A high gender inequality limits economic development. This inequality is an outcome of both socio-economic structures and gender blind macro economic policies. Although efforts are being made to ameliorate the current situation at different levels by the government, NGOs and the civil society, the progress towards gender equity is slow.

Many factors are responsible for the slower progress towards gender equity. That includes failure to finance programmes through gender responsive budgeting so as to achieve committed national and international targets.

A government’s fiscal policy is normally considered to be gender-neutral. Several empirical studies have clearly indicated that government expenditures and revenues have a different impact on men and women, since they generally occupy different social and economic positions. Very often, this is to the disadvantage of women.

Gender budgeting is a tool which can be used to expose gender inequalities and biases in the distribution of public resources. It can be used to move the debate on gender issues away from mere sentimental or moral exhortations to concrete demands supported by economic arguments. Thus, rather than speaking of gender-neutrality of budgets it seems to be more appropriate to speak of a gender-blindness of budgets.

Policies have not focused on ways in which macroeconomic conditions impact differently on men and women. Usually economic policies regarding budget revenues and expenditure, market liberalization and the expansion of the private sector are regarded as ‘gender neutral’ though they are in fact gender blind.

In the last few years, especially in the aftermath of the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, there are a growing number of so-called gender-responsive budget (GRB) initiatives under way which try to reveal gender biases in budgets and to lobby for a more gender-sensitive budgeting.

Pakistan is also inclined to introduce gender responsive budgeting in the budgets at all tiers of the government. But this inclination is only reflected in the ‘gender reform action plans (GRAP) and in the poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSP), which are insufficient to engender macroeconomic policies.

Gender-Responsive Budget Initiatives provide a means to determine the effect of government expenditure and revenue policies on women and men by a gender mainstreaming of national budget policies.

These initiatives can be composed of different elements and vary considerably across regions given their specific social and political contexts, and the nature of the institution implementing them.

Moreover, GRB initiatives entail a set of analytical tools that can be used to highlight the gap between policy statement and resources committed to their implementation. Therefore, the aim of these initiatives is to analyze and persuade gender equitable macroeconomic policies.

Government has a central role to play in addressing social need and promoting equity and GRB can assist in poverty reduction efforts, meeting the needs of vulnerable group and promoting equity. The GRB tools allow the government to allocate the available resources in a way that meet the most pressing needs.

Development tool: Fiscal, financial and economic policies help reduce poverty and redress inequalities in the distribution of resources. Gender responsive budget initiatives are an important tool for strengthening economic and financial governance and for promoting process of accountability.

Accountability process leads to equality. National budgets reflect how governments mobilize and allocate public resources, and how they aim to meet the social and economic needs of their people.

In order to attain gender equity, it is very important to analyze the impact of government policies on men and boys as compared with women and girls within and across any given socio-economic category. Gender analysis is an important part of accountable and responsive budget procedures.

The process of accountability through Gender responsive budget can contribute to achieving the objectives of gender equality, human development and economic efficiency.

Achievement process of developmental policies can be boosted by national policy for the development and empowerment of women. The policy focuses on gender sensitization to be institutionalized and integrated into all sectors of development and to include the private sector as well.

Dr Atia Inaytullah says that majority of Pakistan’s poverty is found among its women and in its rural areas, that all indicators of poverty have a female face. The Poverty Reduction Strategy document mentioned the GRB as one of the key action. Government agreed to GRB to analyze the federal, provincial and local government budgets to determine the extent to which resources are allocated to address gender inequality. This is meant to improve not only the women status but also to contribute to national, social and economic development.

History of the GRB: The term ‘gender budgeting’ was used first time in Australia, when first women budget was started in the mid- 1980s soon after the Labour Party came into power. After the change of government in the mid-1990, the new regime was not so interested in women and gender.

South African Women’s Budget Initiative (WBI) started in mid-1995. WBI does not argue simply for “ more for women“. It says that traditional economics, and especially its blindness to unpaid labour, is one of the main reasons why policy and budgets are not gender-responsive.

Up to now, gender-sensitive budget initiatives are underway in more than 50 countries in different regions. The Philippines gender and development (GAD) budget states that every government-related agency must allocate at least 15 per cent of its budget for gender and development.

Gender-sensitive budget tools: Several technical tools for doing gender-sensitive budgeting have been elaborated up to now. They cannot be used as a blueprint, but have to be adapted to the respective national, provincial or local contexts. They all require gender-disaggregated data, which is not always available in the needed scope.

One of the basic frameworks which served as the basis of many exercises to date is the three-way categorization of expenditure. Rhonda Sharp, who has been closely involved in the women’s budget initiative in Australia, distinguishes three kinds of expenditure:

a) Specifically identified gender-based expenditures of government departments and authorities (special education initiatives for girls, employment policy initiatives for women, men’s health programmes etc.)

b) Equal employment opportunity expenditure by government departments and authorities on their employees (training for clerical officers or women managers, provision of crèche facilities, parental leave provisions etc.)

c) General or mainstream budget expenditure by government departments and authorities assessed for its gender impact

As expenditures in the first two categories make up only a very small percentage of total expenditures in most countries, the mainstreaming of budget expenditure has been emphasized in most initiatives.

Quick results are not be expected by GRB Initiatives; the integration of gender-analysis into the budget cycle is rather a medium to long-term task. Continuity is important.

The ministry of finance, with technical and financial support of UNDP has initiated a pilot project. The project will be helpful in several ways at federal level. Advocacy skills of the government and civil society organizations will be needed to build on gender budgeting.