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
Gender Budgeting - Overview
• Why GENDER?
• Why BUDGETING?
• Current practice – OECD survey results
• Issues arising and future work programme
Women in parliament and confidence in the government
Trust in government
Inclusive growth
Inclusive policymaking
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).
Despite progress, gender inequalities persist: the implementation gap
Share of women employed who are managers (compared to men)
Unemployment rates for 25-34 years olds with tertiary education, by gender - 2014
Despite progress, gender inequalities persist: the implementation gap
Share of women ministers (2015)
Despite progress, gender inequalities persist: the implementation gap
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
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
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)
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
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”
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
15 of 34 OECD countries have gender budgeting (or are planning / considering it)
AUS
CANCHL
DNKEST
FRA
DEU
GRC
HUN
IRL
LUX
NZL
POL
PRTSVK
SVNCHEGBRUSACZE
TURITA
AUT
BEL
ISL
FIN
ISR
JPN
KOR
MEXNLD
NORESP SWE
Introduced
Not planned
Actively considering
Planned
“Perceived gender inequalities” a predominant rationale for introducing Gender Budgeting
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
To address perceived genderinequalities in policy development/
resource allocation
As one aspect of gender mainstreaming As one aspect of a broader equalityagenda (i.e. beyond gender alone)
To promote the general principle oftransparency in policy development/
resource allocation
Other, please specify:
Primary reason
Significant reason
Gender Gender Equality Transparency Other Inequalities mainstreaming agenda principle
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
three broad categories of gender budgeting
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
Challenges: tools to assess impact focus largely on gender indicators
Gender indicators
Regular monitoring
Parliamentary reporting
Civil society dialogue
Stakeholder surveys
None of above
Challenges: the perception of actual impact of gender budgeting is mixed
Mexico
Belgium
Israel
Japan
Korea
NorwaySpain
Austria
Finland
Iceland
Netherlands
Sweden
Not significant
Sector-specific
SignificantInsufficient information
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.
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