The 7.7-billion-baht Women Empowerment Fund (WEF) has yet to fully realise its goodwill aspirations because of bureaucratic ennui and cronyism, critics said on the eve of the International Women's Day on March 8.
The fund has dished out 130 million baht each to 20 highly populated provinces. Twenty-two medium-sized provinces have each got 100 million baht and 35 smaller provinces have received 70 million baht each, according to the WEF website.
Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (Photo by Apichart Jinakul)
Yet it took 18 months from when Thailand's first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, delivered the WEF's policy to the parliament in August 2011 before the fund could really be launched in February last year.
So far about 450 million baht has been spent for administrative and legal preparation.
It is not a surprise to women's rights advocates that after a year, the foreseeable problems have arisen, such as close connections between political and bureaucratic influential figures and members of national, provincial, and sub-district-level WEF committees.
Their criticisms include failure to use the revolving fund upgrade the capacity of women to survive socially, economically, and educationally, while the subsidies and grants given to each province have been misused for study tours or training support by closely-connected groups.
Some critics say funds seemed to have been approved for proposals for residential districts from core members of provincial WEFs.
Others note there are duplications or support for members of communities that already have access to government resources, especially many funds run by government and non-government agencies.
Amporn Boonthan, Huaysai sub-district women fund chair, said there was a good will but the procedures and modalities in expediting the fund remained cumbersome, nepotism-prone, and irrelevant to the real problems of the communities.
Instead of linking the civil society works and the already-existing women-dominated bodies such as the housewives groups, the fund has made a new reservoir for a pay-out to like--minded and close-connected people to the local politicians and civil servants, said Ms Amporn from Chiang Mai's San Kamphaeng district.
She recognised, however, that women's rights and community activists should also make more effort to maximise the links to the huge project.
"We need to help work out how to reach out, design and support the real needs of women on the ground so that the benefits will not be lop-sided in favour of certain political groups," said Ms Amporn.
Women for Peace Association (We Peace) member Papeemoh Poh-itada-oh said the WEF has yet to be implemented and evaluated properly.
The fund should be expanded to cover the really desperate and needy groups of women, not empower those who already have a chance and access to human and capital resources, said Ms Papeemoh from Yala.
Nirapong Sukmoung, a member of the Pattani WEF Monitoring Committee, said complaints about the project included too little funding and slow approval of applications.
But the WEF Provincial Approving Committee in Pattani province, Mr Nirapong said, reasoned that they needed to ensure the efficiency and accountability of the revolving fund.
"I think this way women in the villages also learn how to improve their proposal presentations and implementation plans to ensure they can repay the money," said Mr Nirapong.
Sriyada Palimaphan, secretary to the minister of social development and human security, said the agencies involved have now re-evaluated the WEF implementation and will soon re-adjust the amount of revolving funds and grant-subsidy ratios to reach out to with wider and more specific support to the civil society that works for the betterment of women.
"We've learned from the past lessons of the village fund management," said Ms Sriyada, who was a member of the team drafting the WEF proposal for the Pheu Thai Party.
She pleaded for earnest support and solidarity from women groups as there were bureaucratic red tape and legal restraints in implementing the ambitious projects.
"The ministries of social development, interior, and education have been involved in baby-sitting the strength and effectiveness of the WEF. Fortunately, the WEF is already into the national programme and budget so it is not seriously affected by the political instability. But it will be better if the WEF could be later on enacted as a law and not under the supervision of various agencies," said Ms Sriyada.