2018 marked the first year gender equality was featured as part of the main Financing for Development (FFD) Forum programme. An expert session brought together three leading experts to review trends in financing for gender equality and explore options to increase fiscal space at the national and local level.

18 April 2018 - UN Women, in collaboration with International Monetary Fund (IMF), will present an introduction to gender responsive budgeting in lead up to the 2018 Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank Group. This interactive discussion will address how to shape fiscal policy to close critical gender gaps and the importance of promoting women's active participation in planning and budgeting. Zohra Khan, Chief (OiC) Leadership and Governance, UN Women and Lisa Kolovich,...

From 11-16 August 2018,  the Afghanistan Office of the President, supported by UN Women and UNDP, organized a visit of senior government officials from Afghanistan to Indonesia to learn about their experiences implementing gender-responsive budgeting. Indonesia’s successful GRB story as helped the government to effectively distribute public funds to address the needs of women and men. The visit contributed to the development of a community of practice which opens dialogues between...

The Government of Andalusia has presented, as part of its 2018 Budget Bill, its Gender Impact Assessment Report. The report is an ex ante evaluation of the resources that the Government of Andalusia allocates to the promotion of gender equality. The Report, together with G + Program and Gender Budgeting Audits, are the main elements of the Gender Budgeting strategy in the Andalusian region.

Since the start the COVID-19 pandemic, almost USD 16 trillion has been pumped into the global economy, and governments are now rolling out second and third phases of support. With the introduction of vaccines, some countries can begin to get the pandemic under control and start investing in recovery. Most countries, however, are still grappling with the pandemic’s immediate health and socio-economic fallout, including its outsized impact on women. While the adoption of policy measures to prevent or respond to the surge in violence against women is more widespread, the social protection and jobs response has not adequately supported women’s economic security nor addressed care work or the financing of care services. This policy brief presents entry points for the application of gender-responsive budgeting to COVID-19 support and recovery packages. Drawing on country examples, this brief provides recommendations on the use of gender budgeting tools to identify gaps in policy responses and direct spending towards gender responsive COVID-19 measures.

The new, interactive Innovation Lab at the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings will feature a ‘coffee chat’ discussion Budgeting for Gender Equality: from Policy to Reality from 3:00 to 3:30 PM (EST) on 12 October 2017 . Zohra Khan (UN Women) will join Lisa Kolovich (IMF) and Albert Musisi (Government of Uganda) to discuss the successes and challenges of gender budgeting. Zohra will discuss  UN Women’s experience in supporting gender budgeting, sharing important lessons and...

Due to gender discrimination and restrictive social roles, women and girls from ethnic minority groups in Viet Nam are particularly vulnerable to violence and discrimination. With financial support from the Government of Ireland, UN Women and the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA) published a report on “Figures on Ethnic Minority Women and Men in Viet Nam 2015” presenting first-ever sex disaggregated  data on the socio-economic situation of the 53 recognized ethnic...

A recent blog by UN Women presents analysis and lessons from the 2018 monitoring round for SDG Indicator 5.c.1, shedding light on government efforts to design and implement gender budget tracking systems.  Data from 69 countries show that despite global progress in adopting gender budgeting, gaps persist in the implementation of policies and laws on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Less than half of the reporting countries indicated having adequate resource allocations...

This animated video presents the journey of gender responsive budgeting (GRB) over ten years of implementation in Serbia. Produced by UN Women Serbia, it focuses on how GRB can analyze the effects of the budget on the lives of women and men and identify inequalities based on gender. In particular, the video highlights how GRB can be used to influence and improve demographic policies.

The twelfth edition of the European Development Days (EDD) took place in Brussels from 5 - 6 June 2018 under the overarching theme"Women and Girls at the Forefront of Sustainable Development: protect, empower, invest." At the EDD, UN Women organized a High-Level lab Debate on Gender Responsive Budgeting. The session was moderated by Ermira Lubani, UN Women's Regional GRB Manager, who emphasized UN Women's work in Europe and central Asia with the support of ADA, Swiss-Development and the EU....