This publication was prepared in 2004 by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA- UK's leading accountancy body for public services) for DFID. Gender and participatory budgeting are increasingly being used in developing countries to give civil society groups or members of a community a means to influence the way public resources are spent. Similar approaches have also been used in the United Kingdom and there is scope for the lessons emerging from developing countries to feed into the further development of such approaches in the United Kingdom. This paper highlights examples of Gender Budgeting and Participatory Budgeting and considers the benefits and challenges they present. It also indicates some of the ways in which members of a professional organisation such as CIPFA might contribute to further research and development in this field.