Gender Budgeting

Gender Audits: An Approach to Engendering Energy Policy in Nepal, Kenya and Senegal

Citation:

Clancy, Joy S., and Nthabiseng Mohlakoana. 2020. “Gender Audits: An Approach to Engendering Energy Policy in Nepal, Kenya and Senegal.” Energy Research & Social Science 62 (April): 101378.

Authors: Joy S. Clancy, Nthabiseng Mohlakoana

Abstract:

Gender audits are an approach for putting gender on the policy agenda and are an alternative to gender budgets being less dependant on experts in government finance.

This paper explores the effectiveness of gender audits as an approach to mainstreaming in the energy sector which has lagged other sectors in mainstreaming gender. The assessment takes the experiences of an international network on gender and sustainable energy that aims to get gender onto the energy policy agenda. Since there is no standard audit methodology, the network developed its own.

The paper uses an analysis of qualitative data, reviews of audit reports and key informant interviews to answer two questions. As a result of gender audits, have gender issues or attending to women's particular interests been incorporated in energy policy? Did participation in an audit build the capacity of national actors to contribute to gender mainstreaming in the energy sector? Detailed data comes from network countries conducting audits: Kenya, Senegal and Nepal, with supporting evidence from 8 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

The gender audit methodology used is partially effective in integrating gender issues into government energy policy. Pragmatic, conceptual and political barriers to gender mainstreaming continue to operate. Adopting gender-aware policies occurs rapidly in organisations that participated in the audits. Male employees more readily accept gender policies when they see that policies also benefits men. In the audit countries, a group of national gender and energy experts has been established able to contribute to mainstreaming gender in the energy sector.

Keywords: gender mainstreaming, gender audits, energy policy, engendering policy, knowledge networks, gender capacity, mainstreaming effectiveness

Topics: Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Governance, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: Kenya, Nepal, Senegal

Year: 2020

Women, Substantive Equality, and Fiscal Policy: Gender-Based Analysis of Taxes, Benefits, and Budgets

Citation:

Lahey, Kathleen A. 2010. “Women, Substantive Equality, and Fiscal Policy: Gender-Based Analysis of Taxes, Benefits, and Budgets.” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 22 (1): 27-106.

 

Author: Kathleen Lahey

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
One of the most pronounced socio-legal characteristics of women is their persistent economic inequality throughout life, when compared with men. Despite decades of agitation for fairness in taxation, state benefit programs, and government budgetary allocations,fiscal policies continue to do little to promote women's equality and, in some countries, are undermining it. This article demonstrates that even in countries such as Canada, which is perceived to be a world leader in sex equality, fiscal inequality can quickly undercut women’s gain unless clear institutional mechanisms ensure that all programs and practices are continually monitored for their gender-specific impact on women. This article outlines how gender mainstreaming,gender-based analysis, and gender budgeting-which were all called for by Canada's ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1982 and the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action into federal policy in 1995-offer a "broad third path to equality" that can be used to identify and eliminate discrimination against women, including in the crucial areas of taxation, expenditures, and government budgets. 
 
FRENCH ABSTRACT:
L’une des caracte´ristiques socio-juridiques les plus marque´es chez les femmes demeure leur ine´galite´ e´conomique par rapport aux hommes, et ce, durant toute leur vie. En de´pit de de´cennies de pressions sociales pour obtenir l’e´quite´ dans l’imposition, dans les programmes d’avantages sociaux e´tatiques et les allocations budge´taires gouvernementales, les politiques fiscales continuent de faire tre`s peu de choses en vue de promouvoir l’e´galite´ des femmes et dans certains pays, elles empeˆchent l’atteinte de l’objectif vise´. Le pre´sent article de´montre que, meˆme dans des pays comme le Canada, qui est perc¸u comme e´tant un chef de file mondial en matie`re d’e´galite´ des genres, les ine´galite´s fiscales peuvent rapidement re´duire a` ne´ant les acquis des femmes, a` moins que des me´canismes institutionnels clairs n’assurent que tous les programmes et toutes les pratiques soient continuellement controˆle´s pour mesurer leur impact sur les femmes en particulier. Le pre´sent article expose les grandes lignes de l’inte´gration a` tous les stades de l’analyse fonde´e sur les rapports de sexe et de l’e´tablissement de budgets en fonction des sexes—mesures ne´cessaires suivant la ratification par le Canada en 1982 de la Convention sur l’e´limination de toutes les formes de discrimination a` l’e´gard des femmes et de la mise en oeuvre de la De´claration et du Programme d’Action de Beijing dans les politiques fe´de´rales en 1995—et de´montre comment ces analyses offrent une «large troisie`me voie vers l’e´galite´» et peuvent servir a` identifier et a` e´liminer la discrimination a` l’e´gard des femmes, y compris dans les domaines critiques de l’imposition, des de´penses et des budgets gouvernementaux.

Topics: Economies, Economic Inequality, Public Finance, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Canada

Year: 2010

Gender Matters: Climate Change, Gender Bias, and Women’s Farming in the Global South and North

Citation:

Glazebrook, Tricia, Samantha Noll, and Emmanuela Opoku. 2020. "Gender Matters: Climate Change, Gender Bias, and Women’s Farming in the Global South and North." Agriculture 10 (7).

Authors: Tricia Glazebrook, Samantha Noll, Emmanuela Opoku

Abstract:

Can investing in women’s agriculture increase productivity? This paper argues that it can. We assess climate and gender bias impacts on women’s production in the global South and North and challenge the male model of agricultural development to argue further that women’s farming approaches can be more sustainable. Level-based analysis (global, regional, local) draws on a literature review, including the authors’ published longitudinal field research in Ghana and the United States. Women farmers are shown to be undervalued and to work harder, with fewer resources, for less compensation; gender bias challenges are shared globally while economic disparities differentiate; breaches of distributive, gender, and intergenerational justices as well as compromise of food sovereignty affect women everywhere. We conclude that investing in women’s agriculture needs more than standard approaches of capital and technology investment. Effective ‘investment’ would include systemic interventions into agricultural policy, governance, education, and industry; be directed at men as well as women; and use gender metrics, for example, quotas, budgets, vulnerability and impacts assessments, to generate assessment reports and track gender parity in agriculture. Increasing women’s access, capacity, and productivity cannot succeed without men’s awareness and proactivity. Systemic change can increase productivity and sustainability.

Keywords: Africa/Ghana, climate change, farming/farmers, food security, gender inequality, global South/North, justice, hunger, land

Topics: Agriculture, Education, Gender, Women, Gender Budgeting, Governance, Quotas, Justice

Year: 2020

Gender in Climate Change, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Policies: Insights from East Africa

Citation:

Ampaire, Edidah L., Mariola Acosta, Sofia Huyer, Ritah Kigonya, Perez Muchunguzi, Rebecca Muna, and Laurence Jassogne. 2020. "Gender in Climate Change, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Policies: Insights from East Africa." Climatic Change 158: 43-60.

Authors: Edidah L. Ampaire, Mariola Acosta, Sofia Huyer, Ritah Kigonya, Perez Muchunguzi, Rebecca Muna, Laurence Jassogne

Abstract:

Gender mainstreaming was acknowledged as an indispensable strategy for achieving gender equality at the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. Since then, governments have made substantial efforts in developing gender-responsive policies and implementation strategies. The advent of climate change and its effects, which have continued to impact rural livelihoods and especially food security, demands that gender mainstreaming efforts are accelerated. Effective gender mainstreaming requires that gender is sufficiently integrated in policies, development plans, and implementation strategies, supported by budgetary allocations. This study analyzes the extent of gender integration in agricultural and natural resource policies in Uganda and Tanzania, and how gender is budgeted for in implementation plans at district and lower governance levels. A total of 155 policy documents, development plans, and annual action plans from national, district, and sub-county/ward levels were reviewed. In addition, district and sub-county budgets for four consecutive financial years from 2012/2013 to 2015/2016 were analyzed for gender allocations. Results show that whereas there is increasing gender responsiveness in both countries, (i) gender issues are still interpreted as “women issues,” (ii) there is disharmony in gender mainstreaming across governance levels, (iii) budgeting for gender is not yet fully embraced by governments, (iii) allocations to gender at sub-national level remain inconsistently low with sharp differences between estimated and actual budgets, and (iv) gender activities do not address any structural inequalities. We propose approaches that increase capacity to develop and execute gender-responsive policies, implementation plans, and budgets.

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Environment, Climate Change, Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Governance, Livelihoods, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Tanzania, Uganda

Year: 2020

Discursive Translations of Gender Mainstreaming Norms: The Case of Agricultural and Climate Change Policies in Uganda

Citation:

Acosta, Mariola, Severine van Bommel, Margit van Wessel, Edidah L. Ampaire, Laurence Jassogne, and Peter H. Feindt. 2019. "Discursive Translations of Gender Mainstreaming Norms: The Case of Agricultural and Climate Change Policies in Uganda." Women's Studies International Forum 74: 9-19.

Authors: Mariola Acosta, Severine van Bommel, Margit van Wessel, Edidah L. Ampaire, Laurence Jassogne, Peter H. Feindt

Abstract:

While the international norm on gender mainstreaming, UN-backed since 1995, has been widely adopted in national policies, gender inequalities are rarely systematically addressed on the ground. To explain this limited effectiveness, this paper takes a discourse analytical perspective on gender policy and budgeting, with a focus on the translation of the international norm into domestic norms and policies. An in-depth, inductive analysis of 107 policy documents in Uganda examines how the gender mainstreaming norm has been translated at three administrative levels: national, district, sub-county. The analysis finds five processes that reduce the norm's transformational potential: neglecting gender discourse, gender inertia, shrinking gender norms, embracing discursive hybridity and minimizing budgets. Overall, gender mainstreaming largely stopped at the discursive level, and often paradoxically depoliticized gender. The findings explain why gender mainstreaming might be helpful but not sufficient for advancing gender equality and suggest additional focus on promising practices, women's rights movements and stronger monitoring.

Keywords: gender mainstreaming, norm translation, norm domestication, transformational potential, Uganda

Topics: Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2019

Gender Responsive Budgeting in India: Trends and Analysis

Citation:

Dey, Joyashri and Subhabrata Dutta. 2014. “Gender Responsive Budgeting in India: Trends and Analysis.” International Journal of Social Science 3 (4): 495-509.

Authors: Joyashri Day, Subhabrata Dutta

Abstract:

The Budget is an important tool in the hands of state for affirmative action for improvement of gender relations through reduction of gender gap in the development process. It can help to reduce economic inequalities, between men and women as well as between the rich and the poor. Budget impacts women’s lives in several ways. It directly promotes women’s development through allocation of budgetary funds for women’s programmes and reduces opportunities for empowerment of women through budgetary cuts. Gender budget doesn’t mean a separate budget for women rather gender budget is an attempt to assess government priorities as they are reflected through the budget and examine how they impact women and men and within that, certain groups of women and men. Gender Budget doesn’t look at whether or not the same is spent on men and women but rather at what the impact of the spending is on men and women and whether or not budgets respond to the needs of both women and men adequately. Thus, Government of India has undertaken Gender budgeting initiatives contribute to ‘gender mainstreaming’ by focusing on the gender dimensions of government budgets.

Keywords: gender based violence, women empowerment, Government Programmes, gender budget

Topics: Development, Economies, Economic Inequality, Gender, Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Governance Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2014

Taxing for Inequalities: Gender Budgeting in the Western Balkans

Citation:

Bojičić-Dželilović, Vesna, and Aida A. Hozić. 2020. “Taxing for Inequalities: Gender Budgeting in the Western Balkans.” Review of International Political Economy, April, 1–25. doi: 10.1080/09692290.2019.1702572.

Authors: Vesna Bojičić-Dželilović, Aida A. Hozić

Abstract:

This article seeks to illuminate structural limits of Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) by analysing the interplay between economic and fiscal reforms, promoted by International Financial Institutions (IFIs), and gender budgeting initiatives in the Western Balkans. GRB is the core concept bridging revenue mobilization and gender equality in the work of IFIs. However, as the Western Balkans experience demonstrates, GRB initiatives are best characterized as “empty gestures” towards gender equality as they cannot compensate for the continued adverse effects of IFIs overall policies.

Keywords: VAT, Western Balkans, revenue mobilization, consumption-led growth, financialization, households, gender responsive budget

Topics: Development, Economies, Public Finance, Gender, Gender Budgeting, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, International Financial Institutions, Post-Conflict Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia

Year: 2020

How to Resist Austerity: The Case of the Gender Budgeting Strategy in Andalusia

Citation:

Puig-Barrachina, Vanessa, Marisol E. Ruiz, María del Mar García-Calvente, Davide Malmusi, Esther Sánchez, Lluís Camprubí, Carles Muntaner, Imma Cortès-Franch, Lucía Artazcoz, and Carme Borrell. 2017. “How to Resist Austerity: The Case of the Gender Budgeting Strategy in Andalusia.” Gender, Work and Organization 24 (1): 34–55. 

Authors: Vanessa Puig-Barrachina, Marisol E. Ruiz, María del Mar García-Calvente, Davide Malmusi, Esther Sánchez, Lluís Camprubí, Carles Muntaner, Imma Cortès-Franch, Lucía Artazcoz, Carme Borrell

Abstract:

While most countries have imposed austerity policies that risk jeopardizing the progress towards gender equality, there are examples of European regions that have maintained or strengthened gender-equality policies in a climate of economic downturn. Following a realist approach and adopting Kingdon’s agenda-setting model as our framework, this explanatory case study examines how, why and under which circumstances the gender budgeting strategy has resisted austerity measures. This strategy represents a key tool for gender mainstreaming in Andalusia, a southern region of Spain. Results have shown that the existence of a strong left-wing government is a necessary context for the maintenance of gender equality policies. The feasibility given by the previous context of institutionalization of this strategy and its low cost, together with political commitment — with a decisive contribution from female leadership — have been the major factors allowing the maintenance of the gender budgeting strategy in Andalusia.

Keywords: gender mainstreaming, public policies assessment, gender budgeting, austerity measures, Andalusia

Topics: Economies, Gender, Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance Regions: Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Spain

Year: 2017

Gender in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations: Rapid Literature Review

Citation:

Browne, Evie, Huma Haider, Freyja Oddsdottir, Brigitte Rohwerder, and Anna Louise Strachan. 2014. “Gender in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations (Rapid Literature Review).” Birmingham, UK: Governance and Social Development Resource Center, University of Birmingham.

Authors: Evie Browne, Huma Haider, Freyja Oddsdottir, Brigitte Rohwerder, Anna Louise Strachan

Abstract:

This rapid literature review, in annotated bibliography format, collates a large amount of literature published in 2013 and 2014 (up to April 2014) on the topic of gender in fragile and conflict-affected situations. It is not a systematic or exhaustive review, but does provide a comprehensive overview of the literature available. It includes all types of available written material, including peer-reviewed articles, impact evaluations, policy papers, NGO position papers, toolkits, and UN documents.
 
The report covers 7 themes:
  • gender and justice
  • women’s leadership and political participation
  • women’s access to economic empowerment and opportunities
  • combatting sexual and gender based violence
  • women, peace and security
  • responsiveness of plans and budgets to gender equality
  • gender equality and women’s empowerment.
 

Topics: Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gender Budgeting, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Conflict, Peace and Security, International Organizations, Justice, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Sexual Violence

Year: 2014

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