| dc.description.abstract | The focus of this publication is to act as a guide to the
practice of gender budgeting. It is not a first-step book.
There are many publications which articulate the rationale for, the background to and the history of gender
budgeting and a sample of these are listed toward the
end of the handbook under Resources, page 71.
This handbook assumes an understanding of gender, of
the objectives of a gender equality strategy, of the ways in
which gender inequality is manifest, of the need for structural change in order to tackle unintentional gender bias,
of the basics of gender mainstreaming as a strategy to
address gender equality. Gender budgeting, as a tool of
gender mainstreaming, cannot be implemented without
a grasp of these fundamentals. It is the case that some
gender budget pilot initiatives have brought about a new
or deeper understanding of gender for those involved.
Nevertheless, adopting a gender budgeting strategy
requires prior experience in addressing gender equality.
Gender budgeting is not, per se, a first-step tool.
The following chapter, How to do gender budgeting,
page 10, starts by discussing the type of experience and
conditions that need to be in place in order to engage
with gender budgeting. These are part of “How to do
Gender Budgeting”. The temptation in using this handbook might be to skip these sub-sections and move
ahead to the text dealing with specific tools and
approaches. There is a considerable demand for specific
tools, for the ABC, for the clearly laid-out steps. However the fundamentals cannot be bypassed or shortcircuited.
This is particularly the case if the practice of gender
budgeting is to move beyond an analytic exercise to a
mainstreaming strategy. The experience of many practitioners is that, since the tools need to be adapted, it is
more important to focus on developing an approach
based on local circumstances. The actual tools of analysis, of re-formulation and of mainstreaming will emerge
when the goal has been identified. | en_US |
