Title: Ecuador

Author: UNIFEM

Date: 2001-2005

The following report highlights the progress of the gender budget initiatives in Ecuador at national and local levels. Ecuador was selected as a focus country by the UNIFEM Andean Region office because there were specific local governments willing to begin an analysis of their municipal budgets. Also present, were enthusiastic organizations specifically addressing local participatory planning, economic and gender issues, such as the Andean Women and Family Foundation (FUNDAMYF), Women Transforming the Economy Network (REMTE-Ecuador) and the Women’s National Council (CONAMU).

Over the last decade, Latin America has experienced significant movement towards government reform and decentralization. In this context, a significant number of local governments are working to develop and implement citizen participation mechanisms in order to ensure transparency and accountability. This presents a unique opportunity to work on new forms of local planning, budgeting and reporting in which people’s needs are better reflected and citizens become active participants in policy-making. In Ecuador, several municipalities have begun participatory planning and budgeting processes.

Implementing Partners:
Municipalities of Quito and Cuenca, Andean Women and Family Foundation (FUNDAMYF), Women Transforming the Economy Network (REMTE-Ecuador), Women’s National Council (CONAMU)

Starting Date: August 2001
End Date of Report: February 2005

Background:

Over the last decade, Latin America has experienced significant movement towards government reform and decentralization. In this context, a significant number of local governments are working to develop and implement citizen participation mechanisms in order to ensure transparency and accountability. This presents a unique opportunity to work on new forms of local planning, budgeting and reporting in which people’s needs are better reflected and citizens become active participants in policy-making. Correctly identifying and addressing gender inequalities and women’s specific needs and interests are critical to ensuring democratic and equitable development. In Ecuador, several municipalities have begun participatory planning and budgeting processes. In most of them, women’s organization have participated, although experience has shown that, there is a need to strengthen their agenda-building capacity in order to include their recomendations in planning.

Justification:

Ecuador was selected as a focus country by the UNIFEM Andean Region office because there were specific local governments that showed interest and had the political will to begin an analysis of their municipal budgets. Also present, were organizations that were specifically addressing local participatory planning, economic and gender issues which were willing to get involved.

Expected outcomes:

• Increased availability of methodologies and tools to carry out and advocate for gender budgets analysis at local level
• Increased and sustained capacity of a wide range of stakeholders to carry out and advocate for gender budgets analysis at local level
• Knowledge shared on practices and processes towards gender budget analysis used and acknowledged as effective means of tracking gender mainstreaming and supporting gender equality
  

What has been realized:

Gender Budget work that began in three municipalities in Ecuador has now expanded into three new cities using methodologies developed in the initial pilot areas. The local level GRB initiatives are beginning to influence national budgets as the National Women’s Council (CONAMU) has succeeded in mobilizing the interest of Ministry of Finance and supported a consultancy to carry out a gender analysis of the national budget. The key transformations achieved in the municipalities where the project have been implemented include:

• In Cuenca, a decree established the priority of hiring women for infrastructure projects funded by the Municipality.
• The Cuenca budget for the years 2002, 2003 and 2004 included specific resources to fund actions included in the Equal Opportunity Plan.
• In Esmeraldas, in response to demands included in the Women’s Agenda, the Municipality has generated in 2004 a fund for local women’s micro-enterprise initiatives.
• In Salitre, women’s organizations themselves formally presented the analysis results to Salitre´s Mayor and successfully lobbied for resource allocations in the 2003 municipal budget to support their actions.
• In Chambo, the women’s commission obtained additional funding to promote actions in favor of gender equity.
  

Increased availability of methodologies and tools to carry out and advocate for gender budgets analysis at local level:

Debbie Budlender provided training for the teams working with gender budget analysis tools as the starting point for the gender budget analyses carried out in three pilot municipalities in Ecuador: Cuenca, Quito and Salitre. In Quito, the final report analyzing the municipal budget for the year 2002 was presented to the mayor, the Municipal Council and to El Cabildo de Mujeres, a municipal women’s caucus established as a civil society mechanism to identify women’s needs and interests to be included in local policies. As a result, a set of guidelines for including a gender perspective in the 2003 budget was distributed to all municipality departments.

In Cuenca, the gender budget analysis was completed by the Planning Department of the municipality in 2003. This work was carried out as part of a wider “municipal agreement for equity” that local authorities, including the mayor and municipal councilors, publicly signed. Following the agreement, a Plan for Equal Opportunities was developed and is currently being implemented.

Increased and sustained capacity of a wide range of stakeholders to carry out and advocate for gender budgets analysis at local level:

The increased capacity for gender responsive budgeting in Ecuador is reflected through various measures undertaken at the municipal level. One indication is the establishment of institutional mechanisms to take forward gender responsive budgeting. For example, as a result of the advocacy work to disseminate the findings of the gender budgets analysis, Quito and Cuenca have created a specific department for social and gender equity. This institutionalization process has been a key factor making it possible to begin implementing some of the policy proposals generated through gender budget analyses. Furthermore, in 2004, agreements were renewed between UNIFEM and the municipalities of Cuenca and Quito to continue efforts towards sensitizing their budget policies and processes towards gender needs and priorities.

Secondly, the sustained capacity is reflected through the introduction of specific measures that institute budget lines that respond to gender needs such as the decree that established the priority of hiring women for infrastructure projects funded by the Municipality, and the increased budget allocations for women’s concerns.

Thirdly, the strong involvement of women’s organizations in the monitoring and tracking of budgets ensure sustained advocacy towards gender responsive budgeting. In Salitre, gender budget analysis was carried out by the Women Transforming Economy Network (REMTE-Ecuador), and findings were communicated to women’s groups through workshops for utilizing the results, in order to use them as an advocacy tool. Women successfully lobbied for resource allocations in the 2003 municipal budget to support gender equity. Similarly, in order to ensure wide participation in the gender budgets initiatives undertaken at the municipal level, consultations occurred in Quito, Cuenca and Salitre to discuss the findings locally with local government institutions, civil society and women’s organizations.

Knowledge shared on practices and processes towards gender budget analysis used and acknowledged as effective means of tracking gender mainstreaming and supporting gender equality:

Throughout the project, women and local government officials were trained in participatory budgeting and used their knowledge to formulate an agenda of priorities for gender equality in these communities. Women also created citizen surveillance mechanisms to oversee compliance. To institutionalize this progress, in 2004 an Equity Council was created in Esmeraldas. The Council is comprised of council women and representatives of local women’s organizations, for the purposes of advising and overseeing the Municipality’s gender policies and budgets. The Mayor of Esmeraldas holds annual meeting to review budget allocations and verify them according to the development plan defined by the population.

Expanded use of gender budget analysis using the new methodological approach obtained as a result of previous Andean region experiences (Regional):

A second regional training took place in September 2004 in Lima, Peru responding to the demand generated for further capacity building. UNIFEM organized the regional Course on gender responsive budgeting with the participation of 20 specialists (eight from Peru, three from Ecuador, and three from Bolivia as well as participants from other countries). The course offered training in tools to mainstream gender in budgets.

Success Indicators:

• Tools produced for gender analysis of budget formulation process and budgeting methodologies
• Reports produced on gender budget analysis at local level
• Number of individuals, institutions, networks engaged in gender budget initiatives
• Number of gender budget experts actively working in the region
• Number of requests for gender budget experts’ participation in Economic and Social Rights training workshops, courses, seminars and publications on gender and economics and/or participatory budgets
• Improve allocation on more gender equitable activities
• Changes in processes of budget formulations
• Networks created around gender responsive budgets
• Requests received for technical assistance
• Exchange of experts
• Use and adaptation of materials by new actors
  

Sustainability strategy

To ensure sustainability of the work on gender budgets beyond the project, UNIFEM has put in place the following strategies:

Strengthening the role of gender equality institutions vis-à-vis economic governance and budget policies:

Women’s organizations play a key role in driving the efforts to ensure that budgets at local and national level respond to gender equality priorities. In Ecuador, the National Women’s Council (CONAMU) has become more actively involved in gender budgeting work and they have succeeded in mobilizing the interest of Ministry of Finance. Similarly, at the local level, the Equity Council established in Esmeraldas and the Social and Gender Equity Departments in Quito and Cuenca the Social and Gender equity play a similar role.

Strengthening and broadening of alliances with partner development organizations:

The Spanish Government and the UNV Programme, have agreed to provide a regional coordinator on GRB for two years starting 2005. UNIFEM and UNV are also discussing ways to link citizens’ participation initiatives with gender budgets work in several countries of the region, including Ecuador. PAHO in Esmeraldas has agreed to support the Municipality to carry out actions to reduce violence against women and the Free-Maternity Law, which provides certain groups free access to health services. UNIFEM is currently pursuing discussions with UNDP to replicate the collaboration in Colombia.

Last Updated: 21 March 2005