Abstract 
of the speech at the conference on "Gender Budgets, Financial Markets, Financing for Development", February 19th and 20th 2002 at the Heinrich-Boell Foundation in Berlin.

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"Most governments have expressed a commitment to gender equality objectives and to gender mainstreaming, but often there is a gap between policy statements and the ways in which governments raise and spend money. Most governments have also expressed commitments to greater transparency and accountability, but there is often a gap between participation and consultation in the formulation of new policies and legislation and in the allocation of resources.

Gender responsive budget initiatives can help to close these gaps, ensuring that public money is raised and spent more effectively. They can help to ensure the realisation of gender equality goals and improved compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. They can help promote greater accountability for public resources to the people of a country, especially to women, who are generally more marginalised than men in decision-making about public money.

What is a Gender Responsive Budget Initiative?
A gender responsive budget initiative does not aim to produce a separate budget for women. Instead it aims to analyse any form of public expenditure, or method of raising public money, from a gender perspective, identifying the implications and impacts for women and girls as compared to men and boys. The key question is: what impact does this fiscal measure have on gender equality? Does it reduce gender inequality; increase it; or leave it unchanged?

The focus on gender inequality can be structured so as to take account of other forms of inequality, such as class, race and region. The key question might be reformulated, for example, as: does this fiscal measure improve, worsen, or leave unchanged, the position of the most disadvantaged women?"

Aktualisiert: 13.02.2005, hbr