Gender budgeting

On 14 July 2016, the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region approved the decree to introduce a method for integrating gender budgeting into the budget cycle. This decree is the result of a productive collaboration between the Department of Equal Opportunity, the Department of Budget, Management Control and Budget inspection and their respective competent cabinets.

Gender budgeting is an application of gender mainstreaming in the budget process. It aims at a gender analysis of the budget, integrating a gender perspective at all levels of the budget cycle and restructuring revenue and expenditure to promote gender equality. 

Gender budgeting has many advantages. It is, of course, a tool for achieving greater equality between women and men. Furthermore, since a budget is a transversal instrument, it is an ideal way to involve all administrations and institutions in the formulation of gender-sensitive policies.

In addition, gender budgeting also ensures a more effective and efficient use of public resources since the analysis also looks at the results of the policy. This can lead to the detection of inefficient revenues and expenditures and ultimately to an improvement in public revenues and expenditures.

Finally, gender budgeting increases budget transparency. In this way, the analysis provides a better picture of the beneficiaries of the financial resources. In addition, it is also a control mechanism that allows for a better overview of public revenue and expenditure.

Recently, the Department of Budget, Management Control and Budget inspection also participated in a colloquium organised by the International Labour Organization, an agency of the U.N., on gender budgeting. As a speaker at this event, we were able to share the experiences of the Brussels-Capital Region with partners from different countries.