Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB)
Target Audience
Officials from the Ministry of Finance and other ministries with a lead GB role from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and selected Indian States.
Qualifications
Mid to senior level officials involved in gender budgeting issues in the course of their work, with a strong public financial management background; fluent in English; minimum BA degree.
Course Description
Gender equality and women’s economic empowerment contributes to sustainable economic growth. Governments through their expenditure and revenue decisions impact on gender equality. Gender budgeting (GB) is about analyzing fiscal policies and budgetary decisions to understand their impact—both intended and unintended—on gender equality and using this information to design more effective gender equality policies. This workshop on gender budgeting will discuss GB tools and integrating a gender perspective throughout the budget cycle. It will address current international and regional practices in designing and implementing gender budgeting, what has worked and what has not, what are the challenges and what lessons can be learned to strengthen country practices. The workshop participants will be from the Ministry of Finance and other ministries with a leading GB role from fourteen countries in South, Southeast and East Asian countries, and selected Indian States. The workshop will include presentations from international and regional experts, country case study presentations, presentations from participants and exercises and group work to promote peer to peer exchange and discussion. One of the takeaways will be practical guidance on implementing and strengthening country practices in gender budgeting. The workshop will cover the following areas: - GB concept, objectives, relation to gender equality and global and regional trends - GB tools (e.g. GB statement, GB impact analysis) and integrating gender approach into all stages of the budget cycle - planning, formulation and execution. - Asian regional country case studies and presentations by participants. - Peer to peer learning on current and good practices at a national and sub-national level in implementing gender budgeting and overcoming challenges. - Discussion of gender budgeting from different institutional perspectives.
Course Objectives
1. Improving understanding of: - the concepts, rationale and benefits of gender budgeting in relation to gender equality goals - the trends and developments in gender budgeting in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as globally, focused on mainstreaming of gender budgeting and application best practice - the links between gender budgeting and wider PFM reforms - the gender budgeting toolkit available to budget managers, including gender budgeting statements, gender impact assessments, gender focused fiscal reporting, etc. 2. Applying gender budgeting concepts and tools in group exercises and development of country action plans 3. Peer-to-peer learning through country presentations and discussion.
