Parliament, the Budget and gender
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Parliament, the Budget and gender
Author
Wehner, Joachim
Byanyima, Winnie
Date
2004Metadata
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Through national budgets, governments outline their policy intentions and the resources
they intend to use to implement them. Increasing demands for democracy and good
governance require, inter alia, that parliaments play a more active role in the budgetary
process. As supreme representative institutions at national level, parliaments and their
members are under obligation to ensure not only that the needs of their electorates are
met, but also that public money has been equitably raised, well spent and can be
properly accounted for.
Democracy is premised on a genuine partnership between men and women and the
eradication of gender inequalities. Analysing the budget from a gender perspective
provides a useful mechanism to assess the effects of government policies on men and
women, boys and girls, and the real contributions all individuals make to the economy.
In this way, government can evolve and implement policies that ensure equity.
This handbook, the sixth in a series produced by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
together with different partners, has been written with the intention of strengthening
parliament’s capacity in the budgetary process. It is the product of a particularly fruitful
collaboration between the IPU, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
the World Bank Institute (WBI) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM). This strong working relationship has been cultivated through a series of
jointly-organised regional and national seminars on Parliament and the Budgetary
Process, Including from a Gender Perspective. With a fundamental commitment to
furthering democratic principles and gender equality, these agencies have given
substantial time, effort and resources to all these projects.
Intended as a reference tool, this handbook sets out practical examples of parliament’s
active engagement in the budgetary process. It seeks to advance parliament’s own
institutional capacity to make a positive impact on the budget, and to equip parliament,
its members and parliamentary staff with the necessary tools to examine the budget
from a gender perspective. Finally, it is hoped that the handbook can be used as a
follow-up guide for participants of past and future seminars on the budgetary process.
Alıntıla (Citation)
Wehner, J., & Byanyima, W. (2004). Parliament, the Budget and gender. Inter-Parliamentary Union.