An innovative way to analyze federal spending recognizes women's needs as well as men's. An article by Martha Burk published by Ms Magazine (Weekly Feminist News). Added to this website April 2008

President Bush has unveiled his budget request for the next fiscal year, and it's hardly surprising: a dramatic increase in defense spending, an even larger deficit and proposed cuts in a wide range of domestic programs such as education, childcare, health research, Medicaid, Medicare and job training. Those programs being cut, not coincidentally, are those that disproportionately impact women.

Bush's budget proposal is consistent with what author Riane Eisler, in her book The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics ( Berrett-Koehler, 2007) , calls a “dominator” economic system. Such a system is characterized by a distribution of resources to those on top, heavy investment in armaments and a lack of investment in meeting human needs. The result is an economic double standard in which programs associated with “femininity” (such as caregiving) are devalued, while “masculine” priorities (such as war) are highly valued.

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http://www.msmagazine.com/winter2008/GenderBudgetsAnyone.asp

 (Harare)

Posted January 9, 2008

A parliamentary committee has urged the Government of Zimbabwe to increase its budgetary allocation towards gender mainstreaming programmes.

The measure would help to implement the Domestic Violence Act and to enable the development of other gender programmes. The Portfolio Committee on Youth, Gender and Women's Affairs, told Parliament that the 2008 budget allocated to the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development's gender programmes was too low. "It is very disturbing to note that the budget allocation for the Ministry of Women's Affairs does not have a substantial allocation for the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act that was passed by Parliament," read the report. The ministry received a total budget allocation of $800 billion against a request of $22, 8 trillion.

The Herald

2007 LEGISLATURE - Gender equality should be given priority in the national budget in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the president of the Forum of Rwandan Women Parliamentarians (FFRP), Specioza Mukandutiye, has argued. Mukandutiye who was speaking at a two-day workshop at Parliamentary Buildings on 17th September said that gender mainstreaming is the key player in the economic development of any country. "We need to sensitise MPs on gender related issues so that they get to know how they can address gender in the next budget,'' she said.

The workshop organized by UNIFEM was aimed at devising ways in which gender equality could be included in the national budget to deal with the challenges that women face in their daily lives. It was also expected to assist MPs understand more key challenges that affect women capabilities and find solutions to them. Mukandutiye explained that issues related to women education, employment, development, health and financial difficulties are the items that the national budget should take into consideration if the economy is to develop and achieve the MDGs.

At the request of the Korean Women's Development Institute, UNIFEM organized an information exchange on gender-responsive budgeting initiatives in New Delhi on 6 August. This round table session brought together representatives from the Government of India, including the Ministry of Women and Child Development, gender-responsive budgeting experts and researchers, and delegates from the Korean Women's Development Institute.

Both UNIFEM and the Government of India provided a comprehensive overview of their work and shared materials and good pratcices. This is expected to aid progress towards fulfilling a requirement enshrined in Korea's National Finance Act of 2006 for every ministry to submit a gender budget report and a gender budget balance sheet, starting with fiscal year 2010.

For more information, please contact Ms. Gita Gupta, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it