Gender Budgeting : Tool for Gender Responsive

Governance

Dr. Paramita Majumdar  Senior Consultant (UNW), Gender Budgeting

Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt. of India 17th November, 2016 NIPCCD, New Delhi

Training Programme for State Resource Centre for Women

Understanding Gender• Gender refers to the socially constructed relationships between

men and women.• These relationships change over time, space and circumstances.• Each institution has its own gender culture, that is relationships

between women and men. • For instance, many Organisations interpret gender issues as issues

only concerning women. This results in only women being sent to represent the institution at gender forums – resulting in the marginalisation of gender issues as women’s issues. Thus it is vital to make sure of male participation.

Activity 1 – What is the gender culture of SRCW? Compare with any other institution.

List the gender similarities and differences & Identify the reasons

Gender Sensitivity • Gender sensitivity is the translation of awareness into practices, which

result in changes in the perceptions, plans and activities of institutions and organizations.

• A gender aware institution is not necessarily a gender sensitive one because awareness might not necessarily generate any will or resolve to act on the basis of the gender awareness. In fact, it is possible for gender awareness to generate resistance, obstruction and other practices that make gendering an institution difficult.

• In attempting to make institutions more gender sensitive, gender policies are usually developed in order to guide action and ensure that the stated objectives of the policy are realised.

WHAT IS THE STATED GENDER POLICY OF YOUR STATE?

Gender Policy• Examines the existing gender gap and addresses

the issue of gender disparity, with the objectives of strengthening individual and institutional efforts that enable women’s empowerment. 

&• The mandate of the SRCW is directed at

promoting gender mainstreaming through research, advocacy and training as well as fostering gender awareness in the Government, NGOs, community through mass media, public lectures, workshops and conferences etc.

Has it translated into Gender Mainstreaming?

Gender Mainstreaming• Gender mainstreaming is a systematic inclusion of

both women’s and men’s concerns, experiences and needs. 

• It is a process of consistently incorporating sensitivity to gender differences in governance, decision-making, policy, needs analysis, institutional offices and mechanisms, planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in institutions so as to create an organisation that is gender equitable

• Mainstreaming gender necessitates that gender perspectives become part of the normal perspective of an organization without its having to resort to special vehicles, units or offices that isolate and marginalize these issues.

How to mainstream gender?• Effective gender mainstreaming should be context-and

content-oriented. This means a much more qualitative analysis over and beyond the quantitative presentation.

• Pre-requisites for context and content analysis - Profiling generally provides a quantitative picture of the

status of men and women in any given sector, e.g. employment at university. 

Gender analysis is an essential first step of collecting and analysing sex-disaggregated information in order to understand gender differences and how these differences may have an effect on policies' effectiveness. 

Gender audit is an evaluation process aimed at figuring out whether set policies or interventions are doing that which they are meant to be doing. It is an Institution’s self-assessment, monitoring and evaluation of interventions with the broad aim of diagnosis and transformation.

Gender Budgeting• Gender budget is critical for ensuring that resource allocation

takes place in a gender sensitive manner. Gender budget involves the examination of all expenditures and revenues from a gender perspective. This implies that all expenditure is examined for its relevance, accessibility, impacts and consequences for women and men. For example, when an institution devotes a percentage of its budget for provision of accommodation or scholarships, how much of it will benefit women? When an institution budgets for a crèche for staff children, what is the impact on the male and female workforce?

• Gendering the budget is a process that allows various stakeholders to recognize what an institution's /sector’s gender priorities and commitments are because it tells us how an institution/organisation/sector spends the revenue collected from both men and women.

Identifying Entry Points in the

New Framework

15-year Vision Document• Co-terminus with 2030 Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs)• Main objective of the vision - Poverty Eradication• 7-year strategy (2017-18 to 2023-24 )to convert a long-

vision document into implementable policy and • 3-year action plan (2017-18 to 2019-20) as part of the

national developmental agenda - aligned with the 14th FC• Focus Areas - Infrastructure, commerce, education and

health, also • internal security and defence, which were not part of the

earlier five year plans.

The SDGs

12th Plan Key Strategies – not over

Engendering National Policies/Programmes

Enabling Legislations Women’s Participation in Governance Social Inclusion of Vulnerable women Economic Empowerment Social and Physical Infrastructure

14th FC Recommendations• Distribution of grants to the States using 2011 population data with weight

of 90 per cent and area with weight of 10 per cent. The grant to each state will be divided into two, to duly constituted gram panchayats and municipalities, on the basis of urban and rural population of that state using the data of census 2011. (para 9.64)

• Total size of the grant - Rs.2,87,436 crore for the period 2015-20 (para 9.69)

• Grants in two parts - a basic grant and a performance grant. For GPs, 90 % basic grant and 10 per cent is performance grant. For municipalities, it is 80:20 basis. (para 9.70)

• Performance grants to GPs address the following issues: (i) making available reliable data on local bodies' receipt and expenditure through audited accounts; and (ii) improvement in own revenues. In addition, the ULBs will have to measure and publish service level benchmarks for basic services. (para 9.75)

14th FC Recommendations (contd….)• …….Some of the income from royalties be shared with the local

body in whose jurisdiction the mining is done. This would help the local body ameliorate the effects of mining on the local population.

• All States to contribute 10% to SDRF during 2015-20, with 90% from the Union Govt.

• …. strengthen the judicial systems in the States and urge State Governments to use the additional fiscal space

• ……address the problems and build capacity and bridge the existing gaps with regard to general administration and police.

• …….. An attempt is being made to link outlays, outputs and outcomes through the outcome budgets, supported by an ongoing computerisation of accounts, real-time management information systems (MIS) and performance monitoring and evaluation systems (PMES).

• ……. States favoured doing away with the Plan and non-Plan classification, as this would avoid distortions, improve the focus on asset maintenance, enable better expenditure management and eventually lead to better outcomes.

14th FC Recommendations (contd….)• ……………While outputs can generally be measured in quantifiable terms,

measuring outcomes has proved to be a difficult exercise and physical outputs are reported as outcomes in many instances. In the light of available experience, we reiterate the importance of linking outlays with outcomes. However, we emphasise that it is essential to spell out key indicators for outputs and to monitor these within an already defined accountability framework. (para 17.18)

• ………………the exercise of linking outlays to outcomes would be done more meaningfully by States and implementing agencies in the case of transfers made to them. This data could be collated by the Union Government to present a complete picture. Similarly, State Governments could prepare outcome budgets in respect of the expenditures directly incurred by them. For transfers made below the State level, implementing agencies could be required to prepare outcome budgets. Data in this regard could then be collated by States to prepare outcome budgets on the expenditures incurred by them. We, therefore, suggest serious consideration of the issue of assigning primary responsibility for preparing outcome budgets at the level of actual spending and its consolidation at the relevant level of government. (para 17.20)

Devolution formula in 13th and 14th FC

States like Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Jharkhand are the major gainers due to change in the horizontal devolution formula which now gives greater weight to a State’s forest cover.

Variable Weights Accorded13th FC 14th FC

Population (1971) 25 17.5Demographic Change (population 2011)

0 10

Fiscal Capacity/ Income Distance

47.5 50

Area 10 15Forest Cover 0 7.5Fiscal discipline 17.5 0

Recommended Transfers2014-15 (BE)

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

2015-20 (Total)

Total Grants to States from Finance Commission (A+B+C)

64675

88865 100646

103101

111063

133678

537354

A. Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grants to States

7550 48906 41308 35820 34581 34206 194821

B. Disaster Relief Grant to States

5791 9971 10470 10993 11543 12120 55097

C. Grants to Local Bodies to States

22494

29988 48868 56288 64939 87352 287436Source: Chapter 6 Annex 6.3; Transfers Recommended by the FC-XIV

14th FC- The Game Changer?• Has the expenditure on social services as a

proportion of total state government expenditure gone up ?

• Has the money (additional revenue) been utilised for reduce budgetary deficits instead of the social sector spending?

• What are the priority social sector expenditure?• Do the states have the capacities to spend large,

untied funds to reflect better outcomes. What about the administrative and technical skills among the officials concerned?

Participatory PlanningCan the Village

Convergence Coordinators identify entry points in the

GPDP?

Way Forward• Examine the existing institutional statutes and plans of action. What

gender issues and perspectives are already incorporated? How far are they already being implemented? Are there any possible areas that you can see requiring improvements or additions or changes?

• What reasons are there for embarking on establishing a gender policy /revisiting the gender policy? (Are there areas of development or crisis which necessitate urgent attention, such as growing sexual harassment and violence; increase in HIV/AIDS rates; high rates of pregnancy among students? Is there a demand from women's groups? Are there financial incentives from government or from donors? Does it allow for greater inter-linkages with other institutions?)

• Is there a small number of “champions” within the Governmnet/state level who are dedicated and willing to undertake the extra work needed to launch such an important initiative? A small group of committed people needs to be identified. Which high level persons are already committed to improvement of gender issues within the government set up?

Way Forward• Construct the organogram of each Department starting with

the highest office (State to District to Block to GP/ULB) to the lowest across management and administrative grades. Ask questions to address the gender disparities, if any , for example -

Access to Jobs - What are the procedures and processes through which men and women access jobs? Are they fair to women and men equally?

Employment Returns – Are there any Contractual workers? What job demands are inherent in different contracts? What are the gender implications of these contracts?

Work content and demands – Head of Department often work with Finance people to prepare and discuss budgets, plan work for diverse groups of workers beyond office hours. Are men and women similarly placed in performing such work?

Way Forward• Examine the staff recruitment record over the past 36

months. What criteria were utilized? How many members of the Selection Committee were women? How many men and women applied for the jobs, and how many men and women were appointed? Is the promotion policy gender sensitive ?

• Review the gender equity and gender equality programmes that are already in existence in any selected sector. How can they be linked with the national agenda of e.g., Make in India or Skill India campaign?

• Is the Communication Policy of the state gender sensitive? How to ensure that examples, language and symbols used in the communication are gender aware and diversity appropriate

Way Forward: Engendering Data

• Data Collection - gender-sensitive methods of data definition, collection & processing Census & survey, economic, administrative data

• Data Analysis– Individual data disaggregated by sex– Sex a primary & overall analytical classification e.g.

rural/urban & female/male; age group & female/male– Need to move beyond crude sex disaggregation

• Data Coverage - national statistical systems provide equal quality & quantity of data on women’s & men’s roles & concerns– Requires time use data– Includes administrative, sectoral & economic data

Thank You !!

For queries, if any:majumdarparamita@gmail.com