Parliament, the Budget and gender

Abstract

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.