Need of Gender Budgeting

♤ To ensure men’s and women’s needs and priorities are considered equally.

♤ To encourage the incorporation of gender analysis in preparation, implementation, audit and evaluation of government budgets at all the levels and evaluating the impact of the budget on the gender equality objective.

♤ To enhance the linkages between economic and social policy outcomes.

The Framework adopted for gender analysis of expenditures is often broken down in three categories:

♤ Gender-specific allocations are allocations specifically targeting women and girls or men and boys. For example, school bursaries for girls or domestic violence counselling for men. Many governments have allocated special funds for women’s programmes and it is important to analyse their impact on women’s lives and ensure that such programmes give value for money.

♤ Mainstream allocations need to be examined for their gendered impacts. Most expenditures fall in this category and the real challenge of gender analysis of budgets is to examine whether such allocations address the needs of women and men, girls and boys of different social and economic backgrounds equitably.

♤ Equal opportunity employment allocations are allocations intended to promote gender equality in the public service. For example, day-care facilities for employees’ children, paid parental leave, or special training for women middle-level managers.