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used in planning and managing general budget support (GBS) and programs
with SWAps. The 50th session of the UN Commission on Status of Women
adopted "Financing of Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women” as its
priority theme for 2008. Nepal is obligated to include fi nancing informa� on
in its report to the global body and Nepal has introduced GRB since the FY
2007/08.
Gender Budget Audit (GBA) relates to examina� on of the budgetary
and taxa� on policies, expenditure pa� erns, budgetary processes and
mechanisms through a gender lens. Gender Responsive Budge� ng (GRB)
involves ensuring that all these budgetary policies, ac� vi� es and processes
1) do not impact adversely on women; 2) take into account women’s interest;
3) involve women in planning and implementa� on of budgets and that; 4)
adequate resources are allocated for ensuring gender equality goals. GRB is
not about formula� ng a separate budget for women.
Gender Responsive Budget (GRB) exercises are expected to: 1) hold
governments accountable for their commitments to gender equality and
women’s rights, and (2) ensure that progress on gender mainstreaming in the
development programs is monitored as part of the regular annual budge� ng
process. One of the major defi ciencies in gender mainstreaming eff orts in
Nepal has been lack of monitoring mechanisms and regular monitoring on
gender aspects of development programs (UNFPA, 2007) .
Nepal began Gender Responsive Budge� ng (GRB) exercises from
fi scal year 2007/08. This was preceded by a series of gender and gender
budget audits (GBA) of several sectors. Therea� er a new system of budget
classifi ca� on was introduced, which in principle applies throughout the
government, star� ng with specifi c focus on 13 ministries.
The GRB concept emerged from women's experience in the 1980s and
1990s, when the resources for social programs were cut widely following
the policy dictates of the Washington Consensus (Folbre, 2001). At about
this � me there was emerging consensus that slow progress for women was
in part due to lack of resources for gender equality programs. The Beijing
Pla� orm for Ac� on (BPfA) (1995) advocated intensifi ca� on of gender
mainstreaming eff orts with par� cular emphasis on government budgets. But
change was slow. Reviews of the Beijing Pla� orm (UNIFEM, 2002 and 2005)
showed that commitments to gender equality – including the BPfA, CEDAW
and UN Security Council Resolu� on 1325 – were not matched fi nancially by
either na� onal budgets or offi cial development assistance (UNIFEM, 2002
and 2005). A study by the Associa� on of Women's Rights in Development
(2005) showed that only 0.6 percent of foreign aid had gender equality as
its major objec� ve.
Under Nepal’s GRB guidelines, each proposed program has to be scored
in accordance with indicators developed by the Gender Responsive Budget
Commi� ee (GRBC) which is led by the Ministry of Finance. These indicators
of the gender sensi� vity of diff erent ac� vi� es/expenditure lines are: 1)
par� cipa� on in decision making roles and programme planning, 2) capacity
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Changing paradigms of aid eff ec� veness in Nepal