KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

This research paper is relevant in the sense that it investigates the macro- and micro-effectiveness of gender budgeting so that it can achieve mature and sustainable development.

First, we analyze whether gender budgeting is valuable in improving gender equality and whether it contributes to mid-to long-term economic growth and development by conducting a macro analysis of the effects of gender budgeting(Chapter Ⅱ). Next, we analyze the impact of gender budgeting on financial programs for which gender budget statements are drafted and the impact on suppliers and consumers of relevant programs by conducting a micro-analysis of the effects of gender budgeting(Chapter Ⅲ). Finally, based on the research results, we present a plan to facilitate the development of gender budgeting(Chapter Ⅳ).

The main results are as follows. First, from a macro-perspective, we define ‘effectiveness of gender budgeting' as the advancement in gender equality brought by the introduction of gender budgeting and the correlation with economic development. In order to analyze whether gender budgeting advances gender equality in practice, we track the change in the gender gap index resulting from whether gender budgeting was introduced or not through a cross-sectional analysis and a panel analysis. The results show that the introduction of gender budgeting in both OECD countries and non-OECD countries was effective in reducing the gender gap. Furthermore, we analyze the change in national gender equality index to observe the connection between it and the introduction of the system. We conduct a meta-analysis of the literature to analyze the association between economic development and the improvement in the gender equality index. The results show that as theoretical and empirical research on gender discrimination and growth understand that the presence of gender discrimination impacts economic development in a negative manner, national policies that will reduce gender discrimination are necessary to achieve economic growth.

Now, we will discuss the micro-analysis of gender budgeting effectiveness. First, we analyze how the scale and breakdown of the program budgets are changing in terms of gender equality, which is a significant change in the budgeting process brought by the implementation of gender budgeting. After gender budgeting was introduced in 2010, the number of target projects and budget scale of the gender budget has been rising. However, we know that the budget scale of some individual projects are incredibly large. Secondly, to examine the impact gender budgeting implementation has on actual gender equality from the demand side, we analyze whether the number of beneficiaries and satisfaction levels of gender budgeting projects have increased after its implementation. Analysis results show that from the composition aspect of gender-sensitive target projects, the presence of continuing projects plays a positive role in improving the safety of budget compilation and enhancing the effects of gender budgeting implementation. Third, we analyze the shift in awareness among governmental departments that are directly involved in the implementation process and government officials who compile and are in charge of the corresponding budget (the suppliers). Comparing awareness of gender equality before the drafting of gender budget statements and statements of accounts (2014∼2015), it appears to be on an upward trend. Not only that, the trend by variable appears to be similar to the overall trend. The results of WTP of the drafting of gender budget statements and statements of accounts reveal that about one-third does not perceive drafting gender budget statements and statements of accounts as a cost.

Based on the analysis results above, the development plan for gender budgeting is as follows. First, we have to consistently monitor the association between gender budgeting implementation and the national gender equality index. Through these efforts, we need to establish a system that improves low gender equality indexes and budget-related fields and organizations. Specifically, we must analyze gender equality levels in the evaluation of the gender-sensitive settlement of accounts and incorporate the results into drafting the gender budget statement the following year.

Secondly, a gender equality index categorized by gender budgeting projects must be developed and the number of target projects expanded. As the majority of projects set up take-up rates among women or satisfaction levels as gender equality objectives, we need to provide a specific plan that creates a quantitative and qualitative index depending on whether it is possible to measure in a quantitative context, a department-representative performance index and a project performance index depending on the standard project, and an input index, a process index, an output index, and a outcome index depending on the characteristics or contents of the performance information measured and presented through indexes.

Finally, when setting outcome objectives of the gender budget statement and making out its basis of calculation based on the gender equality index standard for expanding the number of gender-sensitive target projects, we need to present specific methods to calculate the quantitative goal, build statistics data needed for the basis of calculation, and create a second method to set outcome objectives if there is conflict with the objectives of the performance plan. Additionally, we need to create a guideline related to gender equality effect analysis of gender-sensitive statements of accounts and its self-evaluation reports, to analyze the gender equality effects depending on a project's or organization's characteristics.