Gender Responsive Budgeting

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The following documents were recently added to the website. Please visit regularly for new uploads.

UNIFEM's work in support of gender responsive budgeting

Budget Support: As good as the strategy it finances

Gender and Participatory Budgeting- DFID

Application of the gender policy marker by German Bilateral Development Agencies

Morocco Gender Report 2008

How do DAC statistics measure gender equality focused aid?

Gender Budgeting Guidelines and Analytical Tools at local level in Uganda

Genre et décentralisation au Sénégal

Rapport du Séminaire sur la prise en compte du genre dans le travail parlementaire- Burundi 2008

Gender Budgets: an overview- Canada

WHAT IS GRB?

"Gender responsive budgeting (GRB) is about ensuring that government budgets and the policies and programs that underlie them address the needs and interests of individuals that belong to different social groups. Thus, GRB looks at biases that can arise because a person is male or female, but at the same time considers disadvantage suffered as a result of ethnicity, caste, class or poverty status, location and age. GRB is not about separate budgets for women or men nor about budgets divided equally. It is about determining where the needs of men and women are the same, and where they differ. Where the needs are different, allocations should be different."

Debbie Budlender 2006

Gender Responsive Budget Initiatives Brochure

NEW! GRB VIDEOS

MOROCCO

Gender-responsive budgeting is a crucial tool for women’s empowerment. In Morocco, UNIFEM has worked with the government to create a more tailored approach in which budgeting can have a more effective and immediate impact. As this documentary illustrates, when the needs of women living in a particular geographical and cultural context are addressed, the entire community benefits. In the past four years, the Finance Ministry of Morocco has made substantial progress in developing both gender-responsive and results-oriented budgetary reform.

Click here to watch Morocco video

BOLIVIA

In Cochabamba, Bolivia, UNIFEM has made significant strides in teaching local women how to seek local government funding for projects that can benefit them. UNIFEM developed and sponsored local workshops in which women were educated on the city budget: where government money comes from, how it is distributed, and what strategies to use in applying for government funds. The workshops helped the women envision a new potential for what they can do for themselves, and helped them better understand what kinds of demands they can make on their own government.

Click here to watch Bolivia video

INDIA

Incorporating a gender perspective in government budgets can ensure that resources are allocated towards women's priorities to eliminate gender gaps. This can be achieved through women's participation in budget policymaking and gender budget analysis. This video presents show how this is working in practice in a GRB initiative supported by UNIFEM in Mysore, India.

Click here to watch India video

Kenya

Title: Kenya

Author: UNIFEM

Date: 2001-2003

The report highlights the progress of the Collaborative Center for Gender and Development in Kenya in the area of gender budgeting in both national and other macro-economic processes. In addition UNIFEM, DFID and CIDA supported the Center to strategize on gender budgeting priorities. GTZ have also supported FEMNET to undertake a study on gender budgets and macro-economic in Kenya. These processes have given rise to the Gender Mainstreaming in the National Budget, seeking to influence the national resource allocation process from within the Ministry of Finance and Planning. In the past, the Center has held numerous sensitization forums and mobilized women leaders and women's organizations to engage in debate around national budgeting.
Expected outcomes are to create support strategies for increasing women's participation in economic decision-making through their engagement in budgetary processes. Ensuring that gender responsive budgeting is placed on the agendas of organizations engaging in governance and economic reform ia also expected.

Implementing partners

The Collaborative Center for Gender and Development (CCGD) The Center was founded with the overall aim of ensuring successful mainstreaming of gender in all development processes. This was in realisation of the fact that women, men, girls and boys play different roles, make different contributions and have differing expectations in the process of socio-economic development. There is, therefore, need to pay attention to their specific needs in policymaking, planning, programming, monitoring and evaluation. The Center has since developed the requisite capacity to pursue its stated mandate and assumed leadership in the areas of gender analysis, training, research and advocacy in gender mainstreaming. The membership of the Center consists of men and women who are well equipped with gender analytical skills and have proven commitment to gender equity. The members are drawn from diverse professional and occupational backgrounds, including the public, private and civil society sectors.

Starting date: December 2001
Report Date: 2003

Background and Justification
The Collaborative Center for Gender and Development has been implementing a project on Gender Mainstreaming in the National Budget and other macro-economic processes. In addition UNIFEM, DFID and CIDA supported the Center to strategize on gender budgeting priorities. GTZ have also supported FEMNET to undertake a study on gender budgets and macro-economic in Kenya. These processes have given rise to the Gender Mainstreaming in the National Budget, a project led by Treasury, which seeks to influence the national resource allocation process from within the Ministry of Finance and Planning. In the past, the Center has held numerous sensitization forums and mobilized women leaders and women's organizations to engage in debate around national budgeting.
Expected outcomes

Create support strategies for increasing women's participation in economic decision-making through their engagement in budgetary processes.
Ensure that gender responsive budgeting is placed on the agendas of organizations engaging in governance and economic reform.

What has been realized
As a concluding step towards UNIFEM’s support to CCGD efforts in gender responsive budgeting, UNIFEM assisted it to develop a proposal on gender and economic governance that builds on previous efforts carried out in Kenya, and aims at building capacity towards engendering economic processes for a more gender responsive distribution of resources at local and national levels. In June 2003, a pre-budget consultation was organized with parliamentarians on the 2003 budget. The consultations evolved around civil society concern on gender issues in relation to the budget. Below is an excerpt of a press release issued by CCGD in this regard.

“It is important to give credit to government especially for prioritizing and increasing expenditures in education and health. Provision of compulsory primary school education will serve to seal gender and exclusion gaps in the primary school cycle of education. Increased expenditures in health especially in providing for reduction of the disease burden for HIV/AIDS will also have profound effect on the quality and burden of care provided for HIV/AIDS patients. Expansion of the access base for anti-retroviral drugs will also help poor women and men afflicted with the virus live longerand grow their families. The reduction of the VAT rate from 18% to 16% will also allow consumers to have more money with potential for increased savings by poor - cash starved men and women. While the reduction of the VAT rate is commendable, it may have been especially helpful for government to supply specially targeted measures to items such as sanitary towels, which are mandatory consumption items for women. Similarly it may have been prudent to supply incentives to local producers of such items as baby food with a view to lowering costs and encouraging local production.” 1

Finished Activities

Research on gender budget initiatives and national budget processes in Kenya carried out and findings shared at workshops.
Established the gender budget assessment of who is doing what.
Developed advocacy materials.
Conducted monthly gender budget policy forums.
Developed media articles on gender budgeting.
Established a gender thematic group during the PRSP consultation process to influence budget at planning stage.
Built capacity of government officials in several line ministries and women NGOs to employ gender analysis in policy-making.
Developed a gender-mainstreaming project in the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
Published a book on "Gender and Taxation: Understanding your Stakes."
Impacts and Lessons Learned

The collaborative Center for Gender and Development and the Ministry of Finance in Kenya have successfully created awareness on gender budgeting through information dissemination, networking, lobbying, advocacy and development of lobbying materials. The Center engaged in sectoral analyses and the development of sectoral packages to lobby for the women’s agenda in the MTEF/PRSP budget process. A publication, Gender and Taxation Policies and Processes, was developed and not only as advocacy tool but also as part of information dissemination. Research and information on the gender budget initiative were collected and concept papers already developed were shared at a forum and widely disseminated to stakeholders, gaps were highlighted and new areas of intervention identified. Networking is being strengthened through a Ministry of Finance-led steering group.

1- CCGD Press release, 17 June 2003