KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

A Study on the Improvement of Gender Impact Assessment by Business Reference Model:

the cases of Korea and overseas

Dool-Soon Kim
Kyung-Hee Kim
Yoo-Jin Choi
Youn-Sun Chang
Hee-Yung Moon
Jin Kim

 

Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) is a tool to be used by governments to promote gender equality in their policies by analyzing differences between men and women including different needs and socio-economic status in the process of planning and implementation of regulation and programs of government. The goal of GIA is to achieve de facto gender equality by suggesting policy recommendations and their implementation to eliminate gender discrimination. Since its introduction in 2005, GIA in Korea has expanded its coverage in terms of the number of GIA-conducting agents and target programs. The number of agents has increased from 53 in 2005 to 292 in 2010 and 293 in 2011 with increasing target programs from 85 in 2005, to 2,401 in 2010 and 2,954 in 2011. The objectives of this study are to review GIA reports and follow-up reports submitted by government officials and to present good GIA practices in other countries. The contents of this study are: First, to identify the domestic cases of policy improvement by GIA based on Business Reference Model and to analyze their features. The cases are divided in categories of target programs including public order, science and technology, and education: Second, to present good practices of GIA mechanisms to enhance its effectiveness at the level of administrative bodies. They include the cases such as to make gender governance at local level, to insert GIA as a part of evaluation indicators of local governments by central government, and to employ persons in charge of GIA in the agents: Third, to examine the relevant cases in Canada and UK in order to indentify good practices from abroad. The outcomes are as follows. First, 131 cases in 16 categories are identified domestically. 44 cases, around one third of total cases, are in the category of social welfare, and 13 in local development, 10 in general public administration, 10 in public health and 10 in others (gender-sensive reform of regulation). And there are 1~5 cases in science and technology, communication, culture？sports？tourism and reunification？foreign affairs. Second, after investigating 16 local governments of metropolitan cities and provinces, the study confirms that there are 5 local governments to have gender equality coordinating committees, 7 to install a position in charge of gender policies, and 7 to exercise executive governance for gender mainstreaming, all of which are serving for implementing and strengthening GIA. And the study also finds out that there are 8 local governments to put GIA in Balanced Scorecard (BSC) indicators, 9 to include GIA in evaluation indicators of women policies, and 7 to give awards for good practices of GIA. Third, the study presents 9 cases in 4 categories from Canada, which are 3 in public health, 3 in social welfare, and 1 in public order and safety, transportation, general public administration, and 8 cases in 5 categories from UK, which are 3 in social welfare, and 2 in public health and 1 in public order and safety, general public administration and local development.