Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) has become established at the global level as a major initiative to help realise gender mainstreaming and gender justice in the overall policy planning and implementation of governments. GRB projects have ranged from mainstreaming gender at the macro level to the implementation of pilot projects at the local/provincial level and have helped deepen understanding of the differential impact of budgets on women and men, girls and boys. Some initiatives have also moved beyond the particular institution, to working with other stakeholders, particularly civil society, in order to transform the actual budget process through empowering the different players. Further, and importantly for this Conference, are the initiatives which respond to the needs of women and men in communities, whereby they themselves are directly involved in the budget process and help decide on how resources can be allocated according to their different priorities and potential.

As the narratives of GRB develop, so have the shifts in the framing and implementation of gender budgeting. More and more gender responsive budgeting has seen a synergy with participatory budgeting, particularly at the local level where communities are involved in the budget decision-making and implementation processes. Thus the integrated notion of Gender Responsive and Participatory Budgeting (GRPB) has emerged. There has also been a call for a shift in the understanding of gender: women and men are not homogeneous categories, and ‘intersectionality’, that women and men have different identities, needs to be taken into consideration as well. 

This conference will pick up on these themes. Entitled GENDER RESPONSIVE BUDGETING (GRB) NARRATIVES: TRANSFORMING INSTITUTIONS, EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES', it will bring together GRB practitioners and other interested parties from around the Asian region and from further away, especially those working on GRB projects with local authorities or local government. Together we will review and share experiences, reflect on successes and challenges, and chart future paths that can best support the potential of GRB (including participatory budgeting) in mainstreaming gender in the region. It will particularly highlight the role of GRB in transforming local government, by not just contributing more sensitive technical tools but by addressing the very process of budgeting and how it can best reflect the different needs of different people. 

CONFERENCE ORGANISERS

This Conference is being hosted by the Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC), in collaboration with the Penang State Government, the two local authorities in Penang (MPPP and MPSP) and UN Women . PWDC is a Penang-state funded agency which is implementing a three-year pilot GRB project in partnership with the two local authorities in the state of Penang. We are therefore happy to share our stories and contribute to our mutual exchange and discussion of gender and participatory budgeting.

CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES

• To identify good GRB practices in relation to fiscal policy and participatory budgeting.
• To examine the roles of different stakeholders in implementing GRB particularly at local and state levels.
• To share and obtain feedback on Penang’s GRB experiences.

SUB-THEMES

We have chosen four sub-themes for the Conference:

1. Gender Responsive and Participatory Budgeting (GRPB): Narratives from around the World:

The history of Gender Responsive and Participatory Budgeting is increasingly full of good stories. Sharing our different interpretations, approaches, successes and challenges of GRPB projects helps us understand the rich tapestry of GRPB around the world and reflect on what makes sense for us. To kick start this Conference, we have invited experts from different parts of the world to share their GRPB narratives (in inter-active mode) and to set the context for the discussions of this Conference.  This will be followed by (country) presentations on how GRB and participatory budgeting have evolved more specifically in their own countries/regions.

2. Community Participation and Empowerment: 

Where GRPB projects have set out to (help) transform budgeting processes to directly include the participation and experience of women and men from local communities, we are immediately presented with a host of further challenges.  Sharing stories here will relate our experiences of how we have approached community organisation and empowerment. How have GRPB initiatives working with local communities encouraged participatory budgeting? How have we ensured that the voices of women and men, particularly from disadvantaged or marginalised groups, are heard? Can we confine our work just to the budgeting process, or does the empowerment of women and men in communities imply a more major transformation?  Together we can critically share the nature and extent of community participation and empowerment in the context of local government budget structures and processes. 

3. Linking GRB Tools and Gender Equality:

Arguably the most widespread example of GRB projects at national, state and/or local government level is the use of GRB tools and analysis such as Gender-Aware Policy Appraisal, Sex Disaggregated Beneficiary Assessments, Public Expenditure Incidence Analysis and the like. By telling of our successes and challenges in introducing and using different tools and analysis, we can share just how significant these are in making budgets more gender and people responsive, contributing to the realisation of gender equality and social justice. Are there examples where the introduction of GRB tools and analysis has transformed the fiscal processes to be more transparent, accountable, inclusive and responsive? Are there experiences where the introduction of GRB has been complemented by a methodology of data collection/analysis that has included women and men in communities in budgetary discussions and processes? 

4. Institutionalising GRB in State and Local Governments:

A key task and challenge of GRB is to persuade respective governments to integrate GRB processes and tools into their workings as part of gender mainstreaming. This is the process of institutionalisation. We need to ask: How successful have we been in getting GRB institutionalised at local/state government level? What have been the key components of any success? What have been the accountability/monitoring mechanisms put in place? How far has good GRB practices led to wider institutionalisation of gender mainstreaming?

In sharing our narratives, we can discuss how we have addressed this challenge of institutionalisation and accountability. We can share the different roles and relationships of working with elected representatives and government (civil) servants. We can share what sort of structures have worked to establish GRB within the institution(s) and/or how they should work. And we can pool ‘good practice’ examples, where ownership and accountability on GRB seem to have been successfully transferred to the institutions with whom we are partnering.

BREAKOUT SESSIONS AND PLENARY: STRATEGIES FOR ACTION

The above sub-themes will be the focus of the first sessions of the Conference. We will then end with a break-out session/Plenary which will take inspiration from the above and chart Strategies for Action – the Way Forward for GRB in our various countries and across the region.

LANGUAGE

English

For more information, drop us a line by using our Contact Form or write us an email at  grbconference@grb-pwdc.org.my