This section contains information on country GRB initiatives which are supported through UNIFEM's programmes 

• Africa
• Arab States
• Asia
• Europe and the CIS
• Latin America and Caribbean

General Overview

For the past 8 years, UNIFEM has contributed to building interest, capacity and commitment to incorporate GRB in budgetary processes by supporting initiatives in over 30 countries. UNIFEM's global programme Gender Strengthening Economic Governance: Applied Gender Analysis to Government Budgets, launched in 2001, provided technical and financial support to gender budgets initiatives in Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. During the first four years of the programme, focus was on making available gender budgeting tools and methodologies; increasing stakeholders' capacity to advocate for and carry out gender budget analysis; improving budgeting and planning processes to enhance gender equality; and increasing resource allocation to support implementation of gender equality plans and policies.

 

National level Gender responsive budgeting:

 

The second phase of the program, launched in 2005, aimed to include a focus on ensuring that national budgeting processes adequately reflect the priorities of poor women in particular. Initiatives are currently underway in Morocco, Senegal, Mozambique and Ecuador. In the four countries, the program seeks to transform budget execution processes and policies to reflect responsiveness to principles of gender equality and make concrete changes in resource allocations towards women's priorities. The identified outcomes of the program include:

• National budget processes and policies in four countries reflect gender equality principles
• Priorities of poor and excluded women reflected in budget allocations in national programmes

The broad strategies adopted by the program focus on positioning the GRB initiatives within the framework of mainstream fiscal policy as well as national planning, programming, budgeting and monitoring processes. In Mozambique and Senegal, the program specifically engages in formulation and review processes for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). The program builds capacity of key national actors in the budget process in at least two priority sectors seeking to improve the effectiveness of the response to women's priorities in these sectors. It also seeks to design budget monitoring systems in selected areas through supporting participation of civil society groups dedicated to social and gender justice in budget processes to ensure that priorities of poor women are reflected in budget allocations.

 

Local level Gender responsive budgeting:

 

Trends toward decentralization have prompted the need for greater focus on local level planning and budgeting. It is at local level that delivery of services and resources is carried out and where women's lives are shaped by exclusion, poverty and inadequacy of resources towards the fulfillment of their basic rights. Local government is able to assess local needs more accurately and can respond by ensuring that resource collection and allocation is carried out in ways which redress biases contributing to poverty and gender inequality. In this view, local governments are emerging as key actors in view of their role vis-a-vis central government as well as in their accountability towards the local constituencies.

UNIFEM s Local Level Gender Responsive Budgets program (LLGRB), supported by the European Commission, (2003 - 2006) provided support to local initiatives in India, Morocco, Uganda and the Philippines. The project focused on supporting women's effective participation in budget processes, strengthening women's representations in local bodies, building awareness of gender budget analyses, as well as advocating for adequate allocation towards local women's priorities. (See GRB video).

 

Other leading experiences of local level gender responsive budgeting initiatives have been supported in Latin America Region specifically in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. 

 

Global Advocacy:

 

UNIFEM has also engaged in global and regional advocacy towards GRB. In 2001, UNIFEM collaborated with the Government of Belgium as President of the European Union, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Nordic Council to hold an international conference on GRB that endorsed the vision of implementing gender-responsive budget initiatives in all countries by 2015 (Brussels conference communiqué). Since then, the Commonwealth Finance Ministers in 2002 and 2005 committed to integrating gender in their respective budget formulation processes and to establish institutional mechanisms within their countries to monitor progress on implementing GRB. Similarly, the 2004 Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) meeting of senior government officials from the Ministries of Finance and Women's Divisions from the East African Region called for policies ensuring that gender aspects are considered when making budgets and allocating resources.

 

UNIFEM's programming on GRB has received financial support from the governments of Belgium, Canada, the European Commission, Italy, and the UK, as well as from partner UN organizations.

 

Related UNIFEM Reports:

• A Learning Program in Action: UNIFEM Gender Responsive Budgeting Mid Term Review Summary Report, UNIFEM February 2004
• UNIFEM's GRB Programme Results 2001 - 2004
• GRB Partners' review meeting report
• GRB Programme Highlights for Partner's Review Meeting