Middle East and Central Asia: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts

Abstract

Gender budgeting uses fiscal policies to promote gender equality and women's advancement, but is struggling to take hold in the Middle East and Central Asia. We provide an overview of two gender budgeting efforts in the region-Morocco and Afghanistan. Achievements in these two countries include increasing female primary and secondary education enrollment rates and reducing maternal mortality. But the region not only needs to use fiscal policies for women's advancement, but also reform tax and financial laws, enforce laws that assure women's safety in public, and change laws that prevent women from taking advantage of employment opportunities.

Gender‐responsive budgeting: A budget reform to address gender inequity

“…More recently, Downes et al (2017) found that making civic audits and open data resources available to nongovernmental organizations has been helpful in supporting the growth and implementation of gender equity policies in OECD countries. Kolovich and Shibuya (2018) found the same to be true in India.…”

“…More recently, Downes et al (2017) found that making civic audits and open data resources available to nongovernmental organizations has been helpful in supporting the growth and implementation of gender equity policies in OECD countries. Kolovich and Shibuya (2018) found the same to be true in India. And, in countries across the world, “[t]he role of UN Women (formerly UNIFEM) has been critical in initiating gender budgeting efforts … and helping sustain them” (Stotsky, 2016, p. 19).…”

Introducing Gender Perspectives in the Budgetary Process at the Central Government Level

“…However, the degree of implementation of gender budgeting varies widely across countries and governmental levels (Budlender, 2002;Downes et al, 2016;Fragoso & Enríquez, 2016;IMF, 2017;Kolovich & Shibuya, 2016;Stotsky, 2016), and there often exist shortcomings in the systematic collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data, which is considered a crucial prerequisite for successful gender budgeting initiatives (Budlender & Hewitt, 2003;Elson, 2002b). One of the most active international organizations in the field of international development, economics and finance, the IMF, has conducted several surveys of gender budgeting efforts in different world regionsin Asia (Chakraborty, 2016), Europe (Quinn, 2016), the Middle East and Central Asia (Kolovich & Shibuya, 2016), and Sub-Saharan Africa (Stotsky et al, 2016), as well as in the Western Hemisphere more generally (Fragoso & Enríquez, 2016). The latter adds a more balanced view of international developments in gender budgeting given that prior work has mainly focused on developing countries that have usually been placed outside the traditional concept of the Western Hemisphere (see Holvoet, 2007).…”

Sri Lanka: Selected Issues

“…Source: IMF (2017a) (Kolovich and Shibuya, 2016).  Uganda introduced a Gender and Equity Compliance Certificate into their Public Finance Management Act in 2015.…”