BELGIUM – Looking Beyond Our Nose!

Interview with Dr. Saskia Ravesloot, BTC, Belgian Development Agency, Brussels

Your activities and experiences with Gender Budgeting and G(R)B model

 

What made you get active in Gender Budgeting? What are your present activities?

 

In October 2001, I was a researcher at the Centre for Women’s Studies of the Antwerp University. While working on a gender mainstreaming project for the Belgian Government, I participated in one of the first large-scale High Level International Conferences on Gender Budgeting Initiatives (Strengthening Economic and Financial Governance), which was organised in Brussels. This inspiring conference gave me the opportunity to get acquainted with concepts and tools of gender budgeting, to meet key authors like Diana Elson, Guy Hewitt and Rhonda Sharp and to learn from experiences in the field as for example, in Tanzania and Uganda. In this regard UNIFEM/Karen Judd’s paper on Gender Budgeting Initiatives shall be recommended for further reading.

From then on, I have seen gender budgeting as the key for success when the aim was to integrate gender in whatever strategy, policy or process.

As a member of the OECD/DAC Gendernet I am currently contributing to the reflections on minimum standards for the Gender Marker. The final output of this informal working group on the DAC gender equality policy marker aims at developing new guidelines for improving the application of the Gender Marker in a more coherent manner among OECD/DAC member states.

Could you please summarise your experiences with Gender Budgeting…

Continue Reading BELGIUM – Looking Beyond Our Nose!

Gender Budgeting in the Work of the European Parliament and the EU Budget – Current practice or Grey Theory?

“Europe will not be made all at once,
or according to a single plan. …
It will be built through concrete achievements
which first create a de facto solidarity
.

Robert Schuman

You are looking for more detailed information. Find the full German version of this article here.  You might use Google Translate in order to to grasp the most essential information in English.

The aim of creating an economic power and everlasting peace in Europe is at the heart of the European project. Starting from this, it has developed into a community of common values: The principle of equality of women and men is an integral part of these values and has been enshrined in primary law. As a matter of fact one might find it worthwhile to ask if equality is also being pushed in the institutional set-up that constitutes the EU. Do EU organs and institutions fully embrace Gender Budgeting? An analysis of the following documents is to shed light on questions like this:

  1. The current resolution on Gender Mainstreaming in the work of the European Parliament from 2016;
  2. The European Parliament resolution of 9 June 2015 on the EU Strategy for equality between women and men post 2015;
  3. The study entitled “The EU Budget for Gender Equality“, which was released in 2015.

They prove that Gender Budgeting ranks on the EU agenda, yet that the road towards it has been a rocky one.Continue Reading Gender Budgeting in the Work of the European Parliament and the EU Budget – Current practice or Grey Theory?

Report on Outcome-Oriented Impact Assessments 2015

Beitragsbild WFA-Bericht ist da

 

31/05/2016: This day marked the date when the third report on the outcome-oriented impact assessment (WFA Bericht) was submitted to the National Council . The report is a summary of the results of the internal evaluations carried out by the ministries and other supreme organs. It is compiled by the Federal Performance Management Office, which is part of the Federal Chancellery. The report includes evaluations of 48 projects, which were carried out by the respective budgetary bodies. The following six projects were deemed to have had a significant impact on the dimension of “Equality of women and men”:

  • Contract by the labour market service (Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection)
  • Procurement of vaccines for the public pediatric vaccination concept (Federal Ministry of Health)
  • Promoting career opportunities of women in the workplace through advice, education and training” (Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection)
  • Promotion of vocational tertiary education (Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy)
  • Non-profit staff leasing (Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection)
  • “Drahtwurm” project categorised as a de minimis subsidy (Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water)

The entire report is available at the website of the federal administration and  www.wirkungsmonitoring.gv.at.

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