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---

### I. Introduction and context
- Key observations:
  - One of the most important developments in the twentieth century was the entry of women into economic and political activities previously undertaken almost entirely by men.
  - Despite progress, women still lag men in access to education and appropriate health care, paid employment opportunities, and political participation; disparities are particularly pronounced in parts of the developing world.
- International commitments cited:
  - United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979.
  - Millennium Development Goals (targets by 2015) included gender equality and empowering women.
  - Sustainable Development Goals (approved in 2015) include Goal 5 calling for gender equality and empowerment of girls’ and women.
- Evidence linking gender equality to socioeconomic benefits: World Bank (2011), Duflo (2012), Elborgh-Woytek et al. (2013); Lagarde (2013).

### II. Economic rationale for gender budgeting
- Core premise:
  - Fiscal policies influence fiscal outcomes, and thus economic output, growth, and equity.
- Channels through which fiscal policy influences growth (IMF, 2015a):
  - Budget stability and sustainability over time; manageability of debt burdens.
  - Composition of expenditures and revenues and incentives affecting private behavior.
  - Effects on human capital and physical capital accumulation, labor supply, investment, and risk taking.
- Gender-budgeting rationale and issues:
  - Gender budgeting addresses theoretical and practical difficulties in assessing differential effects of fiscal policy on women and men and the historically weak voice of women in political discussions and government bureaucracies.
  - Apparent budget “gender neutrality” can be “gender blindness”; gender budgeting mainstreams attention to women’s needs into fiscal policies and administration.
- Externalities and care economy:
  - Female education generates private and positive social externalities (reduced fertility, lower child mortality, better health) that parents may not internalize, justifying corrective fiscal measures (taxes, subsidies, regulation).
  - Women perform disproportionate unpaid care work; gender budgeting suggests attaching value to unpaid care work when assessing government programs.

### III. Origin, spread, and variety of approaches
- Origins and milestones:
  - Original gender budgeting approach developed in Australia in the 1980s; Australia’s initiative in 1984 required ministries to analyze budget impact on women and girls with a focus on public expenditures.
  - 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing Platform for Action) called for ensuring consideration of a gender perspective and women’s needs in budgetary policies and programs.
- Diffusion and diversity:
  - More than 80 countries have tried some variant of gender budgeting.
  - 23 countries were assessed as having prominent gender budgeting efforts in the regional surveys.
  - Approaches vary: fiscal policy changes, administrative changes (expenditure tracking/monitoring), or a mix; the most successful combine policy and administrative changes.
- Critiques and IMF response:
  - Elson (1992, 1995) criticized austerity policies that disproportionately burden women and girls.
  - IMF has incorporated awareness of differential effects of fiscal adjustment with explicit focus on needs of women and girls (Clements et al., 2015; multiple IMF Article IV reports).

### IV. Description of the IMF study and methodology
- Purpose:
  - Presents conceptual basis for gender budgeting and highlights findings from six regional surveys covering all world regions.
- Regional survey design:
  - Case studies grouped by region; each regional survey included short case studies of most prominent efforts and shorter descriptions of less-developed efforts.
  - Appendix A, Table A1 lists countries responding to the IMF questionnaire; Table A3 lists key components of the 23 prominent gender budgeting efforts.
- Data collection methods:
  - Questionnaire sent to Ministries of Finance of IMF member countries.
  - Published and unpublished materials collected.
  - Interviews with country officials, technical assistance providers (including UN Women), and nongovernmental organizations.
- Coverage:
  - 62 responding countries (Table A1).
  - 23 countries considered to have “prominent” gender budgeting efforts; an additional 37 countries with efforts of interest.
  - Note: the data represent a composite over time and do not relate specifically to any one point in time.

### V. Conceptual overview: public finance principles applied to gender budgeting
- Principles:
  - Budget processes should weigh marginal net benefits and consider equity—whether benefits and tax burdens align with society’s notion of fairness.
  - Gender budgeting treats efficiency and equity as joint objectives: incorporate gender-equality considerations into marginal budget decisions, correct externalities, value unpaid care work, and accept equity trade-offs where they arise.
- Practical policy tools mentioned:
  - Taxes, subsidies, compulsory schooling, child labor laws, provision of adolescent-appropriate sanitation facilities, cash/in-kind subsidies to induce schooling.

### VI. Practical dimensions: integrating gender budgeting into the budget process
- Budget stages where gender budgeting can enter:
  - Preparation/Formulation, Approval, Execution (implementation, monitoring, and control), Oversight (auditing).
- Institutional roles and findings:
  - Ministry of Finance leadership increases influence and integration of gender budgeting (Ministry of Finance was lead entity in 17 of the 23 prominent efforts).
  - Spending ministries identify gender goals and report on gender-related spending (examples: Austria, Belgium, Mexico, Timor-Leste).
  - Revenue/tax administration has received less attention; only 5 of the 23 prominent efforts had a revenue focus.
  - Subnational government involvement noted in 16 of the 23 prominent efforts.
  - Significant encouragement or participation of civil society in 18 of the 23 prominent efforts.

### VII. Empirical summary from the 23 prominent gender budgeting efforts (Table 1 / Table A3 statistics)
- Program characteristics (number of countries out of 23 with the characteristic):
  - Supported by international organizations or bilateral aid agencies: 13
  - Tied to MDGs or national development plan or gender equality strategy: 18
  - Focus on spending: 23
  - Spending focus on key human development (education and health): 22
  - Spending focus on physical infrastructure (transport, water, electricity, and energy): 18
  - Spending focus on justice and security (violence against women, judicial assistance): 22
  - Spending focus on jobs, entrepreneurship, wages etc: 21
  - Structural reforms in spending (subsidies, transfers, incentive or distributional objectives): 15
  - Focus on revenue: 5
  - Personal income tax focus: 3
  - Other tax focus, including general or selective sales and trade: 2
  - Broad statement of goals of Minister of Finance: 15
  - Gender budgeting statement in budget documentation: 19
  - Gender budgeting circular or related to instruct the bureaucracy: 18
  - Gender budgeting in planning and programming: 21
  - Gender budgeting outcome report or audit: 12
  - Explicit reporting on gender equality spending: 17
  - Gender budgeting has constitutional standing: 4
  - Gender budgeting is incorporated in organic budget or other finance laws: 13
  - Ministry of Finance is lead entity: 17
  - Other ministries play consequential role: 23
  - Subnational government is involved: 16
  - Significant encouragement or participation of civil society: 18

### VIII. Comparative indicators and caveats (Appendix A / Table A4 highlights)
- PEFA framework:
  - PEFA scores are higher for both the prominent and the other featured initiatives than the non-gender budgeting countries (Europe excluded because most countries do not have PEFA evaluations).
  - PEFA scoring note: framework consists of 28 indicators scored A–D, converted to numerical scores (4,3,2,1) with “+” given 0.5 point; on a global basis, the lowest score is 1.1 and highest score is 3.6.
- Education and maternal health indicators:
  - Gross secondary enrollment (female to male ratio): the lowest average is in the Middle East and Central Asia prominent gender budgeting countries at 0.71.
  - Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000): African and Western Hemisphere gender budgeting countries have lower maternal mortality ratios than non-gender budgeting countries in the same regions; other gender budgeting countries in the Middle East and Central Asia had the lowest maternal mortality ratio (Europe data excluded).
- Spending on education and health (share of GDP):
  - No clear patterns comparing gender budgeting and non-gender budgeting countries across regions.
- Caveats:
  - Converting qualitative information into data leaves room for interpretation differences.
  - “Lead player” means the ministry of finance assumed a lead role at some point, not necessarily as an initial catalyst.

### IX. Regional and country examples of prominent efforts (selected highlights)
- Asia:
  - India: gender budgeting applied at federal and majority of state levels; Kerala introduced a gender budgeting statement in 2008/09.
  - Korea: focus on increasing women’s labor force participation amid a rapidly aging workforce.
  - Philippines: initial rule requiring departments to allocate five percent of funds to gender-oriented goals evolved into a more flexible approach; extended to subnational governments.
- Caribbean and Pacific:
  - Timor-Leste: legal status given by parliament; agencies must assess whether programs consider different needs of women and men; measures include increasing girls’ and women’s access to education and legal aid.
- Western Hemisphere:
  - Mexico: federal and state efforts began with health; evidence cited includes a drop in maternal mortality and rise in life expectancy; Mexico City made transportation changes to provide safer options for women.
  - Ecuador, El Salvador, Bolivia: integration of gender goals into budgetary classification and subnational efforts.
- Middle East and Central Asia:
  - Morocco: 2014 changes to the organic budget law required gender equality consideration in defining performance objectives, results, and indicators and required a Gender Report as part of each year’s Finance Bill; Ministry of Economy and Finance received the United Nations Public Service Award in 2014.
  - Afghanistan: sought gender budgeting to address poor female education and health indicators; progress attribution is unclear given donor involvement.
- Sub-Saharan Africa:
  - Uganda and Rwanda: substantive gender budgeting with integration into education, health, water, sanitation, infrastructure, justice, agriculture; Rwanda integrated gender budgeting with program-based budgeting and adopted an organic budget law including gender budgeting as a fundamental principle.
  - South Africa: 1995 tax reforms addressed biases (married women previously taxed at higher rates); VAT reduced on paraffin (kerosene), an important household fuel in poor, predominantly female-headed households.
- Europe:
  - Austria: 2007 reforms introduced gender equality as a clear government objective and undertook fundamental tax reform to provide greater incentives for women to work.
  - Belgium: 2007 law required integration of a gender dimension into all federal policies including budgeting; mandates collection and use of sex-disaggregated data.
  - Emerging market examples include subnational initiatives in Germany (Berlin) and Spain (Andalucía).

### X. Fiscal incidence evidence and methodological notes (Appendix B summary)
- Education and health incidence:
  - Studies find gender inequalities in education, often more pronounced for poorer families and at higher education levels; evidence suggests higher social returns to female schooling (Schultz, 2002).
  - Health inequalities exist in some countries (notably India for under-5 mortality by sex) though some health services (vaccinations) show no gender gap.
- Infrastructure and time use:
  - Provision of household water and other infrastructure reduces women’s and girls’ time spent on care tasks and can yield significant welfare gains.
  - Studies find agricultural extension services often skewed toward men.
- Tax incidence and gender:
  - Tax systems can have explicit and implicit gender biases (Stotsky, 1997).
  - Implicit bias can arise from joint taxation and progressive schedules discouraging secondary earners; personal income tax focus in only 3 of the 23 prominent efforts.
  - Indirect taxes and tariffs can have gender-differentiated incidence depending on commodity consumption patterns.
- User fees:
  - User fees can discourage women’s utilization of health services (Nanda, 2002); school fees may have mixed effects on access and quality.

### XI. Assessment of gender budgeting efforts: summary findings
- Overall findings:
  - Since inception about 30 years ago, gender budgeting efforts have shaped fiscal policies in over 80 countries.
  - Meaningful fiscal policy changes tended to occur when gender budgeting had support from the political center of fiscal decision-making (examples: Rwanda, Uganda, Indian state of Kerala).
  - Incorporation of relevant spending ministries and subnational governments is essential for institutionalization and focus on agreed goals.
  - International organizations (such as UN Women), donors, nongovernmental organizations, academic scholarship, and advocacy play catalytic roles; without government participation some initiatives faltered (example: Tanzania).
  - Effective gender budgeting requires governments to improve policies and programs over time and monitor results across agencies; only a few countries elevated monitoring to oversight or audit offices (example: Rwanda).

### XII. Fiscal policy implications and operational recommendations
- For low-income developing countries:
  - Align gender budgeting efforts to goals in national development plans and the Sustainable Development Goals.
  - Improve girls’ access to secondary and tertiary education and participation in science, technology, and math education.
  - Prioritize gender-oriented health goals: reduce maternal mortality and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS; provide contraception services.
  - Remove obstacles preventing girls and women from education and economic activities (inappropriate hygienic conditions, unsafe transportation).
  - Improve supply of electricity, water, and cooking technologies to reduce domestic time demands.
  - Focus on sectors where women can participate more productively and develop fiscal incentives for participation.
  - Ensure subsistence agriculture remains a policy focus where women predominate.
  - Eliminate gender-based inequalities in tax, financial, civil, and other laws; ensure equal property rights.
  - Improve administration of justice, law, and order to reduce violence against girls and women.
- For countries with well-developed income and social security systems:
  - Identify structures in income tax systems that lead to higher effective tax rates on secondary workers and consider moving to individual-based income tax systems or restructuring joint taxation.
  - Reform fiscal policies directed toward security in old age to ensure elderly women’s security given more limited paid work histories.
- Operational recommendations for governments:
  - Use cost-benefit analyses of domestic time use to identify public investment priorities.
  - Ensure participation of staff capable of:
    - articulating country-relevant gender-oriented budget priorities;
    - designing evaluations of gender-budgeting-created programs;
    - conducting economic analyses of those programs; and
    - providing public information on results.

*Source: IMF staff compilation and regional surveys as presented in the document (_wp16149).*

### References .............................................................................................................

### _wp16149 - References

### I. Introduction and context
- One of the most important developments in the twentieth century was the entry of women into economic and political activities previously undertaken almost entirely by men.
- Despite progress, women still lag men in access to education and appropriate health care, paid employment opportunities, and political participation; disparities are particularly pronounced in parts of the developing world.
- The international commitments cited:
  - United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979.
  - Millennium Development Goals (targets by 2015) included gender equality and empowering women.
  - Sustainable Development Goals (approved in 2015) include Goal 5 calling for gender equality and empowerment of girls’ and women.
- Evidence cited linking gender equality to socioeconomic benefits includes World Bank (2011), Duflo (2012), and Elborgh-Woytek et al. (2013); Lagarde (2013) highlights advantages of equalizing women’s role in economic and political life.

### Economic rationale for gender budgeting
- Core premise: fiscal policies influence fiscal outcomes, and thus economic output, growth, and equity.
- Channels through which fiscal policy influences growth (IMF, 2015a):
  - Budget stability and sustainability over time; manageability of debt burdens.
  - Composition of expenditures and revenues and incentives affecting private behavior.
  - Effects on human capital and physical capital accumulation, labor supply, investment, and risk taking.
- Gender budgeting addresses:
  - Theoretical and practical difficulties in assessing differential effects of fiscal policy on women and men.
  - The historically weak voice of women in political discussions and government bureaucracies that can lead to underrepresentation of women’s developmental concerns in public budgets.
- Empirical observation:
  - The proportion of public expenditure explicitly dedicated to gender equality objectives is limited.
  - A larger share of spending can be seen as contributing to gender equality because it spans many budget areas; disaggregation into categories requires arbitrariness (UN-WIDER, 2014).
- Scope and inclusivity:
  - Gender budgeting largely focuses on girls’ and women’s needs but is not intended to detract from boys’ and men’s developmental needs; some countries include programs addressing male needs within fiscal policymaking.
  - Broad goal: integrate gender-oriented concerns into fiscal policies and administration.

### Origin, spread, and variety of gender budgeting approaches
- Origin:
  - Original gender budgeting approach developed in Australia in the 1980s; Australia’s initiative in 1984 required ministries to analyze budget impact on women and girls with a focus on public expenditures.
  - The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing Platform for Action) called for ensuring consideration of a gender perspective and women’s needs in budgetary policies and programs.
- Critiques and institutional response:
  - Elson (1992, 1995) criticized international financial institutions for austerity policies that disproportionately burden women and girls; one critique was insufficient recognition of women's roles in market and household economies.
  - IMF has sought to incorporate more awareness of differential effects of fiscal adjustment and built explicit focus on the needs of women and girls; references include Clements et al. (2015) and several IMF Article IV reports (IMF, 2015b,c,d,e,f and IMF, 2016a,b).
- Current spread and diversity:
  - More than 80 countries have tried some variant of gender budgeting.
  - Approaches vary widely:
    - Some focus on fiscal policy changes (budgetary allocations or structure of fiscal policies).
    - Others focus on administrative changes (expenditure tracking and monitoring systems).
    - The most successful efforts combine policy and administrative changes.
    - Many efforts have made limited progress due to lack of commitment from fiscal policymakers and bureaucratic weaknesses.
  - Outcomes range from substantive fiscal policy changes plus administrative reforms to initiatives that stop at training sessions or administrative set-up.

### Description of the IMF study and methodology
- Purpose:
  - Presents conceptual basis for gender budgeting and highlights findings from six regional surveys covering all world regions.
- Regional surveys:
  - Case studies grouped by region because gender budgeting efforts often draw on regional precedents and countries in a region tend to share economic characteristics.
  - Each regional survey:
    - Included a short case study on countries with the most prominent or substantive gender budgeting efforts.
    - Included shorter descriptions of countries with less-developed efforts or limited documentation.
  - For some countries, attempts were made to formally evaluate whether gender budgeting contributed to progress on key indicators; for others the evaluation was largely subjective.
  - Appendix A, Table A1 lists countries responding to the IMF questionnaire on gender budgeting; Table A3 lists key components of the 23 prominent gender budgeting efforts.
- Coverage and examples:
  - Figure 1 maps the 23 countries assessed as having prominent gender budgeting efforts and other countries with substantive but less-prominent efforts.
  - Regional highlights and notable country efforts mentioned:
    - Asia: Republic of Korea, Australia, India, Philippines (Chakraborty, 2016).
    - Pacific Island countries and non-Latin-speaking Caribbean: Timor-Leste notable (Christie and Thakur, 2016).
    - Middle East and Central Asia: Morocco and Afghanistan notable (Kolovich and Shibuya, 2016).
    - Latin America: Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, Bolivia among those covered (Pérez Fragoso and Rodríguez Enríquez, 2016).
    - Europe: Austria, Belgium, Scandinavia and several emerging markets; Germany and Spain included for prominent subnational efforts in Berlin and Andalucía (Quinn, 2016).
    - Sub-Saharan Africa: Uganda and Rwanda notable (Stotsky, Kolovich, and Kebhaj, 2016).
- Data and ongoing work:
  - Some country documentation derived only from authorities’ responses to an IMF questionnaire.
  - On-going work undertakes more systematic evaluation of gender budgeting contributions (see Stotsky and Zaman, forthcoming 2016).

### Key statistics and referenced materials (as presented)
- Numeric and date references preserved exactly where cited in the source:
  - 1979 (CEDAW adoption).
  - 1980s (development of original Australian approach).
  - 1984 (Australia’s landmark gender budgeting initiative).
  - 1995 (Fourth World Conference on Women; Beijing Platform for Action).
  - 2011 (World Bank evidence cited).
  - 2012 (Duflo).
  - 2013 (Elborgh-Woytek et al.; Lagarde highlighted the advantages).
  - 2015 (Sustainable Development Goals approved; IMF, 2015a; multiple IMF Article IV reports).
  - 2016 (IMF working papers and regional survey publications cited).
  - More than 80 countries have tried some variant of gender budgeting.
  - 23 countries identified as having prominent gender budgeting efforts in the regional surveys.
  - Appendix and figure/table references: Table 1 (Summary Statistics on the 23 Prominent Gender Budgeting Efforts), Figures 1 and 2, Appendices A and B with multiple tables (A1–A4 and fiscal incidence appendix).

*Source: IMF staff compilation and regional surveys as presented in the document.*

### Section II provides a conceptual overview of gender budgeting in public finance economics and

### _wp16149 - Section II provides a conceptual overview of gender budgeting in public finance economics and

### Economic principles of good public finance and their application to gender budgeting
- Budget processes should weigh competing benefits from public spending against their costs and expand programs for which, at the margin, the net benefits are positive and have a higher net social return than other competing priorities.
- From the perspective of equity, the budget process should consider whether the benefits of government spending programs and the burden of taxes and other revenues is distributed in accordance with a society’s notion of fairness.
- Gender budgeting starts from the view that promoting gender equality and women’s development is economically and socially beneficial to women and girls and to the societies in which they live.
- Gender budgeting arises where public budgeting does not adequately take into account the full economic benefits (private and social/external) of women’s development and gender equality.
- Gender budgeting treats apparent budget “gender neutrality” as potential “gender blindness” and seeks to mainstream attention to women’s needs into fiscal policies and administration and promote greater accountability.

### Externalities: economic rationale for gender budgeting
- Externalities are costs and benefits that spill over to others and are not taken into account in prices; positive externalities are typically undersupplied by markets.
- Female education generates private benefits to girls and external benefits to society (e.g., reduced fertility, lower child mortality, better health), which parents may not internalize when deciding on schooling for daughters.
- If budget-makers ignore social benefits from better-educated women, they may underallocate resources, yielding lower-than-socially-optimal education for females.
- Governments can use taxes, subsidies, regulatory approaches, or property rights assignments to correct externalities and achieve socially optimal outcomes.
- Examples of corrective fiscal/administrative measures:
  - Provision of appropriate toilet facilities for adolescent girls to reduce dropout rates (India and several sub-Saharan African countries).
  - Subsidies in cash or in kind to induce parents to send children to school (Bangladesh food-for-school example).
  - Compulsory schooling and child labor laws (noting persistence of inadequate schooling in many developing countries).

### Gender budgeting and the care economy
- Women disproportionately perform unpaid labor for care and household maintenance, generating positive externalities for households and society.
- Non-market time spent on care/domestic work can be modeled as a productive factor and formally incorporated into public policy assessment.
- Gender budgeting suggests attaching value to unpaid care work when assessing benefits and costs of government programs.

### Equity considerations
- Equity is a core objective alongside efficiency in public budgeting; redistributive fiscal policies can move a society closer to its notion of fairness and raise aggregate well-being.
- International frameworks cited: CEDAW principles, the Millennium Development Goals, and the Sustainable Development Goals, which recognize efficiency and equity dimensions of promoting gender equality.
- Evidence cited: Some studies suggest more income-equitable economies grow faster (Ostry, Berg, and Tsangarides, 2014).

### Summing up: gender budgeting as good public finance
- Gender budgeting is grounded in public finance principles: efficiency (incorporating gender equality into budget decisions), externality correction (capturing societal benefits), valuation of care economy time, and acceptance of equity as an objective even when tradeoffs arise.
- Gender budgeting is an approach to improve overall budgeting quality—not an add-on benefiting only women—and should address disadvantages experienced by any group that generate social losses.

### Practical dimensions: integrating gender budgeting into the budget process
- Budget stages overview: Preparation/Formulation, Approval, Execution (implementation, monitoring, and control), Oversight (auditing).
- Typical roles:
  - Executive branch, led by the ministry of finance, develops the budget.
  - Legislature debates, alters, and enacts the budget.
  - Ministry of finance executes and administers the budget.
  - Audit institutions or the legislature provide oversight and scrutiny of financial outcomes.
  - Nongovernmental organizations and foreign donors often influence budget decisions and inform public policies.
- Gender budgeting enters different stages of the budget process in different countries; institutional arrangements vary widely.
- Integration approaches:
  - Incorporation of gender-oriented goals into the ministry of finance’s statement of budget principles.
  - Inclusion of gender budgeting instructions in the budget circular to spending ministries and revenue authorities.
  - Use of program- or results-based budgeting to link funds to outputs/outcomes and better incorporate gender objectives (examples: Ukraine, Rwanda).

### Institutional roles and country practices
- Ministry of Finance:
  - Where the ministry of finance leads gender budgeting efforts, initiatives tend to have more influence and wider integration across government activity.
  - In the survey, Rwanda and Uganda noted for effective integration with ministry of finance leadership.
- Spending ministries:
  - Responsible for identifying gender-oriented goals within their remit, developing programs, and reporting on spending for gender goals.
  - Examples: Austria and Belgium asked ministries to identify gender goals in departmental budgets; Mexico’s efforts led by the ministry of health; Timor-Leste’s by the Ministry of Education.
  - Uganda prioritized sectors: education, health, water, sanitation, infrastructure, justice, and agriculture.
- Revenue/tax administration:
  - Revenue-side gender considerations have received less attention, though some countries sought gender goals through tax policy reforms.
  - Tax administration could tailor audit or compliance strategies if female and male small business owners respond differently.

### Role of economic analysis and research
- Research extensions:
  - Models of household behavior that allow multiple individuals with diverse preferences (Lundberg and Pollak, 1996; Behrman, 1997; others).
  - Sex-disaggregated incidence analysis of government spending and revenue policies to understand distributional effects by sex.
- Policy implication: More use should be made of theoretical and empirical economic research to inform effective gender budgeting initiatives.
- Practical modeling limitations: Sex-disaggregated incidence analysis often uses simplifying assumptions (e.g., unit benefit times number of beneficiaries) rather than fully-specified household decision frameworks.

### Empirical summary from the survey of 23 prominent gender budgeting efforts
- Table 1 summary statistics (number of countries in which the gender budgeting efforts had the characteristic):
  - Supported by international organizations or bilateral aid agencies: 13
  - Tied to MDGs or national development plan or gender equality strategy: 18
  - Focus on spending: 23
  - Focus on revenue: 5
  - Gender budgeting circular or related to instruct the bureaucracy: 18
  - Gender budgeting outcome report or audit: 12
  - Gender budgeting is incorporated in organic budget or other finance laws: 13
  - Ministry of Finance is lead entity: 17
  - Subnational government is involved: 16
  - Significant encouragement or participation of civil society: 18

*Source: IMF staff compilation from the Section II text of the PDF _wp16149.*

### Appendix B surveys some of these studies. Also see Greenspun and Lustig (2015), which covers a wide range of

### _wp16149 - Appendix B surveys some of these studies. Also see Greenspun and Lustig (2015), which covers a wide range of

### Conceptual issues in identifying beneficiaries of public spending
- Some public goods are not divisible (for example, national defense).
- Some services are “publicly provided goods or services,” so that while the benefits are not necessarily equally shared and the benefits are divisible, the benefits accrue to households or communities in a way that does not easily allow a disaggregation of the benefits by sex (for instance, water or electricity provision or fire prevention services to households).
- Approaches in the economic literature can surmount these difficulties; for example:
  - Measure benefits of improved water supply (e.g., bore holes in villages) to households by assessing the reduction in time spent on water collection of different household members and then assigning a value to this time derived from alternative activities that household members can pursue with the freed up time.
  - Such analyses can inform government priorities for infrastructure spending and other forms of government spending.
- Empirical, sex-disaggregated analysis was rare historically; notable country efforts grounded in formal analytical work include India, Korea, South Africa, and Tanzania.

### The catalytic role of international, bilateral, and nongovernmental organizations
- UN Women (formerly UNIFEM) has played a critical role in initiating and sustaining gender budgeting efforts worldwide.
- The United Kingdom’s DFID and earlier Commonwealth Secretariat efforts have been influential in specific country cases (e.g., Uganda).
- Nongovernmental organizations have spearheaded or driven gender budgeting in several countries (Australia, South Africa, Tanzania) and produced influential gender-differentiated fiscal analyses in others (United Kingdom, Canada).
- Some initiatives remained viable only due to constant external support (example: Tanzania), but without full government participation such initiatives did not advance far.

### Extensions to the medium term
- Most sensible budget planning is done on a multi-year basis through “medium-term frameworks.”
- Effective gender budgeting should adopt a medium-term (and even long-term) perspective, particularly for education and health where human capital accumulation manifests over medium- or long-term horizons.
- Example: programs to reduce illiteracy among women may produce dramatic effects only over a generation.
- Ng (2016) examines how gender budgeting can be used to encourage more participatory budgeting.

### The role of subnational governments
- Many countries have multiple layers of government responsible for public services; gender budgeting should extend to levels providing education, health, and infrastructure.
- Regional evidence highlights the importance of subnational governments in gender budgeting (noteworthy examples: Bolivia, Ecuador, India, the Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda).
- In most developing countries national governments remain the principal source of public revenues and transfer funds to subnational levels; national governments can create incentives by linking intergovernmental transfer structures to subnational gender-oriented programs.

### Examples of prominent gender budgeting efforts (regional highlights)
- Asia
  - India: gender budgeting applied at federal and majority of state levels; Kerala introduced a gender budgeting statement in 2008/09 targeting infrastructure to support women’s economic and public life participation.
  - Korea: focus on increasing women’s labor force participation in the context of a rapidly aging workforce.
  - Philippines: initial rule requiring departments to allocate five percent of funds to gender-oriented goals evolved into a more flexible, priority-driven approach; extended to subnational governments.
- Caribbean and Pacific Islands
  - Timor-Leste: gender budgeting given legal status by parliament; agencies required to assess whether programs consider different needs of women and men and align with international gender-equality agreements; policies included increasing girls’ and women’s access to education, creating opportunities in tourism/commerce/industry, and improving access to legal aid and measures to fight violence against women.
- Western Hemisphere
  - Mexico: federal and state gender-oriented fiscal efforts began with health; ministries diagnosed women’s health needs, allocated resources, and designed indicators; evidence cited includes a drop in maternal mortality and rise in life expectancy; Mexico City made transportation changes to provide safer options for women.
  - Ecuador and El Salvador: focused on integrating gender goals into budgetary classification schemes to track spending execution.
  - Bolivia: gender budgeting at national and subnational levels.
- Middle East and Central Asia
  - Morocco: assessed needs of women/girls across education, health, judicial system, infrastructure, and employment; legal reforms strengthened women’s rights; 2014 changes to the organic budget law required gender equality to be considered when defining performance objectives, results, and indicators in all parts of the budget and required a Gender Report as part of each year’s Finance Bill; Ministry of Economy and Finance received the United Nations Public Service Award in 2014.
  - Afghanistan: sought gender budgeting to address poor female education and health indicators; progress occurred but attribution to gender budgeting is unclear given significant donor involvement and budget support.
- Sub-Saharan Africa
  - Uganda and Rwanda: clear exceptions where gender budgeting was substantive; both ensured gender-oriented goals in education and health and extended efforts to local governments.
    - Uganda: priority sectors included education, health, agriculture, roads and works, water and sanitation, and justice, law, and order; measures included increased budget allocation to monitor girls’ school participation and retention and tracking reasons for dropout (pregnancy, marriage, lack of sanitary facilities, violence); focus on improving women’s economic standing in agriculture.
    - Rwanda: piloted gender budgeting in health, education, agriculture, and infrastructure and rolled it out to all sectors; integrated with program-based budgeting; adopted an organic budget law including gender budgeting as a fundamental principle; established a Gender Monitoring Office with authority to ensure commitments were met.
  - South Africa: tax reforms in 1995 addressed biases (married women previously taxed at higher rates); reduced VAT on paraffin (kerosene), an important household fuel in poor, predominantly female-headed households.
- Europe
  - Austria: 2007 reforms introduced gender equality as a clear government objective and undertook fundamental tax reform to provide greater incentives for women to work.
  - Belgium: 2007 law required integration of a gender dimension into all federal policies including budgeting; ministries must identify gender equality objectives linked to budget programs; parliamentary budget discussion must include gender equality actions; mandates collection and use of sex-disaggregated data.
  - Emerging European market economies (example: Ukraine) are adapting approaches drawing on Austria’s leadership.

### Assessment of gender budgeting efforts: summary findings
- Since inception about 30 years ago, gender budgeting efforts shape fiscal policies in over 80 countries.
- Findings:
  - In some countries (for example, India and Mexico), gender budgeting has led to changes in fiscal policies in key areas such as education, health, and infrastructure, and contributed to achieving gender-oriented goals; conclusion based on case study analysis, researcher observations, and available data highlighted in regional surveys.
  - In some countries (for example, Austria and Ecuador), gender budgeting led to improved accountability systems for gender-oriented public spending; program-based budgeting (for example, Rwanda) offers strong promise; others adapted classification systems to better track gender-oriented spending.
  - Establishing clear cause and effect is difficult because government budget decisions reflect complex processes; influence may still be positive even if causal attribution is hard.
  - Meaningful fiscal policy changes tended to occur when gender budgeting had support from the political center of fiscal decision-making (for example, Rwanda, Uganda, and the Indian state of Kerala); minister of finance leadership within the executive branch has been essential; parliamentarians and committees can be catalytic.
  - Incorporation of relevant spending ministries (examples: Morocco, the Philippines, Timor-Leste) into gender budgeting is essential for institutionalization and focus on agreed goals; tools such as gender budget statements, budget circulars, and follow-up to spending and revenue institutions are vital.
  - Subnational governments often play a critical role; in some countries subnational gender budgeting was more substantive than national (example: Bolivia).
  - International organizations (such as UN Women) and donors provide important technical and financial support.
  - Nongovernmental organizations, academic scholarship, and advocacy can be catalytic (example: South Africa) or inform fiscal policies (example: United Kingdom); without government participation some initiatives faltered (example: Tanzania).
  - Effective gender budgeting requires governments to improve policies and programs over time and monitor results across agencies; only a few countries elevated monitoring to the level of oversight or audit offices (example: Rwanda).

### Fiscal policy implications for low-income developing countries
- Align gender budgeting efforts to goals in national development plans, including those related to the Sustainable Development Goals; ensure gender-oriented objectives are clear, ambitious, and fit into the budget process.
- Improve girls’ access to secondary and tertiary education and participation in science, technology, and math education; equal access to primary education across the world is within reach.
- Keep gender-oriented health goals as priorities: reduce high rates of maternal mortality and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, and provide contraception services.
- Remove obstacles preventing girls and women from participating in education and economic activities (inappropriate hygienic conditions, unsafe transportation).
- Improve supply of electricity and water to households and cooking technologies to reduce girls’ and women’s domestic time demands.
- Assess economic sectors where women could participate more productively, identify constraints, and develop fiscal policies (including incentives to individuals, employers, and financial institutions) to encourage greater women’s participation in economic activities.
- Ensure subsistence agriculture remains a focus of fiscal policies and programs, including enhanced farmer training in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions where women predominate in subsistence agriculture.
- Eliminate gender-based inequalities in tax, financial, civil, and other laws; ensure equal rights to ownership and control of property.
- Improve administration of justice, law, and order to reduce violence against girls and women.

### Fiscal policy implications for countries with well-developed income and social security systems
- Identify structures in income tax systems that lead to higher effective tax rates on secondary workers in households, which may discourage female labor force participation; moving to individual-based income tax systems is one means to reduce this problem.
- Even within joint household income tax systems, structure the tax to reduce higher effective tax rates on secondary earners.
- Ensure security for elderly women through reform of fiscal policies directed toward security in old age, given women’s more limited paid work histories.

### Concluding remarks and operational recommendations
- Well-structured fiscal policies can improve girls’ and women’s development at all stages of economic and political development.
- Fiscal policies can reduce women’s disproportionate burden of caring responsibilities and domestic chores while being mindful of preferences and social norms.
- National development planning in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals provides an opportunity to use fiscal policy and administration to reduce gender disparities.
- Cost-benefit analyses of domestic time use can identify appropriate public investment priorities.
- Governments should ensure participation of staff capable of:
  - articulating country-relevant gender-oriented budget priorities;
  - designing evaluations of programs created by gender budgeting;
  - conducting economic analyses of those programs; and
  - providing public information on results.

*Source: _wp16149 - Appendix B surveys some of these studies. Also see Greenspun and Lustig (2015), which covers a wide range of (IMF working paper content provided in the prompt).*

### References

### _wp16149 - References

### Works cited on gender budgeting and fiscal policy
- Budlender, Debbie, and Rhonda Sharp, with Kerri Allen, 1998, How to Do a Gender-Sensitive Budget Analysis: Contemporary Research and Analysis (Commonwealth Secretariat and the Australian Agency for International Development).
- Budlender, Debbie, Diane Elson, Guy Hewitt, and Tanni Mukhopadhyay, 2002, Gender Budgets Make Cents: Understanding Gender-Responsive Budgets (London: Commonwealth Secretariat).
- Budlender, Debbie, and Guy Hewitt, eds., 2002, Gender Budgets Make More Cents: Country Studies and Good Practice (London: Commonwealth Secretariat).
- Budlender, Debbie, and Guy Hewitt, 2003, Engendering Budgets: A Practitioners’ Guide to Understanding and Implementing Gender-Responsive Budgets (London: Commonwealth Secretariat).
- Budlender, Debbie, 2015, Budget Call Circulars and Gender Budget Statements in the Asia Pacific: A Review, UN Women (New York: UN Women).
- Chakraborty, Lekha, 2016, “Asia: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts,” IMF Working Paper 16/150 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- Christie, Tamoya A. L., and Dhanaraj Thakur, 2016, “Caribbean and Pacific Islands: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts,” IMF Working Paper 16/154 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- Kolovich, Lisa and Sakina Shibuya, 2016, “Middle East and Central Asia: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts,” IMF Working Paper 16/151 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- Pérez Fragoso, Lucia, and Corina Rodríguez Enríquez, 2016, “Western Hemisphere: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts,” IMF Working Paper 16/153 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- Quinn, Sheila, 2009, Gender Budgeting: Practical Implementation, Council of Europe (Strasbourg, Council of Europe).
- Quinn, Sheila, 2016, “Europe: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts,” IMF Working Paper 16/155 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- Stotsky, Janet G., Lisa Kolovich, and Suhaib Kebhaj, 2016, “Sub-Saharan Africa: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts,” IMF Working Paper 16/152 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- Stotsky, Janet G., and Asad Zaman, forthcoming 2016, “The Influence of Gender Budgeting in Indian States on Gender Inequality and Fiscal Spending,” IMF Working Paper (Washington, DC: IMF).

### Works on taxation and gender equity
- Budlender, Debbie, Daniela Casale, and Imraan Valodia, 2010, “Gender Equality and Taxation in South Africa,” chapter 8 in Caren Grown and Imraan Valodia, eds., Taxation and Gender Equity: A Comparative Analysis of Direct and Indirect Taxes in Developing and Developed Countries (New York: Routledge), pp. 206-32.
- Chakraborty, Pinaki, Lekha Chakraborty, Krishanu Karmakar, and Shashi M. Kapila, 2010, “Gender Equality and Taxation in India,” chapter 4 in Caren Grown and Imraan Valodia, eds., Taxation and Gender Equity: A Comparative Analysis of Direct and Indirect Taxes in Developing and Developed Countries (New York: Routledge), pp. 94-118.
- Grown, Caren, and Imraan Valodia, eds., 2010, Taxation and Gender Equity: A Comparative Analysis of Direct and Indirect Taxes in Developing and Developed Countries (New York: Routledge).
- Hartzenburg, Trudy, 1996, “Women and Taxation,” in Debbie Budlender ed., The Women’s Budget (Cape Town: Institute for Democracy in South Africa).
- Pérez Fragoso, Lucía C., and Francisco Cota Gonzalez, 2010, “Gender Equality and Taxation in Mexico,” chapter 5 in Caren Grown and Imraan Valodia, eds., Taxation and Gender Equity: A Comparative Analysis of Direct and Indirect Taxes in Developing and Developed Countries (New York: Routledge), pp. 119-50.
- Rodriguez Enriquez, Corina, Natalia Gherardi, and Dario Rossignolo, 2010, “Gender Equality and Taxation in Argentina,” chapter 3, in Caren Grown and Imraan Valodia, eds., Taxation and Gender Equity: A Comparative Analysis of Direct and Indirect Taxes in Developing and Developed Countries (New York: Routledge), pp. 64-93.
- Smith, Terence, 2002, Women and Tax in South Africa (Cape Town: Women’s Budget Initiative).
- Stotsky, Janet G., 1997, “Gender Bias in Tax Systems,” Tax Notes International (June 9), pp. 1913–23.
- Feenberg, Daniel R., and Harvey S. Rosen, 1995, “Recent Developments in the Marriage Tax,” National Tax Journal, Vol. 48, pp. 91–101.
- Pollak, Robert A., 2011, “Family Bargaining and Taxes: A Prolegomenon to the Analysis of Joint Taxation,” CESifo Economic Studies, Vol. 57, pp. 216-44.

### Works on intrahousehold allocation, bargaining, and labor markets
- Behrman, Jere, 1997, Intrahousehold Distribution and the Family, in Mark R. Rosenzweig and Oded Stark, eds., Handbook of Population and Family Economics, Vol. 1A (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science), pp. 125-87.
- Behrman, Jere, 1999, “Labor Markets in Developing Countries,” Orley Ashenfelter and David Card, eds., Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 3B (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science), pp. 2859-2939.
- Blunderg, Rae Lesser, 1988, “Income Under Female Versus Male Control,” Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 9, pp. 55-84.
- Browning, Martin, Pierre-Andre Chiappori, and Arthur Lewbel, 2013, “Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 80, pp. 1267-1303.
- Hoddinott, John, Harold Alderman, and Lawrence Haddad, 1997, “Testing Competing Models of Intrahousehold Allocation,” in Lawrence Haddad, John Hoddinott, and Harold Alderman, eds., Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Developing Countries (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), pp. 129-41.
- Lundberg, Shelly, and Robert A. Pollak, 1996, “Bargaining and Distribution in Marriage,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 10, pp. 139-58.
- Quisumbing, Agnes R., ed., 2003, Household Decisions, Gender, and Development: A Synthesis of Recent Research (Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute).
- Quisumbing, Agnes R. and John A. Maluccio, 2003, “Resources at Marriage and Intrahousehold Allocation: Evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and South Africa,” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 65, No. 3, pp. 283-327.
- Vermeulen, Frederic, 2002, “Collective Household Models: Principles and Main Results,” Journal of Economic Surveys, Vol. 16, pp. 533-64.
- Bertrand, Marianne, Emir Kamenica, and Jessica Pan, 2015, “Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 130, Part 2, pp. 571-614.
- Browne, James, 2011, “The Impact of Tax and Benefit Reforms by Sex: Some Simple Analysis,” IFS Briefing Note 118 (London: Institute for Fiscal Studies).
- Figari, Francesco, Herwig Immervoll, Horacio Levy, and Holly Sutherland, 2011, “Inequalities within Couples in Europe: Market Incomes and the Role of Taxes and Benefits,” Eastern Economic Journal, Vol. 37, pp. 344-66.
- Burda, Michael, Daniel S. Hamermesh, and Philippe Weil, 2013, “Total Work and Gender: Facts and Possible Explanations,” Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 26, pp. 239-61.

### Works on education, health, and social spending incidence
- Abu-Ghaida, Dina, and Stephan Klasen, 2004, “The Costs of Missing the Millennium Development Goal on Gender Equity,” World Development, Vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 1075-1107.
- Austen, Siobhan, Monica Costa, Rhonda Sharp, and Diane Elson, 2013, “Expenditure Incidence Analysis: A Gender-Responsive Budgeting Tool for Educational Expenditure in Timor-Leste?” Feminist Economics, Vol. 19, pp. 1-24.
- Christiaensen, Luc, and Harold Alderman, 2004, “Child Malnutrition in Ethiopia: Can Maternal Knowledge Augment the Role of Income?” Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 287-312.
- Filmer, Deon, 1999, “The Structure of Social Disparities in Education: Gender and Wealth,” Background paper for Engendering Development (Washington, DC: World Bank).
- Glewwe, Paul, 1999, “Why Does Mother’s Schooling Raise Child Health in Developing Countries? Evidence from Morocco,” Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 34, pp. 124-59.
- Nanda, Priya, 2002, “Gender Dimensions of User Fees: Implications for Women’s Utilization of Health Care,” Reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 10, pp. 127–34.
- Cylus, Jonathan, Micah Hartman, Benjamin Washington, Kimberly Andrews, and Aaron Catlin, 2011, “Pronounced Gender and Age Differences Are Evident In Personal Health Care Spending Per Person,” Health Affairs, Vol. 30, pp. 53-160.
- Demery, Lionel, Shiyan Chao, Rene Bernier, and Kalpana Mehra, 1995, “The Incidence of Social Spending in Ghana,” Poverty and Social Policy Discussion Paper No. 82 (Washington, DC: World Bank).
- Demery, Lionel, and Isis Gaddis, 2009, “Social Spending, Poverty, and Gender Equality in Kenya: A Benefit Incidence Analysis,” Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (Nairobi: Kenya).
- Mogues, Tewodaj, Carly Petracco, and Josee Randriamamonjy, 2011, “The Wealth and Gender Distribution of Rural Services in Ethiopia: A Public Expenditure Benefit Incidence Analysis,” IFPRI Discussion Paper 01057 (Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute).
- Mogues, Tewodaj, 2013, “The Reach of Rural Services in Ethiopia: An Asset and Gender-Based Public Expenditure Benefit Incidence Analysis,” European Journal of Development Research, Vol. 25, pp. 230-51.
- Sahn, David E., and Stephen D. Younger, 2000, “Expenditure Incidence in Africa: Microeconomic Evidence,” Fiscal Studies, Vol. 21, pp. 329–47.

### Works on gender, growth, and macroeconomic perspectives
- Agenor, Pierre-Richard and Otaviano Canuto, 2015, “Gender Equality and Economic Growth in Brazil: A Long-Run Analysis,” Journal of Macroeconomics, Vol. 43, pp. 155-72.
- Bandiera, Oriana, and Ashwini Natraj, 2013, “Does Gender Inequality Hinder Development and Economic Growth? Evidence and Policy Implications,” The World Bank Research Observer, Vol. 28, pp. 2-21.
- Berik, Gunseli, Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, and Stephanie Seguino, 2009, “Feminist Economics of Inequality, Development and Growth,” Feminist Economics, Vol. 15, pp. 1-33.
- Cuberes, David, and Marc Teignier, 2014, “Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: A Critical Review,” Journal of International Development, Vol. 26, pp. 260-76.
- Duflo, Esther, 2012, “Women Empowerment and Economic Development,” Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 50, pp. 1051-79.
- Elborgh-Woytek, Kristin, Monique Newiak, Stefania Fabrizio, Kalpana Kochhar, Kangni Kpodar, Philippe Wingender, Benedict Clements, and Gerd Schwartz, 2013, “Women, Work, and the Economy: Macroeconomic Gains from Gender Equity,” IMF Staff Discussion Note 13/10 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- Kabeer, Naila, and Luisa Natali, 2013, “Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Is There a Win-Win?” IDS Working Paper, Volume 2013, No. 417 (Brighton: Institute of Development Studies).
- Klasen, Stephan, and Francesca Lamanna, 2009, “The Impact of Gender Inequality in Education and Employment on Economic Growth: New Evidence for a Panel of Countries,” Feminist Economics, Vol. 3, pp. 91-143.
- Lagarde, Christine, 2013, “Dare the Difference,” Finance & Development, Vol. 50, pp. 22-3.
- Ostry, Jonathan D., Andrew Berg, and Charalambos G. Tsangarides, “Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth,” IMF Staff Discussion Note 14/02 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- World Bank, 2011, World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development (Washington, DC: World Bank).

### IMF country reports, policy papers, and institutional references
- International Monetary Fund, 2015a, Fiscal Policy and Long-Term Growth, IMF Policy Paper (Washington, DC: IMF).
- International Monetary Fund, 2015b, “2015 Chile Article IV Consultation Staff Report,” IMF Country Report No. 15/227 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- International Monetary Fund, 2015c, “2015 Germany Article IV Consultation Staff Report,” IMF Country Report No. 15/187 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- International Monetary Fund, 2015d, “2015 Hungary Article IV Consultation Staff Report,” IMF Country Report No. 15/92 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- International Monetary Fund, 2015e, “2015 India Article IV Consultation Staff Report,” IMF Country Report No. 15/61 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- International Monetary Fund, 2016f, “2015 Mauritius Article IV Consultation Staff Report,” IMF Country Report No. 16/89 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- International Monetary Fund, 2016a, “2016 Costa Rica Article IV Consultation Staff Report,” IMF Country Report No. 16/131 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- International Monetary Fund, 2016b, “2016 Nigeria Article IV Consultation Staff Report,” IMF Country Report No. 16/101 (Washington, DC: IMF).
- Stotsky, Janet G., 1997, “Gender Bias in Tax Systems,” Tax Notes International (June 9), pp. 1913–23.
- Stotsky, Janet G., Sakina Shibuya, Lisa Kolovich, and Suhaib Kebhaj, 2016, “Trends in Women’s Advancement and Gender Equality,” IMF Working Paper 16/21 (Washington, DC: IMF).

### International organizations, methodological guides, and thematic studies
- Elson, Diane, 2006, Budgeting for Women’s Rights: Monitoring Government Budgets for Compliance with CEDAW (New York: UNIFEM).
- UNICEF, 2016, How to Engage in Budget Cycles and Processes to Leverage Government Budgets for Children, PF4C Technical Guidance Note Series, No. 1 (New York: UNICEF).
- UN Women, 2015, Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016: Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights (New York: United Nations).
- United Nations, 2015, Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, A/RES/70/1.
- World Bank, 2001, Engendering Development: Through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources, and Voice (New York: Oxford University Press).
- UN-WIDER, 2014, Position Paper-Aid and Gender Equality (Helsinki: UNU Wider Institute for Development Economics Research).
- Ng, Cecilia, editor, 2016, Gender Responsive Budgeting and Participatory Budgeting (New York: Springer).
- Ortiz, Isabel, and Matthew Cummins, 2013, “Austerity Measures in Developing Countries: Public Expenditure Trends and the Risks to Children and Women,” Feminist Economics, Vol. 19, pp. 55-81.
- Martin, Matthew, and Jo Walker, 2015, Financing the Sustainable Development Goals: Lessons from Government Spending on the MDGs (Government Spending Watch).

*References list as provided in the content unit.*

### Appendix A: Methodological Approach to the

### Appendix A: Methodological Approach to the Regional Surveys and Summary Statistics

### Methodological approach
- A multi-pronged effort was used to collect information on each country:
  - A questionnaire was sent to the Ministries of Finance of all countries who are members of the International Monetary Fund soliciting their views on whether they had ever had such an initiative and if so, its principal characteristics, and if not, whether they had undertaken any fiscal policy or administrative efforts with the same intention.
  - Published and unpublished materials on gender budgeting were collected.
  - Interviews were conducted with country officials, technical assistance providers (including from UN Women), and nongovernmental organizations.

- Table A1 lists the 62 responding countries.

### Country coverage and classification
- The six regional papers identified:
  - 23 countries considered to have “prominent” gender budgeting efforts.
  - An additional 37 countries with gender budgeting efforts that were of interest.
- The list is not comprehensive of all countries that have undertaken gender budgeting.
- In all regions, some initiatives were also conducted at the sub-national level (Germany included because of the initiative in Berlin and Spain because of Andalusia).

### Data collected for the 23 prominent gender budgeting efforts
- For the 23 prominent gender budgeting efforts, information was collected on:
  - Start year (only start dates are point-specific).
  - Whether the initiative was on-going or had ended.
  - Whether the program was tied to the Millennium Development Goals or a national development strategy.
  - Key fiscal policy components.
  - Legal basis.
  - Roles of government, parliament, and civil society.
- Note: The data represent a composite over time and do not relate specifically to any one point in time; the focus and structure of efforts may have changed over time.
- More than half of these efforts received technical and/or financial support from international organizations or bilateral aid providers.
- Two-thirds linked their goals to those of the Millennium Development Goals or a national development plan.
- Each of the 23 programs focused on spending; only five had an additional revenue focus.
- The Ministry of Finance was a lead player in 17 of the gender budgeting initiatives.
- More than three-quarters had active participation of civil society.

### Key components of the 23 prominent gender budgeting efforts (Table A3)
(number of countries in which the gender budgeting initiative had the characteristic)
- Supported by international organizations or bilateral aid agencies: 13
- Tied to MDGs or national development plan or gender equality strategy: 18
- Focus on spending: 23
- Spending focus on key human development (education and health): 22
- Spending focus on physical infrastructure (transport, water, electricity, and energy): 18
- Spending focus on justice and security (violence against women, judicial assistance): 22
- Spending focus on jobs, entrepreneurship, wages etc: 21
- Structural reforms in spending (subsidies, transfers, incentive or distributional objectives): 15
- Focus on revenue: 5
- Personal income tax focus: 3
- Other tax focus, including general or selective sales and trade: 2
- Broad statement of goals of Minister of Finance: 15
- Gender budgeting statement in budget documentation: 19
- Gender budgeting circular or related to instruct the bureaucracy: 18
- Gender budgeting in planning and programming: 21
- Gender budgeting outcome report or audit: 12
- Explicit reporting on gender equality spending: 17
- Gender budgeting has constitutional standing: 4
- Gender budgeting is incorporated in organic budget or other finance laws: 13
- Ministry of Finance is lead entity: 17
- Other ministries play consequential role: 23
- Subnational government is involved: 16
- Significant encouragement or participation of civil society: 18

### Comparative fiscal and gender inequality indicators (summary of Table A4)
- PEFA scores:
  - PEFA scores are higher for both the prominent and the other featured initiatives than the non-gender budgeting countries (Europe is excluded because most countries do not have PEFA evaluations).
- Gross secondary enrollment (female to male ratio):
  - African prominent gender budgeting countries and Asia and Pacific prominent and other gender budgeting countries had higher ratios than their non-gender budgeting counterparts.
  - Gender budgeting countries in Europe and the Western Hemisphere had similar ratios to non-gender budgeting countries.
  - Across all regions and categories of gender budgeting, the lowest average female to male ratio for secondary enrollment is in the Middle East and Central Asia prominent gender budgeting countries at 0.71.
  - The other gender budgeting countries in Middle East and Central Asia outperformed their non-gender budgeting regional counterparts on this ratio.
- Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000):
  - African and Western Hemisphere gender budgeting countries have lower maternal mortality ratios than non-gender budgeting countries in the same regions.
  - The other gender budgeting countries in the Middle East and Central Asia had the lowest maternal mortality ratio (data for Europe are excluded).
- Spending on education and health (share of GDP):
  - No clear patterns comparing gender budgeting and non-gender budgeting countries regarding spending on education or health as a share of GDP.
  - Examples cited:
    - Non-gender budgeters spend more on education in the Western Hemisphere.
    - Non-gender budgeters spend more on health in Africa, Asia and Pacific, and Western Hemisphere.
    - Gender budgeters spend more on education and health in Europe.
    - Africa’s other gender budgeting countries spend more on education.

### Notes and caveats
- Converting mainly qualitative information to the data template leaves room for differences in interpretation.
- “Lead player” does not necessarily imply that the ministry of finance was a catalyst or involved from the beginning; it indicates that the ministry of finance assumed a lead role at some point.
- PEFA: The PEFA framework consists of 28 indicators scored A–D, converted to numerical scores (4,3,2,1) with “+” given 0.5 point; on a global basis, the lowest score is 1.1 and highest score is 3.6.
- GDI: The GDI is an index of gender equality generally ranging from 0-1, with higher numbers signifying more equality.
- Data sources for Table A4 include: IMF, World Economic Outlook (2016); World Bank, World Development Indicators database, Women, Business and the Law (2015); Stotsky et al. (2016); and IMF staff calculations.

*Source: Appendix A, “Methodological Approach to the Regional Surveys and Summary Statistics” (IMF staff compilation).*

### Appendix B: Fiscal Incidence Using Data Disaggregated by Sex

### Appendix B: Fiscal Incidence Using Data Disaggregated by Sex

### Education: demand, supply, and externalities
- Demand for education reflects price, income, and taste or culture variables; price includes direct monetary costs and opportunity cost of time.
- Direct monetary costs may be the same or differ by sex (for example, costs of uniforms or materials).
- Opportunity costs of time generally differ between males and females, especially when children perform household or care tasks.
- Direct costs of education vary with the country’s ability to fund public education; in the poorest countries even modest monetary costs can discourage schooling.
- Parents may prioritize sons for economic reasons (sons expected to provide old age security).
- Credit constraints and aversion to borrowing can reduce parental investment in children’s education (Schultz, 1995).
- Women tend to have a stronger preference than men for spending on goods and services that contribute to children’s human capital, including education, food, and health care (Blumberg, 1988; Thomas, 1997; World Bank, 2001; Quisumbing, 2003).
- Price and income elasticities of demand may vary by household decision-making process and by sex of children.
- Supply of education reflects availability of schools, teachers, and facilities; private alternatives are usually affordable only to higher income households.
- External benefits from educating females include better health and nutrition, reduced child mortality, reduced fertility, and social diffusion of knowledge via gendered networks (Glewwe, 1999; Christiaensen and Alderman, 2004; Weir and Knight, 2004).
- Schultz (2002) concludes there is “mounting empirical evidence from around the world that the social returns to the years of schooling of females are greater than the returns to males....”
- Klasen and Lamanna (2009) find addressing inequality in female education is beneficial to national growth.
- External benefits are hard to quantify but justify public policies (taxes, subsidies, regulations) to reduce gender inequalities.

### Health and nutrition
- Gender inequalities in health investments are harder to measure due to biological differences and differing needs (for example, women in childbearing years generally require more health care).
- Schultz (1995) notes significant advances in female longevity relative to male longevity in the twentieth century in most countries, reflecting reduced inequalities in health care access.
- Gender inequalities in health persist in some countries; India is highlighted where ratios of under-5 mortality for girls relative to boys remain well above international norms (Stotsky et al., 2016).
- Benefits of female education on child health are evidenced in the literature (Glewwe, 1999; Christiaensen and Alderman, 2004).

### Evidence from empirical studies (education, health, and infrastructure)
- Demery et al. (1995) (Ghana): use discrete choice modeling and Ghana Living Standards Surveys; find marked gender inequalities in education spending with girls receiving less benefit; for outpatient services an even split by sex; for inpatient care females receive less than half total share in the lowest quintile and more than half in other quintiles.
- Filmer (1999): analyzes gender differences in school enrollment using data from 41 countries in the 1990s; finds gender inequalities and income inequalities in school enrollment, with gender inequalities generally greater for the poor than the rich; in no country were gender inequalities greater for the rich than the poor; similar patterns for under-five mortality where females enjoy a natural advantage, though in about two-thirds of countries the female advantage is smaller for the poor than the rich.
- Sahn and Younger (2000): examine cumulative shares for eight African countries; find for primary education in only one country do aggregate benefits differ significantly by sex, implying gender inequality but relatively constant across the expenditure distribution.
- Glick, Saha, and Younger (2004): analyze nine countries across regions; break down data by quintiles and by gender (45 comparisons); majority of comparisons for primary education show a gap favoring boys, rising slightly over the second period; largest gaps in Ghana, Pakistan, and Uganda; secondary education results similar; public medical visits show gender gap favoring women in every country and virtually every quintile; no gender gap for people outside childbearing years; public vaccinations show no gender gap.
- Demery and Gaddis (2009) (Kenya): find per capita spending on education favors boys at all levels—primary, secondary, and tertiary; primary spending is progressive measured against income, while secondary and tertiary spending is regressive; marginal benefits show primary spending has higher marginal benefit for low-income girls; for health care women and girls benefit more than men and boys but higher-income females receive more benefit than lower-income households; primary healthcare spending has a higher marginal incidence for poor females.
- Austen, Costa, Sharp, and Elson (2013) (Timor-Leste): public education spending benefits boys more than girls at each education level; rural students disadvantaged relative to urban; mother’s education is a key determinant of greater school attendance.
- Aggregate implication: higher marginal spending incidence for poor females suggests targeting primary education and primary healthcare to lower-income households is effective for closing gender and income gaps (see Clements, de Mooij, Gupta, and Keen (2015) for a similar conclusion).
- Overall research summary: educational inequalities between boys and girls exist and are more pronounced at higher education levels, for poorer families, and in poorer countries; greatest inequalities in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia; health inequalities exist in some areas (especially for poorer households and poorer countries) but are less evident for components like vaccinations; trend toward reduction of inequalities is uneven; more research is needed.

### Infrastructure, time use, and rural services
- Government infrastructure services are often jointly consumed in the home, yet differential incidence can be assessed because of gender-differentiated roles and time use.
- In many developing countries women and girls fetch water; provision of household water services benefits them both through service use and time savings.
- Sahn and Younger (2000) find significant gender gaps in time spent collecting water in Madagascar and Uganda.
- Mogues, Petracco, and Randriamamonjy (2011) (Ethiopia): agricultural extension services skewed in favor of men; public works component of the Food Security Program favors male-headed households; direct support component favors female-headed households; for drinking water female-headed households have more access to safe water and travel further to access safe water.
- Mogues (2013) finds a similar bias in agricultural extension services benefiting men.
- Policy implication: properly targeted and structured public spending can reduce gender inequalities in education, health, water, and other infrastructure and services; studies highlight importance of incidence disaggregated by sex and by type of government spending and income.
- Recent research on infrastructure incidence merits further investigation as poorest countries ramp up spending to address critical infrastructure gaps.

### Tax policies and gender incidence
- Tax incidence analysis for gender parallels expenditure analysis but focuses on tax and revenue policies (including fees and tariffs); many inherent gender biases exist—explicit and implicit (Stotsky, 1997).
- Taxes categorized as direct (income- or wealth-based) or indirect (sales-based).
- Empirical work sometimes incorporates combined or general equilibrium effects of taxes and social benefit systems, especially in advanced economies; recent work uses life cycle frameworks including human capital (Keane, 2011).
- Explicit gender discrimination in personal income tax can appear via rules on allocation of shared income, exemptions, deductions, tax rates, and legal responsibilities for paying tax.
- Implicit gender bias arises from increasing marginal tax rates discouraging secondary workers (Feenberg and Rosen, 1995; Blanchard, Jaumotte, and Loungani, 2014).
- Indirect taxes may produce implicit gender biases via differential application or rates across commodities; differential taxation of necessities or products predominantly purchased by women creates implicit bias; tariffs and trade tax bases can also embed biases.
- Grown and Valodia (2010): case studies across eight advanced and developing countries apply consistent methodology to direct and indirect tax incidence by gender; personal income tax based on individual filing lends itself to gender breakdowns; explicit discrimination has become less common with reforms.
- Budlender, Casale, and Valodia (2010) (South Africa): post-1994 reforms addressed explicit discrimination against women in taxes and other budget areas.
- Examples of country-specific findings:
  - India: at one time personal income tax had provisions favoring women, but a tiny fraction of workers pay income tax because threshold is high relative to typical income (Chakraborty et al., 2010).
  - Argentina: components of income more typically earned by women face a higher effective rate than those where men predominate (Rodriguez Enriquez, Gherardi, and Rossignolo, 2010).
  - Some African tax systems: implicit bias tends to be against men because most income tax derives from wage income and men earn higher incomes facing higher effective rates under progressive schedules.
- Indirect taxes (value-added tax and excises): incidence varies with household gender type definition and with rate structures (single rate vs reduced rates for necessities); many indirect tax systems implicitly bias against men due to high taxes on goods favored by men (alcohol, tobacco), though these may be demerit taxes.
- Perez Fragoso and Cota Gonzalez (2010): Mexican indirect taxation falls more heavily on male-headed households.
- Tariff liberalization studies:
  - Daniels and the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (2005) (South Africa): male-headed households almost always bear greater share of tariff incidence (greater consumption of highly taxed goods like alcohol).
  - Siddiqui (2009) (Pakistan): revenue-neutral grade liberalization increases women’s employment in unskilled jobs and increases women’s real wage income more than men’s for all labor types but maintains division of labor biased against women; poorest-household women face adverse effects—more work and relative poverty; richest-household women face gender neutral or favored results.
- Figari, Immervoll, Levy, and Sutherland (2011): examine tax and benefit systems in nine EU countries; combine analysis of personal income taxes, social security contributions, and cash transfers on within-couple net income shares by gender; extent of within-couple income equalization varies: Finland, United Kingdom, and Austria achieve most equalization; Greece and Italy the least.
- Browne (2011) (United Kingdom): analyzes tax and benefit reforms by gender at household level; finds proposed reforms in 2010 phased in through 2014-15 would cause a larger loss for households with a single adult female than single adult male, among other observations.

### User fees and gender implications
- User fees are important revenue components, especially at local levels in developing countries.
- Assess whether fee structures create disparate impacts on women; fees can strengthen revenue systems and efficiency but may reduce access to essential services such as primary education and health care.
- User fees can be personalized (charging different people different amounts).
- Nanda (2002) (Africa): user fees discourage women’s utilization of health services.
- Hillman and Jenkner (2004): school fees may sometimes increase access by augmenting government capacity to provide schools and improve quality; fees may enhance parental control over finances to schools relative to general taxes.

*Source: Appendix B: Fiscal Incidence Using Data Disaggregated by Sex*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/pubs/ft/wp/2016/_wp16149.pdf_