Royal Government of Bhutan, UN Women launch report on Gender Responsive Budgeting

Thimphu, Bhutan – The Royal Government of Bhutan and UN Women have launched a new report highlights measures to make Bhutan’s national planning and budgeting processes more gender responsive.

Senior representatives of the Royal Government of Bhutan launched the report Gender Responsive Budgeting in Bhutan: From analysis to action in Thimphu on 11 May 2016. Photo: UN Women

Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting in Bhutan: From Analysis to Action synthesises the findings from a gender budget analysis of three key sectors – agriculture, education and health. The analysis was also used to build the capacity of government functionaries to apply gender responsive budgeting in their budget policies and outcomes.

Supported by the Asian Development Bank, the report emphasises that gender responsive planning and budgeting is a pragmatic strategy to advance women’s rights. The ‘engendering’ of national plans, policies, institutions and budgets can translate commitments for women into concrete progress on gender equality.

The report recommends:

• Scrutinising planning and budgeting processes from a gender perspective;
• Ensuring gender sensitive planning at the Dzongkhag (district) and Gewog (block) levels;
• Building capacities of officials at all levels on gender responsive planning and budgeting;
• Developing gender specific measures in health, education and agriculture to address the existing gender gaps;
• Generating research and sex-disaggregated data to better inform planning and programming from a gender perspective;
• Increasing the representation of women in all sectors.

“The Royal Government of Bhutan is committed to addressing the issue of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Gender responsive planning and budgeting is a critical strategy endorsed by the government to ensure that gender concerns are identified and addressed in the planning and budgeting processes,” said Bhutan Finance Minister Lyonpo Namgay Dorji during the report launch.

“UN Women’s role is to assist governments in introducing measures for incorporating gender into their public finance management systems and building the capacity of government functionaries to analyse budget policies and outcomes through a gender lens,” said Patricia Barandun, Deputy Representative, UN Women Multi-Country Office for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

The full report is available at: Publication section