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Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is a vital tool that enables governments to address and reduce gender disparities, particularly when embedded within public policies. GRB is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies and programmes, in all areas and at all levels.

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By systematically assessing the implications of proposed legislation, the objective is to ensure that women and men benefit equally, and that present inequality is not perpetuated. GRB simply means allocating resources in response to the capacities, needs and constraints on women and men, girls and boys.

It’s important to recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to GRB. A wide variety of initiatives in different institutions and with varying scopes are possible, with numerous and different approaches and tools, ranging from relatively low- to relatively high-resource-intensive approaches. Examples of such approaches and tools include gender impact assessments, gender-disaggregated incidence analysis of the budget, and gender scrutiny of the budget.

ACCA’s recommendations to policymakers and governments internationally include:

  • build institutional capacity and awareness
  • strengthen data collection and analysis
  • learn from best practice and benchmark against peers
  • establish inter-ministerial collaboration and partnerships.

Professional accountants have a crucial role in GRB through data analysis, budget formation and policy advocacy. They are ideally placed to analyse gender-disaggregated data, develop gender-sensitive performance indicators and ensure that budget allocations are designed to address gender disparities.

Professional accountants are also able to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of GRB policies after implementation. Recent findings in Gender responsive budgeting in practice: A training manual by the United Nations Population Fund and the UN Fund for Development for Women highlight the challenges faced by women today, including rates of poverty that could take over a century to eradicate without significant interventions.

Our call to action for policymakers and governments internationally is to engage with GRB as key to driving inclusive growth and systemic change, while building a society in which gender equality is not just an aspiration but a reality.

Read the report.