Zanzibar strengthens gender and equity budgeting to transform service delivery for children, women and vulnerable groups

ZANZIBAR, 29^th January 2025 — The President’s Office Finance Planning (POFP) of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government, with support from UNICEF, held the second Zanzibar High-Level Budget Monitoring Symposium under the theme ‘Investing in Gender and Equity Budgeting to transform social outcomes and service delivery’, reaffirming the Government's dedication to improving budget performance and resource efficiency. During the dialogue, key stakeholders from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and development partners discussed how MDAs in specific sector are performing in implementing their budgets and planned activities as essential instruments to improve the delivery of basic service such as health care and education for children in Zanzibar.

The symposium's analysis highlighted significant progress made by four sector MDAs—Health, Water and Energy, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, and Education—in achieving their financial and physical targets for the 2022/2023 fiscal year. For the 2023/2024 fiscal year, budget monitoring has been expanded to include two additional sector MDAs: Agriculture and Blue Economy.

“Some of the achievements made since the first budget monitoring symposium in December 2023 include improved gender and equity planning and budgeting; improved capacity of the budget department to undertake budget monitoring in more MDAs, as well as improved resource prioritization in monitored sector MDAs, among others,” explained Zena Mahmoud Hassan, Commissioner of Budget.

Efficient budget monitoring efforts by the President’s Office Finance Planning have yielded improved planning, budgeting, decision making and collaborations with sector ministries. Other results include linking sector budgets with the Zanzibar Development Plan as well as strategic alignment of resources to national priorities. Similarly, capacity-building efforts across ministries have equipped planners with tools to adopt Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) indicators, ensuring their budgets deliver measurable outcomes.

A cornerstone of the progress has been the introduction of gender and equity-sensitive budgeting, identifying specific activities that promote gender and equity and deliberating specific allocations in the six pilot sectors. This has led to the development of a gender and equity sensitive roadmap, marking a critical step toward inclusivity in fiscal planning.

“At the heart of public financial management lies a nation’s ability to turn fiscal strategies into tangible results for its people,” said UNICEF Representative to Tanzania, Elke Wisch. “For Zanzibar, this means ensuring that every resource allocation reflects an investment in the future - one where children, women, and vulnerable populations have equitable access to essential services and opportunities.”