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