GENDER ACCOUNTABILITY

 

 

An annotated bibliography of literature and websites

 

February 2011

 

ACCOUNTABILITY

ENGENDERING ELECTIONS

ENGENDERED GOVERNANCE

CITIZENSHIP

The Millennium Development Goals

POVERTY Reduction Strategy Papers

GENDER BUDGETING

           

 

 

 

ACCOUNTABILITY

 

 

Goetz, A.; Jenkins, R.

Accountability to women in development spending. Experiments in service-delivery audits at the local level. Brighton / London: Mimeo, Institute of Development Studies / Birkbeck College, 2002.

http://www.siyanda.org/docs/goetz_local.doc

What matters to consumers of public services is local-level accountability. Local monitoring and auditing is the only way to ensure commitments on paper at the local and national level - particularly in areas of concern to women - are translated into practice. Local-level analysis and activity make it easier to identify the impact of spending patterns, to understand the use of resources at local government level, and to pick up on corruption and mis-spending of funds. This paper shows how groups in India hold governments accountable for their spending and the delivery of public services. Gender-sensitive analysis and monitoring of this spending at the local level can give women the tools to campaign and lobby directly for money that should go to them and their families. Citizens can participate in monitoring spending in two key areas: decentralised local government budgets and large development programmes. These are the areas in which women and the poor most closely engage with public sector spending programmes. In India, some village assemblies have gained the power to examine annual budget statements and to audit reports. However, many challenges are still faced and women are often sidelined with the local administration, local politicians and many male citizens colluding in order to divert funds intended for women's benefit.

 

Murthy, R.K.

Accountability to citizens on gender and health. Chennai, 2007.

http://www.who.int/social_determinants/resources/accountability_to_citizens_wgkn_2007.pdf

Background paper prepared for the Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health. This paper reviews the practice of accountability to citizens on gender and health, draws out lessons, assesses gaps, and recommends strategies. Through a review of literature, the paper examines who within the health sector is held accountable, to whom (amongst citizens), with regard to what, and how accountability is operationalised.

 

United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
            Progress of the world's women 2008/2009. Who answers to women? gender and accountability. Unifem, 2008.
            http://www.unifem.org/progress/2008/media/POWW08_Report_Full_Text.pdf

UNIFEM's biennial flagship report argues that realising women's rights and achieving the Millennium Development Goals depends on strengthening accountability for commitments to women and gender equality. Progress 2008/2009 demonstrates that for women's rights to translate into substantive improvements in their lives, and for gender equality to be realised in practice, women must be able to fully participate in public decision-making at all levels and hold those responsible to account when their rights are infringed or their needs ignored.

Published at the half-way point to the 2015 deadline for achieving the MDGs, the report presents the case that women's empowerment and gender equality are drivers for reducing poverty, building food security, reducing maternal mortality, safeguarding the environment, and enhancing the effectiveness of aid.

 

United Nations Development  Program (UNDP) / United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

A user’s guide to measuring gender-sensitive basic service delivery. UNDP / UNIFEM, 2009.

http://www.undp.org/oslocentre/docs08/users_guide_measuring_gender.pdf

This guide is intended to contribute to the development and more effective use of gender-sensitive indicators so that services are delivered more efficiently and effectively to women. It should be seen as a generic and basic tool to map and analyse governance of basic service delivery from a gender perspective. It includes indicators and measurement tools developed by multilateral and bilateral agencies as well as by national counterparts. The guide also presents examples of newly developed and innovative measurement initiatives in women's access to public services.

 

 

 

ENGENDERING ELECTIONS

 

 

Fick, Glenda

Gender checklist for free and fair elections. Johannesburg: Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), 1999.           

http://aceproject.org/electoral-advice/archive/questions/replies/703493194/20391435/c-documents-and-settings-julie-desktop-papers-others-idea-presentations-papers-eisa-eisa-gender-checklist1.pdf

Checklist for free and fair elections for the State and authorities responsible for managing an election. Checklist for ensuring gender equality in free and fair elections: political rights, registration of voters, the right to vote, the right to stand for public office, voter education, the right to express political opinions, access to information, the right to campaign, secrecy of the ballot, and review of electoral procedures or decisions.

 

Ndulo, Muna

Constitutional provisions and enhancing participation of women in elections. UN-OSAGI, 2004.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/meetings/2004/EGMelectoral/EP2-Ndulo.PDF

The Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women (OSAGI), organized an Expert Group Meeting on "Enhancing women’s participation in electoral processes in post-conflict countries", in New York, January 2004.

This paper discusses the participation of women in post conflict societies from a perspective of the legislative measures that can be taken to enhance the participation of women. It also considers non legislative measures such as the role of the media. The paper first provides a background on constitutional provisions relevant to elections, next examines the participation of women in elections and the problems they face in their efforts to participate in elections. It then considers legislative approches that have been taken in several countries to increase women participation. It ends with a conclusion that focuses on the chances of achieving the objective of improving women participation in elections.

 

Woroniuk, B.; Schalkwijk, J.

Electoral support and equality between women and men. Stockholm: SIDA, 1998.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/6/2/29592332.pdf

Tipsheet.

 

 


ENGENDERED GOVERNANCE

 

 

Ashworth, Georgina

Gendered governance. An agenda for change. New York: UNDP, 1996 (Gender in development monograph series, no. 3).

http://nird.ap.nic.in/clic/rrdl100.html

Governance is presumed to be gender-neutral. But, in fact, the discourse, procedures, structures and functions of governance remain heavily skewed in favour of men in general, and certain groups of men in particular. This unequal sharing of power leads to an unequal sharing of resources - time, incomes, property - between men and women. Redressing these inequalities requires a gender analysis of the processes and structures of governance.

 

Baden, Sally               

Gender, governance and the ‘feminisation of poverty’. New Delhi: UNDP, 1999.

http://www.pogar.org/publications/other/undp/gender/badefeb2-99e.pdf

This paper summarises current thinking on the theoretical and empirical relationships between gender inequality and poverty, including reflection on how these relationships have been articulated in development policy discourse. It goes on to examine the potential for governance structures and processes, as currently defined, to promote poverty reduction in a way which recognises and responds to women’s gendered experience of poverty. In doing so, the paper reviews interpretations of ‘governance’ and explores feminist and other critiques of conventional approaches to governance. It asks whether and how the governance agenda needs to be reconstituted if it is to succeed in addressing women’s gender specific needs and interests. Finally, the paper highlights some strategic entry points in the governance agenda which provide opportunities for promoting poor women’s gender interests.

 

Beall, Jo

Urban governance. Why gender matters. New York: UNDP, 1996 (Gender in development monograph series, No.1).            

www.cities-localgovernments.org/uclg/upload/docs/urbangovernance,whygendermatters.doc

This paper deals with the themes of participation and partnership in urban governance, a concept which refers to both government responsibility and civic engagement. It looks at gender issues in participation, responsible urban government and civic engagement, which are important themes in the Habitat Agenda. Participation is commonly associated with organisational or political participation. However, participation is also about social and economic participation - the extent to which different social groups, and the men and women within them, have access to and control over urban resources. It recognises how women and men use and contribute to the city in different ways; how this is influenced by their different responsibilities in the home and in society and how this in turn affects their ability to engage in public life.

 

Bell, Emma

Gender and governance. A bibliography. Brighton: BRIDGE, 2001.

http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/bb11.pdf

Section one of the bibliography lists general texts on the State and good governance. This is followed by references for donor policy documents. The rest of the bibliography is organised to reflect the central tenets of good governance: effective public management; government accountability; and rights, policy and the rule of law. Owing to a paucity of materials, a fourth aspect of good governance, transparency through freedom of information, free media and association, is covered in other sections and does not feature separately.

 

Bell, Emma

National machineries for women in development. Experiences, lessons and strategies for institutionalising gender in development policy and planning. Brighton: BRIDGE, 2002 (Report 66).

http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/re36c.pdf

What are national governments doing to promote the status of women? Governments have created women’s committees, divisions, and bureaux, but have these had any impact? This report reviews the experience of these so-called “national women’s machineries” (NWM), drawing on cases from developing countries. The mandates, status and effectiveness of NWMs have been constrained by lack of commitment and funding from governments. In order to be more effective, NWMs must restructure themselves so that women’s concerns are fully mainstreamed into the strategies and activities of both governments and NGOs.

 

Equal Opportunities Commission (United Kingdom)

Mainstreaming gender equality in local government. A framework. 1997.

http://www.arcidonna.it/mainstreaming/genderequality.htm

This document provides a framework and synthesis of a research report entitled Mainstreaming gender equality in local government. It involved case study research in a number of local authorities in Britain and in three other European Union (EU) member states: Ireland, Italy and Sweden. On the basis of this research, a framework has been developed to facilitate the process of mainstreaming gender equality in local government.. The framework examines: why local authorities should mainstream equal opportunities; how mainstreaming should be established as a corporate strategy; how mainstreaming should be developed as; how the mainstreaming strategy should be implemented; how the strategy should be monitored, evaluated and reviewed.

Evertzen, A.

Handbook gender and local governance. The Hague: SNV, 1998.

            http://www.gade-gender.nl/Gender%20and%20Local%20Governance.htm

This Handbook is an overview of the literature and web sites concerning gender and governance processes, underlining strategies and best practices. Special emphasis is placed on local governance and the region of West Africa

 

International Union of Local Authorities (IULA)

Worldwide Declaration on Women in Local Government. Harare: IULA, 1998.

http://www.cityshelter.org/13_mobil/18tend.htm

On 25 November 1998, in Harare, Zimbabwe, the IULA Worldwide Declaration on Women in Local Government was endorsed by the IULA World Executive Committee and launched at a special meeting attended by some 100 local government representatives from around the world and by the local press. With declarations about the local government as a service provider and enabler of sound living conditions, and as an employer in a strategic position to influence local society.

Also available in French (Union Internationale des Villes et Pouvoirs Locaux).

 

Jaeckel, Monika

Advancing governance through peer learning and networking. Lessons learned from grassroots women.

http://monikajaeckel.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/g7-advancing-governance-through-grassroots-networking.pdf

Grassroots women's groups deal with everyday survival issues and the social cohesion of their families and communities. In doing so, they develop the most ingenious solutions to issues like drinking water and sanitation, environmental sustainability, housing, health, responsiveness to natural as well as man made disasters and the eradication of poverty. They hold a valuable knowledge base of first hand knowledge of what works and what does not work on the ground.

In order to learn from this rich reservoir of expertise and to increase the influence of grassroots women's perspectives on public policy, the Huairou Commission with the Support of the LIFE launched the "Our Best Practices Campaign for Local Governance".

 

Mukhopadhyay, Maitrayee; Meer, Shamim
Creating voice and carving space.
  Redefining governance from a gender perspective.
Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), 2004.
http://www.kit.nl/net/KIT_Publicaties_output/ShowFile2.aspx?e=646

The book focuses on sixteen organisation's initiatives across eight countries in Africa and South Asia. The organisations shared a strategy to negotiate and bargain with the state for recognition, rights, and resources and more equitable sharing of power between women and men. They each investigated how women among marginalised groups could be enabled to stake their claim to participation in governance, and how to create accountability of governance institutions to poor women's interests and rights. The objectives of the programme were to explore what constitutes good governance and inclusive citizenship from a gender perspective and to identify strategies to promote gender equality in governance and enhance citizen participation.

Chapters are devoted to a variety of topics, including:

§          creating voice and carving space

§          women's political representation

§          increasing responsiveness and accountability of governance institutions

§          citizenship

Each chapter also includes a variety of case studies.

 

Pedwell, C.

Just politics. Women transforming political spaces. OneWorld Action, 2008.

http://www.oneworldaction.org/Resources/One%20World%20Action/Documents/PDF/JustPoliticsReport.pdf

In November 2007, OneWorld Action brought together 40 women and men from north and south for a unique dialogue – Just Politics: Women transforming political spaces. This report summarises the week’s events which explored what difference women in power can make, and how women’s involvement in politics canbe supported and strengthened.

The report focuses on two main themes:

1. Ways to increase women’s political participation

2. Strategies for transforming political spaces.

Much emphasis is placed on accountability.

 

 


CITIZENSHIP

 

 

An overview

Bridge

Bridge Citizenship cutting edge pack. Brighton: Bridge, 2003.

http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk//bridge/reports_gend_CEP.html#Citizenship
How are citizenship rights and responsibilities being extended and transformed by struggles for gender equality? How can women and others marginalised by gender participate in and influence the decisions that affect their lives? This pack is a concise, practical resource for policy-makers, practitioners and activists. It demonstrates how gendered understandings of citizenship rights can help development actors promote the participation of all women and men in shaping their societies and communities.

The pack is made up of:

§         Overview report – by Shamim Meer with Charlie Sever. External adviser Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay

§         Supporting resources collection – summaries of key texts, case studies, tools, guidelines and key organisations

§         Gender and Development In Brief bulletin. Also in French

The pack also is available in Spanish.

 

United Nations - Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)

Women, nationality and citizenship. New York: UNDAW, 2003.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/jun03e.pdf

This report outlines provisions in international instruments and human rights treaties which address discriminatory nationality laws and provides examples of where such instruments have been used. In many states, a wife's nationality is dependent on that of her husband, which can leave women vulnerable in cross-national marriages. Women can also be vulnerable in cases where they retain their own nationality and move to another country, rendering them unable to access citizen rights in the new environment. Women are often not allowed to pass nationality on to their children which has significant implications for custody and security of children. Recommendations focus on how actions at the international and national levels can work with international instruments and amend national laws. They also include gender training for the judiciary and immigration officers and removing the barriers to dual nationality. Recommendations for NGOs include initiating test-cases, disseminating national and international case law and the production of 'shadow' reports to the Committee that oversees the enforcement of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Also available in French: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/jun03f.pdf

and Spanish: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/jun03s.pdf

 


 

The Millennium Development Goals

 

 

Kabeer, N.

Gender mainstreaming in poverty eradication and the Millennium Development Goals. A handbook  for policy-makers and other stakeholders. Commonwealth Secretariat / IDRC / CIDA, 2003.

http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/067-5/

This book brings together a diverse set of arguments, findings, and lessons from the development literature that help to explain why gender equality merits specific attention from policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders committed to the pursuit of pro-poor and human-centred development. Improving women’s access to economic opportunities and enhancing returns on their efforts will be central to the goal of poverty eradication and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

This book explores the issue of gender inequality through the lens of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the first one of halving world poverty by 2015.

 

UN Millennium Project 2005.

Taking action. Achieving gender equality and empowering women. Task Force on Education and Gender Equality, 2005.

            http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/Gender-complete.pdf

How can the global community achieve the third Millennium Development Goal of gender equality and the empowerment of women? To be empowered women must have equal capabilities such as education and health, and equal access to resources and opportunities such as land and employment. However they must also have the agency to use these capabilities and resources to make strategic choices. This report, prepared by the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality, identifies strategic priorities and practical actions for achieving women's empowerment by 2015. These include: strengthening opportunities for post-primary education for girls; investing in infrastructure to reduce women's and girls' time burdens; guaranteeing women's and girls' property and inheritance rights; increasing women's share of seats in national parliaments and local governmental bodies; and combating violence against girls and women. Various countries, communities and institutions have implemented different combinations of these actions and shown good results. The problem is not a lack of practical ways to empower women but rather a lack of change on a large and deep enough scale to bring about transformation in the way societies conceive of and organise men and women's roles, responsibilities and control over resources. Essential for this kind of transformation are the mobilisation of a large group people committed to the vision of a gender equitable society; the technical capacity to implement change; institutional structures and processes to support the transformation; and adequate financial resources.

 

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) / Bureau of Development Policy

Looking for equality. A gender review of national MDG reports. New York: UNDP, 2005.
http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/appeal/gender/A_gender_review_of_National_MDG_Reports.pdf

This document presents the results of an examination of gender mainstreaming through 78 national Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Reports.

An initial examination found that gender concerns and perspectives were not mainstreamed adequately across goals in the majority of reports. References to women and gender continued to be "ghettoised" under Goals 3 and 5. Discussions on Goal 7 were almost completely gender-blind in the majority of the reports studied. Disaggregated data were seldom provided except under Goals 2 and 3, where they are a specific requirement. In most of the reports scanned, women continued to be cast as mothers and victims rather than agents of development. Attempts to "step out of the box" and place discussions on issues such as poverty and HIV and AIDS in the larger context of gender equality and women's rights and freedoms, were infrequent exceptions.

 

World Bank / Gender and Development Group

Gender equality and the millennium development goals. New York: World Bank, 2003.

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGENDER/Publications/20169280/gendermdg.pdf

 

The paper aims to show the strong linkages between gender equality and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (2) achieve universal primary education, (3) promote gender equality and empower women, (4) reduce child mortality, (5) improve maternal health, (6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, (7) ensure environmental sustainability, and (8) develop a global partnership for development. It also tries to show that working for gender equality offers a compelling, win-win approach for policy makers and planners towards attaining and implementing the MDGs. The paper also gives examples on how gender equality can be integrated into MDGs policies and interventions.

 

 



POVERTY Reduction Strategy Papers

 

 

Bell, E.

Gender and PRSPs. With experiences from Tanzania, Bolivia, Viet Nam and Mozambique. Brighton: Bridge, 2003.

www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/reports/re67.pdf

This report assesses how gender has been incorporated into the PRSP processes, particularly, in Tanzania, Bolivia, Viet Nam and Mozambique. The report also draws out recommendations for how to improve the gender sensitivity of the PRS process.

The paper argues that women, especially poor women, have been marginalised within the decision-making process of PRSPs at government and civil society level, and gender equality issues have been sidelined. However NGOs, NWMs, and donor agencies are trying to address these weaknesses of the PRS process, including broadening the debate on what constitutes poverty to incorporate a more gender-sensitive diagnosis.

 

Chant, S.

New contributions to the analysis of poverty. Methodological and conceptual challenges to understanding poverty from a gender perspective. United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 2003.

http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/UnidadMujer/5/LCL1955/lcl1955i.pdf

Three decades of feminist research have had an impact on poverty analysis. However, the impact on poverty itself has been weaker. Women still make up an estimated two thirds of the poor and this proportion appears to be rising. This trend is exacerbated by the gender blindness which persists in parts of mainstream poverty analysis in spite of the feminist insights. With a focus on Latin America, this paper outlines concepts and methodologies needed to understand poverty from a gender perspective, continued obstacles to the inclusion of gender, and future directions for policy and research.

 

Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) 

Poverty and inequality from a gender perspective. ECLAC, 2004.

www.eclac.cl/mujer/noticias/noticias/7/14717/Separataing.pdf

Chapter III from the Social Panorama of Latin America 2003-2003 published by the attempts to answer the key question of whether poverty affects women and men differently. To this end, it presents a conceptual framework for an analysis of poverty from a gender perspective; analyses the quantitative impact of poverty, which is greater for women; demonstrates inequalities existing within families and households which are associated with the constraints of poverty and time; analyses labour-market inequalities and their effects on women's economic autonomy; and finally, presents two dimensions of poverty not traditionally examined: inequalities in decision-making autonomy and unequal access to power. The main conclusion is that poverty has more severe effects on women, whose contribution is critical if poverty is to be overcome in the region. Accordingly, gender equality must be one of the overriding objectives of any policy to overcome poverty.

 

Whitehead , A.

Failing women, sustaining poverty. Gender in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. Christian Aid, 2003.

http://www.siyanda.org/docs/gad_failingwomen.pdf

More than half the poor citizens of heavily indebted developing countries are women. Since 1999, the international financial institutions have required these countries to formulate nationally owned participatory poverty-reduction strategies, in the form of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), as a condition of receiving concessional lending and debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative.

This report, produced by Christian Aid, explores how the PRSPs of four countries deal with gender issues. It examines the form that gender issues take in the PRSPs of Tanzania, Bolivia, Malawi and Yemen, why they take this form, and how this is linked to the unique design of each PRSP process. It finds that gender issues appear in a fragmented and arbitrary way in the body of the PRSPs dealing with policy priorities and budget commitments. Some ‘women in development’ issues are raised, especially in the sections on health and education, but gender is not integrated, or mainstreamed.

 

Zuckerman, E.; Garrett, A.

Do Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) address gender? A gender audit of 2002 PRSPs. Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN), 2003.

http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000306/P306_PRSP_Gender.pdf

This paper provides an audit of the 13 PRSPs of African countries, produced during 2002 to question the efficiency with which they address gender issues.

The paper concludes that countries should find it worthwhile to produce engendered PRSPs. It is much costlier not to. Not to means poverty will not be tackled. And, trying a second or third time (Uganda) is much costlier than a first time.

 

 


GENDER BUDGETING

 

 

An overview

Bridge

Cutting edge pack on gender and budgets. Brighton: Bridge, 2003.

http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk//bridge/reports_gend_CEP.html#Budgets

This pack provides a concise & practical resource, which shows how budgets can be used as a tool to further gender equality.

The pack contains:

§          Overview report - by Helena Hofbauer Balmori (Fundar, Mexico), with support from Debbie Budlender (Community Agency for Social Enquiry, South Africa)

§          Collection of supporting resources - summaries of key texts, case studies and tools, and key organisations

§         Gender and Development In Brief bulletin Also in French

The pack also is available in Spanish.

 

Action for Development (ACFODE)

Gender Budget training manual. ACFODE, 2004.

http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/11281111621ACFODE'S_GENDER_BUDGET_TRAINING_MANUAL.doc

This training manual has been developed, to guide trainers who are involved in building capacities of policy makers and other stakeholders at district and subcounty levels in gender budgeting. The overall objective is to ensure that plans and budgets address the needs of disadvantaged groups especially the women. Gender budget training seeks to enhance awareness of the decision-makers and other stakeholders to the importance of integrating gender in plans and budgets. This is achieved by imparting skills and techniques of gender budgeting so that they can oversee the integration of gender concerns during the formulation of national and district budgets, as well as the implementation of gender sensitive budgets.

 

Budlender, D., Elson, D., Hewitt, G. and Mukhopadhyay, T.

Gender budgets make cents. Understanding gender responsive budgets. London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2002.

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/shared_asp_files/uploadedfiles/{BE440E9C-4B8C-408E-B862-E28610A579F6}_GBMC%201%20Understanding%20GB.pdf

This publication aims to inspire government officials, policy-makers, donor agencies, and civil society groups to engage in gender-responsive budget initiatives by demonstrating both equity and efficiency gains.

 

Budlender, D.; Hewitt, G.

Engendering budgets. A practioner’s guide to understanding and implementing gender-responsive budgets. London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2003.

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC16637
This guide is intended to help practitioners design and implement gender-responsive budgets. The first part of the guide provides background information on gender-responsive budgets. Part two outlines how to implement a government budget, as well the budget process and potential entry points for beginning gender budget work. Part three addresses the practical issues involved in implementation, focusing on assessment and sustainability of initiatives. The final section of the guide looks at how the three-way categorisation developed in Australia and the five-step approach developed in South Africa are applied. It also provides information on necessary data, assessment of gender-responsiveness policies and how to determine budgetary outputs and outcomes.

 

Budlender, D.; Hewitt, G.

Gender budgets make more cents. Country studies and good practice. London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2002.

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/shared_asp_files/uploadedfiles/{94E74D65-1E1F-4BE2-81D6-A68AB9D1959C}_Gender%20Budgets%20Makes%20More%20Cents.pdf

This volume of case studies gives practitioners' accounts of the challenges and opportunities of gender budget work across Africa, Latin America, East and South-east Asia, Europe and the Pacific.

 

Budlender, D.; Reyes, C.; Melesse, M.

Gender-Responsive Budgeting through the CBMS Lens. Implementing the Community-Based Monitoring System in a way that facilitates gender-responsive budgeting. Community Agency for Social Enquiry (Cape Town) / Angelo King Institute for Economic & Business Studies (Manila) / International Development Research Centre (Ottawa), 2005.

http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/11271610181Gender_Responsive_Budgeting_Through_the_CBMS_Lens.pdf

The following paper suggests how the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS), developed and implemented in 14 countries over the last ten years with financial support from the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), can be used to facilitate gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) at the local level.  In particular, it looks at how CBMS can be used to support local-level GRB (LLGRB) initiatives of civil society and local government.

 

Commonwealth Secretariat

Gender-disaggregated beneficiary assessment of public service delivery and budgets priorities. London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 1999.          

www.thecommonwealth.org/shared_asp_files/uploadedfiles/%7BCD122053-D7A3-4BBF-ACBA-55E537E21CE0%7D_Gender%20Budget%20Initiative%20Tools.pdf

Budgeting.  A series of tools to collect and analyse the opinions of men and women on how far current forms of public service delivery meet their needs and how far current patterns of public expenditure accord with their priorities.

 

Elson, D.

Budgeting for women’s rights. Monitoring government budgets for compliance with CEDAW. UNIFEM, 2006.

http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/MonitoringGovernmentBudgetsComplianceCEDAW_eng.pdf

This report adds a landmark to the discourse on the link between human rights standards and government budgets. It elaborates on how budgets and budget policy-making processes can be monitored for compliance with human rights standards, in particular with the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The report is based on the premise that accountability to women's rights needs to be translated into mobilising the necessary resources to meet the commitments made by the ratification of CEDAW. Combining substantive analysis with country examples provides a framework for applying a rights-approach to budgets from a gender perspective that defines the requirements of good budget performance in the planning, formulation and execution stages. It also details the elements that require a critical assessment of budget policy making processes, the appropriateness of budget allocations, and the standard principles for non-discriminatory economic and budgets policies.

 

Feridoun, S.

Gender-responsive government budgeting. The importance of spreading gender related budgets across a broad range of sectors. International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2003.

www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2003/wp0383.pdf

This paper examines the concept of gender-responsive government budgeting and the extent of its implementation by national governments in both advanced and developing countries. The paper argues that in order for GRGB to be fully effective, obstacles such as gender-biased culture, the lack of appropriate budget classifications, and the lack of gender analysis expertise and gender-disaggregated data in most countries need to be addressed.

Whilst 40 countries (OECD and developing countries) have attempted to include some sort of gender analysis in their budgeting systems, a closer look at the country data provided suggests that several countries have only been exposed to the old concept of the allocation of some government resources to the ministries or other organisations in charge of women’s affairs, rather than analysing the gender impact of resources allocated to all (or at least gender-sensitive) sectors. These might include health, education, agriculture, housing, labour and employment.

 

Habitat; Municipal Development Partnership Eastern and Southern Africa

            Participatory budgeting in Africa : A Training Companion with cases from eastern and southern Africa . Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, 2008.

Volume I: concepts and principles. http://www.ansa-africa.net/uploads/documents/publications/Participatory_budgeting_Africa_Vol1_2008.pdf

Volume II: facilitation methods. http://www.ansa-africa.net/uploads/documents/publications/Participatory_budgeting_Africa_Vol2_2008.pdf

Participatory budgeting in Africa is part of an effort to build the capacity of local government officials and their partners for greater accountability and good governance. This companion is aimed at helping local governments and other stakeholders to prepare for, design, initiate and manage a participatory budgeting process, by training key actors who initiate the budgeting processes.

It is split into two volumes providing users with information, tools, methodologies, case studies and tips on how participatory budgeting can be introduced and sustained. These resources have been collected from local governments where participatory budgeting is already being practised. Volume one addresses the concepts and principles associated with participatory budgeting.

Volume two addresses facilitation methods and tools as follows: implementing participatory budgeting; examples of participatory budgeting; key constraints and proposed solutions to practicing participatory budgeting in Africa .

These training tools have been organized in a sequence enabling higher effectiveness in their use in workshops. Trainers are encouraged to be creative in designing group-learning experiences based on these materials to fit their particular context. Tools, tips and self assessment questions are provided for each section.

 

Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)

Parliament, the budget and gender. IPU, 2004.

http://www.ipu.org/PDF/publications/budget_en.pdf

This handbook, jointly produced with the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank Institute and the United Nations Fund for Women, was inspired by a series of regional and national seminars on Parliament and the Budgetary Process, Including from a Gender Perspective. 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. The Handbook will also serve as a follow-up guide for participants of past and future seminars on the role of parliaments in the budgetary process.

 

Oxfam
Gender-responsive budgeting in education.
Oxford: Oxfam, 2005.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/education/downloads/edPaper7.pdf

Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is an attempt to ensure that gender-related issues are considered and addressed in all government policies. This paper uses the GRB approach to explain how governments and donors can promote gender equality in education through their financing decisions.