Gender Responsive Budgeting

Gender Responsive Budgeting

Workshop for Senior Government Officials

Majuro, RMIMarch 10-11, 2003

Opening Address

Minister of FinanceHon. Brenson Wase

Introductions and gender quiz

Please say your name and what your work is.

Gender quiz

Gender words and men & women’s roles in the RMI

1. What does the list of Marshallese words say about men and women’s traditional roles?

2. How have these traditional gender roles changed for men and women?

3. Why do you think (or why don’t you think) that men and women’s roles have changed from their traditional meanings?

Gender words and men & women’s roles in the RMI: Feminine Words

Jined ilo Kobo

Kora Menunaak

Kora im Ankil

Gender words and men & women’s roles in the RMI: Masculine Words

Ekkwikwi Jin-en Emaan

Mommaan Keimokraan

Mommaan Maronron

Objectives of this workshop

This workshop will provide: An overview of the project goals An outline of the RMI project proposal An understanding of the use of gender

impact assessments using a case study of teen pregnancy in the RMI

An understanding of cross ministry gender and budgetary issues

Establish the next steps in the project for the Ministry teams

Integrating a gender perspective into public expenditure management in the Pacific

Project Summary

Gender responsive budget pilot project in RMI

ADB RETA: training and capacity building in public expenditure management

Coordinated by the Ministry of Finance

5 pilot ministries

Why Gender? Budgets and programmes ultimately impact on

people but these impacts differ according our gender, age, wealth, where we live, etc

Men and women have different roles and different economic and social positions in the RMI (see statistics on project website) so Ministry programmes and their funding tend to impact differently on men and women.

It is important to know the gender impacts of programmes and budgets for Ministries to carry out their work fairly, efficiently and effectively.

International context of project Economic reforms in RMI and the Pacific

have had social impacts which need to be redressed

The need to integrate social programmes and planning with budgeting to achieve the country’s social and economic goals

Growth in gender responsive budgets internationally as a good governance strategy (transparency, accountability, participation)

What’s been done in the project so far

Timeline RMI September 2002-February 2003

March 2003-July/August 2003?

Project goals: What are we trying to achieve?

This project has 3 core goals and involves a series of activities to further these goals

Goals are

a) interdependent

b) hierachial

RaiseAwareness

Promote Transparency andAccountability

ChangeBudgets

RaiseAwareness

Promote transparenc

y andaccountabili

ty

Change Policies

and Budgets

Raiseawareness of the gender issues of

budgets and programs

Promote transparency

and accountability of the gender

impacts of government

budgets

Change/adjust programs

and budgets to promote

gender equality

Goals of Gender Responsive Budgets

Filling in the circles with a range of activities

A variety of tasks are undertaken to achieve the 3 goals of a gender responsive budget

Awareness raising activities

Exercises in understanding how gender is socially constructed (eg identifying what men and women in ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t do’ in the RMI)

Marie Maddison’s presentation ‘Men and women in the RMI’ that showed the role of language in understanding gender in the RMI, changes in gender roles change over time and the influence of many factors

Presentation by RMI Statistician of gender disaggregated Census data

Framework presented in the first workshop for understanding the direct and indirect gender impacts of government expenditure

Audit exercise- ministry teams identified their activities/programs that directly and indirectly impacted on men and women and different groups of men and women

Project website Capacity building with NGO’s/WUTMI

Awareness raising activities

Transparency and accountability activities Coordination of the pilot project by the Ministry

of Finance Linking gender issues to national priorities in

Vision 2018 Public awareness raising on teen pregnancy

(radio programmes) Undertaking research and providing reports on

teen pregnancy Capacity building in budgeting and gender

issues of ministries and WUTMI

Changing budgets and programmes activities Develop new programme proposals and

budgets? Re-design existing programmes and

identify resource reallocations? Identify cross ministry issues and

implement solutions? Improve the links between planning (Vision

2018, Women’s Policy) and budgeting? Develop budget advocacy capacity of

NGOs?

The RMI Proposal

Panel presentation by Ann Marie Muller, Marie Maddison, Ione deBrum and Erma Myazoe

Discussion

Teen Pregnancy in the RMI

A Research report by the Ministry of Health

and EnvironmentJonathan Santos

Teen Pregnancy in the RMI

A research report by Emi Chutaro

Youth to Youth in Health

Activity 1: Unpacking the consequences of teen pregnancy in the RMI

What are the impacts of teen pregnancy in the RMI? Think about this question in terms of: consequences for teen parents consequences for the families of teen

parents consequences for RMI society and

economy

Activity 2: Defining and responding to the problem

Consider why teen pregnancy is seen as a problem in the RMI, and by whom.

Identify programs/activities from your Ministry that impact directly or indirectly on the issue of teen pregnancy

Stories of Teen Pregnancy Programmes

Please refer to the handout.