This study is the second year research output of 「Study on Institutionalization of Gender Budgeting」carried out since the year 2007 under the overall three-year research plan. The first year research conducted in 2007 primarily focused on the concept of the gender budgeting system and methodology development. And this year we focuses on drafting a「Gender Budget Statement」and developing more specific tools and procedures for implementation of gender budgeting.
1. Drafting a Gender Budget Statement of 2009
The Gender Budget Statement of 2009 is composed of four sections which are (Ⅰ) Outline of the gender budgeting system (Ⅱ) Objectives of the gender equality policy and the direction of the fiscal management (Ⅲ) Characteristics of the Year 2009 Gender Budget and (Ⅳ) Gender Budget Statements by programmes as follows:
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Ⅰ. Outline of the gender budgeting system
1. The concept of the gender budgeting system
2. The objectives of gender budgeting system
3. Legal basis of gender budgeting system
4. Expected results
Ⅱ. Objectives of the gender equality policy and direction of the fiscal management
1. Vision of gender equality policies
2. Policy performance and trend of the fiscal management
Ⅲ. Characteristics of the Year 2009 Gender Budget
1. Overall
2. Direction of the budget allocation for gender equality
1) The focus of the budget allocation
2) By authorities
3) By functions
4) By objectives of the Basic Plan for Women's Development
3. Gender impact analysis of general budget projects
1) By authorities
2) By functions
3) By objectives of the Basic Plan for Women's Development
4) Expected results
Ⅳ. Gender Budget Statement by programmes
1. Ministry of Justice
1) Objectives of the gender equality policy and direction of the fiscal management
(1) Objectives of the gender equality policy
(2) Policy performance and trend of the fiscal management
(3) Policies of 2009 and direction of the fiscal management
2) Overall programmes
3) Details by programmes
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abridged the rest
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2. Implementation System for Gender Budgeting
One of the most important thing in the implementation system for the gender budget is to clarify the objective of gender equality policy which we try to achieve through implementation of gender budget system and to define the responsibility and roles of implementing actors for the implementation of gender budget system.
The objective of gender budgeting system management can be made up focused on basic direction of women's policy master plan and policy tasks. Gender budget management objective of Ministry of Strategy and Finance should be presented on the guideline focusing on them. It is desirable that each ministries' objective system relating with gender budgeting should be made up of as follows:
Objectives relating with gender budgeting by ministry
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Name of Ministry |
Objectives |
Basis |
Contents |
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Ministry of Gender Equality |
Gender Equality Policy Objective |
Women's Policy Master Plan |
Vision-Strategic Objective-Policy Tasks |
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Ministry of Strategy and Finance |
Gender Budgeting Management Objective |
Budget Allocation Guideline |
Direction of Fiscal Management, Gender Perspective Budget Management Objective |
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↓ |
↓ ↓ |
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Central Government |
Gender Equality Objective of Concerned Policies
-Specific Policy Tasks |
Program Budget System |
Gender Equality Objective-Program-
Unit Project-Detail Project |
Ministry of Strategy and Finance and Ministry of Gender Equality became the central figures implementing gender budgeting and it makes collaboration system among various central governmental offices even more important. The cooperative partnership between Ministry of Strategy and Finance and Ministry of Gender Equality is pivotal because Ministry of Strategy and Finance has an influence on the other ministries due to its right of budget allocation. On the other hand, Ministry of Gender Equality possesses all sort of information and specialities on gender main streaming.
Ministry of Strategy and Finance should develop the Gender Budget Statement Preparation Guideline collaborating with Ministry of Gender Equality and act as a central figure in coordinating works between ministries and forming the network. Ministry of Gender Equality will support the gender perspective analysis, provide advice and organize educational program. Currently, Ministry of Gender Equality has a limit of its ability to support gender budget allocation works of various ministries and to manage the role of advisor due to its lack of man power and insufficient structures. Therefore, it is desirable to establish Gender Budget Center (provisional name) composed of experts temporarily during the settlement period and let them to carry out all sorts of works which mentioned above. A competent person should be designated within each ministries such as Gender Equality Coordination in Sweden or Gender Budget Cell in India. It is advisable to constitute cooperative committee among various ministries including Ministry of Strategy and Finance and Ministry of Gender Equality and discuss and coordinate agendas relating with gender budget allocation through it.
3. Implementation Plans of Gender Budgeting
Although external legal force is imposed for implementation of gender budgeting due to the legal basis of gender budgeting system prepared in the National Finance Act, time and efforts will be needed for substantiality of contents.
Step by step implementation plans that first consider substantiality of contents and expand the scopes are required. To do this, in the first stage, we should select a department with great potential for implementation of gender budgeting and obvious gender equality related issues and implement gender budgeting with that department. In the second stage, budget analysis will be more deepened than 1st stage. While budget analysis, cross sectoral analysis between main factors will be available due to the extension of gender disaggregated statistics. In the final stage, we will expand the scopes of the target organization of gender budget analysis to include all central government offices. In this stage, budget analysis will be more sophisticated. Also understanding about gender budgeting and capability of implementation will be improved among the people in ministries who are in charge of doing budget analysis and performance evaluation.
For the safe settlement of gender budgeting institutionalization, gender budgeting educational training on gender budgeting should be intensified. And consulting system should be introduced to eliminate the difficulties generated from practical affairs until the settlement of purposes and job descriptions of gender budgeting system.
4. Development of Performance Indicators for Gender Budgeting
To evaluate government's budget expenditure and performance of budget projects with gender perspective, broadly two aspects should be considered. They are gender equality of beneficiary through budget expenditure and gender equality of performance of budget projects. Gender equality of beneficiary is related with the degree of direct benefits of budget expenditure. Gender equality of performance of projects are related with ultimate results of the projects.
For gender equality of beneficiary, performance indicators can be developed through analysis about some questions like 'Is gender rate of beneficiaries equitable comparing with a target population of policy?', 'Is there any gender deviation in the size of budget support?', 'Is satisfaction about policy same between men and women?', etc.
For the gender equality of projects' impact, gender equality of ultimate results of projects which it aims to achieve and the aspects that budget projects unintentionally impact on gender equality as the results of implementation should be considered at the same time. To do this, performance indicators can be created variously according to the types of projects, therefore here we provide the performance indicator development guideline.
5. Case Analysis of the Impact of Public Expenditure on Gender Inequality
Gender perspective budget analysis is the starting point to show unequal allocation methods of budgets in various policy realms empirically and to suggest a direction how budget should be allocated. However, carrying out good quality analysis in short term will not be easy for government officials who feel that they deal with tasks unrelated with gender equality, because to make visible the unequal resource allocation principles internalized in the budget projects which seem gender neutral needs comprehensive knowledges which help to critically examine the gender inequality structures and reproduction methods in overall societies.
In the initial stage of implementing the system, we need to find and expand the specific analysis cases that help the 'intuitive' understanding about what are the gender discriminating issues needed to be visible through analysis, what are the gender inequal assumptions internalized implicitly in budget and what are the possible alternative for gender equality. Recognizing this situation, gender budget analysis cases home and abroad showing the impact of public expenditure on gender inequality were introduced.
6. Future Tasks
In-depth understanding and agreement on gender budgeting as a long term procedure should be expanded. Gender budgeting is not the policy that can generate visible achievement in short term and it needs time and efforts in long terms just like the long history of gender inequality.
Horizon of gender budgeting system currently focusing on gender budget statement should be expanded. To deepen budget analysis for budget statement, multi-dimensional approach is needed for the reconsideration about gender inequality problems implicitly internalized in projects seemed gender neutral.
As un urgent task, implementation organization which can powerfully implement gender budget system should be built in government. When each organizations take their own roles, responsibilities and authorities, implementation of stable system in future can be possible.
The 2009 research as the third year and final year of 「Study on Implementation of Gender Budgeting」, will be carried out focusing on four aspects. First, we will develop monitoring and feedback system on gender budget statement and balance sheet which can evaluate effectiveness of system management. Also, we will hold various workshops regarding on monitoring methods targeting lawmakers and women's associations. Second, through gender budget analysis on various policy realms including tax revenues, we will expand and deepen budget analysis methodologies. Third, we will develop deepened study and educational materials for establishing educational training system for gender budget analysis of government officials. Finally, we will publish various promotion papers to expand public awareness on gender budgeting system based on research achievements up to now.
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