1.
Gender Budgeting:
OECD practices and future work priorities
Elena Gentili & Ronnie Downes
OECD
37th annual meeting of OECD Senior Budget Officials
Stockholm, Sweden, 9-10 June 2016

2.
Gender Budgeting - Overview
• Why GENDER?
• Why BUDGETING?
• Current practice – OECD survey results
• Issues arising and future work programme

3.
Women in parliament and
confidence in the government
 Trust in government
 Inclusive growth
 Inclusive policymaking

4.
Gender equality as an enabler of
Inclusive Growth
Women in key decision-making positions and income inequality
Source: OECD Income Distribution Database and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), PARLINE (database).

5.
Despite progress, gender inequalities persist:
the implementation gap
Share of women employed who are managers (compared to men)

6.
Unemployment rates for 25-34 years olds with tertiary education, by gender - 2014
Despite progress, gender inequalities persist:
the implementation gap

7.
Share of women ministers (2015)
Despite progress, gender inequalities persist:
the implementation gap

8.
OECD Council Recommendation on
Gender Equality in Public Life
The Recommendation focuses on gender equality delivery
mechanisms to ensure effective implementation and impact.
It promotes:
1. government-wide strategy for gender equality reform
2. sound mechanisms to ensure accountability and
sustainability of gender initiatives
3. tools and evidence to inform policy decisions
OECD commitment
to close the implementation gap

9.
Effective institutions
Co-ordination
Gender –sensitive policies and budgets
Sex-disaggregated data
Accountability & oversight
Good governance and
accountability for
gender equality
Measures to promote gender diversity
Work-life balance at the top
Leadership development
Monitoring
Tackling gender stereotypes
Gender balance in
leadership in public
institutions
Transparency and fairness in recruitment
Addressing gender pay gap
Clear roles and responsibilities
Management and executive accountability
Gender equality in public
employment
Key provisions Outcomes Impact
Gender sensitive
laws, policies,
budgets and
services
Improved
access to public
leadership
Enhanced
gender equality
in public and
economic life
Inclusive growth
Inclusive
societies

10.
Gender-responsive budgeting is one of the key tools
for implementing gender equality
“Consider integration of the gender perspective
in all phases of the budget cycle, as appropriate,
so that transparency regarding gender-relevant
resource allocation decisions is maximized”
(OECD Recommendation on GEPL)

11.
In order to make sure that policies, laws, programmes and budgets are
relevant to both men and women, the following key questions shall be
asked:
1. Does the initiative affect women and men
differently according to age, education, culture,
or other identity factors?
2. Does the initiative support the full participation
and equal treatment of women and men in all
their diversity?
3. Does the initiative have unintended impacts on,
or create barriers for, specific groups of women
and men?
Gender-responsive budgeting is one of the key tools
for implementing gender equality

12.
What is “gender budgeting”?
• application of gender mainstreaming to budget process
• “a gender-based assessment of budgets, incorporating a
gender perspective at all levels … and re-structuring
revenues and expenditures to promote gender
equality” - Council of Europe
• Very comprehensive, ambitious definition
• OECD definition: “integrating a clear gender perspective
within the overall context of the budget process,
through the use of special processes and analytical
tools, with a view to promoting gender-responsive
policies”

13.
2016 OECD Survey: differentiated approach
ex ante
Gender impact
assessment
Budget baseline
analysis
Gender needs
assessment
concurrent
Performance
setting
Resource
allocation
Budget incidence
analysis
ex post
ex post GIA
Gender audit
Spending review

14.
15 of 34 OECD countries have gender budgeting
(or are planning / considering it)
AUS
CAN
CHL
DNK
EST
FRA
DEU
GRC
HUN
IRL
LUX
NZL
POL
PRT
SVK
SVNCHEGBRUSA
CZE
TUR
ITA
AUT
BEL
ISL
FIN
ISR
JPN
KOR
MEX
NLD
NOR
ESP SWE
Introduced
Not
planned
Actively
considering
Planned

15.
“Perceived gender inequalities” a predominant
rationale for introducing Gender Budgeting
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
To address perceived gender
inequalities in policy development/
resource allocation
As one aspect of gender mainstreaming As one aspect of a broader equality
agenda (i.e. beyond gender alone)
To promote the general principle of
transparency in policy development/
resource allocation
Other, please specify:
Primary reason
Significant reason
Gender Gender Equality Transparency Other
Inequalities mainstreaming agenda principle

16.
Multiple approaches to gender budgeting
ex ante GIA
performance setting
resource allocation
ex post GIA
budget baseline analysis
budget incidence analysis
gender audit of budget
gender needs assessment
spending review
other 8%
17%
33%
33%
50%
58%
58%
67%
67%
75%
Other, please specify:
Gender perspective in spending review
Gender needs assessment
Gender audit of the budget
Gender-related budget incidence analysis
Gender budget baseline analysis
Ex post gender impact assessment
Gender perspective in resource allocation
Gender perspective in performance setting
Ex ante gender impact assessment

17.
three broad categories of gender budgeting

18.
Challenges: limited availability of
gender-disaggregated data
Norway
Sweden
Austria
Belgium
Finland
IcelandIsrael
Japan
Korea
Mexico
Netherlands
Spain
Sector-specific
data available
Significant data
available

19.
Challenges: tools to assess impact
focus largely on gender indicators
Gender indicators
Regular monitoring
Parliamentary reporting
Civil society dialogue
Stakeholder surveys
None of above

20.
Challenges: the perception of actual impact
of gender budgeting is mixed
Mexico
Belgium
Israel
Japan
Korea
Norway
Spain
Austria
Finland
Iceland
Netherlands
Sweden
Not significant
Sector-specific
SignificantInsufficient information

21.
Gender budgeting in practice:
some country examples
• Iceland: The tools of gender budgeting helped identify (and avert)
tax proposals that would create a bigger gender income gap.
• Netherlands: The inclusion of gender indicators in the monitoring
framework has increased the availability of gender disaggregated
data.
• Korea: Gender budgeting has increased the gender equality
awareness of government officials.
• Spain: In certain policy areas, such as the promotion and
protection of the families, the application of the gender perspective
is helping to identify specialised policy to overcome inequalities.
• Japan: Increased focus on gender policies has led to measures to
reduce maternity harassment in the workplace.
• Mexico: In the education sector, new programmes provide
scholarships for women in careers that were previously only
considered suitable for men.

22.
Future Studies for Gender Budgeting:
Issues and Questions?
• Gender budgeting vs. gender mainstreaming
– alternatives or complements?
• The Inclusive Growth agenda
– Multi-dimensionality: Gender, climate, equality, age, regions …
– Trade-offs or synergies? “Clutter” or “holistic budgeting”?
• Making gender budgeting work
– “gender disaggregated data by default”?
– a natural link with performance budgeting?
– a natural link with “open, transparent & inclusive budgeting”
• The fundamental challenge: making a difference
– Assessing impact
– Identifying non-obvious, unexpected gender inequalities
– Embedding as an intrinsic tool of policy-making – not a compliance
tool