India faces challenges with its gender-responsive budgeting: UN Report

Bangkok, Nov 20 (PTI) India struggles with limited effectiveness of its Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) due to the exclusion of key programmes that benefit women and lack of sex-disaggregated data, said a new report launched at the UN Ministerial Conference on Women Empowerment here.

The report which analysed how countries in the region are placed compared to the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) adopted in Beijing 30 years back noted the adoption of gender-responsive budgeting by Asia-Pacific countries like India demonstrates their strong commitment to ensuring the efficient allocation of resources based on the identified needs of women and girls, but there are challenges.

"India, for instance, struggles with the limited effectiveness of its GRB due to the exclusion of key programmes that benefit women and the lack of sex-disaggregated data," said the report titled "Charting New Paths for Gender Equality and Empowerment: Asia-Pacific Regional Report on Beijing + 30 Review".

"Therefore, it is advisable that the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Finance continue to make concerted efforts to address gaps in the design and use of the Gender Budget Statement and establish stronger monitoring mechanisms to enhance the quality of GRB efforts at the sectoral level," it added.

Integrating GRB considerations during the budget prioritisation phase; and encouraging subnational governments to adopt GRB practices, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the participation of the most vulnerable groups of women in planning and budgeting processes, are among the other suggestions made for India in the report.

The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+30 Review began here on Tuesday, bringing together over 1,200 delegates from governments, civil society and youth groups, the private sector and academia to discuss progress and priority actions to support gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Jointly organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and UN-Women, the three-day conference in Bangkok is being held ahead of next year's 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted by countries across the world in 1995 as a framework for advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

The Indian government in its statement at the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference of the Beijing+30 Review said that there has been a 218 per cent decadal increase in gender budgeting in the country.

The report noted that besides India, the Philippines acknowledged the importance of integrating a gender perspective into the public financial management system in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.

"The Philippines faces obstacles in GRB implementation, such as uneven capacities among Gender and Development focal points, inadequate tracking of expenditures and underutilisation of the Gender and Development budget by key agencies and local leaders. A way forward should be to continue developing the capacities of focal points and government officials, as well as cultivating champions and potential successors," he said. PTI