Session 2

Gender Responsive And Participatory Budgeting: Narratives Of Change

Interlinking Gender Responsiveness and Participation in Public Budgeting Processes: Limits and Opportunities

This paper will start by dealing with the interrelationships between participation and gender equality. It will argue that participative budgeting is not automatically gender just, and gender responsive budgeting is not automatically participatory. It will do so by focusing on examples from Germany (mainly from the city of Cologne and the Federal State of Berlin), to demonstrate ways, possibilities and limits to interlink participation and gender equality. By using these examples, the paper will present a typology of levels of participation in Gender Responsive Budgeting processes, considering different forms of knowledge which come into play in GRB. The paper will ask the question: how can the tension between expert knowledge and the knowledge of citizens (often referred to as beneficiaries) be dealt with in gender responsive participatory budgeting? “Expert knowledge” will be defined as encompassing both knowledge on budget management and “gender knowledge”. The paper will then also ask how social power relations can be channelled in these processes. Further, assuming the main objectives of GRB are greater transparency, the empowerment of disempowered social groups and more effective budgeting, the paper will explore the limits and opportunities for social change in GRB processes in the light of the German experience.

Women in Budgeting: A Critical Assessment of Empowering Effects, Limits and Challenges of Participatory Budgeting Experiences

Taking advantage of the recent World Report on Participatory Budgeting, this paper will present an overview of participatory budgeting (PB) practices around the world, from the perspective of their capacity to involve and empower women. After a brief clarification of the definition of PB, the paper will highlight an asymmetric panorama of PB experiences. It will note that PB rarely includes gender issues as a central concern in the shaping of its goals and methodology. It will then go on to argue that without such inclusion and without coherent measures of affirmative action, PB rarely obtains desired social inclusion effects. Diverse examples will be presented to illustrate this, including practices where gender mainstreaming was a focal point of the PB process design (as in Seville, Spain; Rosario, Argentina; and Cotacachi, Ecuador) or was not. The diversity of measures needed in order to involve and empower women will be highlighted. The paper will also observe that the active participation of women is more likely to happen in some specific phases of the budgeting process than in others, referring to the results of several international research projects. Finally, the paper will propose some recommendations relating to design setting, use of language, and positive discrimination rules. Implementation of these would help Participatory Budgeting be more effective in contributing to mainstreaming equality between men and women, especially if considered together with other gender issues identified from existing experiences of PB.

Session 3

Community Participation And Empowerment

Gender Responsive Participatory Budgeting in Penang: The People Oriented Model

This paper will focus on the Gender Responsive Participatory Budgeting (GRPB) Pilot Project in Penang, which sees the amalgamation of two models: Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and Participatory Budgeting (PB). It will argue that GRB is a “responsive” process adopted and introduced by policy makers and government agencies as a planning instrument to ensure gender sensitive allocation of resources towards promoting equality, whereas PB is a “participatory” platform that focuses on empowering communities as stakeholders and agents of change. The paper will examine the specific context of the GRPB pilot project in Penang, where the conceptual framework adopted and methodology employed dovetail key elements from both GRB and PB. The community-based components of the project take place in two council owned and managed low cost housing areas. Facilitators were trained to work with the residents of the two communities to appraise and locate their needs. This process involves “dialogical action” – action and reflection – as introduced by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. The paper will highlight what the GRB-type elements in the project are, what the PB-type elements are, and how “dialogical action” can be put to use. It will argue that all engagements with communities must develop critical frameworks that explore whether diverse and fractured communities can develop agency, organise and transform themselves. The paper will conclude by examining the limitations of the GRPB model and what constitutes concrete outputs and sustainability within this context.

Community Participation and Empowerment – The Kerala Experience of Participatory Budgeting and Planning

This paper will centre on the experience of one local government in Kerala, India, a state known for its democratic decentralisation. The paper will examine how participatory budgeting and planning works in the context of a significant transfer of power to the local governments. This includes a women’s quota for representation as well as the earmarking of one-third of Kerala’s development fund for local governments for the People’s Plan and ten percent for the Women’s Component Plan.

The paper will detail how the People’s Plan is a bottom up planning process starting at the community level (gram sabha). It will chart how the aspirations of the people are formulated through proposals for implementable projects by Working Groups which are then consolidated through a series of further discussions. Specific examples will be used which will show how people also participate in project implementation. The paper will then move on to observe that the net result of people’s participation is significant improvement in social infrastructure and the quality of life of the people. An analysis of components of budgets, including those for housing, health centres, and women and child care centres, will show the specific attention on women and children and the resulting positive impact. The role of Kudumbashree, a state-based multi-faceted approach for poverty reduction, will be highlighted. The paper will conclude with suggestions for further improvement of the process.

Strategies for Gender Mainstreaming in Korea: The Case of Gender Responsive Participatory Budgeting (GRPB)

This paper will examine the current conditions for the implementation of GRPB in local government in Korea. It will discuss the obstacles and opportunities for the realisation of GRB as well as GRPB. It will describe how, since the passing of the Women Development Standard Law in 1995 followed by the establishment of General Plans for Women Policies in 1997, local governments have implemented Gender-Aware Policy Appraisal in their general policies. This has included efforts to analyse budgets, build gender-aware related statistics, expand education programmes for gender justice, as well as raise the awareness of public servants about gender equality.

The paper argues that initially, due to the low awareness of local governments, most of this work was centred in Seoul. It then goes on to focus on the initiatives undertaken by the special committee for Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) of the Korea Women’s Association United (KWAU), which had set out to involve local women NGOs. The paper will describe and evaluate these initiatives of community-based GRPB, giving specific examples and detailing what has happened in terms of achievements and challenges. The paper will conclude by arguing that these initiatives have had a positive impact on Gender-Aware Policy Appraisal and GRB, but there is still work to be done in verifying the effectiveness of the programme.

Session 4

Linking GRB Tools And Gender Equality

Integrating Gender Responsive Budgeting in the Budget Process: A Survey of Entry Points and Practical Examples

The paper will highlight how Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) can be integrated into the budget cycle. Four stages of the budget cycle will be highlighted: budget preparations, budget approval, budget implementation and budget control. Entry points for GRB will be identified at each of these stages. The paper will outline the possibilities for GRB work for both government as well as non-government actors and will present different GRB instruments and tools for use at the different stages of the budget cycle. In order to make this approach most accessible for GRB practitioners, examples will be presented of actual GRB work at different stages taken from case studies from different countries around the world. As such, the paper will present an approach to mainstreaming gender in the budget cycle, which is one of the main approaches if public administration and governments are embarking on GRB.

The Malaybalay City Integrated Survey System: A Tool for Gender Responsive Budgeting

This paper is based on the experiences of the City Government of Malaybalay, Bukidnon, Philippines, in the use of a survey tool for improving programme and service delivery of the local government unit. In particular, this paper will focus on how the Malaybalay Integrated Survey System (MISS) has been used as a tool for gender responsive budgeting and has made the local government unit more results oriented. First, it will explain the basis of the survey tool, the questions it poses, the enumerators who conduct the survey, the coverage, the necessary system set-up, and other details of the survey. Sex disaggregation and how it helps identify gender issues will be given focus. Next, the process of gathering data and information will be discussed, including the reasons why it is considered an empowering and competency building process. Also covered in the discussion are issues and concerns that arise from using the tool. The process flow of the Gender and Development budgeting process of the local government unit using MISS data will then be highlighted. Finally, lessons learned from MISS implementation will be discussed, including recommendations on what measures to take to ensure the sustainability of the MISS.

Incorporating Gender into an Integrated Results Based Management Model

This presentation will argue that the traditional focus of budgeting is on allocative efficiency. However allocative efficiency depends significantly on how priorities are identified  through the planning process. In public sector planning, Programme Logic Models are used to assist in this process and the Theory of Change in the Logic Models helps to determine any changes that need to be made in programme areas. The presentation will go on to look at how GRB encompasses these processes and why it is critical to identify key requirements at the early planning stage. The presentation will then introduce the notion of an integrated model, where planning, budgeting and performance reporting are carried out using a single integrated performance framework. This is currently being introduced under the Outcome Based Budgeting Model for the public sector in Malaysia.

Session 5

Institutionalising GRB In State And Local Governments

Localising Gender and Participatory Budgeting: Challenges of Institutionalisation in Penang

The paper centres on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) initiatives with a participatory emphasis, involving pilots at the community level in the state of Penang, Malaysia. It specifically analyses the readiness of the two local authorities in Penang to institutionalise GRB within their respective organisational milieus. The process of lobbying and sensitising policy makers, as change agents, in the formulation stage of the project is examined. This is followed by a discussion of the key roles played by the local authorities in creating an enabling and supportive environment to make GRB a reality in their respective contexts. The paper points out how competing priorities, among others, often stand in the way of GRB implementation although commitment and political will are not lacking. Institutionalisation of GRB within the local councils is a matter of urgency to ensure sustainability.

Penang aspires to be an international city that is socially cohesive, inclusive and committed to democratic participation that allows for diversity and gender equality, hence the paper asks whether GRB can be a strategic tool to integrate gender and social justice into the state’s fiscal planning to fulfil this goal. Indeed how can limited resources be effectively deployed to ensure that different gender needs in society are met through the planning and budgeting processes? The paper concludes by arguing that both a participatory approach as well as a commitment to GRB structures and processes must be the way forward – to ensure successful transformation of the mainstream towards gender inclusivity and sustainability of people-centred governance, Penang not excepted.

Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB): Institutionalisation in National and Sub-National Government in Indonesia

This paper will start by charting how the implementation of gender mainstreaming has been strengthened in Indonesia within a framework of gender responsive development planning. This dates back to a Presidential Decree issued in 2000. It has been developed through initiatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs via the issuance of policy guidelines for provincial and district level administrations to integrate gender more effectively into their planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes. The role and composition of local working groups will be explained.

The paper will go on to examine how this has given greater importance to the concept of Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting (GRPB) and how this has involved civil society. It will highlight and discuss how, in several areas at the sub-national level, civil society has played a key role in institutionalising and monitoring GRPB. Policies to promote transparency have been effected by the actions of local groups who have also been able to influence decisions relating to budget allocations. Examples will be given and suggestions for further initiatives in this area made.

Institutionalising GRB in National and Local Governments in Nepal

This paper will begin by describing how gender responsive budgeting (GRB) was formally introduced in Nepal in the FY 2007/2008 through Ministry of Finance initiatives. It will then discuss the changes in structures and processes of budgeting at national level that have allowed for GRB implementation. These have included the introduction of a gender code classification system for programmes and projects; institutionalisation of a GRB committee for prioritising the needs of women; use of gender disaggregated indicators; and an outcome monitoring mechanism. There is also a mandatory policy of 33 percent women’s representation in various grassroots institutions and a mandatory provision of 10 percent of allocations to women’s programmes from the programme budget at local level.

The paper will also look at the experience of the Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP) in attempting to promote gender-sensitive participatory governance. It will note that in the first phase (2008 to 2012), LGCDP created some 40,000 grassroot institutions with about 50 percent women membership. The discussion will cover the achievements as well as remaining challenges with regard to capacity building (including technical expertise with regard to gender-responsive planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation) and attitudes. In conclusion, the paper acknowledges the important role of GRB as a tool at local level to ensure participation of citizens in policy formulation and decisions, as well as ensuring the accountability of local government in its transparency and delivery of equity and the economic and social rights of women and men.