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'''Gender budgeting''' means preparing [[budget]]s or analyzing them from a gender perspective. Also referred to as gender-sensitive budgeting, this practice does not entail dividing budgets for women. It aims at dealing with budgetary [[gender inequality]] issues, including gender hierarchies and the discrepancies between women's and men's salaries.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002316/231646e.pdf|title=A Guide for Gender Equality in Teacher Education Policy and Practices|last=UNESCO|publisher=Paris, UNESCO|year=2015|isbn=978-92-3-100069-0|pages=72–75}}</ref> At its core, gender budgeting is a feminist policy with a primary goal of re-orienting the allocation of public resources, advocating for an advanced decision-making role for women in important issues, and securing equity in the distribution of resources between men and women. Gender budgeting allows governments to promote equality through fiscal policies by taking analyses of a budget's differing impacts on the sexes as well as setting goals or targets for equality and allocating funds to support those goals.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/03/economist-explains-2|title=What is gender budgeting?|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=2017-10-21|language=en}}</ref> This practice does not always target intentional discrimination, but rather forces an awareness of the effects of financial schemes on all genders.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gendereconomy.org/gender-budgeting-a-tool-for-achieving-equality/|title=Gender budgeting: A tool for achieving equality|last=Gender and the Economy|date=2017-10-20|website=Gender and the Economy|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-26}}</ref>
'''Gender budgeting''' means preparing [[budget]]s or analyzing them from a gender perspective. Also referred to as gender-sensitive budgeting, this practice does not entail dividing budgets for women. It aims at dealing with budgetary [[gender inequality]] issues, including gender hierarchies and the discrepancies between women's and men's salaries.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002316/231646e.pdf|title=A Guide for Gender Equality in Teacher Education Policy and Practices|last=UNESCO|publisher=Paris, UNESCO|year=2015|isbn=978-92-3-100069-0|pages=72–75}}</ref> At its core, gender budgeting is a feminist policy with a primary goal of re-orienting the allocation of public resources, advocating for an advanced decision-making role for women in important issues, and securing equity in the distribution of resources between men and women. Gender budgeting allows governments to promote equality through fiscal policies by taking analyses of a budget's differing impacts on the sexes as well as setting goals or targets for equality and allocating funds to support those goals.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/03/economist-explains-2|title=What is gender budgeting?|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=2017-10-21|language=en}}</ref> This practice does not always target intentional discrimination but rather forces an awareness of the effects of financial schemes on all genders.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gendereconomy.org/gender-budgeting-a-tool-for-achieving-equality/|title=Gender budgeting: A tool for achieving equality|last=Gender and the Economy|date=2017-10-20|website=Gender and the Economy|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-26}}</ref>


OECD notes that gender budgeting is a way for governments to promote equality through the budget process against persistent gender disparities in education, employment, entrepreneurship, and public life opportunities and outcomes.Planning budgets with the promotion of gender equality in mind has the potential to help policymakers address a range of inequalities embedded in public policy and resource allocation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender budgeting - OECD |url=https://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/gender-budgeting.htm |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=www.oecd.org}}</ref>
OECD notes that gender budgeting is a way for governments to promote equality through the budget process against persistent gender disparities in education, employment, entrepreneurship, and public life opportunities and outcomes. Planning budgets with the promotion of gender equality in mind has the potential to help policymakers address a range of inequalities embedded in public policy and resource allocation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender budgeting - OECD |url=https://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/gender-budgeting.htm |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=www.oecd.org}}</ref>


Gender budgeting is set up to help close the gender gap.Gender budgeting helps achieve important standards of public financial management. Equality is a fundamental value of the [[European Union]] and a major goal of the [[European Commission|European Commissio]]<nowiki/>n. Equality for all and equality in every sense of the word play a central role in achieving a prosperous and social Europe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender Budgeting Practices: Concepts and Evidence |url=https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/publications/gender-budgeting-practices-concepts-and-evidence_en |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=economy-finance.ec.europa.eu |language=en}}</ref>
Gender budgeting is set up to help close the gender gap. Gender budgeting helps achieve important standards of public financial management. Equality is a fundamental value of the [[European Union]] and a major goal of the [[European Commission]]. Equality for all and equality in every sense of the word play a central role in achieving a prosperous and social Europe.<ref name="economy-finance.ec.europa.eu">{{Cite web |title=Gender Budgeting Practices: Concepts and Evidence |url=https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/publications/gender-budgeting-practices-concepts-and-evidence_en |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=economy-finance.ec.europa.eu |language=en}}</ref>


Promoting equality is important not only from a moral argument, but also from an economic perspective. Studies have highlighted that more equal economies benefit from higher employment rates in terms of income distribution and access to education and other services. Several studies have demonstrated that inequality has significant economic costs and that improving equality can boost EU growth. Budgets are an important means of increasing equity in all dimensions. Budget allocations are a central means of achieving these goals. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender Budgeting Practices: Concepts and Evidence |url=https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/publications/gender-budgeting-practices-concepts-and-evidence_en |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=economy-finance.ec.europa.eu |language=en}}</ref>
Promoting equality is important not only from a moral argument but also from an economic perspective. Studies have highlighted that more equal economies benefit from higher employment rates in terms of income distribution and access to education and other services. Several studies have demonstrated that inequality has significant economic costs and that improving equality can boost EU growth. Budgets are an important means of increasing equity in all dimensions. Budget allocations are a central means of achieving these goals.<ref name="economy-finance.ec.europa.eu"/>


== History ==
Gender budgeting can be characterized as a gender status and class-based policy.<ref name=":1">O'Hagan, A. 2015. Favourable conditions for the adoption and implementation of gender budgeting: Insights from comparative analysis. Politica Economica, 31(2), 233-252.</ref> As a gender status policy, gender budgeting has the purpose of doing away with power hierarchies that have conferred privileges to men and devalued the contributions made by women. Gender budgeting remedies the disadvantages and discrimination against women by incorporating them in the budgetary process and fighting marginalization and exclusion from economic, political, and constitutional processes. As a class-based policy, it visualizes the sexual division of labor and exposes the consequent economic and social marginalization on women. Gender budgeting exposes such inequalities and sets the stage for the equalization of the status of women through the advancement of resources and civic rights to facilitate better access to services funded by governments.<ref name=":1" />
===Origin and emergence===
By the late 1970s, a broad range of specialized policy mechanisms were developed in the states of Australia to improve the economic and social status of women. This women's policy mechanism was not devised by the government but was developed by the so-called "femocrats" in the women's movement. These femocrats found employment in the women's policy sector and "created a feminist presence within the state itself".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://academic.oup.com/pa/article-abstract/55/1/5/1472456?redirectedFrom=fulltext. |title=The Representation of Women in Australia: Meaning and Make‐Believe |access-date=2022-12-24 |website=academic.oup.com |date=January 1, 2002}}</ref> Against this background, the first gender budgeting initiative was undertaken in Australia in 1984.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |url=https://rm.coe.int/1680596143 |title=Gender budgeting - Final report of the Group of specialists on gender budgeting |year=2005 |publisher=Council of Europe }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://academic.oup.com/pa/article-abstract/55/1/5/1472456?redirectedFrom=fulltext |title=The Representation of Women in Australia: Meaning and Make‐Believe |date=January 1, 2002|access-date=2022-12-24 |website=academic.oup.com}}</ref>


Pioneering analyses of the impact of public budgets on gender relations were conducted, with the belief that budgets are an essential tool for promoting gender equality. This Australian effort was not only important for raising gender awareness, but also served as an important reference point for subsequent gender budgeting efforts.<ref name=":5" />
In public finance, there is insufficient evidence paid by policy makers and gender activists regarding the taxation section as gender activists should certainly be concerned about the revenue side of the budget.<ref name=":2">Valodia, I. 2009. Gender, poverty and taxation: An overview of a multi-country study of gender and taxation. Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, (81), 137-147. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27868988</ref> There is a direct relationship between government expenditure and taxation; when there are no sufficient revenues, the expenditure programs will be unfunded and the chances to reach gender equity are less since taxes are the essence of government profits.<ref name=":1" /> Henceforth, countries with insufficiently low revenues are generally unable to enhance public and social services which increases the burden on women to provide more care and social provision. In turn, women tend to fall outside the income tax threshold as they earn lower incomes than men.<ref name=":2" /> It is implemented by ministry of women and child development.


=== 1995 UN World Conference on Women ===
== Origin and emergence ==
In 1995, based on the discussions at the [[World Conference on Women, 1995|UN Fourth World Conference on Women]] held in Beijing, the UN Women recommended that governments systematically review public sector expenditures and adjust their budgets to ensure gender equality in access to expenditures. Since then, gender budgeting has become internationally recognized as a strategy for strengthening gender equality.<ref name=":5" />


Progress has been made in economic participation, political opportunities, health, and education, particularly in terms of significant improvements in girls' enrollment in primary education, strengthening of women's legal rights, and reduction in maternal mortality.<ref name="Gender Budgeting in G20 Countries">{{Cite journal |last1=Curristine |first1=Teresa |last2=Tchelishvili |first2=Nino |last3=Alonso-Albarran |first3=Virginia |last4=Soler |first4=Alberto |last5=Preston |first5=Gemma |last6=Weerathunga |first6=Sureni |date=2021-11-01 |title=Gender Budgeting in G20 Countries |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4026499 |language=en |location=Rochester, NY|ssrn=4026499 |journal=IMF}}</ref> Several multilateral institutions are currently promoting gender budgeting through research support, technical assistance for gender budgeting initiatives, and information dissemination.<ref name=":5" /> By 2004, 179 out of 191 UN member states bound themselves to take action to tackle the problem.<ref name=":3">Downes, R., Von Trapp, L. and Nicol, S., 2017. Gender budgeting in OECD countries. OECD Journal on Budgeting, 16(3), pp.71-107, Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/gender/Gender-Budgeting-in-OECD-countries.pdf</ref>
In 1984, the first gender budgeting initiative took place in Australia. Pioneering analyses of the impact of public budgets on gender relations were conducted, with the belief that budgets are an essential tool for promoting gender equality. This Australian effort was not only important for raising gender awareness, but also served as an important reference point for subsequent gender budgeting efforts.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Gender budgeting |url=https://rm.coe.int/1680596143}}</ref>


The G20-Women, the official engagement group of the G20, called for increased investment in gender budgeting to ensure that fiscal policies advance gender equality in the short- and long-term recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.<ref name="Gender Budgeting in G20 Countries"/>
In 1995, based on the discussions at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, the UN Women recommended that governments systematically review public sector expenditures and adjust their budgets to ensure gender equality in access to expenditures. Since then, gender budgeting has become internationally recognized as a strategy for strengthening gender equality<ref name=":5" />


=== Increasing transparency ===
Progress has been made in economic participation, political opportunities, health, and education, particularly in terms of significant improvements in girls' enrollment in primary education, strengthening of women's legal rights, and reduction in maternal mortality.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Curristine |first=Teresa |last2=Tchelishvili |first2=Nino |last3=Alonso-Albarran |first3=Virginia |last4=Soler |first4=Alberto |last5=Preston |first5=Gemma |last6=Weerathunga |first6=Sureni |date=2021-11-01 |title=Gender Budgeting in G20 Countries |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4026499 |language=en |location=Rochester, NY}}</ref>A number of multilateral institutions are currently promoting gender budgeting through research support, technical assistance for gender budgeting initiatives, and information dissemination.<ref name=":5" /> By 2004, 179 out of 191 UN member states bound themselves to take action to tackle the problem.<ref name=":3">Downes, R., Von Trapp, L. and Nicol, S., 2017. Gender budgeting in OECD countries. OECD Journal on Budgeting, 16(3), pp.71-107, Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/gender/Gender-Budgeting-in-OECD-countries.pdf</ref>
Gender budgeting also increases transparency and participation in the budget process. In particular, orthodox economics has neglected the "care economy," even though it constitutes an important part of the economy, along with profit-oriented markets and the public service sector. The care economy refers to unpaid production and services in the private sphere (family, neighborhood, community) based primarily on women's unpaid labor. Public budgets usually consider only the monetary economy. As a result, free care and services are excluded from the macroeconomic framework of the national budget. "Gender budgeting" is increasingly needed to correct these disparities.<ref name=":5" />


Feminist economists and gender budget analysts such as Rhonda Sharp and Diane Elson have cautioned against the "false economy" associated with ignoring the care economy. Women's engagement in these "unpaid jobs" can lead to a lack of employment climate and a lack of social security. Thus, integrating care economies into economic policy in general, and gender budgets in particular is a more broadly appropriate approach to welfare efficiency and costs than the traditional concept of economies.<ref name=":5" />
The G20-Women, the official engagement group to the G20, called for increased investment in GB to ensure that fiscal policies advance gender equality in the short- and long-term recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Curristine |first=Teresa |last2=Tchelishvili |first2=Nino |last3=Alonso-Albarran |first3=Virginia |last4=Soler |first4=Alberto |last5=Preston |first5=Gemma |last6=Weerathunga |first6=Sureni |date=2021-11-01 |title=Gender Budgeting in G20 Countries |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4026499 |language=en |location=Rochester, NY}}</ref>

Gender budgeting also increases transparency and participation in the budget process. In particular, orthodox economics has neglected the "care economy," even though it constitutes an important part of the economy, along with profit-oriented markets and the public service sector.The care economy refers to unpaid production and services in the private sphere (family, neighborhood, community) based primarily on women's unpaid labor. Public budgets usually consider only the monetary economy. As a result, free care and services are excluded from the macroeconomic framework of the national budget. "Gender budgeting" is increasingly needed to correct these disparities.<ref name=":5" />

Feminist economists and gender budget analysts such as Rhonda Sharp and Diane Elson have cautioned against the "false economy" associated with ignoring the care economy.Women's engagement in these "unpaid jobs" can lead to a lack of employment climate and a lack of social security. Thus, integrating care economies into economic policy in general, and gender budgets in particular, is a more broadly appropriate approach to welfare efficiency and costs than the traditional concept of economies.<ref name=":5" />


== Objectives ==
== Objectives ==
Gender budget analysis aims at finding out whether women and men can access the same opportunities equally. In gender budget analysis, gaps are addressed so that those who are disadvantaged become empowered. A gender-sensitive budget analysis contains how budgets recognize and answer the needs of men and women, whether they are children, young or adults.<ref>Balmori, H. H. 2003. ''Gender and Budgets, Overview Report''. BRIDGE (development - gender) Brighton, Institute of Development Studies. <nowiki>http://www.eldis.org/v</nowiki> le/upload/1/document/0708/DOC19156.pdf (Accessed 5 July 2014.)</ref><ref>Quinn, S. 2009. ''Gender Budgeting: Practical implementation handbook''. Strasbourg, Council of Europe, Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs.</ref> Gender budget analysis plays a key role in highlighting discrimination against women and how money is distributed between the two groups.<ref>Elson, D. 2005. ''Monitoring Government Budgets for Compliance with CEDAW: Report highlights and key conclusions''. NY, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). <nowiki>http://www.iwraw-ap.org/resources/pdf/</nowiki> MonitoringGovernmentBudgetsComplianceCEDAW_summary_eng.pdf (Accessed 5 July 2014.)</ref> This type of analysis contributes to finding solutions to gender discrimination and highlights empowerment or disempowerment among two distinct groups: men and women.<ref name=":0" /> Gender budgeting is not intended to look only at female budgets or policies but to rather examine the effects that gender has on all programs and policies.<ref name=":6">Stotsky, J. (2016). Gender Budgeting : Fiscal Context and Current Outcomes. IMF Working Papers, 16(149), 1. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.5089/9781475575460.001</nowiki></ref>
Gender budget analysis aims at finding out whether women and men can access the same opportunities equally. In gender budget analysis, gaps are addressed so that those who are disadvantaged become empowered. A gender-sensitive budget analysis contains how budgets recognize and answer the needs of men and women, whether they are children, young, or adults.<ref>Balmori, H. H. 2003. ''Gender and Budgets, Overview Report''. BRIDGE (development - gender) Brighton, Institute of Development Studies. http://www.eldis.org/v le/upload/1/document/0708/DOC19156.pdf (Accessed 5 July 2014.)</ref><ref>Quinn, S. 2009. ''Gender Budgeting: Practical implementation handbook''. Strasbourg, Council of Europe, Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs.</ref> Gender budget analysis plays a key role in highlighting discrimination against women and how money is distributed between the two groups.<ref>Elson, D. 2005. ''Monitoring Government Budgets for Compliance with CEDAW: Report highlights and key conclusions''. NY, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). http://www.iwraw-ap.org/resources/pdf/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512000456/http://www.iwraw-ap.org/resources/pdf/ |date=2020-05-12 }} MonitoringGovernmentBudgetsComplianceCEDAW_summary_eng.pdf (Accessed 5 July 2014.)</ref> This type of analysis contributes to finding solutions to gender discrimination and highlights empowerment or disempowerment among two distinct groups: men and women.<ref name=":0" /> Gender budgeting is not intended to look only at female budgets or policies but to rather examine the effects that gender has on all programs and policies.<ref name=":6">Stotsky, J. (2016). Gender Budgeting : Fiscal Context and Current Outcomes. IMF Working Papers, 16(149), 1. {{doi|10.5089/9781475575460.001}}</ref>

The [[Council of Europe]] (2005) defines five objectives of gender budgeting: the first one being the most straightforward and the following ones, more implicit objectives that gender budgeting can also achieve.<ref>Council of Europe. 2005. Gender budgeting. <nowiki>https://rm.coe.int/1680596143</nowiki></ref>

1.       Gender equality<blockquote>main article: [[gender equality]]</blockquote>Gender budgeting primarily helps to dismantle [[Gender inequality|gender inequalities]]. Gender inequalities are still visible in the modern society and are clearly demonstrated in entrepreneurship opportunities, labor participation, remuneration, education, health outcomes, governance, and personnel representation in top management positions.<ref name=":3" /> While these disparities may be associated with traditional aspects especially on the cultural roles of men and women, they demonstrate inequalities in the allocation of public resources. The purpose of gender budgeting is to remedy such inequalities by ensuring that public policy is designed and delivered in an inclusive manner which recognizes women as key contributors to economic advancement.<ref name=":3" /> The fundamental objective is then to use the budget and related policies to achieve gender equality as part of human rights. It will raise awareness about unintended and indirect discrimination against women. Gender budgeting is therefore a set of strategic tools aiming to go beyond the supposedly neutral perspective of public finance and give visibility on the impact of budgets on gender.

2.       Accountability

Gender budgeting is a tool to monitor whether government’s commitments to gender equality are effectively translated into budgetary commitments. <ref>Sharp, R., Broomhill, R. 2002. Budgeting for Equality: The Australian Experience. In: Feminist Economics Vol. 1/8, p. 25-4</ref> It facilitates the establishment of gender mainstreaming within government policies by assigning authorities clear responsibilities and by making it easier to know if they are meeting their gender equality objectives.  Civil society and the media can therefore play an important role in monitoring and holding the government liable for their budgets.

3.       Transparency and participation

Gender budgeting can contribute in increasing participation in the budget process through public consultation, participation in budget preparation or the monitoring of the outcomes which will thereby increase transparency. <ref name=":9">Gender budgeting. (s.d). European Institute for Gender Equality. <nowiki>https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/methods-tools/gender-budgeting</nowiki></ref>

4.       Efficiency

Gender responsive budgets can improve information on different situations and needs of women and men as well as on potential distributional effects of budget measures. <ref name=":9" />This allows governments to take better-informed and more evidence-based decisions in a more efficient decision-making framework.

5.       Good governance<blockquote>main article: [[good governance]]</blockquote>Since gender inequalities are considered harmful to social cohesion, economic efficiency and human development, gender budgeting can help to strengthen good governance in general. Due to the fact it can be considered as a tool promoting equal citizenship and fair distribution by reducing inequalities and poverty.


The [[Council of Europe]] (2005) defines five objectives of gender budgeting: the first one being the most straightforward and the following ones, more implicit objectives that gender budgeting can also achieve.<ref>Council of Europe. 2005. Gender budgeting. https://rm.coe.int/1680596143</ref>
== Implementation process ==
Depending on the country, there are specific processes that gender budgeting goes through. Nonetheless, in all cases, gender analysis and monitoring must be carried out in principle.<ref name=":7">Klatzer, E., & Stiegler, B. 2011. Gender budgeting - an equality policy strategy. (12), 8.</ref> The stages for gender analysis are as follows:


=== 1. Gender equality ===
i. Administration must prepare budget draft.
{{main |gender equality}}
Gender budgeting primarily helps to dismantle [[Gender inequality |gender inequalities]].<ref name=":3" /> While these disparities may be associated with traditional aspects, especially on the cultural roles of men and women, they demonstrate inequalities in the allocation of public resources. The purpose of gender budgeting is to remedy such inequalities by ensuring that public policy is designed and delivered in an inclusive manner.<ref name=":3" /> The fundamental objective is then to use the budget and related policies to achieve gender equality as part of human rights. It will raise awareness about unintended and indirect discrimination against women.


=== 2. Accountability ===
ii. Parliament debates the budget.
Gender budgeting is a tool to monitor whether the government's commitments to gender equality are effectively translated into budgetary commitments.<ref>Sharp, R., Broomhill, R. 2002. Budgeting for Equality: The Australian Experience. In: Feminist Economics Vol. 1/8, p. 25-4</ref> It facilitates the establishment of gender mainstreaming within government policies by assigning authorities clear responsibilities and by making it easier to know if they are meeting their gender equality objectives.  Civil society and the media can therefore play an important role in monitoring and holding the government liable for their budgets.


=== 3. Transparency and participation ===
iii. Budget implementation should be monitored.
Gender budgeting helps increase participation in the budget process through public consultation, participation in budget preparation, or the monitoring of the outcomes which will thereby increase transparency.<ref name=":9">Gender budgeting. (s.d). European Institute for Gender Equality. https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/methods-tools/gender-budgeting</ref>


=== 4. Efficiency ===
iv. Budget implementation should be reported and accounted.<ref name=":7" />
Gender-responsive budgets can improve information on different situations and needs of women and men as well as on potential distributional effects of budget measures.<ref name=":9" /> This allows governments to take better-informed and more evidence-based decisions in a more efficient decision-making framework.


=== 5. Good governance ===
In order for a gender budget to be successfully adopted and implemented, certain actions are considered necessary. These actions are divided into three phases: advocacy and agenda-setting, formal adoption, and implementation of the gender-aware budget.<ref name=":4">Addabbo, T., Lanzi, D. & Picchio, A. 2010. Gender budgets: a capability approach. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 11(4), pp.479-501, retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Antonella_Picchio/publication/227620162_Gender_Budgets_A_Capability_Approach/links/00b495362673128758000000/Gender-Budgets-A-Capability-Approach.pdf</ref>
{{main |good governance}}
'''Advocacy and agenda-setting''' involves the creation of a pro-equality climate through commitment to gender equality and mainstreaming, advocating for political change, understanding the process of making budgets, pushing for favorable economic conditions, and supporting the implementation of a gender-quality framework.<ref name=":4" />
Since gender inequalities are considered harmful to social cohesion, economic efficiency, and human development, gender budgeting can help to strengthen good governance in general. Due to the fact it can be considered as a tool promoting equal citizenship and fair distribution by reducing inequalities and poverty.
'''The formal adoption process''' encompasses the formulation of clear frameworks for gender budgets, engaging important actors such as government officials and politicians, and building the necessary political will.<ref name=":4" />
Lastly, the '''implementation phase''' covers the collection of evidence in practice, effecting political leadership, and coming up with strategies to promote continuity.<ref name=":4" />


== Tools ==
== Tools ==
There are different ways to implement gender budgeting'''.''' The process of gender budgeting tends to be varied across countries as there is lack of consensus on the most effective approach<ref name=":3" /> These can come in different forms such as official budget proposals or just merely papers sketched from interest groups outside the government zone.<ref name=":8">Stotsky, J. G. 2007. Budgeting with Women in Mind. 9.</ref> Gender budgeting tools can play on the two major components of a budget :
There are different ways to implement gender budgeting. The process of gender budgeting tends to be varied across countries as there is a lack of consensus on the most effective approach<ref name=":3" /> These can come in different forms such as official budget proposals or just merely papers sketched by interest groups outside the government zone.<ref name=":8">Stotsky, J. G. 2007. Budgeting with Women in Mind. 9.</ref> Gender budgeting tools can play on the two major components of a budget :


1) Expenditure effects evaluated: Expenditure is evaluated by disaggregating the spending of the government into categories beneficial for women and girls.<ref name=":8" />
# Expenditure effects evaluated: Expenditure is evaluated by disaggregating the spending of the government into categories beneficial for women and girls.<ref name=":8" />
# Revenue effects evaluated: Another recent initiative to assess revenue policies is by aiming to fully end discrimination against women in the personal income tax.<ref name=":8" />


Gender budgeting has been put into practice across many countries and its impacts assessed. The ''2016 OECD Survey of Gender Budgeting Practices'' is one of the few existing documents on the extent of the implementation of gender budgeting and its impact. The survey revealed that 15 out of the 34 surveyed countries had already introduced gender budgeting while others had plans to introduce the concept in their budgetary processes.<ref name=":3" />
2) Revenue effects evaluated: Another recent initiative to assess revenue policies is by aiming to fully end discrimination against women in the personal income tax.<ref name=":8" />


The following implementation tools of gender budgeting are presented with the ''[[OECD]] typology'' which uses a classification according to the level budgeting cycle stage.
Gender budgeting has been put to practice across many countries and its impacts assessed. The ''2016 OECD Survey of Gender Budgeting Practices''is one of the few existing documentations of the extent of the implementation of gender budgeting and its impact. The survey revealed that 15 out of the 34 surveyed countries had already introduced gender budgeting while others had plans to introduce the concept in their budgetary processes.<ref name=":3" />


== Development by regions ==
The <u>following implementation tools of gender budgetin</u>g are presented with the ''[[OECD]] typology'' which uses a classification according to the level budgeting cycle stage.
To overcome gender-blind policies and budgets many government officials from different countries took it upon themselves to analyze differences and propose budgets that are considerate of the inequalities women face financially. Developments have been in practice all over the world.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|last1=O'Hagan|first1=Angela|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMJNDwAAQBAJ&q=gender+budgeting+developments&pg=PR7|title=Gender Budgeting in Europe: Developments and Challenges|last2=Klatzer|first2=Elisabeth|date=2018-02-23|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-64891-0|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite book|last=Dena, Mercy K.|title=Public budgeting with a gender lens : Fulton County, Georgia and San Francisco, California|oclc=854843852}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{Cite journal|last1=Addabbo|first1=Tindara|last2=Gunluk-Senesen|first2=Gulay|last3=O'Hagan|first3=Angela|date=2015|title=Gender Budgeting: Insights from Current Methodologies and Experiences in Europe|journal=Politica Economica|issue=2/2015|pages=125–134 |doi=10.1429/80929|issn=1120-9496}}</ref>


An [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] working paper published in 2021 shows that on average,  advanced economies in the [[G20]] (AEs) have better Gender Budgeting Index (GBI) than emerging economies (EMEs).<ref name=":10">Curristine, T., Tchelishvili, N., Soler, A., Alonso-Albarran, V., Preston, G. & Weerathunga, S. (2021). Gender Budgeting in G20 Countries. IMF Working Papers, 2021(269), 1. {{doi|10.5089/9781616354510.001}}</ref> The IMF integrated into their GBI, 23 questions to assess the development of gender budgeting tools in those 19 countries and the European Union. The study also highlights some countries with significantly better GBI than their group counterparts like Canada, France, Austria, and Spain for Advanced G20 and Mexico for Emerging G20.
=== Ex-ante approaches ===
Measure of potential impact of existing and future measures on a gender perspective. The purpose of these tools is to achieve better-informed decision making.

* Ex-ante gender impact assessment:  analysis of individual budget measures, in advance of their inclusion in the budget through a gender lens.

* Gender budget baseline analysis'':'' similarly to ex-ante gender impact assessment, it will focus on allocation of expenditures/revenues but those already included in the budget. This can take the form of a periodic analysis.

* Gender needs assessment: where needs assessments lay the foundation for key budget decisions to give an understanding of the existing gender disparities and which policy approaches can have the most impact on gender equality. Identify priorities for policy action by including views and opinion from stakeholders and civil society representatives.

=== Concurrent approaches ===
Refer to taking actions/decisions based on the ex-ante gender analysis.

* Performance and results oriented approach: specification of gender-related performance targets for the entire budget. It generally follows the national gender objectives.

* Financial resource allocation approach: it uses financial allocation decisions to reduce the gender gap by analyzing how overall budgeted resources can be allocated towards gender equality.

* Gender disaggregated incidence analysis of the budget: this is an official assessment conducted by the central budget authority (or under its authority) of the annual budget’s impact on gender equality. It includes both an expenditure evaluation and a revenue evaluation given gender disaggregated data. This is considered as a basic tool and the OECD highlights the limits of the positive impacts of such a method because for example the volume of expenditure for policies promoting gender equality is mainly used to track the evolution pattern of the interest in closing the gender gap.

=== Ex-post approaches ===
Applied at a later stage of the budget cycle. The ex-post assessment allows to strengthen accountability and to highlight the best practices.

* Ex-post gender impact assessment:  as the opposite of ex-ante gender impact analysis, it focuses on the impact of individual budget measures after their implementation taking into account a gender perspective.  

* Gender audit/scrutiny of the budget: this is conducted by an independent and external authority from the central budget authority. Similarly to any budgetary activity, this tool verifies if gender budgeting activities met the targeted gender objectives.

* Gender perspective in spending review: gender can also be included as a dimension in the analysis of the effectiveness of the public spending in the national spending review.

== Developments ==
To overcome gender-blind policies and budgets many government officials from different countries took it upon themselves to analyze differences and propose budgets that are considerate of the inequalities women face financially. Developments have been in practice all over the world.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|last1=O'Hagan|first1=Angela|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMJNDwAAQBAJ&q=gender+budgeting+developments&pg=PR7|title=Gender Budgeting in Europe: Developments and Challenges|last2=Klatzer|first2=Elisabeth|date=2018-02-23|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-64891-0|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite book|last=Dena, Mercy K.|title=Public budgeting with a gender lens : Fulton County, Georgia and San Francisco, California|oclc=854843852}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{Cite journal|last1=Addabbo|first1=Tindara|last2=Gunluk-Senesen|first2=Gulay|last3=O'Hagan|first3=Angela|date=2015|title=Gender Budgeting: Insights from Current Methodologies and Experiences in Europe|journal=Politica Economica|issue=2/2015|doi=10.1429/80929|issn=1120-9496}}</ref>

An [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] working paper published in 2021 shows that on average,  advanced economies in the [[G20]] (AEs) have better Gender Budgeting Index (GBI) than emerging economies (EMEs).<ref name=":10">Curristine, T., Tchelishvili, N., Soler, A., Alonso-Albarran, V., Preston, G. & Weerathunga, S. (2021). Gender Budgeting in G20 Countries. IMF Working Papers, 2021(269), 1. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.5089/9781616354510.001</nowiki></ref> The IMF integrated in their GBI, 23 questions to assess the development of gender budgeting tools in those 19 countries and in the European Union. The study also highlights some countries with significantly better GBI than their group counterparts like Canada, France, Austria and Spain for Advanced G20 and Mexico for Emerging G20.


=== Africa ===
=== Africa ===
Africa is a region that faces many challenges in developing its economy, the majority of countries are low-income countries which makes it difficult for them to access the international financial market and make good use of their budgets. Public spending on education and health is generally insufficient.<ref name=":16">{{Cite journal |last=Kolovich |first=Lisa |last2=Shibuya |first2=Sakina |date=2016 |title=Middle East and Central Asia: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2882586 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2882586 |issn=1556-5068}}</ref>
Africa is a region that faces many challenges in developing its economy, the majority of countries are low-income countries which makes it difficult for them to access the international financial market and make good use of their budgets. Public spending on education and health is generally insufficient.<ref name=":16">{{Cite journal |last1=Kolovich |first1=Lisa |last2=Shibuya |first2=Sakina |date=2016 |title=Middle East and Central Asia: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2882586 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2882586 |issn=1556-5068}}</ref>


To address this problem, several sub-Saharan governments have undertaken public financial management reforms. These reforms allow governments to integrate gender-oriented goals into program-based budgeting. The majority of gender budgeting efforts focus on the spending of public allocations and the design of public programs. However, gender inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa persists in access to education, wages, and health care.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal |last=Stotsky |first=Janet G. |last2=Kolovich |first2=Lisa |last3=Kebhaj |first3=Suhaib |date=2016 |title=Sub-Saharan Africa: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2882587 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2882587 |issn=1556-5068}}</ref>
To address this problem, several sub-Saharan governments have undertaken public financial management reforms. These reforms allow governments to integrate gender-oriented goals into program-based budgeting. The majority of gender budgeting efforts focus on the spending of public allocations and the design of public programs. However, gender inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa persists in access to education, wages, and health care.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal |last1=Stotsky |first1=Janet G. |last2=Kolovich |first2=Lisa |last3=Kebhaj |first3=Suhaib |date=2016 |title=Sub-Saharan Africa: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2882587 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2882587 |issn=1556-5068}}</ref>


In the last decade, North African countries have faced political conflicts and population uprisings. In this part of the world, unemployment rates remain high for women and young people. Many infrastructures remain difficult to access for women from non-urban areas. Therefore, North Africa faces the same challenge as Sub-Saharan countries in order to equally integrate women in the system.  As a result, some North African countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt) have started to invest in infrastructure, health care and education as well as in tax policies and public finance management.<ref name=":16" />
In the last decade, North African countries have faced political conflicts and population uprisings. In this part of the world, unemployment rates remain high for women and young people. Many infrastructures remain difficult to access for women from non-urban areas. Therefore, North Africa faces the same challenge as Sub-Saharan countries to equally integrate women into the system.  As a result, some North African countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt) have started to invest in infrastructure, health care, and education as well as in tax policies and public finance management.<ref name=":16" />


However Sub-saharan countries remain among the least developed countries, Sub-Saharan African countries are among the first to implement gender budgeting right after Australia which did it in the 80s. They use tax policies and tax administrations to improve gender equality and women's development. Tax policies are important in promoting gender equality and women's development. Whether it is men or women, government budgets impact them in different ways.
However Sub-saharan countries remain among the least developed countries, Sub-Saharan African countries are among the first to implement gender budgeting right after Australia which did it in the 80s. They use tax policies and tax administrations to improve gender equality and women's development. Tax policies are important in promoting gender equality and women's development. Whether it is men or women, government budgets impact them in different ways.
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In the mid-1990s, the first sub-Saharan country to engage in gender budgeting was South Africa. The most successful sub-Saharan countries in gender budgeting are South Africa, Rwanda, and Uganda. This success is explained by the fact that gender budgeting is mandated by the Ministry of Finance in these countries. These 3 countries apply gender budgeting as welfare for the country and not only for women. These countries have received financial support from donors and NGOs for the gender budgeting effort.<ref name=":17" />
In the mid-1990s, the first sub-Saharan country to engage in gender budgeting was South Africa. The most successful sub-Saharan countries in gender budgeting are South Africa, Rwanda, and Uganda. This success is explained by the fact that gender budgeting is mandated by the Ministry of Finance in these countries. These 3 countries apply gender budgeting as welfare for the country and not only for women. These countries have received financial support from donors and NGOs for the gender budgeting effort.<ref name=":17" />


==== [[Uganda]] ====
==== Uganda ====
Uganda is a low-income country with an agriculture-based economy. The country has evolved through improved macroeconomic control and enhanced growth. Uganda's efforts on gender budgeting are mainly aimed at ensuring that the government addresses gender issues through the regular planning and budgeting process. As a result, thanks to these efforts, the country has been successful in addressing gender issues.These efforts are evident in the collaboration of government bodies, donors, and NGOs. Nevertheless,  Uganda still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality.<ref name=":17" />
[[Uganda]] is a low-income country with an agriculture-based economy. The country has evolved through improved macroeconomic control and enhanced growth. Uganda's efforts on gender budgeting are mainly aimed at ensuring that the government addresses gender issues through the regular planning and budgeting process. As a result, thanks to these efforts, the country has been successful in addressing gender issues. These efforts are evident in the collaboration of government bodies, donors, and NGOs. Nevertheless, Uganda still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality.<ref name=":17" />


In the 1990s, the first gender budgeting initiative by the Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), an NGO, was launched, and over the years other plans have been implemented with the aim of improving the situation of women in the country and combating poverty. During this period, FOWOD collaborated with the Parliamentary Budget Office and budget officers in order to evolve in gender budgeting. One of the main objectives of FOWODE was to implement an initiative to support maternal health by creating “mama kits” with the help of the Ministry of Health.<ref name=":17" />
In the 1990s, the first gender budgeting initiative by the Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), an NGO, was launched, and over the years other plans have been implemented to improve the situation of women in the country and combate poverty. During this period, FOWOD collaborated with the Parliamentary Budget Office and budget officers to evolve in gender budgeting. One of the main objectives of FOWODE was to implement an initiative to support maternal health by creating “mama kits” with the help of the Ministry of Health.<ref name=":17" />


In 1997, the Ugandan government introduced its Poverty Eradication Action Plan which incorporated a gender strategy. This plan aims to reduce poverty across the country among women.<ref name=":17" />
In 1997, the Ugandan government introduced its Poverty Eradication Action Plan which incorporated a gender strategy. This plan aims to reduce poverty across the country among women.<ref name=":17" />


In 2004-2005, the first real gender budgeting was included in the Budget Call Circular (country’s budget) by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. The appendix integrated some guidelines on how to manage gender focus objectives in the budget for local governments and sector ministries.<ref name=":17" />
In 2004–2005, the first real gender budgeting was included in the Budget Call Circular (country's budget) by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. The appendix integrated some guidelines on how to manage gender focus objectives in the budget for local governments and sector ministries.<ref name=":17" />


From 2010 to 2015, the third Poverty Eradication Plan has been removed in favor of the National Development Plan. This Plan has as the center of attention human development, employment and growth. The main goal is the advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment by gender budgeting and gender responsive monitoring. Most of programs of the plans are reserved for women and girls.<ref name=":17" />
From 2010 to 2015, the third Poverty Eradication Plan has been removed in favor of the National Development Plan. This Plan has as the center of attention human development, employment and growth. The main goal is the advancement of gender equality and women's empowerment through gender budgeting and gender-responsive monitoring. Most of the programs of the plan are reserved for women and girls.<ref name=":17" />


==== [[Morocco]] ====
==== Morocco ====
Morocco is the first country in North Africa to implement a gender budgeting initiative. Moreover, this initiative was the most advanced in the region. This initiative was launched in 2002 by the Ministry of Finance and Privatization with the assistance of the World Bank. Morocco aimed to effectively achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore, they emphasized increasing women's public employment and collecting sex-disaggregated data.<ref name=":16" />
[[Morocco]] is the first country in North Africa to implement a gender budgeting initiative. Moreover, this initiative was the most advanced in the region. This initiative was launched in 2002 by the Ministry of Finance and Privatization with the assistance of the World Bank. Morocco aimed to effectively achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore, they emphasized increasing women's public employment and collecting sex-disaggregated data.<ref name=":16" />


The first Gender Report has been released in 2006 by the Ministry of Economy and Finance which encompasses 4 ministries that needed to point out key zones where there were gender gaps, existence of assessments, and goals setting for upcoming performance. Then, different reports have followed the first one and growing each year, to reach 80% of the federal budget in 2016.<ref name=":16" />
The first Gender Report has been released in 2006 by the Ministry of Economy and Finance which encompasses 4 ministries that needed to point out key zones where there were gender gaps, assessments, and goals sets for upcoming performance. Then, different reports followed the first one and grew each year, to reach 80% of the federal budget in 2016.<ref name=":16" />


First of all, the Gender Report was set up in order to be an appendix to the Economic and Financial Report. Nevertheless, it became an autonomous document. This report became a key role in Morocco’s gender budgeting initiatives.<ref name=":16" />
First of all, the Gender Report was set up to be an appendix to the Economic and Financial Report. Nevertheless, it became an autonomous document. This report became a key role in Morocco's gender budgeting initiatives.<ref name=":16" />


Furthermore, Morocco has also included gender budgeting in its legal framework with the 2003 Labor Code which requires equal salary for equal work and a ban for gender discriminations for work. In addition, this framework guarantees maternity and paternity leaves.<ref name=":16" />
Furthermore, Morocco has also included gender budgeting in its legal framework with the 2003 Labor Code which requires equal salary for equal work and a ban on gender discrimination at work. In addition, this framework guarantees maternity and paternity leaves.<ref name=":16" />


=== Asia ===
=== Asia ===
The Asia-Pacific region accounts for a quarter of the countries that support the gender budgeting to promote gender equality and women's rights and is home to the gender budgeting's earliest and most innovative strategies. However, there is little documentation of the efforts made by countries in the region and the lessons learned from their experiences.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Gender Responsive Budgeting in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Status Report |language=en |work=UN Women – Asia-Pacific |url=https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2016/12/gender-responsive-budgeting-in-the-asia-pacific |access-date=2022-12-13}}</ref>
The Asia-Pacific region accounts for a quarter of the countries that support the gender budgeting to promote gender equality and women's rights and is home to gender budgeting's earliest and most innovative strategies. However, there is little documentation of the efforts made by countries in the region and the lessons learned from their experiences.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Gender Responsive Budgeting in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Status Report |language=en |work=UN Women – Asia-Pacific |url=https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2016/12/gender-responsive-budgeting-in-the-asia-pacific |access-date=2022-12-13}}</ref>


While the Asia-Pacific region has made progress in recent decades in terms of the development of women's rights laws and policies, limited funding remains an important obstacle to closing the gap between men and women and boys and girls.
While the Asia-Pacific region has made progress in recent decades in terms of the development of women's rights laws and policies, limited funding remains an important obstacle to closing the gap between men and women and boys and girls.
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In the Asia-Pacific region, various forms of gender-responsive budgeting initiatives can be found at the national, state, and regional levels in at least 29 countries. The gender-responsive budgeting landscape in the region is diverse and dynamic, with countries following different trajectories. Some countries, such as the Philippines, India, and Indonesia, have been sustaining a gender budgeting approach for more than a decade, while others have entered the fray more recently, either by expanding it into new sectors or by devolving authority to subnational levels of government.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender-responsive budgeting in Asia and the Pacific : key concepts and good practice |url=https://www.unescap.org/resources/gender-responsive-budgeting-asia-and-pacific-key-concepts-and-good-practices |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=ESCAP |language=EN}}</ref>
In the Asia-Pacific region, various forms of gender-responsive budgeting initiatives can be found at the national, state, and regional levels in at least 29 countries. The gender-responsive budgeting landscape in the region is diverse and dynamic, with countries following different trajectories. Some countries, such as the Philippines, India, and Indonesia, have been sustaining a gender budgeting approach for more than a decade, while others have entered the fray more recently, either by expanding it into new sectors or by devolving authority to subnational levels of government.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender-responsive budgeting in Asia and the Pacific : key concepts and good practice |url=https://www.unescap.org/resources/gender-responsive-budgeting-asia-and-pacific-key-concepts-and-good-practices |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=ESCAP |language=EN}}</ref>


==== [[Japan]] ====
==== Japan ====
Japan has introduced a gender budget. In 1999, the Basic Law for a Gender-equal Society was enacted, which stipulates that "the Government shall endeavor to take necessary measures for the smooth promotion of international mutual cooperation on the formation of a gender-equal society ". In addition, the Basic Plan for Gender Equality (formulated in 2000) stipulated the promotion of the WID ( Women in Development ) Initiative.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender Equity and Women’s Empowerment Japan's Action Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan |url=https://www.gender.go.jp/about_danjo/basic_plans/5th/pdf/5th_gaiyo.pdf}}</ref>
[[Japan]] has introduced a gender budget. In 1999, the Basic Law for a Gender-equal Society was enacted, which stipulates that "the Government shall endeavor to take necessary measures for the smooth promotion of international cooperation on the formation of a gender-equal society ". In addition, the Basic Plan for Gender Equality (formulated in 2000) stipulated the promotion of the WID (Women in Development) Initiative.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender Equity and Women's Empowerment Japan's Action Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan |url=https://www.gender.go.jp/about_danjo/basic_plans/5th/pdf/5th_gaiyo.pdf}}</ref>


This basic plan is revised every five years, with the latest being the "Fifth Basic Plan" issued in 2020. In this plan, gender issues are analyzed with respect to 11 areas, including "Promotion of Gender Equality in Science, Technology, and Academia" and "Promotion of Gender Equality in Science, Technology, and Academia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office of Japan |url=https://www.gender.go.jp/about_danjo/basic_plans/5th/pdf/5th_gaiyo.pdf}}</ref>
This basic plan is revised every five years, with the latest being the "Fifth Basic Plan" issued in 2020. In this plan, gender issues are analyzed concerning 11 areas, including "Promotion of Gender Equality in Science, Technology, and Academia" and "Promotion of Gender Equality in Science, Technology, and Academia.<ref name=":19">{{Cite web |title=Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office of Japan |url=https://www.gender.go.jp/about_danjo/basic_plans/5th/pdf/5th_gaiyo.pdf}}</ref>


For example, in "Promotion of Gender Equality in Science, Technology, and Academia," numerical targets were set to increase the percentage of female university faculty members (lecturers and above) in science and engineering from 8.0% and 4.9% in 2016 to 12.0% and 9.0% in science and engineering by 2015, respectively. The budget has also been created in line with these goals.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office of Japan |url=https://www.gender.go.jp/about_danjo/yosan/pdf/04yosan-01.pdf}}</ref>
For example, in "Promotion of Gender Equality in Science, Technology, and Academia," numerical targets were set to increase the percentage of female university faculty members (lecturers and above) in science and engineering from 8.0% and 4.9% in 2016 to 12.0% and 9.0% in science and engineering by 2015, respectively. The budget has also been created in line with these goals.<ref name=":19" />


The Basic Plan states that Japan will "incorporate and disseminate international norms and standards domestically" and "contribute to 'equality, development, and peace' in the global community," and expresses its commitment to gender equality in Japan as well as to gender equality in developing countries through development assistance. This is a major feature of Japan's gender equality policy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Japanese Journal of Evaluation Studies(2004) |url=http://evaluationjp.org/files/Vol04_No1.pdf}}</ref>
The Basic Plan states that Japan will "incorporate and disseminate international norms and standards domestically" and "contribute to 'equality, development, and peace' in the global community," and expresses its commitment to gender equality in Japan as well as to gender equality in developing countries through development assistance. This is a major feature of Japan's gender equality policy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Japanese Journal of Evaluation Studies(2004) |url=http://evaluationjp.org/files/Vol04_No1.pdf}}</ref>


Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has been strengthening its support for gender in ODA with the aim of strengthening its internal structure and gender considerations in its projects, and has incorporated a "gender equality perspective" in the basic policy of the ODA Charter and stipulated a "gender perspective" in its mid-term ODA policy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender Equity and Women’s Empowerment Japan's Action Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan |url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/sector/gender/action.html}}</ref>
Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has been strengthening its support for gender in ODA within its internal structure and through gender considerations in its projects, and has incorporated a "gender equality perspective" in the basic policy of the ODA Charter and stipulated a "gender perspective" in its mid-term ODA policy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gender Equity and Women's Empowerment Japan's Action Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan |url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/sector/gender/action.html}}</ref>


=== Europe ===
=== Europe ===
In Europe, many countries have joined efforts in implementing gender sensitive budgets. Spain, Iceland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Turkey, and the United Kingdom have all conducted research, collected data, and practiced different methodologies concerning gender budgeting.<ref name=":02" /> Vienna University of Economics and Business organized a conference with twenty different countries; this allowed for the countries to share their conceptual ideas, theories, and experiences.<ref name=":22" /> This engagement transformed economic models to focus on feminist economics, which take gender relations into account.<ref name=":02" /> Emerging economies of Europe are also following this trend by integrating gender-oriented objectives in their budget planning. <ref name=":6" />
In Europe, many countries have joined efforts in implementing gender-sensitive budgets. Spain, Iceland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Turkey, and the United Kingdom have all conducted research, collected data, and practiced different methodologies concerning gender budgeting.<ref name=":02" /> Vienna University of Economics and Business organized a conference with twenty different countries; this allowed the countries to share their conceptual ideas, theories, and experiences.<ref name=":22" /> This engagement transformed economic models to focus on feminist economics, which takes gender relations into account.<ref name=":02" /> Emerging economies of Europe are also following this trend by integrating gender-oriented objectives in their budget planning.<ref name=":6" />


==== [[European Union]] ====
==== European Union ====
At the European level, gender budgeting is a tool used to meet the commitments to gender equality and gender mainstreaming as defined in the treaties.<ref>European Parliament Think Tank. (2020). EU Gender budgeting : where do we stand ?. <nowiki>https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/IPOL_BRI(2020)660058</nowiki></ref> Several member states have already introduced gender budgeting programs, but at EU level, the process is still at an early stage. The [[European Commission|Commission]] is experimenting with a gender perspective in the draft of the 2023 budget.<ref>Ellena, S. (2022, 27 juillet). Experts call on EU to ‘fully integrate’ gender approach in bloc’s budget and policy. www.euractiv.com. <nowiki>https://www.euractiv.com/section/participatory-democracy/news/experts-call-on-eu-to-fully-integrate-gender-approach-in-blocs-budget-and-policy/</nowiki></ref> The pilot project has the purpose to track the contributions of EU spendings in fostering gender equality. Additionally, the objective is to collect data to later assess the impact of EU financing on gender equality. Despite the introduction of gender budgeting in the [[Budget of the European Union|EU budget]], the [[European Court of Auditors]] (ECA) concluded recently that the European Commission should increase its efforts on the matter.<ref>Zalan, E. (2022, 14 novembre). Gender equality least-included goal in EU budget, auditors find. EUobserver. <nowiki>https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/156417</nowiki></ref> In general, progress in terms of gender mainstreaming is slowing down: the proposals for 2021-2027 [[Multiannual Financial Framework|multiannual financial framework]] (MFF) show a lower level of ambition to support gender equality than previous MFF. The EU focuses on a standalone and horizontal definition of [[gender equality]] with no quantitative target which does not foster significant development in gender analysis of budget<ref>EIGE. (2020). Beijing +25: the fifth review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the EU Member States.
At the European level, gender budgeting is a tool used to meet the commitments to gender equality and gender mainstreaming as defined in the treaties.<ref>European Parliament Think Tank. (2020). EU Gender budgeting : where do we stand ?. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/IPOL_BRI(2020)660058</ref> Several member states have already introduced gender budgeting programs, but at the EU level, the process is still at an early stage. The [[European Commission|Commission]] is experimenting with a gender perspective in the draft of the 2023 budget.<ref>Ellena, S. (2022, 27 juillet). Experts call on EU to ‘fully integrate’ gender approach in bloc’s budget and policy. www.euractiv.com. https://www.euractiv.com/section/participatory-democracy/news/experts-call-on-eu-to-fully-integrate-gender-approach-in-blocs-budget-and-policy/</ref> The pilot project has the purpose to track the contributions of EU spending in fostering gender equality. Additionally, the objective is to collect data to later assess the impact of EU financing on gender equality. Despite the introduction of gender budgeting in the [[Budget of the European Union|EU budget]], the [[European Court of Auditors]] (ECA) concluded recently that the European Commission should increase its efforts on the matter.<ref>Zalan, E. (2022, 14 novembre). Gender equality least-included goal in EU budget, auditors find. EUobserver. https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/156417</ref> In general, progress in terms of gender mainstreaming is slowing down: the proposals for the 2021-2027 [[Multiannual Financial Framework|multiannual financial framework]] (MFF) show a lower level of ambition to support gender equality than the previous MFF. The EU focuses on a standalone and horizontal definition of [[gender equality]] with no quantitative target which does not foster significant development in gender analysis of the budget.<ref>EIGE. (2020). Beijing +25: the fifth review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the EU Member States.
{{doi|10.2839/169862}}</ref>


==== Belgium ====
<nowiki>https://doi.org/10.2839/169862</nowiki></ref>.
In [[Belgium]], gender budgeting is established in the framework of the 2007 law on [[gender mainstreaming]]. The law states that a gender perspective must be considered in all federal policies.<ref name=":11">Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs. (2022). Gender Budgeting Practices: Concepts and Evidence. Discussion Paper 165. {{doi|10.2765/782016}}</ref> Gender budgeting is introduced in Article 2 of the law: “the integration of the gender perspective into the whole of its policies, measures, budgetary preparations and actions to avoid or correct inequalities between women and men shall be ensured."<ref>Belgian gender mainstreaming law, 2007, available at : https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/sites/default/files/downloads/loigm.pdf.</ref> In 2010 a specific circular on gender budgeting was published,<ref>Circulaire spécifique sur le gender budgeting. (2010). https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/sites/default/files/downloads/Circulaire%20gender%20budgeting%20FR1.pdf</ref> it includes the objectives and the procedure to follow to implement a gender lens to the budget.<ref name=":13">{{Cite web |title=Gender budgeting |url=https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/fr/activites/gender_mainstreaming/mise_en_oeuvre_de_la_loi/gender_budgeting |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=Institut pour l'égalité des femmes et des hommes |language=fr}}</ref> Following this circular, all federal public services will have to submit their budget to a gender analysis. Before that, budget circulars were mostly focused on awareness


Belgium adopts ex-ante gender impact assessment as their only tool to implement gender budgeting. This is part of a gender-informed resource allocation budgeting system.<ref name=":11" /> Belgian institutions are using a tagging system to comply with the aforementioned circular. The classification is described as follows in the “Manual for the application of gender mainstreaming within the federal administration”:<ref>Institut pour l’égalité des femmes et des hommes. (2011). Manuel pour la mise en œuvre du gender budgeting au sein de l’administration fédérale belge https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/sites/default/files/downloads/Manuel%20gender%20budgeting.pdf</ref> the first category is for non-gender related elements like technical credits and internal functioning. The second category includes credits related to actions aimed at achieving gender equality like higher male/female presence at work, training... The last category gathers all credits related to public policies with a gender dimension like subsidies, projects and actions, allocations etc. Category 2 files require a gender note annexed to each project, which is an enumeration of all the credits that were applied to promote gender equality.  Category 3 files require a gender comment explaining the gender dimension. This gender comment includes a comprehensive analysis of the composition of the target group and a public expenditure incidence analysis.<ref name=":11" /> Every two years, the tagging system is assessed by the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (IEWM)., to check if the circular is well applied.<ref name=":13" />
==== [[Belgium]] ====
In Belgium, gender budgeting is established in the framework of the 2007 law on [[gender mainstreaming]]. The law states that a gender perspective must be considered in all federal policies.<ref name=":11">Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs. (2022). Gender Budgeting Practices: Concepts and Evidence. Discussion Paper 165. doi:10.2765/782016</ref> Gender budgeting is introduced in Article 2 of the law : “the integration of the gender perspective into the whole of its policies, measures, budgetary preparations and actions in order to avoid or correct inequalities between women and men shall be ensured."<ref>Belgian gender mainstreaming law, 2007, available at : <nowiki>https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/sites/default/files/downloads/loigm.pdf</nowiki>.</ref> In 2010 a specific circular on gender budgeting was published <ref>Circulaire spécifique sur le gender budgeting. (2010). <nowiki>https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/sites/default/files/downloads/Circulaire%20gender%20budgeting%20FR1.pdf</nowiki></ref>, it includes the objectives and the procedure to follow to implement a gender lens to the budget. <ref name=":13">{{Cite web |title=Gender budgeting |url=https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/fr/activites/gender_mainstreaming/mise_en_oeuvre_de_la_loi/gender_budgeting |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=Institut pour l'égalité des femmes et des hommes |language=fr}}</ref> Following this circular, all federal public services will have to submit their budget to a gender analysis. Before that, budget circulars were mostly focused on awareness


Belgium created an Interdepartmental Coordination Group (ICG) composed of officials from different public services and the federal Institute for the Equality of Women and Men. The objective of the group is to establish a transversal approach and ensure a consistent strategy.<ref name=":11" /> The ICG writes semi-annual reports on the follow-up of the federal implementation of gender mainstreaming.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Groupe Interdépartemental de Coordination (GIC) |url=https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/fr/activites/gender_mainstreaming/mise_en_oeuvre_de_la_loi/groupe_interdepartemental_de_coordination |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=Institut pour l'égalité des femmes et des hommes |language=fr}}</ref>
Belgium adopts ex-ante gender impact assessment as their only tool to implement gender budgeting. This is part of a gender-informed resource allocation budgeting system.<ref name=":11" /> Belgian institutions are using a tagging system to comply with the aforementioned circular. The classification is described as follows in the “Manual for the application of gender mainstreaming within the federal administration”<ref>Institut pour l’égalité des femmes et des hommes. (2011). Manuel pour la mise en œuvre du gender budgeting au sein de l’administration fédérale belge <nowiki>https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/sites/default/files/downloads/Manuel%20gender%20budgeting.pdf</nowiki></ref> : the first category is for non-gender related elements like technical credits and internal functioning. The second category includes credits related to actions aimed at achieving gender equality like higher male/female presence at work, training… The last category gathers all credits related to public policies with a gender dimension like subsidies, projects and actions, allocations etc. Category 2 files require a gender note annexed to each project, which is an enumeration of all the credits that were applied to promote gender equality.<sup> </sup> Category 3 files require a gender comment explaining the gender dimension. This gender comment includes a comprehensive analysis of the composition of the target group and a public expenditure incidence analysis.<ref name=":11" /> Every two years, the tagging system is assessed by the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (IEWM)., to check if the circular is well applied.<ref name=":13" />

Belgium created an Interdepartmental Coordination Group (ICG) composed of officials from different public services and from the federal Institute for the Equality of Women and Men. The objective of the group is to establish a transversal approach and ensure a consistent strategy.<ref name=":11" /> The ICG writes semi-annual reports on the follow-up of the federal implementation of gender mainstreaming.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Groupe Interdépartemental de Coordination (GIC) |url=https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/fr/activites/gender_mainstreaming/mise_en_oeuvre_de_la_loi/groupe_interdepartemental_de_coordination |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=Institut pour l'égalité des femmes et des hommes |language=fr}}</ref>


=== North America ===
=== North America ===


==== [[United States]] ====
==== United States ====
In the United States there have been gender budgeting efforts in California and Georgia.<ref name=":12" /> San Francisco, CA began developing a gender sensitive budget in 1998; Fulton County, GA began gender budgeting efforts in 2007.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Aid Effectiveness and Gender-responsive Budgets|last=Budlender|first=Debbie|date=2008-12-01|doi=10.14217/9781848590274-5-en}}</ref> In Georgia, gender budgeting researchers have gathered rich and useful data through interviews with policymakers concerned with gender equality and through multiple meetings involving a focus group composed of task members of different departments.<ref name=":12" /> In California, relevant data was collected through interviews, observations of a commission meeting, from non-profit organizations, and from the municipal website.<ref name=":12" />
In the [[United States]], there have been gender budgeting efforts in California and Georgia.<ref name=":12" /> San Francisco, CA began developing a gender-sensitive budget in 1998; Fulton County, GA began gender budgeting efforts in 2007.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Aid Effectiveness and Gender-responsive Budgets|last=Budlender|first=Debbie|date=2008-12-01|doi=10.14217/9781848590274-5-en|doi-access=free |url=https://www.thecommonwealth-ilibrary.org/index.php/comsec/catalog/download/129/126/805?inline=1 |journal=Commonwealth of Australia}}</ref> In Georgia, gender budgeting researchers have gathered rich and useful data through interviews with policymakers concerned with gender equality and through multiple meetings involving a focus group composed of task members of different departments.<ref name=":12" /> In California, relevant data were collected through interviews, observations of a commission meeting, from non-profit organizations, and the municipal website.<ref name=":12" />


==== [[Canada]] ====
==== Canada ====
{{main|Gender-based Analysis Plus}}
<blockquote>''main article: [[Gender-based Analysis Plus]]''</blockquote>Canada is one of the most advanced countries in terms of gender budgeting. They implement a Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) to assess the potential effects of policies, legislations and programs on different groups.<ref name=":14">Bova, E. & Jerosh Herold da Costa Reis, J. (2022). Gender Budgeting Practices : Concepts & Evidence. Publications Office of the European Union, DISCUSSION PAPER 165. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.2765/782016</nowiki></ref><ref name=":10" /> Canada extended the gender perspective by taking into account other identity factors included in the “plus” like ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion, level of income and disability.
[[Canada]] is one of the most advanced countries in terms of gender budgeting. They implement a Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) to assess the potential effects of policies, legislation, and programs on different groups.<ref name=":14">Bova, E. & Jerosh Herold da Costa Reis, J. (2022). Gender Budgeting Practices : Concepts & Evidence. Publications Office of the European Union, DISCUSSION PAPER 165. {{doi|10.2765/782016}}</ref><ref name=":10" /> Canada extended the gender perspective by taking into account other identity factors included in the “plus” like ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion, level of income, and disability.


The 2018 Gender Budgeting Act collects existing practices of GBA+ and requires the government to report annually how gender and diversity were impacted by new budget measures and similarly for tax expenditures analysis. <ref name=":10" /> Under this Act, the government is committed to take into consideration the result of the GBA+ in its budget decisions.<ref name=":14" />
The 2018 Gender Budgeting Act collects existing practices of GBA+ and requires the government to report annually how gender and diversity were impacted by new budget measures and similarly for tax expenditures analysis.<ref name=":10" /> Under this Act, the government is committed to take into consideration the result of the GBA+ in its budget decisions.<ref name=":14" />


For the 2018 budget, the Canadian government integrated the Gender Results Framework (GRF) outlining their principal gender equality priorities. The GRF is a governmental tool introduced to guide future policy decisions and track progress in gender equality and diversity given the established priorities.<ref name=":10" />
For the 2018 budget, the Canadian government integrated the Gender Results Framework (GRF) outlining their principal gender equality priorities. The GRF is a governmental tool introduced to guide future policy decisions and track progress in gender equality and diversity given the established priorities.<ref name=":10" />


== Impact ==
== Impact ==
The impact of gender budgeting is hard to pinpoint owing to the recency of the practice and the unavailability of adequate data to support its usefulness. In countries which have introduced gender budgeting, indicators of the usefulness of the practice have emerged in the stimulation of policy adoption to address gender inequality in such key areas as education, income disparities, security, health outcomes, social and economic welfare, political representation, and labor participation.<ref name=":3" /> With more data on gender budgeting becoming available with time, its impact will be assessed and feedback incorporated to the generation of better policies.
The impact of gender budgeting is hard to pinpoint owing to the recency of the practice and the unavailability of adequate data to support its usefulness. In countries that have introduced gender budgeting, indicators of the usefulness of the practice have emerged in the stimulation of policy adoption to address gender inequality in such key areas as education, income disparities, security, health outcomes, social and economic welfare, political representation, and labor participation.<ref name=":3" /> With more data on gender budgeting becoming available with time, its impact will be assessed and feedback incorporated into the generation of better policies.


Gender budgeting will have different impacts depending on the region in which it is implemented. For Africa, gender budgeting improves the use of fiscal tools to address gender inequality and women's development. African countries need to ensure that both girls and boys have equal access to primary and secondary education and access to health care for both men and women.<ref name=":16" /> Furthermore, gender budgeting helps African women to develop themselves in a patriarchal world where they are still second-class citizens.<ref name=":17" />
Gender budgeting will have different impacts depending on the region in which it is implemented. For Africa, gender budgeting improves the use of fiscal tools to address gender inequality and women's development. African countries need to ensure that both girls and boys have equal access to primary and secondary education, and access to health care for both men and women.<ref name=":16" /> Furthermore, gender budgeting helps African women to develop themselves in a patriarchal world where they are still second-class citizens.<ref name=":17" />


With regard to Europe, gender budgeting means that women face a high risk of poverty due to the combined effect of structural reforms and the shrinking of social protection systems as well as the evolution of the unemployment rate since the beginning of the last decade and future projections. Gender budgeting is important for the development of gender equality in many European countries, especially in the last former USSR countries where allowed to turn on the civil society. `<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Quinn |first=Sheila |date=2016 |title=Europe: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2882591 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2882591 |issn=1556-5068}}</ref>
About Europe, gender budgeting means that women face a high risk of poverty due to the combined effect of structural reforms and the shrinking of social protection systems and the evolution of unemployment rates since the beginning of the last decade. Gender budgeting is important for the development of gender equality in many European countries, especially in the last former USSR countries that were allowed to turn on civil society. `<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Quinn |first=Sheila |date=2016 |title=Europe: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2882591 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2882591 |issn=1556-5068}}</ref>


Finally, in Asia, gender budgeting contributed to fiscal policies gender equality focus in some countries, sometimes, emphasizing gender. Secondly, the increasing fiscal decentralization currently experienced in Asia is leading to the integration of gender budgeting at different sub-national levels of government. Previously, it was uncommon for local initiatives to be launched except in India, the Philippines and Indonesia. In addition, gender budgeting has led the continent to examine the performance of public expenditure through a gender lens.<ref name=":18">{{Cite journal |last=Chakraborty |first=Lekha |date=2016 |title=Asia: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3014027 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.3014027 |issn=1556-5068}}</ref>
In Asia, gender budgeting contributed to fiscal policies with gender equality focus in some countries, emphasizing gender. Secondly, the increasing fiscal decentralization currently experienced in Asia is leading to the integration of gender budgeting at different sub-national levels of government. Previously, it was uncommon for local initiatives to be launched except in India, the Philippines, and Indonesia. In addition, gender budgeting has led the continent to examine the performance of public expenditure through a gender lens.<ref name=":18">{{Cite journal |last=Chakraborty |first=Lekha |date=2016 |title=Asia: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3014027 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.3014027 |issn=1556-5068}}</ref>


As a result, gender budgeting has enabled a new analysis of the income tax structure in some countries of Asia like India where gender-budgeting policies appeared as new. Furthermore, gender budgeting accounts for support for women activists and social organizations to reclaim better governmental allowances and gender equity.<ref name=":18" />
As a result, gender budgeting has enabled a new analysis of the income tax structure in some countries of Asia like India where gender-budgeting policies appeared as new. Furthermore, gender budgeting accounts for support for women activists and social organizations to reclaim better governmental allowances and gender equity.<ref name=":18" />


== Challenges ==
== Challenges ==
When implementing gender budgeting into policy there are many challenges and limitations. Many countries struggle to introduce the concept of gender budgeting.<ref name=":22" /> Political, regional, and cultural factors are used as indicators to measure gender equality. These indicators are vital in the gender budgeting process; however, they fail to determine whether or not an ultimate goal has been reached.<ref name=":12" /> Also, gender budgeting is interdisciplinary, so different scholars struggle to accept techniques of gender budgeting.<ref name=":12" /> Feminists face the issue in trying to promote gender budgeting is creating connections and relationships with political actors that will pursue gender budgeting developments.<ref name=":22" />
When implementing gender budgeting into policy there are many challenges and limitations. Many countries struggle to introduce the concept of gender budgeting.<ref name=":22" /> Political, regional, and cultural factors are used as indicators to measure gender equality. These indicators are vital in the gender budgeting process; however, they fail to determine whether or not an ultimate goal has been reached.<ref name=":12" /> Also, gender budgeting is interdisciplinary, so different scholars struggle to accept the techniques of gender budgeting.<ref name=":12" /> Feminists face the issue of trying to promote gender budgeting is creating connections and relationships with political actors that will pursue gender budgeting developments.<ref name=":22" />


More and more countries are interested in gender budgeting, which is potentially growing. For the future, the important thing would be to focus on these activities:
More and more countries are interested in gender budgeting, which is potentially growing. For the future, the important thing would be to focus on these activities:


-  Collaboration between the different countries that apply gender budgeting in a process of sharing and helping each other.
* Collaboration between the different countries that apply gender budgeting in a process of sharing and helping each other.
* Different governments should allocate their funds for gender budgeting and for objectives that will contribute to gender equality.
* Donors involved in gender budgeting must be consistent.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Information and Communication |date=March 2002 |title=Budget Impact Assessments (Gender Budgeting) |url=https://www.oecd.org/social/gender-development/1896544.pdf |journal=OECD}}</ref>


In the Pacific and South and Southwest Asia, the need to address patriarchy, particularly related discriminatory, prejudicial, and closed norms, ideas, attitudes, values, beliefs, and perceptions was identified. Taking into account culture, religion, and tradition, Beijing's +20 respondent countries agreed that modifying norms and behaviors in favor of gender equality is a long-term, but important, endeavor<ref>{{Cite web |last=UN.ESCAP |date=2015 |title=Gender equality and women's empowerment in Asia and the Pacific : perspectives of governments on 20 years of implementation of the Beijing declaration and platform for action |url=https://repository.unescap.org/handle/20.500.12870/210 |publisher=[[United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific]]}}</ref>
-  Different governments should allocate their funds for gender budgeting and for objectives that will contribute to gender equality.


== Contribution of feminist economics ==
-  Donors involved in gender budgeting must be consistent.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Information and Communication |date=March 2002 |title=Budget Impact Assessments (Gender Budgeting) |url=Economics and Finance |journal=}}</ref>
{{main |feminist economics}}
Most of the considerations developed through the gender budgeting tools are derived from the feminist economics doctrine. By deconstructing the “neutral” economy and the consideration of the care economy, gender budgeting enables governments to integrate this gender perspective in the budget impact assessment.<ref name=":6" /> Therefore, it addresses the gender blindness criticisms associated with public policies and budgets raised by several feminist economists like Diane Elson.<ref name=":4"/> Gender budgeting will then incorporate the gender differences that are cemented in social systems of reproduction. Public budgets tend to ignore key social reproduction roles such as the maintenance of domestic spaces, human relationships, and bodies which is mostly done by women. The auditing of gender budgets allows for the visualization of women's unpaid work of social reproduction and its contribution to the well-being of the entire society.<ref name=":4">Addabbo, T., Lanzi, D. & Picchio, A. 2010. Gender budgets: a capability approach. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 11(4), pp.479-501, retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Antonella_Picchio/publication/227620162_Gender_Budgets_A_Capability_Approach/links/00b495362673128758000000/Gender-Budgets-A-Capability-Approach.pdf</ref> This section gathers some illustrations of what could a gender-sensitive budget take into account in its budgeting process.  


Reframing spending on human capital as investment instead of expenditure. <ref name=":15">{{Cite web |last=Gender and the Economy |date=2017-10-20 |title=Gender budgeting: A tool for achieving equality |url=https://www.gendereconomy.org/gender-budgeting-a-tool-for-achieving-equality/ |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=Gender and the Economy |language=en-US}}</ref> By having a broader overview, the investment in free universal childcare could lead in England to a reduction of the gender pay gap by 3 percentage points and a closing of the employment gap by 5 percentage points.
In the Pacific and South and Southwest Asia, the need to address patriarchy, particularly related discriminatory, prejudicial, and closed norms, ideas, attitudes, values, beliefs, and perceptions was identified. Taking into account culture, religion, and tradition, Beijing +20 respondent countries agreed that modifying norms and behaviors in favor of gender equality is a long-term, but important, endeavor<ref>{{Cite journal |last=UN.ESCAP |date=2015 |title=Gender equality and women's empowerment in Asia and the Pacific : perspectives of governments on 20 years of implementation of the Beijing declaration and platform for action |url=https://repository.unescap.org/handle/20.500.12870/210}}</ref>


When governments think about cuts in public services, they can take into account that it will have a greater impact on women given the “triple whammy” concept.<ref name=":15" /> This refers to the fact that women are primary users of public services, they are also main deliverers and they are more likely to take the loss of public services upon themselves.  By balancing the loss of public benefits for example with unpaid work, this reduces their ability to participate in the labor force.
== Contribution of feminist economics ==
<blockquote>main article: [[feminist economics]]</blockquote>Most of the considerations developed through the gender budgeting tools are derived from the feminist economics doctrine. By deconstructing the “neutral” economy and the consideration of the care economy, gender budgeting enables to integrate this gender perspective in the budget impact assessment.<ref name=":6" /> Therefore, it addresses the gender blindness criticisms associated with public policies and budgets raised by several feminist economists like Diane Elson.<ref name=":4" /> Gender budgeting will then incorporate the gender differences that are cemented in social systems of reproduction. Public budgets tend to ignore key social reproduction roles such as the maintenance of domestic spaces, human relationships, and bodies which is mostly done by women. The auditing of gender budgets allows for the visualization of women's unpaid work of social reproduction and its contribution to the well-being of the entire society.<ref name=":42">Addabbo, T., Lanzi, D. & Picchio, A. 2010. Gender budgets: a capability approach. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 11(4), pp.479-501, retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Antonella_Picchio/publication/227620162_Gender_Budgets_A_Capability_Approach/links/00b495362673128758000000/Gender-Budgets-A-Capability-Approach.pdf</ref> This section gathers some illustrations of what could a gender-sensitive budget take into account in its budgeting process.  


Another example can be highlighted with the traditional pattern of car ownership stating that on average men have larger vehicles and drive more often than women.<ref name=":15" /> This would mean that tax cuts for fuel consumptions would mainly benefit men.
Reframing spending on human capital as investment instead of expenditure. <ref name=":15">{{Cite web |last=Gender and the Economy |date=2017-10-20 |title=Gender budgeting: A tool for achieving equality |url=https://www.gendereconomy.org/gender-budgeting-a-tool-for-achieving-equality/ |access-date=2022-12-13 |website=Gender and the Economy |language=en-US}}</ref> By having a broader overview, the investment in free universal childcare could lead in England to a reduction of the gender pay gap by 3 percentage points and a closing of the employment gap by 5 percentage points.


Feminist economics brings a different perspective to the implementation of austerity measures in times of crisis. Recessions usually have a bigger negative impact on men than on women due to the gender-segregated employment: on average, men occupy more cyclically volatile jobs than women, making them less shielded to crises. Some authors underline the fact that this is mostly government responses to crisis that harm women's employment through cuts in public budgets.<ref>Berik, G. 2016. Women and Austerity: The Economic Crisis and the Future for Gender Equality, Feminist Economics, 22:2, 196-201, {{doi|10.1080/13545701.2016.1150598}}</ref> This can be explained by the overrepresentation of women in the public sector . Authors like Diane Perrons and Ania Plomien highlight the important role of gender budgeting to integrate the gender lens into the discussion and push for more feminist-Keynesian ideas in economic downturns.<ref>Perrons, D., Plomien, A. 2014. ''Gender, inequality and the crisis: towards more equitable development.'' In: Karamessini, Maria and Rubery, Jill, (eds.) Women and Austerity: the Economic Crisis and the Future for Gender Equality. Routledge IAFFE advances in feminist economics. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 295-313. ISBN 9780415815376</ref>
When governments think about cuts in public services, they can take into account that it will have a greater impact on women given the “triple whammy” concept.<ref name=":15" /> This refers to the fact that women are primary users of public services, they are also main deliverers and they are more likely to take the loss of public services upon themselves.  By balancing the loss of public benefits for example with unpaid work, this reduces their ability to participate in the labor force.


== See also ==
Another example can be highlighted with the traditional pattern of car ownership stating that on average men have larger vehicles and drive more often than women<ref name=":15" />. This would mean that tax cuts for fuel consumptions would mainly benefit men.
* [[Affirmative action]]
* [[Discrimination]]
* [[Equal pay for women]]
* [[Feminization of poverty]]
* [[Gender Inequality Index]]


== References ==
== References ==

Latest revision as of 05:29, 21 June 2024

Gender budgeting means preparing budgets or analyzing them from a gender perspective. Also referred to as gender-sensitive budgeting, this practice does not entail dividing budgets for women. It aims at dealing with budgetary gender inequality issues, including gender hierarchies and the discrepancies between women's and men's salaries.[1] At its core, gender budgeting is a feminist policy with a primary goal of re-orienting the allocation of public resources, advocating for an advanced decision-making role for women in important issues, and securing equity in the distribution of resources between men and women. Gender budgeting allows governments to promote equality through fiscal policies by taking analyses of a budget's differing impacts on the sexes as well as setting goals or targets for equality and allocating funds to support those goals.[2] This practice does not always target intentional discrimination but rather forces an awareness of the effects of financial schemes on all genders.[3]

OECD notes that gender budgeting is a way for governments to promote equality through the budget process against persistent gender disparities in education, employment, entrepreneurship, and public life opportunities and outcomes. Planning budgets with the promotion of gender equality in mind has the potential to help policymakers address a range of inequalities embedded in public policy and resource allocation.[4]

Gender budgeting is set up to help close the gender gap. Gender budgeting helps achieve important standards of public financial management. Equality is a fundamental value of the European Union and a major goal of the European Commission. Equality for all and equality in every sense of the word play a central role in achieving a prosperous and social Europe.[5]

Promoting equality is important not only from a moral argument but also from an economic perspective. Studies have highlighted that more equal economies benefit from higher employment rates in terms of income distribution and access to education and other services. Several studies have demonstrated that inequality has significant economic costs and that improving equality can boost EU growth. Budgets are an important means of increasing equity in all dimensions. Budget allocations are a central means of achieving these goals.[5]

History

[edit]

Origin and emergence

[edit]

By the late 1970s, a broad range of specialized policy mechanisms were developed in the states of Australia to improve the economic and social status of women. This women's policy mechanism was not devised by the government but was developed by the so-called "femocrats" in the women's movement. These femocrats found employment in the women's policy sector and "created a feminist presence within the state itself".[6] Against this background, the first gender budgeting initiative was undertaken in Australia in 1984.[7][8]

Pioneering analyses of the impact of public budgets on gender relations were conducted, with the belief that budgets are an essential tool for promoting gender equality. This Australian effort was not only important for raising gender awareness, but also served as an important reference point for subsequent gender budgeting efforts.[7]

1995 UN World Conference on Women

[edit]

In 1995, based on the discussions at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, the UN Women recommended that governments systematically review public sector expenditures and adjust their budgets to ensure gender equality in access to expenditures. Since then, gender budgeting has become internationally recognized as a strategy for strengthening gender equality.[7]

Progress has been made in economic participation, political opportunities, health, and education, particularly in terms of significant improvements in girls' enrollment in primary education, strengthening of women's legal rights, and reduction in maternal mortality.[9] Several multilateral institutions are currently promoting gender budgeting through research support, technical assistance for gender budgeting initiatives, and information dissemination.[7] By 2004, 179 out of 191 UN member states bound themselves to take action to tackle the problem.[10]

The G20-Women, the official engagement group of the G20, called for increased investment in gender budgeting to ensure that fiscal policies advance gender equality in the short- and long-term recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.[9]

Increasing transparency

[edit]

Gender budgeting also increases transparency and participation in the budget process. In particular, orthodox economics has neglected the "care economy," even though it constitutes an important part of the economy, along with profit-oriented markets and the public service sector. The care economy refers to unpaid production and services in the private sphere (family, neighborhood, community) based primarily on women's unpaid labor. Public budgets usually consider only the monetary economy. As a result, free care and services are excluded from the macroeconomic framework of the national budget. "Gender budgeting" is increasingly needed to correct these disparities.[7]

Feminist economists and gender budget analysts such as Rhonda Sharp and Diane Elson have cautioned against the "false economy" associated with ignoring the care economy. Women's engagement in these "unpaid jobs" can lead to a lack of employment climate and a lack of social security. Thus, integrating care economies into economic policy in general, and gender budgets in particular is a more broadly appropriate approach to welfare efficiency and costs than the traditional concept of economies.[7]

Objectives

[edit]

Gender budget analysis aims at finding out whether women and men can access the same opportunities equally. In gender budget analysis, gaps are addressed so that those who are disadvantaged become empowered. A gender-sensitive budget analysis contains how budgets recognize and answer the needs of men and women, whether they are children, young, or adults.[11][12] Gender budget analysis plays a key role in highlighting discrimination against women and how money is distributed between the two groups.[13] This type of analysis contributes to finding solutions to gender discrimination and highlights empowerment or disempowerment among two distinct groups: men and women.[1] Gender budgeting is not intended to look only at female budgets or policies but to rather examine the effects that gender has on all programs and policies.[14]

The Council of Europe (2005) defines five objectives of gender budgeting: the first one being the most straightforward and the following ones, more implicit objectives that gender budgeting can also achieve.[15]

1. Gender equality

[edit]

Gender budgeting primarily helps to dismantle gender inequalities.[10] While these disparities may be associated with traditional aspects, especially on the cultural roles of men and women, they demonstrate inequalities in the allocation of public resources. The purpose of gender budgeting is to remedy such inequalities by ensuring that public policy is designed and delivered in an inclusive manner.[10] The fundamental objective is then to use the budget and related policies to achieve gender equality as part of human rights. It will raise awareness about unintended and indirect discrimination against women.

2. Accountability

[edit]

Gender budgeting is a tool to monitor whether the government's commitments to gender equality are effectively translated into budgetary commitments.[16] It facilitates the establishment of gender mainstreaming within government policies by assigning authorities clear responsibilities and by making it easier to know if they are meeting their gender equality objectives.  Civil society and the media can therefore play an important role in monitoring and holding the government liable for their budgets.

3. Transparency and participation

[edit]

Gender budgeting helps increase participation in the budget process through public consultation, participation in budget preparation, or the monitoring of the outcomes which will thereby increase transparency.[17]

4. Efficiency

[edit]

Gender-responsive budgets can improve information on different situations and needs of women and men as well as on potential distributional effects of budget measures.[17] This allows governments to take better-informed and more evidence-based decisions in a more efficient decision-making framework.

5. Good governance

[edit]

Since gender inequalities are considered harmful to social cohesion, economic efficiency, and human development, gender budgeting can help to strengthen good governance in general. Due to the fact it can be considered as a tool promoting equal citizenship and fair distribution by reducing inequalities and poverty.

Tools

[edit]

There are different ways to implement gender budgeting. The process of gender budgeting tends to be varied across countries as there is a lack of consensus on the most effective approach[10] These can come in different forms such as official budget proposals or just merely papers sketched by interest groups outside the government zone.[18] Gender budgeting tools can play on the two major components of a budget :

  1. Expenditure effects evaluated: Expenditure is evaluated by disaggregating the spending of the government into categories beneficial for women and girls.[18]
  2. Revenue effects evaluated: Another recent initiative to assess revenue policies is by aiming to fully end discrimination against women in the personal income tax.[18]

Gender budgeting has been put into practice across many countries and its impacts assessed. The 2016 OECD Survey of Gender Budgeting Practices is one of the few existing documents on the extent of the implementation of gender budgeting and its impact. The survey revealed that 15 out of the 34 surveyed countries had already introduced gender budgeting while others had plans to introduce the concept in their budgetary processes.[10]

The following implementation tools of gender budgeting are presented with the OECD typology which uses a classification according to the level budgeting cycle stage.

Development by regions

[edit]

To overcome gender-blind policies and budgets many government officials from different countries took it upon themselves to analyze differences and propose budgets that are considerate of the inequalities women face financially. Developments have been in practice all over the world.[19][20][21]

An IMF working paper published in 2021 shows that on average,  advanced economies in the G20 (AEs) have better Gender Budgeting Index (GBI) than emerging economies (EMEs).[22] The IMF integrated into their GBI, 23 questions to assess the development of gender budgeting tools in those 19 countries and the European Union. The study also highlights some countries with significantly better GBI than their group counterparts like Canada, France, Austria, and Spain for Advanced G20 and Mexico for Emerging G20.

Africa

[edit]

Africa is a region that faces many challenges in developing its economy, the majority of countries are low-income countries which makes it difficult for them to access the international financial market and make good use of their budgets. Public spending on education and health is generally insufficient.[23]

To address this problem, several sub-Saharan governments have undertaken public financial management reforms. These reforms allow governments to integrate gender-oriented goals into program-based budgeting. The majority of gender budgeting efforts focus on the spending of public allocations and the design of public programs. However, gender inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa persists in access to education, wages, and health care.[24]

In the last decade, North African countries have faced political conflicts and population uprisings. In this part of the world, unemployment rates remain high for women and young people. Many infrastructures remain difficult to access for women from non-urban areas. Therefore, North Africa faces the same challenge as Sub-Saharan countries to equally integrate women into the system.  As a result, some North African countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt) have started to invest in infrastructure, health care, and education as well as in tax policies and public finance management.[23]

However Sub-saharan countries remain among the least developed countries, Sub-Saharan African countries are among the first to implement gender budgeting right after Australia which did it in the 80s. They use tax policies and tax administrations to improve gender equality and women's development. Tax policies are important in promoting gender equality and women's development. Whether it is men or women, government budgets impact them in different ways.

In the mid-1990s, the first sub-Saharan country to engage in gender budgeting was South Africa. The most successful sub-Saharan countries in gender budgeting are South Africa, Rwanda, and Uganda. This success is explained by the fact that gender budgeting is mandated by the Ministry of Finance in these countries. These 3 countries apply gender budgeting as welfare for the country and not only for women. These countries have received financial support from donors and NGOs for the gender budgeting effort.[24]

Uganda

[edit]

Uganda is a low-income country with an agriculture-based economy. The country has evolved through improved macroeconomic control and enhanced growth. Uganda's efforts on gender budgeting are mainly aimed at ensuring that the government addresses gender issues through the regular planning and budgeting process. As a result, thanks to these efforts, the country has been successful in addressing gender issues. These efforts are evident in the collaboration of government bodies, donors, and NGOs. Nevertheless, Uganda still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality.[24]

In the 1990s, the first gender budgeting initiative by the Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), an NGO, was launched, and over the years other plans have been implemented to improve the situation of women in the country and combate poverty. During this period, FOWOD collaborated with the Parliamentary Budget Office and budget officers to evolve in gender budgeting. One of the main objectives of FOWODE was to implement an initiative to support maternal health by creating “mama kits” with the help of the Ministry of Health.[24]

In 1997, the Ugandan government introduced its Poverty Eradication Action Plan which incorporated a gender strategy. This plan aims to reduce poverty across the country among women.[24]

In 2004–2005, the first real gender budgeting was included in the Budget Call Circular (country's budget) by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. The appendix integrated some guidelines on how to manage gender focus objectives in the budget for local governments and sector ministries.[24]

From 2010 to 2015, the third Poverty Eradication Plan has been removed in favor of the National Development Plan. This Plan has as the center of attention human development, employment and growth. The main goal is the advancement of gender equality and women's empowerment through gender budgeting and gender-responsive monitoring. Most of the programs of the plan are reserved for women and girls.[24]

Morocco

[edit]

Morocco is the first country in North Africa to implement a gender budgeting initiative. Moreover, this initiative was the most advanced in the region. This initiative was launched in 2002 by the Ministry of Finance and Privatization with the assistance of the World Bank. Morocco aimed to effectively achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore, they emphasized increasing women's public employment and collecting sex-disaggregated data.[23]

The first Gender Report has been released in 2006 by the Ministry of Economy and Finance which encompasses 4 ministries that needed to point out key zones where there were gender gaps, assessments, and goals sets for upcoming performance. Then, different reports followed the first one and grew each year, to reach 80% of the federal budget in 2016.[23]

First of all, the Gender Report was set up to be an appendix to the Economic and Financial Report. Nevertheless, it became an autonomous document. This report became a key role in Morocco's gender budgeting initiatives.[23]

Furthermore, Morocco has also included gender budgeting in its legal framework with the 2003 Labor Code which requires equal salary for equal work and a ban on gender discrimination at work. In addition, this framework guarantees maternity and paternity leaves.[23]

Asia

[edit]

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for a quarter of the countries that support the gender budgeting to promote gender equality and women's rights and is home to gender budgeting's earliest and most innovative strategies. However, there is little documentation of the efforts made by countries in the region and the lessons learned from their experiences.[25]

While the Asia-Pacific region has made progress in recent decades in terms of the development of women's rights laws and policies, limited funding remains an important obstacle to closing the gap between men and women and boys and girls.

In the Asia-Pacific region, various forms of gender-responsive budgeting initiatives can be found at the national, state, and regional levels in at least 29 countries. The gender-responsive budgeting landscape in the region is diverse and dynamic, with countries following different trajectories. Some countries, such as the Philippines, India, and Indonesia, have been sustaining a gender budgeting approach for more than a decade, while others have entered the fray more recently, either by expanding it into new sectors or by devolving authority to subnational levels of government.[26]

Japan

[edit]

Japan has introduced a gender budget. In 1999, the Basic Law for a Gender-equal Society was enacted, which stipulates that "the Government shall endeavor to take necessary measures for the smooth promotion of international cooperation on the formation of a gender-equal society ". In addition, the Basic Plan for Gender Equality (formulated in 2000) stipulated the promotion of the WID (Women in Development) Initiative.[27]

This basic plan is revised every five years, with the latest being the "Fifth Basic Plan" issued in 2020. In this plan, gender issues are analyzed concerning 11 areas, including "Promotion of Gender Equality in Science, Technology, and Academia" and "Promotion of Gender Equality in Science, Technology, and Academia.[28]

For example, in "Promotion of Gender Equality in Science, Technology, and Academia," numerical targets were set to increase the percentage of female university faculty members (lecturers and above) in science and engineering from 8.0% and 4.9% in 2016 to 12.0% and 9.0% in science and engineering by 2015, respectively. The budget has also been created in line with these goals.[28]

The Basic Plan states that Japan will "incorporate and disseminate international norms and standards domestically" and "contribute to 'equality, development, and peace' in the global community," and expresses its commitment to gender equality in Japan as well as to gender equality in developing countries through development assistance. This is a major feature of Japan's gender equality policy.[29]

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has been strengthening its support for gender in ODA within its internal structure and through gender considerations in its projects, and has incorporated a "gender equality perspective" in the basic policy of the ODA Charter and stipulated a "gender perspective" in its mid-term ODA policy.[30]

Europe

[edit]

In Europe, many countries have joined efforts in implementing gender-sensitive budgets. Spain, Iceland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Turkey, and the United Kingdom have all conducted research, collected data, and practiced different methodologies concerning gender budgeting.[19] Vienna University of Economics and Business organized a conference with twenty different countries; this allowed the countries to share their conceptual ideas, theories, and experiences.[21] This engagement transformed economic models to focus on feminist economics, which takes gender relations into account.[19] Emerging economies of Europe are also following this trend by integrating gender-oriented objectives in their budget planning.[14]

European Union

[edit]

At the European level, gender budgeting is a tool used to meet the commitments to gender equality and gender mainstreaming as defined in the treaties.[31] Several member states have already introduced gender budgeting programs, but at the EU level, the process is still at an early stage. The Commission is experimenting with a gender perspective in the draft of the 2023 budget.[32] The pilot project has the purpose to track the contributions of EU spending in fostering gender equality. Additionally, the objective is to collect data to later assess the impact of EU financing on gender equality. Despite the introduction of gender budgeting in the EU budget, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) concluded recently that the European Commission should increase its efforts on the matter.[33] In general, progress in terms of gender mainstreaming is slowing down: the proposals for the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF) show a lower level of ambition to support gender equality than the previous MFF. The EU focuses on a standalone and horizontal definition of gender equality with no quantitative target which does not foster significant development in gender analysis of the budget.[34]

Belgium

[edit]

In Belgium, gender budgeting is established in the framework of the 2007 law on gender mainstreaming. The law states that a gender perspective must be considered in all federal policies.[35] Gender budgeting is introduced in Article 2 of the law: “the integration of the gender perspective into the whole of its policies, measures, budgetary preparations and actions to avoid or correct inequalities between women and men shall be ensured."[36] In 2010 a specific circular on gender budgeting was published,[37] it includes the objectives and the procedure to follow to implement a gender lens to the budget.[38] Following this circular, all federal public services will have to submit their budget to a gender analysis. Before that, budget circulars were mostly focused on awareness

Belgium adopts ex-ante gender impact assessment as their only tool to implement gender budgeting. This is part of a gender-informed resource allocation budgeting system.[35] Belgian institutions are using a tagging system to comply with the aforementioned circular. The classification is described as follows in the “Manual for the application of gender mainstreaming within the federal administration”:[39] the first category is for non-gender related elements like technical credits and internal functioning. The second category includes credits related to actions aimed at achieving gender equality like higher male/female presence at work, training... The last category gathers all credits related to public policies with a gender dimension like subsidies, projects and actions, allocations etc. Category 2 files require a gender note annexed to each project, which is an enumeration of all the credits that were applied to promote gender equality.  Category 3 files require a gender comment explaining the gender dimension. This gender comment includes a comprehensive analysis of the composition of the target group and a public expenditure incidence analysis.[35] Every two years, the tagging system is assessed by the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (IEWM)., to check if the circular is well applied.[38]

Belgium created an Interdepartmental Coordination Group (ICG) composed of officials from different public services and the federal Institute for the Equality of Women and Men. The objective of the group is to establish a transversal approach and ensure a consistent strategy.[35] The ICG writes semi-annual reports on the follow-up of the federal implementation of gender mainstreaming.[40]

North America

[edit]

United States

[edit]

In the United States, there have been gender budgeting efforts in California and Georgia.[20] San Francisco, CA began developing a gender-sensitive budget in 1998; Fulton County, GA began gender budgeting efforts in 2007.[41] In Georgia, gender budgeting researchers have gathered rich and useful data through interviews with policymakers concerned with gender equality and through multiple meetings involving a focus group composed of task members of different departments.[20] In California, relevant data were collected through interviews, observations of a commission meeting, from non-profit organizations, and the municipal website.[20]

Canada

[edit]

Canada is one of the most advanced countries in terms of gender budgeting. They implement a Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) to assess the potential effects of policies, legislation, and programs on different groups.[42][22] Canada extended the gender perspective by taking into account other identity factors included in the “plus” like ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion, level of income, and disability.

The 2018 Gender Budgeting Act collects existing practices of GBA+ and requires the government to report annually how gender and diversity were impacted by new budget measures and similarly for tax expenditures analysis.[22] Under this Act, the government is committed to take into consideration the result of the GBA+ in its budget decisions.[42]

For the 2018 budget, the Canadian government integrated the Gender Results Framework (GRF) outlining their principal gender equality priorities. The GRF is a governmental tool introduced to guide future policy decisions and track progress in gender equality and diversity given the established priorities.[22]

Impact

[edit]

The impact of gender budgeting is hard to pinpoint owing to the recency of the practice and the unavailability of adequate data to support its usefulness. In countries that have introduced gender budgeting, indicators of the usefulness of the practice have emerged in the stimulation of policy adoption to address gender inequality in such key areas as education, income disparities, security, health outcomes, social and economic welfare, political representation, and labor participation.[10] With more data on gender budgeting becoming available with time, its impact will be assessed and feedback incorporated into the generation of better policies.

Gender budgeting will have different impacts depending on the region in which it is implemented. For Africa, gender budgeting improves the use of fiscal tools to address gender inequality and women's development. African countries need to ensure that both girls and boys have equal access to primary and secondary education, and access to health care for both men and women.[23] Furthermore, gender budgeting helps African women to develop themselves in a patriarchal world where they are still second-class citizens.[24]

About Europe, gender budgeting means that women face a high risk of poverty due to the combined effect of structural reforms and the shrinking of social protection systems and the evolution of unemployment rates since the beginning of the last decade. Gender budgeting is important for the development of gender equality in many European countries, especially in the last former USSR countries that were allowed to turn on civil society. `[43]

In Asia, gender budgeting contributed to fiscal policies with gender equality focus in some countries, emphasizing gender. Secondly, the increasing fiscal decentralization currently experienced in Asia is leading to the integration of gender budgeting at different sub-national levels of government. Previously, it was uncommon for local initiatives to be launched except in India, the Philippines, and Indonesia. In addition, gender budgeting has led the continent to examine the performance of public expenditure through a gender lens.[44]

As a result, gender budgeting has enabled a new analysis of the income tax structure in some countries of Asia like India where gender-budgeting policies appeared as new. Furthermore, gender budgeting accounts for support for women activists and social organizations to reclaim better governmental allowances and gender equity.[44]

Challenges

[edit]

When implementing gender budgeting into policy there are many challenges and limitations. Many countries struggle to introduce the concept of gender budgeting.[21] Political, regional, and cultural factors are used as indicators to measure gender equality. These indicators are vital in the gender budgeting process; however, they fail to determine whether or not an ultimate goal has been reached.[20] Also, gender budgeting is interdisciplinary, so different scholars struggle to accept the techniques of gender budgeting.[20] Feminists face the issue of trying to promote gender budgeting is creating connections and relationships with political actors that will pursue gender budgeting developments.[21]

More and more countries are interested in gender budgeting, which is potentially growing. For the future, the important thing would be to focus on these activities:

  • Collaboration between the different countries that apply gender budgeting in a process of sharing and helping each other.
  • Different governments should allocate their funds for gender budgeting and for objectives that will contribute to gender equality.
  • Donors involved in gender budgeting must be consistent.[45]

In the Pacific and South and Southwest Asia, the need to address patriarchy, particularly related discriminatory, prejudicial, and closed norms, ideas, attitudes, values, beliefs, and perceptions was identified. Taking into account culture, religion, and tradition, Beijing's +20 respondent countries agreed that modifying norms and behaviors in favor of gender equality is a long-term, but important, endeavor[46]

Contribution of feminist economics

[edit]

Most of the considerations developed through the gender budgeting tools are derived from the feminist economics doctrine. By deconstructing the “neutral” economy and the consideration of the care economy, gender budgeting enables governments to integrate this gender perspective in the budget impact assessment.[14] Therefore, it addresses the gender blindness criticisms associated with public policies and budgets raised by several feminist economists like Diane Elson.[47] Gender budgeting will then incorporate the gender differences that are cemented in social systems of reproduction. Public budgets tend to ignore key social reproduction roles such as the maintenance of domestic spaces, human relationships, and bodies which is mostly done by women. The auditing of gender budgets allows for the visualization of women's unpaid work of social reproduction and its contribution to the well-being of the entire society.[47] This section gathers some illustrations of what could a gender-sensitive budget take into account in its budgeting process.  

Reframing spending on human capital as investment instead of expenditure. [48] By having a broader overview, the investment in free universal childcare could lead in England to a reduction of the gender pay gap by 3 percentage points and a closing of the employment gap by 5 percentage points.

When governments think about cuts in public services, they can take into account that it will have a greater impact on women given the “triple whammy” concept.[48] This refers to the fact that women are primary users of public services, they are also main deliverers and they are more likely to take the loss of public services upon themselves.  By balancing the loss of public benefits for example with unpaid work, this reduces their ability to participate in the labor force.

Another example can be highlighted with the traditional pattern of car ownership stating that on average men have larger vehicles and drive more often than women.[48] This would mean that tax cuts for fuel consumptions would mainly benefit men.

Feminist economics brings a different perspective to the implementation of austerity measures in times of crisis. Recessions usually have a bigger negative impact on men than on women due to the gender-segregated employment: on average, men occupy more cyclically volatile jobs than women, making them less shielded to crises. Some authors underline the fact that this is mostly government responses to crisis that harm women's employment through cuts in public budgets.[49] This can be explained by the overrepresentation of women in the public sector . Authors like Diane Perrons and Ania Plomien highlight the important role of gender budgeting to integrate the gender lens into the discussion and push for more feminist-Keynesian ideas in economic downturns.[50]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b UNESCO (2015). A Guide for Gender Equality in Teacher Education Policy and Practices (PDF). Paris, UNESCO. pp. 72–75. ISBN 978-92-3-100069-0.
  2. ^ "What is gender budgeting?". The Economist. Retrieved 2017-10-21.
  3. ^ Gender and the Economy (2017-10-20). "Gender budgeting: A tool for achieving equality". Gender and the Economy. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  4. ^ "Gender budgeting - OECD". www.oecd.org. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  5. ^ a b "Gender Budgeting Practices: Concepts and Evidence". economy-finance.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  6. ^ "The Representation of Women in Australia: Meaning and Make‐Believe". academic.oup.com. January 1, 2002. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Gender budgeting - Final report of the Group of specialists on gender budgeting". Council of Europe. 2005.
  8. ^ "The Representation of Women in Australia: Meaning and Make‐Believe". academic.oup.com. January 1, 2002. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  9. ^ a b Curristine, Teresa; Tchelishvili, Nino; Alonso-Albarran, Virginia; Soler, Alberto; Preston, Gemma; Weerathunga, Sureni (2021-11-01). "Gender Budgeting in G20 Countries". IMF. Rochester, NY. SSRN 4026499.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Downes, R., Von Trapp, L. and Nicol, S., 2017. Gender budgeting in OECD countries. OECD Journal on Budgeting, 16(3), pp.71-107, Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/gender/Gender-Budgeting-in-OECD-countries.pdf
  11. ^ Balmori, H. H. 2003. Gender and Budgets, Overview Report. BRIDGE (development - gender) Brighton, Institute of Development Studies. http://www.eldis.org/v le/upload/1/document/0708/DOC19156.pdf (Accessed 5 July 2014.)
  12. ^ Quinn, S. 2009. Gender Budgeting: Practical implementation handbook. Strasbourg, Council of Europe, Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs.
  13. ^ Elson, D. 2005. Monitoring Government Budgets for Compliance with CEDAW: Report highlights and key conclusions. NY, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). http://www.iwraw-ap.org/resources/pdf/ Archived 2020-05-12 at the Wayback Machine MonitoringGovernmentBudgetsComplianceCEDAW_summary_eng.pdf (Accessed 5 July 2014.)
  14. ^ a b c Stotsky, J. (2016). Gender Budgeting : Fiscal Context and Current Outcomes. IMF Working Papers, 16(149), 1. doi:10.5089/9781475575460.001
  15. ^ Council of Europe. 2005. Gender budgeting. https://rm.coe.int/1680596143
  16. ^ Sharp, R., Broomhill, R. 2002. Budgeting for Equality: The Australian Experience. In: Feminist Economics Vol. 1/8, p. 25-4
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