Abstract
Analysis and Evaluation of Gender Budgeting in Korea(Ⅱ)
Taek-Meon Lee
Yoo-Hee Jung
Young-Sook Kim
Hyo-Joo Kim
EunJi Kim
Youn-Sun Chang
Byeong-Kwon Kim
Hae-Ram Kim
Jung-Min Son
Ju-Hee An
The objective of this research is to examine the successes of the gender budgeting system and identify its weaknesses in order to suggest further improvements for the future in light of its tenth anniversary.
To achieve this goal we examine the issues of the selection criteria for target projects and the process through which they are applied, review the overall gender budgeting process of a select few ministries, then conduct a quantitative analysis measuring the effectiveness of the performance management of targeted projects using performance reports and gender budget settlement of accounts for the Fiscal Year 2015 (Section Ⅱ). Next, based on the results of our analysis, we present a plan to effectively improve the problems of the current gender budgeting system (Section Ⅲ). Last, we propose a model operation plan from the perspective of performance-based budgeting aimed at achieving gender equality.
The most pressing issues of the current system identified in this research paper are as follows. First, since an objective and standard criteria for selecting target projects has yet to be established, issues about the validity of the selected projects are frequently brought up. Secondly, as the effectiveness of performance management of the target projects is low, the fact that many of these projects did not substantially contribute to improving gender equality or that it was difficult to confirm the level of contribution have been highly criticized. Therefore, this research paper seeks a way to establish rational criteria for selecting target projects for gender budgeting in order to differentiate which projects' performance must continue to be managed to achieve gender equality and which do not. Furthermore, we propose a plan to effectively manage the performance of target projects so that they actually achieve their goal of improving gender equality.
The plans to improve gender budgeting presented in this research are as follows.
First, we advise that gender budgeting be harmonized with performance-based budgeting and gender impact assessment in the long-run. Projects with the goal of reducing gender disparity should be linked with performance-based budgeting, including them in the performance management process of general budgetary programs so that they receive performance evaluation and feedback. Projects that are designed to have an influence on gender equality should be evaluated on their indirect effect on gender equality through gender impact assessments, the results of which should be reflected in the execution of projects, search for new projects, and feedback after execution, through official procedure, which needs to be established.
Secondly, while the method of selecting target projects for gender budgeting at the sub-project level should be continued in the short-term, we determine that the current selection criteria for target projects of automatically re-selecting the previous year's target projects should be discontinued since in the case of budgetary projects, there is a high proportion of continued projects and it is difficult to evaluate their effect on gender equality on an annual basis. As specific criteria for selecting projects with the goal of reducing gender disparity we present the following three standards: a project associated with carrying out one of the seven tasks presented in the Basic Plan for Gender Equality (a project that is a target project for the current Basic Plan for Gender Equality), a project that targets women or includes preferential treatment measures for women, or a project that provides protection to disadvantaged groups that are either predominantly men or women. Projects that apply to any of the following four are considered as projects designed to have an influence on gender equality:: projects that directly target natural persons, projects that directly target households, projects that directly target one-person companies·small businesses·the self-employed, projects among those that target non- natural persons such as companies·organizations·facilities which have employers that are relevant to the performance index of management tasks or projects that include the benefit rates or satisfaction levels of natural persons such as customers·users (However, it must be possible to collect data on the gender of the beneficiaries).
On the other hand, in order to actualize the model management plan presented above, we need to revise various guidelines, manuals, and checklists in the short-term, but also amend laws and their enforcement ordinances in the long-term. To put the short-term model management plan into action, we need to restructure the detailed guidelines of budget compilation, which is related to selecting target projects. The detailed guidelines to compiling the budget is comprised of targets and detailed guidelines. Targets should be differentiated into projects with the goal of reducing gender disparity and projects that are designed to have an influence on gender equality. The former refer to projects either associated with the Basic Plan for Gender Equality, projects that target women or include preferential treatment measures for women, or projects that provide protection to disadvantaged groups that are either predominantly men or women, whereas, the latter refer to budgetary programs, excluding projects with the goal of reducing gender disparity, that target natural persons and households.
The key of the long-term model management plan presented in this research is the amendment or enactment of necessary laws. To be ideal, new regulations of the overall gender budgeting process, which includes gender budgeting's inherent function and objective, the performance management system and feedback on the results, and the link with the Mid-term Expenditure Framework should be established. In this paper, we propose the enactment of an individual law called the “Gender Budgeting Law(tentative),” which includes all of these factors. Another legal task is the elaboration of the law on gender impact assessment. Fundamentally, gender budgeting and gender impact assessment are separate, so from the perspective that they should be established as separate procedures with distinct functions, we highlight gender budgeting's independent coverage and function that does not overlap with those of gender impact assessment.
Finally, we suggest a role for the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in the actualization of the model management plan for gender budgeting. The Ministry will have to search for management tasks that are needed for selecting projects with the goal of reducing gender disparity, provide all guidelines and manuals, and hold training sessions for government officials. Furthermore, it will need to monitor whether the performance indices for the selected management tasks have been chosen appropriately, while also be able to propose changes in performance indices. It can refer to the fact that the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning is involved in the selection of performance indices for the Employment Program and the National Research and Development Program. Lastly, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family should be given the authority to be involved in the selection of projects to be evaluated (in the case that budgetary project evaluations are conducted on gender budgeting target projects), offering feedback based on the evaluation results, etc.