Economist raises concern over health, education budget disbursement gaps

A local economist, Stevenson Dlamini, has raised concern over gaps between government budget allocations and actual disbursements to the health and education sectors, saying limited funding reaching intended beneficiaries is undermining access to essential services.

Dlamini was speaking on Thursday during a stakeholder dialogue on strengthening public budget allocations for the health and education sectors, hosted by Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) in Bulawayo.

The meeting, which comes as the Treasury is planning next year’s national budget, sought to strengthen stakeholder engagement and evidence-based advocacy for adequate, equitable and gender-responsive public budget allocations to the health and education sectors, particularly to improve access to essential services for women, girls and other vulnerable groups.

Dlamini said citizens should look beyond headline budget allocations and examine how much of the money allocated to various programmes is actually released and reaches the intended beneficiaries.

“When we speak of the financing gaps in the public sector, especially within the fiscal space, we’re looking at the variations between what is allocated vis-à-vis what is disbursed. The question is how much really gets to the final intended beneficiary,” said the economist.

He said the problem was particularly concerning in the education and health sectors, where inadequate disbursements can have serious consequences for vulnerable groups.

“What we observe is that the intended beneficiary most of the time is excluded from the allocated budget. And also we realise that a very small proportion of what is allocated actually is released or disbursed and finally gets to the intended beneficiary. Especially within the education sector and the health sector,” he said.

Dlamini said inadequate financing could disrupt girls’ access to education and limit access to essential menstrual health products.

“The implications are far reaching, stretching from the disruption, disruption of the education opportunities for the girl child, which makes them even more vulnerable, speaking to the failure to access sanitary health equipment which they are supposed to access via this fiscal allocation,” he said.

He said inadequate funding could also perpetuate inequality and undermine Zimbabwe’s efforts to meet its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“All these create or perpetuate inequality and inequity, which violates or reduces the chances of us fulfilling the SDGs,” he said.

Dlamini said the financing challenges should also be viewed against the objectives of Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2), particularly its commitments to reducing inequality, promoting gender equality and strengthening inclusion.

Dlamini urged citizens participating in national budget consultations to make specific demands rather than simply calling for increased allocations.

“I think the citizens have the opportunity within this budget consultative framework to express clearly the size of the budget allocations that they want reflected in the budget,” he said.

He said citizens should identify specific budget lines affecting vulnerable groups and demand concrete increases.

“Not to just say we want an inclusive, want an increase, but to disaggregate their needs and specifically pinpoint at a granular level the specific lines that they want addressed,” he said.

He cited sanitary wear for schoolgirls as an example, saying the allocation worked out to about ZIG80 per child per year when calculated against the number of learners.

“We noticed for example, the allocation towards sanitary wear, which when we disaggregate amounts to about ZiG80 per year per child. Those clearly reflect the inadequacy of the fiscal provision,” Dlamini said.

Dlamini said citizens should calculate budget allocations against the number of people they are intended to serve instead of focusing only on headline figures in budget documents.

“We have 1.5 million learners. Is that adequate to support those learners given the value or the nominal amount that would have been allocated in the budget?” he asked.

He said such calculations would enable citizens to better assess whether allocations were sufficient to meet basic needs.

“So as citizens, let’s not just look at the nominal provisions as contained in the budget strategic paper, but let’s divide by the number of children and then ask ourselves, can one survive and provide for sanitary wear at ZiG80 for the whole year?” he said.

Dlamini said scrutinising allocations at this level would expose funding gaps in gender-sensitive programmes and provide citizens with stronger evidence when engaging policymakers during budget consultations.