Frequently Asked Questions About Gender-Responsive Budgets
- What is gender-responsive budgeting?
- Who has applied gender-responsive budget analysis so far?
- How do gender-responsive budget analyses help women?
- What has UNIFEM done in this area?
- What are some examples of gender-responsive budget initiatives worldwide?
What is gender-responsive budgeting?
Gender-responsive budget analysis simply refers to the analysis of actual government expenditure and revenue on women and girls as compared to men and boys. Gender budgets are not separate budgets for women and they don't aim to solely increase spending on women-specific programmes.
Gender budget analysis helps governments decide how policies need to be adjusted, and where resources need to be reallocated. Gender budget analysis provides women with an indicator of government commitment to address women's specific needs and rights to health care, education and employment.
Who has applied gender-responsive budget analysis so far?
Gender-responsive budget analysis was pioneered in Australia in 1994, with a federal government assessment of the budget impact on women. Interest in gender-responsive budget analysis, by both governments and NGOs, accelerated following the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995. The first initiative was launched in South Africa in 1995 by a group of women's NGOs and a parliamentary joint committee. This was quickly followed by similar initiatives in Uganda, Tanzania, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Today there are over 40 initiatives worldwide at varying stages of development.
How do gender responsive budget analyses help women?
- It makes women's work economically visible.
- It shows how revenue collection and changes in tax structure can impact on women differently from men, especially in the case of single mothers and women in the unorganized sector. E.g. In Canada, speaking to a parliamentary finance commission, an NGO demonstrated the differential impact of the current system of tax benefits for private retirement savings on women and men, promoting a campaign to reform the government-sponsored retirement scheme.
- It creates more transparency and accountability by detailing how money allocated for women is actually spent. E.g. In South Africa, a gender budget analysis showed that despite the Government's adoption of a domestic violence act, and allocation of 2 million rand for its implementation. Often, governments make such commitments to women’s programmes, but with no financial allocations.
- It provides policy-makers with inputs on differing priorities between men and women on expenditure needs. In 1996, a US NGO called the Women's Budget Project asked for allocation of national budget resources for the annual health care expenses for 1.3 million American women over the calculated costs of funding F-22 fighter planes for the current year ($2.1 billion).
- It increases productivity and GDP. Between 1983 and 1985, real per capita expenditure on health fell by 16 per cent in Zambia. People had to travel greater distances and wait for longer periods of time to get health care treatment. Interviews with Zambian women about how they used their time revealed that they had to spend more time caring for sick family members, including time spent in hospitals providing meals and nursing care and had less time to spend on farming.
What has UNIFEM done in this area?
UNIFEM's work on gender responsive budgets began in 1996 in Southern Africa and has expanded to include Eastern Africa, South East Asia, South Asia, Central America and the Andean region. In Mexico, UNIFEM worked with the Ministry of Health to analyze the impact of their budgetary allocations on women. In India, UNIFEM conducted a study on Gender Related Economic Policy Issues to identify existing data gaps. The study was included for the first time as a separate chapter of the National Economic Survey. Within the UN system, UNIFEM works to increase awareness of gender responsive budgets as a tool to strengthen economic governance in all countries.
UNIFEM's areas of concentration are:
- Developing tools to promote better targeting, tracking and coordination of revenues and expenditures;
- Training government personnel and other professionals to apply gender analysis to government budgets;
- Advocating for policy development on gender responsive budget analysis at select regional and international fora;
- Developing mechanisms to share information about successful initiatives, as well as mechanisms for governments to report on actions to implement international treaties and obligations for women.
What are some examples of Gender-Responsive Budget Initiatives worldwide?
France
- In France, the Budget Act of 2000 requires the government to submit an annex to the Budget each year specifying allocations earmarked to promote gender equality.
- The gender budget analysis prepared by the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry, shows that in 2000, 31 percent of working women held part-time jobs, as compared with 5 per cent of men.
- The report shows that women who worked part time did not do so by choice - especially women raising children on their own, who headed 84 percent of single parent families in 1997. The report concludes that these trends have resulted in the increasing feminization of poverty.
The Philippines
- In 1994, the Philippines Government adopted a gender and development budget policy that requires every government agency to allocate at least 5 per cent of its budget for gender and development.
- The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) spearheaded the initiative, working closely with an active and supportive women's movement.
- In 1999, the government introduced a performance based budgeting policy that reduced the budget of agencies not in compliance by a minimum of 5 per cent. Between 1995 and 1998, the number of reporting agencies rose from 19 to 69 (out of a total of 349) and the allocations to women tripled. Yet even with this three-fold increase, the report concluded that, during the same period, the gender and development budget was still less than 1%; far below the 5% target.
Sweden
- In Sweden, every ministry, including the Ministry of Finance, are expected to set gender equality objectives and targets within their programmes proposed in the budget bill.
- Each year, the Ministry of Finance makes a special report on the distribution of economic resources between women and men in the Government Budget Bill.
- Sweden's commitment to provide decent childcare at an affordable price, for example, can be seen in its budget: it spends almost 2 per cent of GDP on publicly provided childcare and has one of the highest rates of female employment in Europe.
Tanzania
- The Tanzanian Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) spearheaded one of the most successful civil society initiatives, as part of an NGO coalition.
- For three years, TGNP traced the process of national planning and resource allocation, assessing its impacts on women and men, youth and the elderly.
- In 1999, the Ministry of Finance hired TGNP to develop the capacity of officials to carry out gender analysis within six budget areas, including Health, Education, Water, Agriculture, Community Development and Local Government.
- The analysis found, for example, that half of the maternal and child health projects between 1989 and 1996 were dependent on bilateral donors and international organizations.
The United Kingdom
- In the UK, the Women's Budget Group (WBG) has been active since 1989, issuing press releases on every budget and working to put questions on gender and budgets on the policy agenda. WGB, an informal think tank of researchers and members of women's and trade union organizations, focuses primarily on changes in the tax and social security systems that disadvantage women.
- A gender budget analysis of New Deal programmes in the UK revealed that only 8 per cent of funding for these programmes go to "lone parents," of whom 95 per cent are female. Yet 57 percent of funds go to young people, of whom only 27 percent are female.
- Since the election of a Labour government in 1997, the group has had regular meetings with politicians and officials to discuss the implications of fiscal policy for women.
