Has gender budget brought real change in women’s lives?

Since fiscal year 2009-10, Bangladesh has been preparing a gender budget to empower women, establish their rights and highlight the impact of government spending on women's advancement.

The allocation has been increasing every year but experts emphasise that without proper monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, the actual impact of the budget for bettering women's lives remains unclear.

They suggest that the government should assess, through yearly public reports, how the gender budget allocations by ministries and departments correspond with women's empowerment goals and the National Women's Development Policy 2011.

Moreover, they stressed the need for both quantitative and qualitative analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies for women's empowerment in meeting gender needs and monitoring progress.

In FY10, Tk 27,248 crore (24.65 percent of the budget and 3.95 percent of GDP) was allocated for women's development across four ministries from a total budget of Tk 110,523 crore.

By FY24, the national budget had expanded to Tk 761,785 crore across 44 ministries, with three thematic groups, earmarking Tk 261,787 crore (34.37 percent of the budget and 5.23 percent of GDP) for gender-specific initiatives.

"This is a very positive sign," said Dr Sharmind Neelormi, a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University and a prominent advocate on the issue.

However, she highlighted the significance of having sex-disaggregated data for budget expenditure.

"Such data would help specify the extent and areas where we are lagging and identify barriers. With this data, we could assess whether the gender budget is effectively reducing gender inequality," she said.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) could use this data without incurring additional expenses, helping the government develop targeted programmes based on insights, she said.

"To address this information gap, the BBS can provide guidelines to ministries to provide these data and information," she added.

Additionally, Neelormi stressed the importance of including qualitative data alongside numerical figures to align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"When presenting this year's budget, it should highlight each ministry's achievements using gender budget allocations in line with the SDG indicators. A clear logical framework is essential to show spending and development results," she said.

The finance ministry provides 16 criteria for each ministry to evaluate how gender-sensitive or relevant projects and programmes undertaken by the ministry/division are for women's development. The operating budget is also analysed by considering the proportion of female workers.

The gender budget is then calculated by the finance ministry using the Recurrent, Capital, Gender and Poverty (RCGP) model based on these assessments.

However, experts highlighted a lack of proper planning during the formulation of the gender budget.

"If we analyse the allocations by ministries, we find that ministries which allocate a relatively larger fraction of the budget directly for gender-sensitive projects are relatively smaller in terms of budgetary allocations," said Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha, a professor of economics at the University of Dhaka.

"So, the proportion of the pie is already smaller for women," she added.

For example, according to the finance ministry's gender budget report for FY24, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, which has the most gender-related projects with 69 percent allocated for women, received Tk 4,755 crore. This amounts to only 0.6 percent of the total budget.

On the other hand, gender sensitivity was not closely related to many projects and programmes funded by the gender budget.

"But we must consider how sensitively we are addressing these issues. It's crucial to understand that the gender budget isn't simply about allocating funds for women, rather it is a method of assessing and incorporating a gendered analysis in the budgeting process," she said.

Bidisha also pointed out the lesser representation of women in high-salaried positions within ministries and the concerns regarding the capacity of gender focal points of the ministries.

She suggested that allocations targeted towards core issues like child marriage and violence against women are essential, considering the current situation.

Shahnaz Sumi, deputy director of Bangladesh Nari Pragati Sangha, emphasised that the "analysis of every year's gender budget also reflects that we should focus more on decreasing the operating cost and increasing the development cost".

She also recommended that officials in each ministry should take measures to improve the conceptual clarity, planning, and implementation of gender budgeting.

"Information about the gender budget focal points in various ministries should be available on the respective ministries' websites, including that of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA). As the lead ministry, the MoWCA should have arrangements to enhance conceptual and monitoring capacities related to gender budgeting," she said.

Additionally, services for women victims of violence should be increased, particularly by providing legal assistance, building shelter homes, and offering proper training.

Besides, recent budgets have claimed to provide large loan facilities to women, but these loans require collateral.

"But how can a woman without inherited property mortgage assets she doesn't have? So, it is crucial to introduce rules for providing loans to women without requiring collateral and to establish equal rights for women in inheritance law," Sumi added.

In a report released last December, International Monetary Fund (IMF) underscored Bangladesh's potential to enhance the effectiveness of its gender budgeting efforts.

Key recommendations include integrating gender-responsive budgeting into the strategic phase of budget formulation and project planning and updating the RCGP model to track gender budget execution and ensuring database accessibility.

Additionally, the IMF suggested expanding the gender budget to revenue policies and mainstreaming gender considerations in fiscal policy, including at the local government level and addressing data gaps and capacity development across ministries and divisions, including the Finance Division.

Contacted, Dr Prakash Kanti Chowdhury, joint secretary of the MoWCA, expressed optimism about the increased budget allocation, anticipating expanded coverage and the launch of 16 nationwide projects to enhance women's welfare.

Regarding monitoring and evaluation, Chowdhury noted that the MoWCA partnered with UN Women to bolster gender-responsive budgeting.

"Two international experts from a Turkish university were tasked with producing a report on monitoring and evaluating gender budgeting initiatives using sex-disaggregated data. These experts have already engaged with focal points across various ministries, aiming to enhance the capacity of gender focal points in preparing sex-disaggregated data," he said.