KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

In order for gender budgeting at the local government level to be run smoothly and effectively, it is essential that support be given to government officials involved in the process and for them to improve their related capability. However, most local government officials have a low understanding and acceptance level of gender budgeting and express that they feel great pressure and encounter obstacles in managing it. Therefore, in this paper, we will examine how external experts are being utilized to help local government officials manage gender budgeting more effectively, and suggest strategies for education and consulting provided to assist gender budgeting at local level, which differ from region to region.

First, we examine cases of external assistance provided to improve the financial situation of local governments by focusing on investment screening, feasibility studies, local financial analyses and diagnosis system, and participatory budgeting. If you compare support from experts provided to local government financial management systems and local gender budgeting, while financial investment screening, feasibility studies, local financial analyses and diagnosis system, and participatory budgeting for both are based on ？Local Government Finance Act？, legal regulations for support from experts differ. In the case of local government financial management systems, expert support has been taking place as an effort to internalize a third party objective point of view and specialty in a certain field. We have recognized that it has to be designed to be suitable for the institutional context, which reflects the purpose of implementation and characteristics of its operation. In the process of establishing the expert support system, which helps manage local government gender budgeting more effectively, we find the need to consider whether consulting services for drafting local government gender budget statements and statements of accounts are legally obligated, whether there are designated specialized agencies to provide support in the process of drafting gender budget statements and statements of accounts, and whether the content discussed in the consulting sessions for drafting local government budget statements and statements of accounts was reflected in the execution of programs and budget formulation process.

Secondly, we investigate the current status of support provided to drafting local government budget statements and statements of accounts and its problems. We analyze the demand and supply of support for drafting local government budget statements and statements of accounts in the following manner. In the case of demand, we figure out the experience local government officials had with training and consulting for local gender budgeting (demand which has already occurred), as they are the recipients of such services, and their intention of receiving training and consulting services in the future (demand that will occur in the future). Also, we re-analyze the results of the 2014 study of the opinions of government officials who drafted local government gender budget statements. In the case of supply, we analyze records of training and consulting services provided on local government gender budgeting and settlement of accounts from each region and the 2013-2014 records of training and consulting services data submitted by regional gender impact assessment centers.

Third, we ask the opinions of experts to improve the drafting of local government gender budget statements and statements of accounts. We conduct an in-depth study on the training and consulting services by surveying the heads of regional gender impact assessment centers and examine the budget related to training and consulting services of local government gender budgeting, opinions on how to improve the content and method of education and consulting services, and the work regional gender impact assessment centers do related to gender budgeting. Furthermore, we survey 108 consultants who have experience providing external support for drafting local government gender budget statements and statements of accounts to understand their experience providing consulting services for gender budgeting and to inquire what content and method of training they preferred. In particular, we ask about the consulting targets, consulting content, number of programs they provided consulting to, consulting fees, difficulties they face as a consultant, training they received to provide consulting services, satisfaction levels, opinions on how to improve the process, education methods they prefer, and educational content they prefer.

Based on the analysis results above, we present the following policy proposals. First, we have to expand and specialize the support provided to drafting local government gender budget statements and statements of accounts. It is especially necessary to make training for government officials who draft local government gender budget statements and statements of accounts compulsory so that metropolitan governments and primary local governments receive training on gender-sensitive settlement of accounts in the first half of the year and training on gender budgeting in the second half of the year. We can concentrate on providing officials in charge of the budget with training on establishing a cooperative system between related departments and officials in charge of programs with training on the specifics of filling in the items. In order for training on local government gender budgeting to operate independently of gender impact assessment training, local governments need to give attention and provide support. Also, consulting must be differentiated depending on the region and target. While officials in charge of the budget need face-to-face consulting services, officials in charge of programs need written consulting services, and in the case of officials in charge of the budget, among whom consulting services were in high demand, it is necessary to introduce consultants with an arsenal of specialized knowledge to increase the level of satisfaction with the consulting services. Furthermore, we need to provide additional support to employing a gender budgeting specialist who is exclusively responsible for gender budgeting in each region's gender impact assessment center. These specialists will do work related to training and consulting on gender budgeting and analyze the gender budget statement and statements of accounts of their own region.

Secondly, we need to improve the abilities of local government gender budgeting consultants. In the case of external consultants, if regional gender impact assessment centers provide supervision and hold regular small-scale evaluation meetings, it can improve the external consultants' specialization in gender issues so that their consulting capacities are strengthened. In the case of in-house consultants, one possible plan to improve their abilities is for the Korean Institute for Gender Equality Promotion and Education to provide in-depth training and regional gender impact assessment centers to hold regular small-scale evaluation meetings together with external consultants. In-depth training for local government gender budgeting consultants should involve more than helping them gain a basic understanding of the items that need to be filled out in local government gender budget statements. It should include content such as the gender budget's position within the local government's budget structure and its relation with other budget systems(especially the performance budgeting system) and plan to build a gender-segregated statistical database within primary local governments.

Third, each region needs to develop its own consulting manual for local government gender budgeting consultants that they can refer to so that each region's demand for women's policy and the level of gender equality can be reflected in the gender budgeting process. This will help raise the effectiveness of local government gender budgeting and will help systematize the support given to the experts in the region.