GN-PBO Gender Budgeting Webinar Presentation - Austrian PBO (April 24, 2017)

1. GN-PBO Webinar Series:
“Gender Budgeting and Impact
Analysis”
Helmut Berger
Kristina Fuchs
Parliamentary Budget Office 24th April 2017

2. AGENDA
• Parliamentary Budget Office
• Gender Equality in Austria: Framework and Facts
• Performance Budgeting Framework: Gender Aspects
• Regulatory Impact Assessment: Gender Aspects
• Gender Equality and Gender Budgeting –
Examples from the Parliamentary Debate
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PARLIAMENTARY BUDGET OFFICE

4. PARLIAMENTARY BUDGET OFFICE (PBO)
• Established in 2012 in course of substantial budget law reform
• Main Tasks:
 Support the Budget Committee in form of written expertise, analysis and short
studies on budgetary matters presented by government according to budget
law
 Prepare brief information and short analysis upon request of Members of the
Budget Committee
 Support other Parliamentary Committees regarding impact assessment of
new legislation
 Consult Parliament on performance and gender budgeting
• Currently 8 headcounts (6 academic experts);
part of Parliamentary Administration (with independent direct access to MPs)

5. BUDGET LAW REFORM PACKAGE: GENDER
BUDGETING
• Major federal budget law reform introduced outcome orientation as a new
budget management principle, to be considered especially in accordance
with the targets of gender equality
• Commitment to effective gender equality in provisions of Austrian
Constitution and new federal budget law
• Since 2013: Performance budgeting and result-oriented management of
administrative units
• Since 2013: New regime of impact assessments and internal ex-post
evaluation of new regulations and projects with budgetary consequences
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GENDER EQUALITY IN AUSTRIA:
FRAMEWORK AND FACTS

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GENDER PAY GAP IN EU MEMBER STATES 2015
Source: Statistics Austria

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GENDER PAY GAP 2006-2015
Source: Statistics Austria

9. FEMALE EMPLOYMENT RATE IN THE EU IN 2015
Source: Statistics Austria

10. PART-TIME RATE IN THE EU IN 2015
Source: Statistics Austria, in German available only

11. Members of Parliament - National Council
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Members of Parliament - Federal Council
Total Women in %
1970 165 8 4,85
1990 183 36 19,67
2002 183 62 33,88
2008 183 50 27,32
2013 183 56 30,6
at this time 183 57 31,14
Total Women in %
1970 54 9 16,67
1990 60 13 21,67
2002 62 16 25,81
2008 62 16 25,81
2013 61 18 29,51
at this time 61 20 32,78

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PERFORMANCE BUDGETING FRAMEWORK:
GENDER ASPECTS

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PERFORMANCE BUDGETING FRAMEWORK

14. GENDER EQUALITY/GENDER BUDGETING AND
THE BUDGET LAW (I)
• Gender Equality is an integral part of the new Performance Budgeting System.
• Under each of the 33 budget chapters Ministers have to define up to 5 outcome-
oriented objectives, at least one has to address gender equality.
• Progress has to be reported in Annual Federal Performance Report (to be
submitted to Parliament by October 31th).
• Most Ministries have defined targets with impact on the society; some use
internal organisational targets.
• Relevant Austrian gender equality issues have been addressed: e.g.
 major income imbalances between women and men
 unequal rates of part- and full-time employment (significantly more women in
part-time work than men)
 high numbers of women receiving financial state support
 unequal rates between women and men engaged in unpaid work
legal requirements of federal budget law have mostly been fulfilled
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15. GENDER EQUALITY/GENDER BUDGETING AND THE
BUDGET LAW (II)
• Wide variety of gender objectives:
 Reduce gender pay gap
 Improve distribution of paid and unpaid work between women and men by the
tax system
 Improve representation of women in institution´s board of directors – pre-
defined number of women in entities belonging to the state (state holds a
minimum of 50 %)
 Improve balance between family and career – increase number of teleworking
places
 Safeguard in particular women, children and elderly people against violence
 Sustainable development of rural regions concerning equal opportunities for
women and men
 Reduce poverty among women
 Ensure equal treatment regarding mobility and assure equal access to traffic
services
 Consider the specific situation of women during the execution of a prison
sentence with the focus on reintegration and relapse prevention
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REGULATORY IMPACT ASSESSMENT: GENDER
ASPECTS

17. OUTCOME-ORIENTED IMPACT ASSESSMENT
• Since the 1st of January 2013 public administration has to provide an
impact assessment (IA) for every new draft law, regulation or major project
with budgetary consequences.
• New regime comprises definition of objectives, outputs and indicators and a
two-step procedure to identify and assess substantial impacts in various
policy areas (so called “impact dimensions”).
• Ministry staff is provided with an IT-Tool to carry out assessments and to
present results.
• IA has to be part of consultation materials and legal materials provided to
Parliament.
• An internal evaluation has to take place within five years, to be included in a
Report on Internal Evaluation of Impact Assessment to Parliament.
• As of April 2015 Government introduced the possibility of a simplified IA.
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18. THE IMPACT DIMENSION OF GENDER EQUALITY
Does a proposed government bill cause effects on the equality of women and
men by suggesting changes to
• Payments to natural or legal persons (who benefits?)
• Employment, income, and education (distribution of new jobs between
men and women, development of Gender Pay Gap and participation of men
and women in educational offers)
• Unpaid work (childcare, housework, care for the sick and elderly and
formal and informal voluntary work)
• Public revenue (distribution of tax burdens and reliefs, exemption causes)
• Decision-making processes and decision-making bodies
(representation)
• Health (prevention, medical products, physical and psychological stress
factors, and life-habits)
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19. CHALLENGES
• The new impact assessment regime in Austria is still rather young and there is a
broad variety in the quality of assessments
• Possibility of simplified IAs has not in general boosted quality of remaining full IAs
• Regulatory Impact Assessment and Performance Budgeting System require
Ministry staff to formulate meaningful objectives and indicators and measure
outputs and impacts
• Lack of experience among Ministry staff, but support and quality assurance by
Federal Performance Management Office (FPMO)
• Traditionally strong Ministry of Finance focus on financial impacts on public
budgets
• PBO scrutiny concentrated on IAs of new legislation debated in Budget/Finance
Committee, but increasing assessments of IAs in other policy areas
• Too little ownership for impact dimension and assessments of other ministries
• Little impact on policy design, limited interest for evaluation reports
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GENDER EQUALITY AND GENDER BUDGETING –
EXAMPLES FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE

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GENDER EQUALITY IN THE BUDGET DEBATE (I)
• Outcome orientation provides information for a sound discussion of the
gender dimension and gender impacts of the budget
• High importance of gender equality and gender budgeting in the budget
debate
• All political parties took part in the discussion on gender targets with
different approaches
• Topic seems to be „female“:
 Most of the speakers were female Members of Parliament
 No clear distinction between gender equality objectives and female
promotion (e.g. women and leadership)
 More questions and statements concerning equal treatment of
women, only in single cases questions concerning equal treatment of
men

22. GENDER EQUALITY IN THE BUDGET DEBATE (II)
High interest from the MPs,
but also criticism and challenges to improvement
• Objectives, measures/activities and performance indicators were questioned
 relevance and clearer definition of the objectives
 lacking target-orientation of defined measures/activities
 level of ambition regarding the performance indicators
 use of inadequate indicators in respect of the envisaged outcome
 availability of adequate funds
• General overview on the gender targets in the federal budget report was
missing
• Coordination between Ministries should be enhanced
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23. GENDER EQUALITY/GENDER BUDGETING –
CHALLENGES (I)
• The level of defined objectives, activities and indicators differs in respect of
quality and ambition.
• Ambitious general objectives set by Ministries, which cannot be fulfilled by just
one Ministry (e.g. reduction of the gender pay gap).
• Success of efforts and activities becomes evident only in the medium term.
• Lack of oversight reporting on the complete number of measures and
performance indicators applied by Ministries results in a poor overall picture.
• Objectives and measures concerning gender equality were hardly coordinated
between Ministries. Federal Performance Management Office is now in
charge of coordination.
• Use of internal organisational objectives (e.g. promoting leadership training
possibilities for women) instead of objectives affecting the general public.
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24. GENDER EQUALITY/GENDER BUDGETING –
CHALLENGES (II)
• An overview of the planned resources for enhancing gender equality is not
possible due to the lack of reference to the budget.
• Missing a clear distinction between gender equality targets, female promotion
and social targets.
• International comparisons and improvements of international ranks are not
used as performance indicators.
• Some good examples of gender responsive budgeting have been identified
(e.g. reduction of gender pay gap, as well as the application of gender based
project grants).
• In most policy areas, valid sex-disaggregated and gender-related data to
identify the gaps are not available. Therefore a fact based statement about
the gender-differentiated impact of revenue-raising policies and the allocation
of resources is not possible. Sex-disaggregated data collection as a defined
measure is rare.
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IMPLEMENTATION OF GENDER BUDGETING
IN AUSTRIA
 Gender Equality and Gender Budgeting are an integrated part of the
performance budgeting system and legal requirements of the federal
budget law have mostly been fulfilled
 Gender Budgeting is considered on all budget management levels and the
new federal budget law is a lever for gender equality
 Higher Awareness of Gender Budgeting/Gender Equality, intensive
discussion of the objectives in the budget committee and in the plenary
sessions
 But there is room for improvement regarding the implementation (e.g.
coordination between the Ministries, gender-disaggregated data, stronger
connex to budget)

26. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Contact:
Helmut Berger
Tel.: +0043 1 40 110-2889; +0043 676 8900-2889
E-mail: helmut.berger@parlament.gv.at
Kristina Fuchs
Tel.: +0043 1 40 110-2884; +0043 676 8900-2884
E-mail: kristina.fuchs@parlament.gv.at
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