What is Gender Budgeting: Its Key Features, Benefits, & Challenges

Similar to other gender-related terms and concepts, the idea of gender budgeting has gained attention in recent years. It is seen as a vital tool for incorporating gender equality and gender equity through budgets. 

In gender budgeting, a gender analysis is conducted and gender is integrated into fiscal policies. This approach is a step by step process of how budgets impact different genders, governments, and organizations and helps to develop equitable and effective policies. 

This article covers the main concept of gender budgeting, its factors, benefits, and challenges in public finances.

What is Gender Budgeting?

Gender budgeting is a strategy that helps with gender-based analysis of government budgets and expenditures. It further explores how budgets address and impact the situation of various genders. 

The analysis and investigation ensure that fiscal policies are designed in a way that reduces gender inequalities and promotes gender equity. This strategy can be implemented in national, regional, and local budgets. 

In a nutshell, gender budgeting can be defined as “… a strategy to achieve equality between women and men by focusing on how public resources are collected and spent.”

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Factors of Gender Budgeting

Implementing effective gender budgeting requires a strong political commitment. This should have the capacity to successfully integrate gender in planning and budgeting processes that equally benefit women and men.

There are two key aspects of enabling gender budgeting. These are the institutional and technical sides, which are discussed below.

1. The Institutional Factor

i. Political Leadership

It is important that the political leadership is genuinely willing to integrate gender equality at different levels. Along with this, government actors at various levels, such as national and regional assemblies, local authorities, and political parties should understand the importance of gender-responsive budgets. They should be able to adopt clear directions for such policies and budgets.

ii. Commitment From Public Institutions

Public institutions play a key role in implementing policies and gender-responsive budgets. Hence, their understanding and commitment are crucial to achieving the government’s agenda of gender equality. 

Moreover, public institutions and civil servants should have technical skills and resources to effectively manage the process of gender responsive budgeting.

iii. Civil Sector

Civil society is another important aspect of gender-sensitive budgeting that ensures public expenditures address various gender needs. This sector has the power to question governments commitment and decisions. They can hold governments accountable to meet international and national gender equality standards. 

2. The Technical Factor

i. Gender Analysis

A gender analysis of policies, programs, and budgets helps to evaluate its impact on women, men, and other genders. To understand the influence sex-disaggregated data is required to address the needs of various genders. 

ii. Gender-Responsive Budgeting

Gender-responsive or gender-sensitive budgeting ensures that budgetary policies and allocations of funds meet specific needs for women and men. For instance, focus on funding for girls in STEM education, allocation for women’s health, and violence prevention.

iii. Monitoring & Evaluation

This factor focuses on tracking expenditures and how they align with gender equality goals. It includes evaluating if the allocated funds are achieving its goals and fulfilling the needs of the targeted population.

iv. Stakeholders Engagement

It is important to engage stakeholders, such as gender experts, women’s organizations, local communities, etc in the process of budget formulation. The engagement of all stakeholders ensures equal representation of all genders. 

Benefits of Gender Budgeting

Integrating gender approaches in budgets and financial policies is a process of developing high-quality budgetary policies. There are multiple benefits that individuals, societies, and economies enjoy through this approach. These are discussed below; 

1. Promoting Gender Equality

The greatest benefit of adopting a gender approach is identifying gender inequalities in budget allocation, expenditure, and outcomes. This helps to foster gender equality in society and ensures that resources are fairly distributed in various fields for social, political, and economic development.

2. Designing Effective Policies

Incorporating gender-responsive budgeting in policies helps to make effective policies that understand the challenges faced by various genders. This directs policy-makers to develop targeted interventions that address the needs of different social groups. 

3. Transparency and Accountability

Implementing gender-sensitive budgeting in policies increases the involvement and diversity of different social groups. Increased participation of stakeholders demands analysis of how the budget impacts different genders leading to transparency in budgets. 

Moreover, this process also holds government decisions accountable. It increases public trust in government decisions and plays a crucial role in monitoring gender equality goals.  

4. Economic Growth

Allocation of gender-responsive budgets helps to identify and address gender disparities in economic activities. It is a powerful tool that targets investment in women and other gender minorities. This leads to increased productivity and economic development for a country. 

5. Sustainable Development Goals

In 2024, gender-responsive budgeting can play a significant role in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). It not only aligns with SDG 5 of gender equality but it supports other goals related to education, health, and economic growth.

Challenges of Gender Budgeting

Despite the benefits discussed above, integrating gender in fiscal policies is not an easy task. It comes with several challenges. Some are discussed below;

1. Limited Data

Developing effective gender budgets and strategies demands sex-disaggregated data. The type of data that clearly shows the situation of women and men is often missing or incomplete. Hence, data gaps make it difficult to accurately assess gender situations and to design targeted interventions. 

2. Institutional Resistance

Sometimes decision-makers successfully incorporate gender in public policies. However, institutional actors may show resistance to implementing such strategies due to traditional practices. Overcoming such obstacles can be a real challenge for governments. 

3. Lack of Technical Skills

Gender budgeting requires technical expertise and many governments and organizations lack such skills and resources. Capacity building workshops and training at this stage are crucial for successfully such strategies.

4. Lack of Political Will

Generally, political leadership supports gender equality interventions but in many cases, they lack genuine political will. This is because gender equality is not a priority for many governments. Pressure from the media and the civil sector can play an important role in prioritizing government goals.

Conclusion

Gender budgeting is a transformative public finance approach with a goal to achieve gender equality in society. It guides governments and organizations to develop effective and equitable public policies that promote inclusion and sustainable development. 

Despite its challenges, the benefits of gender-responsive budgeting are significant. It is a powerful gender equality tool that increases transparency and accountability. As governments and organizations continue to recognize its importance and benefit, the tool has the potential to enhance public expenditures and a just society. 

The use of gender in budgeting is a fundamental shift toward the well-being and empowerment of all individuals, regardless of their gender.