Gender and Budget Overview Report

This Overview Report questions why government budgets often allocate resources in ways that perpetuate gender biases and looks at how budgets offer the potential to transform gender inequalities by attaching money to policy commitments. In recent years gender budget initiatives (GBI), both inside and outside government, have risen to this challenge. Although most GBIs are still primarily focused on analysing the budget and its impact, the ultimate aim is to mainstream gender into the criteria that determine the planning, formulation and implementation of the budget. In order to make this a reality, new methodologies need to be identified and documented. The GBIs themselves need to be consistently followed up, evaluated and the identifiable impacts of different GBIs shared. New approaches, alliances and tools also need to be explored, such as the potential for mainstreaming gender into participatory budget initiatives, and the comprehensive development of a rights-based approach to gender and budgets.