36.7%), intimate partner physical or sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (50.7%), Uganda (49.9%), Rwanda (41.5%), and Kenya (40.7%), and child marriage in Nigeria (43.4%), and Ethiopia (40.3%). To reduce the widening gender gap that emanates from the growing cases of gender-based violence in South Sub-Saharan Africa, the responses of the governments have focused on legislation, policies, and programmes that target the provision of healthcare, legal services, and economic empowerment of women. Although most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have components of gender mainstreaming into their budgeting processes, the allocation to crucial areas that target victims of gender-based violence remains low, which is also observed in the high gender gap index in most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hence, the chapter examines the prevalence of gender-based violence in Sub-Saharan Africa, the measures that are taken to address the problem, the budgeting responses to gender-based violence in SSA, and lessons from effective gender budgeting responses from some of the countries analysed. The chapter uses secondary data sourced from organizational databases, publications, journals, the Internet, and other secondary sources. The chapter reveals that governments’ funding of gender-based violence in most countries in SSA is low and recommends that governments at all levels in SSA should commit to funding programmes that protect the legal, social, and economic rights of women in the region.