Gender Budgets Make Cents

Providing an understanding of gender responsive budgets, this text is part of the inter-agency programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat, IDRC and UNIFEM. It covers the theoretical framework, the evolution of work in this area, the role of different stakeholders and the lessons learned to date.

Comprises ten papers which document "good practice" in gender budget work from across the globe.

This guide provides practitioners, politicians and policy communities with the basic information needed to understand gender-responsive budgets and to start initiatives based on their own local situations.

This paper reviews gender budgeting efforts in Asia. The countries in the region have achieved mixed success in improving gender equality. Gender budgeting is ideally a fiscal innovation that translates gender-related goals into budgetary commitments and can help countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals with regard to gender equality. India has a sustainable gender budgeting model for the region, while a few countries in the region have begun such efforts more recently. The legislative mandates for gender budgeting in the Philippines and South Korea are remarkable achievements and are contributing to their efforts.

At the request of the Italian Presidency of the G7, the IMF has prepared a paper on gender-budgeting as a contribution to the G7 initiative on equality. The paper provides an overview of gender-responsive budgeting concepts and practices in the G7 countries. It summarizes recent trends in gender equality in G7 and advanced countries, noting that while equality has improved overall, exceptions and gaps remain. Recognizing that many fiscal policies have gender-related implications, this paper: Sets out the main fiscal policy instruments, both expenditure and tax, that have a significant impact on gender equality. Provides a conceptual framework for the public financial management (PFM) institutions that play an enabling role in implementing gender-responsive fiscal policies. These instruments include gender budget statements, gender impact assessments, performance-related budget frameworks, and gender audits. Ministries of finance have an especially important role in promoting and coordinating gender budgeting, and associated analytical tools. Provides an assessment of the status of gender budgeting in the G7 countries. In preparing the paper, the IMF carried out a survey of PFM institutions and practices in the G7, as well as in three comparator countries that are relatively strong performers in developing gender-responsive budgeting (Austria, Belgium, and Spain). This information was complemented by other sources, including recent studies by the OECD and the World Bank. The main policy implications and conclusions of the paper include: Well-structured fiscal policies and sound PFM systems have the potential to contribute to gender equality, furthering the substantial progress already made by the G7 countries. While G7 countries have made effective use of a wide range of fiscal and non-fiscal policies to reduce gender inequalities, there has generally been less progress in developing effective gender-specific PFM institutions; embedding a gender dimension in the normal budgeting and policy-making routines varies across G7 countries and is not done systematically. Fiscal policy instruments of relevance to increasing gender equality include the use of tax and tax benefits to increase the supply of female labor, improved family benefits, subsidized child-care, other social benefits that increase the net return to women’s work, and incentives for businesses to encourage the hiring of women.

This book takes a broad look at conceptual and practical applications of gender budgeting in Europe. It comprises three linked sections that work through conceptual definitions of gender budget analysis. These sections explore how it can be framed and constructed as a gender equality policy; investigate case studies across Europe; and examine challenges for implementation. The first book of its kind, Gender Budgeting in Europe explores conceptual and methodological variations evidence in practice in Europe and the challenges of adoption and implementation in different political and institutional contexts. It brings together historical and current conceptual developments and tensions; approaches, methodologies, and tools in practice across Europe; activism, actors and agency and the engagement of formal institutions at all levels of government with feminist policy changes and feminist analysis and activists. This text is fascinating reading for students, scholars, policy makers and activists.

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