Transcript Introducing the Commonwealth

Institutionalising Gender Responsive
Budgets in the Commonwealth:
Lessons Learned and Critical Next
Steps
Esther Eghobamien
Commonwealth Secretariat
FMM, Limasol, Cyprus
Gender Equality and the Commonwealth
 Gender Equality is:
A
key factor for achieving socio-economic
development, democracy and peace;
A
fundamental Commonwealth value and principle:
Development that rests on the foundations of
democratic governance, the rule of law, respect for
human rights, gender equity, and peace and
security
A
crosscutting issue to be mainstreamed in all
policy formulation, planning processes, programme
implementation, monitoring and evaluation;
 Essential
for an equitable and sustainable future.
Key Issues and Concerns
 Reality check:
70% of the world’s poor are women and girls compared to men and boys;
On average annually over 500 000 women die from maternal causes - in
Sierra Leone it’s 1 in 8 women.
 In sub-Saharan Africa the proportion of women living with HIV/AIDS has
increased to over 60%;
 Victims of today’s conflicts are mainly women and girls;
 Around the world, women make up only 18.4% of parliamentarians;


 Impact of the current global context:


53 million more people, mainly women and girls, trapped in poverty
Half of the women in the world are in “vulnerable jobs” that is, they are
self-employed in the informal sector or work as unpaid family members
 Infant and maternal mortality rates are projected to increase - an
estimated 200,000 to 400,000 additional infant deaths per year on
average in the 2009 to 2015 period.
 Worst decline in Global Trade in 80 years and an expected contraction in
public spending
 Calls for redefining values, changing the rules of the game and priorities of
economic and financial systems
Commitment to Gender Responsive
Budgets
 Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meetings have
recognised the critical importance of genderresponsive budgets (GRBs) to effective economic
governance
 Ministers agreed to receive report on GRB
implementation biennially at the Finance Ministers
Meetings
 In 2005 Commonwealth Finance Ministers
“urged members to establish an institutional
mechanism within their countries to monitor
progress on implementing GRBs.”
 Report reviews progress between 2007 and 2009
What is Gender Responsive Budgeting?
Means for determining and redressing any unequal effects of
government revenue and expenditure policies on women and
men.
 Analyse Fiscal & Monetary policies:
taxation, revenue, expenditure ,
deficits and overall macro-economic
policies from a gender perspective
 Examine how policies and budget
allocations affect the economic and
social opportunities of women and
men both short and long term
 Ensure that spending allocations do
not perpetuate gender inequalities
 Recognise the varied needs of
women and men, girls and boys as
market agents; fosters equity led
growth and targets poverty reduction
2
Key Elements of Functional GRBs
 Identify, analyse and prioritize important gender issues in country
 Measure to what extent government policies, programs and projects
improve or entrench gender disadvantage and disparities
 Check that budget spending allocations and
revenue raising measures promote gender
equality, women’s empowerment, transparency
and accountability
 Monitor whether priority setting benchmarks,
policy and guidelines are gender responsive, and geared towards
equitable service delivery and results in transformative change
 Monitor and Evaluate outcomes and impact of the budget annually
Highlights 2009 GRB Status Report of
the Commonwealth
Outlines:
 How
GRB had been built into countries’ budgeting
systems
 Results
and outcomes of GRB in reporting countries
 Findings, lessons and good practices
 Persistent gaps and challenges in implementation
 Monitoring
and evaluation actions
 Recommendations
to governments
Key Findings and Lessons:
1. Evidence of Engagement
 Recognition and articulation of commitment from several
countries
 International instruments and conventions adopted
 Instruments and conventions domesticated through
legislations, policy and action plans for gender equality
 Evidence of institutional arrangements for implementation


Strengthened integration of GRB into existing national
mechanisms
Use of PRSPs, MTEF, Budget circulars: Bangladesh,
Malaysia & Tanzania
2. Evidence of Critical First Steps
 Directing Budgets towards
specific gender equality work


Varying levels of allocations by
governments for gender equality
Comparisons to allocations in other
priority areas unavailable
 Broad range of GRB activities in
support of implementation

Diversity and differences in activities and
actors by some governments

Advocacy, building capacities,
awareness-creating, policy analysis,
planning, monitoring etc.
3. Evidence of Good Practice
 Mechanisms for Institutionalising GRB




Budget guidelines in Tanzania and Ghana with additional
Budget Monitoring Team and Certificates in Ghana
Budget Background Documents: India and South Africa
Performance Statements Australia, Ghana & South Africa
Increasing percentage of public expenditure targets women
 Promoting Women’s Leadership

Participation of women with capacity in budget matters has
been pivotal: South Africa, Uganda, Australia
Evidence of Good Practice contd.
 Initiatives Securing Women’s Rights
 CEDAW providing a standard to evaluate results:
Australia
 Child Tax Credits: UK
 Care Burden: Australia
 Security of Women: St Lucia, Australia
 Budget decision making at local levels: India
 Parliamentary role:
Key role in GRB implementation played by women
parliamentarians in Uganda & South Africa
Challenges and Barriers
 Limited capacity within and outside government

Few have skills to understand, analyse, interpret and make
linkages of the consequences of budgetary allocation/decision
making to gender equity in order to make relevant interventions
 26.4% reporting countries affirms challenges to reforming budget
systems to GRB principles and goals of equity
 Complexities of the budgeting processes are daunting even for
parliamentarians who are accountable for these budgets
 Intensive capacity enhancement for NWMs and constructive
engagement between NWMs and finance ministries critical
 Invisibility and lack of prioritisation of gender
equality as a development issue undermines GRB
effort

Not all sectors articulate gender needs and priorities for
responsive resource allocations and implementation levels.
Challenges and Barriers
 Parliaments in most countries cannot change the
overall budget envelope:

They should be able to influence priorities.
 Absence of “critical mass” to lead transformations
for GRB:




Require political commitment at the highest levels for gender
equality
Only a handful of countries have women (or any) politicians
committed to undertaking GRB’s.
Where men are sensitive to gender concerns they often will
encounter other challenges including capacity limitations.
Require GRB-capacitated, active & well informed NGOs to be
brought formally into the GRB process of Governments
Challenges and Barriers
 Most GRB’s focus on women instead of integrating a
gender perspective in all budget analysis:

overlooks areas where men’s needs define the norm, i.e. the rest of
the budget .
 Absence of accountability to women and gender
priorities at all levels hinders GRB:
Accountability mechanisms (such as parliament, national women’s
machineries, women NGO’s) fail to link women’s empowerment and
gender equality with overall national development, poverty eradication,
economic prosperity or Equity informed Growth.
 Accountability hampered by lack of institutional capacity for
implementation, monitoring and assessment


Lack of sex disaggregated data hinders analysis and monitoring
Recommendations
 Jointly conduct with COMSEC, annual gender appraisal/audit of Finance
Ministries to quarantine systemic barriers and track gender responsive
spending and revenue decisions
 Draw down on Commonwealth technical funds for institutionalising GRB
 Increase resources to NWMs to ensure they have adequate capacity and
tools to advise Finance and other ministries on GRB
 Develop guidelines for reporting on Gender Equality in all existing spending
and revenue raising policies and programs and attach such guidelines as part
of budget call circulars
 Make gender equality visible in budgets using priorities and bench-marks to
fulfil commitments
 Involve parliament and CSOs in GRB processes to strengthen
implementation an increase Democratic Accountability
 Rethink ethics, values and priorities shaping and driving financial systems
and markets
Re-invent Capital Management
Albert Einstein: ‘We cannot resolve today’s problems using the
strategies of old’
Why GRB is Central to Reforms and
Recovery
$5trn projected new female earned income key to post
recession economy ( Newsweek, Sept. 2009)
 Women influence or make 80% of entire household
purchasing decisions
 In Iceland, female governed Capital Market sole survivor of
financial system collapse and bankruptcy
 Cyprus Women’s Cooperative Bank model now running as
profit bank with Eu13m deposit base
 According to “Fortune 500”, companies with the highest
proportion of women on their senior management teams
found to outperform companies with the lowest proportion by
close to 35%
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GRB Central to Reforms and Recovery
contd.
73% of consumers would be prepared to pay more for
environmentally friendly products
 67% of consumers would rather see brands spend more
money on good causes and feel that too much money is spent
on advertising and marketing
 Almost 2/3 of those graduating from universities and
providing new human capital resource are women
 That the richest person in mainland China is a woman and
she is a selfmade entrepreneur
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Commonwealth Secretariat
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Role of Finance Ministers and Ministries
Concretize commitment to GRB for achievement of
growth, development, peace and democracy and
sustainable recovery from the financial and economic
crisis
 Commitment to Action on Key recommendations of
study on GRB progress and report by 2010 WAMM
and annual CFMM
 Commitment to adequately resource and formally
engage with Women’s Affairs Ministries on GRB and
equitable, sustainable recovery
 Lead gender sensitive reforms in financial policies,
structures and operations including recovery processes
GRB and Gender Equality Mainstreaming is Everyone’s Business
How can Finance Ministries play the lead role effectively?
What specific lessons have been learned?
What are the persistent challenges?