6. Gender budgeting in the Czech Republic
Gender budgeting is a key public governance tool that governments can use to encourage, identify and fund measures aimed at tackling gender gaps, and its use is increasing across the OECD. As the Czech Republic does not yet implement gender budgeting, this chapter assesses instead the adequacy of the current strategic framework for introducing it. It also considers potential implementation tools and the general enabling environment for facilitating the adoption of gender budgeting in the country. It concludes with a series of policy recommendations for the government of the Czech Republic for the short, medium and longer term aiming to pave the way for a staged approach to the introduction of effective and sustainable gender budgeting practices.
Governments increasingly recognise that the budget process is a powerful tool for delivering on national policy goals. Given the power of the purse, as it were, dealing with horizontal policy objectives such as gender equality as part of the budget process offers an opportunity to influence government-wide policymaking and deliver outcomes in a way that might not otherwise be feasible.
In this context, gender budgeting is increasingly introduced as an initiative to ensure that gender equality considerations are systematically taken into account in tax and spending decisions. Data for 2022 show that 61% of OECD countries now practice gender budgeting (Figure 6.1) compared with just 44% of OECD countries in 2016.
Several factors are thought to be driving the increased interest in gender budgeting over the last six years. These include the “#MeToo” social movement; increased recognition of the potential social, economic and fiscal gains that can be achieved through closing gender gaps (Nicol, 2022[2]); and a growing interest in how priority budgeting tools such as gender budgeting can be used to help achieve greater progress towards high-level goals.
The Czech Republic is one of 15 OECD countries that still do not implement gender budgeting. Indeed, some stakeholders point to active resistance to the idea of implementing gender budgeting, with the Ministry of Finance preferring a traditional approach to the budget.
Central budget authorities often have an inherent culture of conservatism that, while well suited to the rigours of sound fiscal management and delivery of the annual budget, is in tension with the requirements for deep-seated social change. However, the budget is the central policy document of the government. Given the central role that the budget plays in determining how resources are allocated to deliver outcomes, it is appropriate to consider cross-cutting priorities such as gender equality, which has important social and economic implications, as part of the budget process.
The OECD Recommendation on Budgetary Governance recognises the potential for modern budgeting to move beyond a traditional technocratic exercise, stating that it can help show “how annual and multi-annual objectives will be prioritised and achieved” (OECD, 2015[3]). Applying this in support of gender equality and also reconciling this modern role with the traditional priority of effective budgetary management is a key challenge of gender budgeting.
Fear that gender budgeting will mean that more has to be spent on gender equality can drive resistance to gender budgeting. Yet, in practice, gender budgeting is not a separate budget for policies for women. Rather, gender budgeting aims to incorporate gender equality concerns in the decision-making process by:
raising awareness that many budget proposals have implications for gender equality (whether or not their primary objective is gender-related)
encouraging the tabling of gender-sensitive budget proposals
using the budget process to ensure there is adequate resource allocation for pursuing national gender equality goals.
There are significant potential economic and fiscal gains that can be achieved by ensuring budget policy is more effective at closing gender gaps. For example, greater gender equality in the labour market offers the opportunity to increase employment and productivity. Increasing employment and income brings additional tax revenue and social security contributions. It can also reduce demand for public finance transfers and welfare benefits. Together, these impacts help improve the outlook for fiscal sustainability.
In addition to the economic and fiscal case for closing gender gaps, other benefits of gender budgeting include an improved evidence base upon which resource allocation decisions can be made and greater transparency on the impact of budget policy.
A 2019 article for the OECD Journal on Budgeting sets out a framework for designing and implementing an effective and enduring gender budgeting practice. The framework includes the following elements:
Strategic framework - the political commitment and governance arrangements for gender budgeting, including the legal framework, institutional roles and responsibilities and national gender equality goals.
Implementation tools – the tools that are used to apply a “gender lens” at various stages of the budget process – ex ante, concurrent and ex post.
Enabling environment - the supportive elements which help ensure a more effective gender budgeting practice, including gender-disaggregated data, capacity building and parliamentary oversight (Downes and Nicol, 2020[4]).
This chapter reviews information related to the adequacy of each of these elements as it concerns the introduction of gender budgeting in the Czech Republic.
The strategic framework for gender budgeting outlines why it exists, what it aims to achieve and how it is implemented. In assessing the adequacy of the current strategic framework for the introduction of gender budgeting in the Czech Republic, this section looks at the extent to which gender budgeting would be underpinned by clear national gender equality objectives, political commitment and legal foundations, and strong institutional arrangements.
6.2.1. Objectives in the Czech Republic’s gender equality strategy could guide gender budgeting
It is important that gender budgeting is guided by clear gender equality objectives. These provide clarity on what gender budgeting is aiming to achieve and help decision makers ensure that budgetary policy is supporting overarching government objectives. Just over half of OECD countries that implement gender budgeting (52%) have a national gender equality strategy or national gender equality goals to guide gender budgeting efforts (OECD, forthcoming[1]).
In the Czech Republic, national gender equality objectives are set out in the 2021-30 Gender Equality Strategy (Strategy 2021+). The 26 objectives span eight key thematic areas (see Box 3.3 in Chapter 3). For each objective, there are indicators to help assess progress, measures to support implementation, and timelines. The institution responsible for the implementation of each objective is also identified, alongside any co-operating entities.
The Strategy 2021+ and the objectives set out within it would provide a solid foundation for the introduction of gender budgeting in the Czech Republic. Implementing gender budgeting can help guide decision making on the national priorities that gender equality policy should help achieve; it is also in line with OECD best practice.
6.2.2. Strategy 2021+ cites gender budgeting as a strategic objective, mandating its introduction
Political, legal and societal support for gender budgeting ensures that the practice is both viable and sustainable. In almost two-thirds of OECD countries that implement gender budgeting (61%), it is underpinned by legal foundations (OECD, forthcoming[1]).
A key challenge in the Czech Republic is the common perception that gender equality is not a political priority. There is no mention of either gender equality or gender budgeting in the Policy Statement of the Government of the Czech Republic (Government of the Czech Republic, 2022[5]). Nor is there a legal underpinning for gender budgeting in the Czech Republic. However, as noted in Chapter 4, there are structures within the government that exist to support gender equality policy. These include the Government Commissioner for Human Rights and the Government Council for Gender Equality, comprised of state secretaries.
Importantly, Strategy 2021+ includes a strategic objective relating to gender budgeting. Specifically, under Strategic Objective 3 for “sufficient, effective and transparent funding of the agenda” (OECD, forthcoming[1]), the following measures are envisaged:
Conduct an analysis of the state budget in relation to gender equality and the possibility of applying the principle of gender budgeting (between January 2023 and December 2024).
Support the exchange of foreign good practices in the field of gender budgeting (between January 2021 and December 2030).
While Strategy 2021+ was formulated under the previous Czech government, the current government still has responsibility for its implementation.
Overall, although political support for gender equality and gender budgeting could be more prominent, the measures set out in the strategy do provide a mandate for the introduction of gender budgeting in the Czech Republic. The timeline of Strategy 2021+ (until 2030) also provides some policy stability in the medium term.
6.2.3. The Ministry of Finance should have the lead role in implementing gender budgeting
The central budget authority leads the implementation of gender budgeting in most OECD countries (Figure 6.2). It is best placed to design an approach to gender budgeting that builds on the strengths of the existing budget process. Where the central budget authority does not lead on gender budgeting, there is a risk that this authority is not bought into the initiative, and thus implementation is weak in practice.
The Gender Equality Department is identified as the stakeholder in the Czech Republic with lead responsibility in relation to the gender budgeting measures in Strategy 2021+, with the Ministry of Finance having a co-operating role.1
While the Gender Equality Department has significant expertise in the area of gender equality, it does not have expertise in relation to budgeting, and its limited resources are already spread very thin. At the next revision of Strategy 2021+, planned for 2023, the Ministry of Finance should be given the lead role in implementing the measures relating to gender budgeting. This would align with good practice across the OECD countries and ensure that the Czech Republic is in a stronger position for the introduction of gender budgeting.
Gender budgeting tools can be used to systematically embed gender considerations within the overall context of the planning and budgeting process. Across OECD countries, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to gender budgeting. Instead, countries select gender budgeting tools that build on the strengths of their existing budget framework. Some of the most common tools include requiring gender information to accompany budget proposals, including a gender dimension in a performance setting, gender budget tagging, gender impact assessment (GIA), and distributional assessments of tax and welfare measures by gender (Figure 6.3).
The concept of gender budgeting was first introduced in the Czech Republic in 2004 when there was a strong political commitment to pursue gender equality goals. At the recommendation of the Committee for an Institutional Framework for Gender Equality, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Social Affairs (where the Gender Equality Office was located at the time) developed a gender budgeting methodology.2 Although the Ministry of Finance still sends the methodology to line ministries each year as part of the budget process, it is not implemented. There is thus an opportunity to revisit the gender budgeting methodology and redevelop the approach so that it is appropriate for the current budget process. This section looks at the gender budgeting tools that would be most appropriate to bring a gender lens to the current budget process in the Czech Republic.
In revisiting the methodology, there are a number of gender budgeting tools that could be considered for inclusion. These include gender budget tagging, gender impact assessments and a gender dimension in spending reviews.
6.3.1. The introduction of gender budget tagging as a tool could be considered
Budget tagging is a tool that can be used to help identify how budget measures contribute towards high-level objectives. It gives insight into the adequacy of policy action to advance these objectives and also helps identify policy action that is detrimental to progress. This information can be used internally to help support better budget decision making and externally to facilitate greater transparency and oversight.
In the Czech Republic, budget tagging is already in place in relation to certain cross-cutting priorities such as spending on the Roma population and green spending within the Resilience and Recovery Fund (post-pandemic European Union recovery funds). Both examples of budget tagging are undertaken in response to recommendations from the European Commission. The amount of the budget related to the Roma population is included in the supplementary information presented alongside the budget. Any changes to Roma-tagged budget lines cannot be made without the approval of the relevant parliamentary commission.
Gender could likewise be added as a cross-cutting area for budget tagging. At a basic level, budget items could be tagged according to their impact on gender equality. The OECD DAC gender marker is a commonly used tool for this purpose (Box 6.1).
The DAC gender equality policy marker is a type of gender budget tagging used to qualitatively track the financial flows that target gender equality. The three-point scoring system is as follows:
Principal (marked 2) means that gender equality is the main objective of the project or programme and is fundamental in its design and expected results. The project or programme would not have been undertaken without this objective.
Significant (marked 1) means that gender equality is an important and deliberate objective but not the principal reason for undertaking the project or programme, which is often explained as gender equality being mainstreamed in the project or programme.
Not targeted (marked 0) means that the project or programme has been screened against the gender marker but has not been found to target gender equality.
Source: OECD (2022[6]), DAC gender equality policy marker (webpage), https://www.oecd.org/dac/gender-development/dac-gender-equality-marker.htm (accessed in February 2023).
A more advanced system of gender budget tagging could tag budget items that help contribute to one of the 26 objectives set out in the Strategy 2021+. An example is the system of budget tagging in place in Colombia (Box 6.2).
Colombia undertakes gender budget tagging using what is called a budget tracer for women’s equity. Its purpose is to identify public funds being used to support women’s equity and can show how much of the budget is allocated to the promotion of gender equality across different areas and levels of the government.
In the first stage, the user identifies actions, programmes or policies that help support women’s equity. In the second stage, the user identifies the resources associated with the activities identified in the first stage and their source of financing. In the third and final stage, users identify the specific goal that these resources are targeted towards.
The budget tracer for women’s equity is the core gender budgeting tool in Colombia. There is a clear methodology in place, with good alignment between the categories in the tracer and the gender equality goals in the National Policy on Gender Equality.
Each year, the Budget Bill includes an annex with information from the budget tracer on spending targeted towards women’s equity. Overall, the use of the tracer has raised awareness across the government of actions that are being taken to help close gender gaps.
Source: OECD (forthcoming[7]), OECD Review of Gender Equality in Colombia.
Gender budget tagging helps sensitise policymakers on how different areas of the budget impact gender equality. It also strengthens transparency and accountability on financing for gender equality. However, it is important that gender tagging does not become an end in itself. The information gathered through tagging should be used in decision making to get full added value from the exercise. Gender budget tagging provides useful evidence for decision makers on the extent to which different areas of the budget prioritise gender equality. Box 6.3 describes how Canada uses budget tagging to inform resource allocation.
In 2018, Canada introduced a government-wide Gender Results Framework as a whole-of-government tool to measure progress in Canada in relation to gender equality and to help identify where the greatest gaps remain. Under this framework, the federal government has identified six key areas, where change is required to advance gender equality, portrayed in this illustration:
Each goal has several associated objectives and indicators. During the preparation of the budget, the Gender Results Framework provides a useful framework for policy discussion and helps guide ministerial decision making in relation to resource allocation.
Source: Government of Canada (2022[8]), Gender Results Framework (webpage), https://women-gender-equality.canada.ca/en/gender-results-framework.html (accessed in February 2023).
Budget tagging is most effective where programme budgeting – as opposed to line item budgeting – is in place. Line item budgets provide information on expenses but little information on what will be achieved with the money, e.g. staff costs. Where budgets are presented on a programme basis, budget information is presented according to its purpose, e.g. support for women and families fleeing violence. This makes it easier to identify the programme’s impact on gender equality. The budget in the Czech Republic is currently presented on a line-item basis. Over time, moving to a programme basis will support an improved understanding of how the budget intends to support outcomes, including gender equality, and make budget tagging much easier.
6.3.2. A requirement could be introduced for gender impact assessments to accompany new budget proposals
Several OECD countries use gender impact assessments as a central tool of gender budgeting, specifying that GIAs must accompany new budget proposals. These assessments provide useful insights on how different budget proposals could be used to help close gender gaps and facilitate the consideration of gender equality objectives in resource allocation. Examples of GIA as a tool for gender budgeting in OECD countries are shown in Box 6.4.
Sweden
The Swedish government introduced gender budgeting as a strategic tool in the budget process in 2014. The Ministry of Finance issues specific instructions on gender budgeting in its yearly budget circular. These instructions specify that an ex ante GIA is mandatory at the initial drafting stage of reforms and policy proposals. If a budget proposal is deemed to have a possible impact on gender equality, the GIA must be presented to the Ministry of Finance alongside the budget proposal. The budget circular also calls for a gender impact assessment when policy results are presented in the Budget Bill. Additionally, a GIA is required when the government presents a new policy to the parliament in the Budget Bill.
A specific and tailor-made methodology has been developed to support the implementation of gender impact assessments. In addition, the Gender Equality Division conducts trainings on gender budgeting across the government administration.
Spain
The Spanish government started gender budgeting in 2008 but recently introduced a new “3Rs” methodology that includes three stages of analysis: reality, representation, and resources and results. In this third stage, ministerial departments must submit reports to the Secretariat of State for Budgets and Expenditure analysing the gender impact of their spending programmes.
A working group comprising representatives of the Ministry of Equality, the Secretariat of State for Budgets and Expenditure, the Directorate General for Budgets and the Directorate General for Personnel Costs uses the gender impact assessments from ministerial departments to prepare the final draft of the Gender Impact Report, which accompanies the preliminary draft of the General State Budget Law.
Source: OECD (forthcoming[1]), Gender Budgeting in OECD Countries - 2022 Update.
As highlighted in Chapter 5, GIAs have been a mandatory element of regulatory impact assessments in the Czech Republic since 2015 and must be provided when the government presents primary legislation (except budget legislation) to the parliament. This requirement is underpinned by a government resolution,3 not legislation. However, GIAs are not always undertaken and when they are, the quality is uneven. In some cases, the GIA is just a sentence within the overall regulatory impact assessment. As a result, information from GIAs is rarely used in the design and implementation of policy.
Requiring GIAs to accompany new budget proposals in the Czech Republic could help spur a renewed focus on the gender impact of government policy. The most effective approach is for the Ministry of Finance to not consider new budget proposals unless they are accompanied by a GIA and to use the information from GIAs in resource allocation decisions. This provides the greatest impetus for departments to increase the quality of the information provided within their gender impact assessments. Implementation is also associated with greater effectiveness where it is accompanied by guidance and training for departments in how to undertake good-quality gender impact assessments. The use of this gender budgeting tool in the Czech Republic would be timely, given that the methodology for gender impact assessments is soon to be updated.
A requirement that GIAs must accompany new budget proposals would also provide useful information for the Ministry of Finance to use in fulfilling the forthcoming requirement for a gender impact assessment of the budget as a whole.4
6.3.3. A gender perspective could be added to ongoing spending review reforms
OECD countries are making greater use of spending reviews in recent years and using a wider variety of spending reviews. Spending reviews help governments assess and reprioritise existing spending. The objectives of such reviews vary across countries. As shown in Figure 6.4, such objectives have ranged over the past ten years from improving spending efficiency to realigning spending towards government priorities.
The application of a gender perspective to spending review has the potential to ensure that spending reprioritisation has a positive impact on gender equality goals (Nicol, 2022[9]).
Source: OECD (2020[10]), OECD Spending Review Survey.
The Czech Ministry of Finance has initiated ongoing reforms to introduce spending reviews. A pilot spending review is being undertaken as part of a gradual approach to see what benefits spending reviews could bring to the government at both political and management levels. It is envisaged that the Czech government will initially undertake annual selective spending reviews. Once the administration becomes more familiar with the spending review process and builds up the required capacities, it is likely to gradually expand the coverage and scope of spending reviews and embed these into the existing budgetary system.
As part of these ongoing reforms, the Ministry of Finance could integrate consideration of gender equality into the overall objectives of spending reviews. This would allow spending review to fulfil parallel objectives of creating fiscal space for new policy initiatives, improving expenditure efficiency through better spending, and ensuring expenditure supports high-level policy objectives, including those relating to gender equality. Examples of how other OECD countries have integrated equality considerations in spending review are provided in Box 6.5.
Spain
Spending reviews in Spain were introduced in 2017 and undertaken as a three-year project broken into phases. The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), an independent fiscal institution, conducted the reviews. The project aimed to evaluate significant public expenditure programmes.
The second phase of spending reviews included an evaluation of four policy areas including tax benefits policy. Although other spending reviews did not include consideration of the impact of the policy on women, this particular spending review did in recognition of the impact of tax benefits policy on labour market participation. Indeed, the spending review found that joint income tax has a negative impact on women participating in the labour market and social deductions have a positive effect on women’s labour market participation. AIReF used this information to make recommendations to the government on how tax benefit policy could be modified to help close gender gaps in the labour market.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom government undertakes comprehensive spending reviews that collect departmental budget proposals. Ministers assess these proposals and then put forward a final package of measures as part of the government’s budget.
The most recent spending reviews were undertaken in 2020 and the third quarter of 2021. Ministerial decisions related to these spending reviews were informed by evidence provided by departments to HM Treasury on the effect of policies on those with protected characteristics such as age, disability and sex. This is in line with the government’s legal duties set out in the Public Sector Equality Duty. In addition, in making decisions as part of these spending reviews, the government considered the impacts of budget measures on the government’s commitment to full, genuine gender equality. HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs also published Tax Information and Impact Notes for individual tax measures in the budget that include assessments of their expected equalities impacts.
The result was that the final package of spending included in these reviews included measures likely to disproportionately benefit women, including an increase to the National Living Wage and new funding to increase the hourly rate paid to childcare providers.
Source: (Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility, 2020[11]; HM Treasury of the United Kingdom, 2020[12]; HM Treasury of the United Kingdom, 2021[13]).
Gender budgeting is most effective where there is a supportive enabling environment. Elements such as guidance, training and capacity development, good availability of gender-disaggregated data, opportunities for oversight and civil society engagement, and a modern budgetary framework all help create a supportive enabling environment conducive to good gender budgeting. In assessing the enabling environment for gender budgeting in the Czech Republic, this section looks at the extent to which these elements are in place.
6.4.1. Guidance, training and capacity development are crucial for successful gender budgeting
Guidance, training, and capacity development for both the Ministry of Finance and line ministries are crucial factors to increase understanding of gender budgeting methods and support its implementation by officials.
The development of guidance, training and capacity development will be particularly important in the Czech administration, where stakeholders reported limited capacity in the line ministries in relation to gender mainstreaming in general. A priority will be to update the current gender budgeting guidance, which dates from 2004. New guidance would benefit from covering aspects such as:
roles and responsibilities of different government stakeholders
the revised approach to gender budgeting (tools and methods)
detailed instructions for line ministries, with practical examples
Information on gender budgeting requirements and a link to the gender budgeting guidance should also be included in the Czech budget circular, issued in June.
The roll-out of the revised guidance should be supported by workshops or training sessions, both within the Ministry of Finance and in line ministries. The gender focal points in each line ministry already have an important role in relation to delivery of Strategy 2021+. Given sufficient resourcing, they could also have an important role in capacity development and the effective implementation of gender budgeting, providing support to colleagues when needed.
6.4.2. Availability of gender-disaggregated data is also crucial for gender budgeting purposes
An important foundation of gender budgeting is the availability of gender-disaggregated data. Good data provide the evidence for more robust assessments of the gender impact of different budget programmes.
The availability of gender-disaggregated data in the Czech Republic is currently very limited. As the new methodology for GIAs is rolled out and this develops as a policy tool, the situation will hopefully improve. Data collected by institutions such as the national statistics bureau should be supplemented by departmental data collection, for example, on service users or on those who benefit from government programmes. This will provide a stronger evidence base that will support better-informed decisions as part of the budget process.
A number of OECD countries recognise the importance of good data in underpinning an effective gender budgeting practice and so have invested in building better-quality gender-disaggregated data alongside the roll-out of gender budgeting. Box 6.6 describes how Canada uses gender-disaggregated data.
When the Canadian government introduced gender budgeting, it recognised the need to improve access to gender-disaggregated data. To do so, it introduced a series of measures including the creation of a new Centre for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics.
The centre, which opened in May 2019, aims to address gaps in the availability of information by gender, sex, and other intersecting identity factors, such as disability status, Indigenous identity (First Nations, Métis and Inuit), and other ethno-cultural characteristics. It aims to enable users to easily access and analyse a wealth of statistical information relevant to the evaluation of programmes, policies and initiatives from a gender, diversity and inclusion perspective.
Improved availability of gender-disaggregated data aims to better inform GIA and consequently enrich policy development across the Canadian government.
Source: OECD (2018[14]), Gender Equality in Canada: Mainstreaming, Governance and Budgeting, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264301108-en.
6.4.3. Oversight and engagement with civil society can promote the credibility of gender budgeting
Accountability institutions such as the parliament and the supreme audit institution are responsible for holding the government to account publicly for its policies and their implementation. As part of this, these institutions should ideally also seek to hold the government to account for its actions on gender budgeting – for example through examining any gender information published as part of or alongside the draft budget. Effective oversight of this information promotes the integrity, quality and credibility of national budgeting.
The Budget Committee of the Czech Parliament has shown interest in engaging with any gender information presented by the government alongside the budget. Box 6.7 presents examples of how parliamentary budget committees in selected other OECD countries engage with gender information presented alongside the budget.
Ireland
The Irish parliament (Oireachtas) holds the government to account for its actions in relation to equality budgeting. Specifically, part of the mandate of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight is to monitor and oversee the implementation of equality budgeting. As such, the committee considers performance information presented on equality budgeting during the budget cycle. It also undertook a standalone inquiry into gender budgeting. Its report put forward recommendations to allow the committee to develop its capacity to monitor and oversee budget practices such as gender budgeting.
The Oireachtas Parliamentary Budget Office supports the Committee on Budgetary Oversight in its role overseeing equality budgeting, including through the provision of research briefings assessing relevant information provided by the government.
Austria
In Austria, the Budget Committee provides analysis of the budget, including performance objectives set for each budget chapter. Each budget chapter must include one gender-related performance objective.
The Austrian Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) supports the Budget Committee in its analysis. Specifically, the PBO provides the parliament with analyses of government documents related to gender budgeting and gender equality. In undertaking this role, the PBO provides clear guidance for members of parliament on all the gender-related performance objectives, measures and indicators shown in the different budget chapters. Its budget analysis discusses key issues such as the quality of the information provided, the level of ambition of the objectives, and the suitability and development of relevant indicators (including an international comparison), the availability of gender-disaggregated data, and levels of co-ordination between ministries.
This oversight framework helps stimulate the parliamentary debate on gender issues. It has resulted in greater awareness of gender budgeting and gender equality and has generated discussions of gender objectives in the Budget Committee and in the plenary sessions.
Source: (Downes and Nicol, 2020[4]; Nicol and Güven, 2019[15]).
6.4.4. A modern budgetary framework will help support the implementation of gender budgeting
The effective integration of a gender perspective in the budget process benefits from a strong budgetary framework that can support the government’s fiscal and policy objectives. In countries where there are strong links between medium-term priorities and budgeting, there are already mechanisms in place to align spending with overall government objectives and an outcome orientation to the budget process. Such mechanisms enable governments to link planning, allocations and outcomes and more broadly to answer the question of how the allocation of public resources is achieving policy objectives in the short, medium and long term.
The budgeting system in the Czech Republic is similar to a traditional input-based budgeting system. While budget documents include output targets alongside financial allocations in a dedicated part of the budget document, there is in general limited focus on performance and outcomes.
The budget classification is based on input for each chapter (administrative units), while the relationship of budget expenditures to government’s priorities is reflected in an internal document which is used by the Prime Minister’s Office. While line ministries may have a range of policies or strategies, these are not generally costed and there is no requirement for a comprehensive line ministry strategic or operational plan. The Ministry of Finance suggests that there may be over 200 strategies in place across the public sector, but these do not appear to be costed or prioritised across the government.
Tools such as performance budgeting (Box 6.8) and gender budgeting help align different expenditures to the priorities of the government and to ensure the most important priorities are reflected in the budget. Modernisation of the Czech budget framework, and an increased outcome orientation of budgeting through tools such as performance budgeting, would help support the implementation of gender budgeting.
Estonia
Performance budgeting was introduced in Estonia to address concerns that there was too much attention on inputs in budget planning and not enough consideration of how budgeting linked to long-term strategic objectives. In response, a new performance framework created a direct link between budgets (resources) and long-term outcomes across different performance areas, where the performance area identifies the overall long-term objective, sub-goals, performance indicators and the policy instrument through which the goals are achieved. Budget programmes are based on the sub-goals identified in the performance area, and there is a linear connection between programmes and performance areas.
Iceland
A key document in relation to strategic planning is Iceland’s Fiscal Strategy Plan, which shows the budget appropriations across the 35 areas of expenditure for the next five years. Each area covers specific tasks, such as the activities of the universities or hospitals. The plan also sets out the objectives of budgetary policy and provides information on how these objectives are to be achieved. Ministries, as part of the budget process, are required to identify how each area of expenditure is linked to a government priority target (e.g. Sustainable Development Goals or gender equality goals).
Source: OECD (forthcoming[16]), Introducing Spending Reviews in the Czech Republic: Stocktake Report.
This chapter highlights where the strengths and challenges lie across the key pillars underpinning an approach to effective and sustainable gender budgeting. Based on these insights, the following suggested steps outline a path forward for gender budgeting in the Czech Republic in the short and medium to longer term.
A staged approach to the introduction of gender budgeting in the Czech Republic recognises the need to develop buy-in from the Ministry of Finance over time. It also recognises the limited available resources and the importance of embedding practices over time as institutional buy-in and capacity grow.
6.5.1. Short term (over the next one to two years)
In the short term, given limited buy-in and leadership from the Ministry of Finance, it would be of most value to focus on strengthening the capacity for GIA across the government as a whole and piloting approaches to gender budgeting in select line ministries.
Steps to strengthen the capacity of GIA will help provide a more secure foundation for gender impact assessment to be used as a tool of gender budgeting in the future. The forthcoming update of the methodology for GIAs will be helpful in this regard, as well as workshops and training to support implementation. Strengthened capacity for GIAs across government will mean that the Ministry of Finance has the option – at some point in the future - to introduce a requirement for line ministries to provide GIAs alongside budget proposals.
In parallel, piloting approaches to gender budgeting in select line ministries (one or more) will be helpful in testing institutional capacity, building momentum for gender budgeting and gaining insights that will support its more widespread implementation in the medium to longer term.
A suggested first approach to test would be gender budget tagging. Piloting gender budget tagging will provide insights into the ease with which line ministries can tag budget items, the support and guidance that they need, and the effectiveness of budget tagging in sensitising policy managers to the impact of their programmes on gender equality. Pilot line ministries could identify how each of the programmes funded through the budget impact gender equality, e.g. along the lines of the three-point scoring system used by the DAC OECD Gender Policy Marker. In selecting line ministries to pilot approaches to gender budgeting, the Gender Equality Department should liaise with ministries to identify where there is both appetite and capacity.
Alongside the pilot exercise, the Gender Equality Department and the Ministry of Finance can co-operate to organise seminars that help increase awareness of gender budgeting and highlight different approaches for consideration in the medium to longer term.
6.5.2. Medium to longer term (year three and beyond)
In the medium to longer term, the Ministry of Finance should ideally become the designated lead actor for implementing the measures related to gender budgeting in the national gender equality strategy and in gender budgeting more broadly.
A first priority will be for the Ministry of Finance to update the Gender Budgeting Methodology, taking into account the gender budgeting tools highlighted in this chapter – gender budget tagging, GIA and a gender dimension to spending review - as being particularly suitable for the Czech budget framework.
If gender budget tagging is helpful in sensitising line ministries to the gender impacts of their programmes, then the methodology can be further developed, and it can be rolled out more broadly. A more sophisticated approach could tag programmes that help achieve the objectives set out in the gender equality strategy. This would allow for the presentation of summary information (quantitative and qualitative) alongside the budget that shows how the budget is advancing overarching gender equality priorities each year, providing useful evidence to inform budget decisions and promoting both greater transparency and accountability.
Strengthened capacity for GIAs will allow the Ministry of Finance to introduce a requirement for line ministries to provide GIAs alongside budget proposals. Ensuring that any budget proposals without a GIA are rejected would increase the likelihood that GIAs are undertaken, helping ensure that gender needs are considered in policy design. In addition, GIAs for individual budget proposals will provide evidence that will help the Ministry of Finance fulfil its forthcoming requirement to undertake a GIA of the budget as a whole.
An additional gender budgeting tool in line with ongoing budget reforms could be the introduction of a gender perspective to spending review. This would incorporate consideration of whether expenditure helps contribute to overarching objectives set out in the gender equality strategy as part of the overall spending review process.
Developments to modernise the Czech budget framework and strengthen the link between planning and budgeting will help support a more effective approach to gender budgeting in the longer term. For example, transitioning from line item to programme budgeting would greatly facilitate gender budget tagging. In addition, developing performance budgeting could help bring to the fore consideration of how the budget is linked to long-term strategic objectives, such as those set out in Strategy 2021+. When the Czech Republic is at this stage, it will be easier for information from gender budget tagging and GIAs to provide evidence for better budget decision making.
References
[4] Downes, R. and S. Nicol (2020), “Designing and implementing gender budgeting – a path to action”, OECD Journal on Budgeting, https://doi.org/10.1787/689198fa-en.
[8] Government of Canada (2022), Gender Results Framework (webpage), https://women-gender-equality.canada.ca/en/gender-results-framework.html (accessed on February 2023).
[5] Government of the Czech Republic (2022), Programové prohlášení vlády České republiky (Policy statement of the Government of the Czech Republic), https://www.vlada.cz/assets/jednani-vlady/programove-prohlaseni/programove-prohlaseni-vlady-Petra-Fialy.pdf.
[13] HM Treasury of the United Kingdom (2021), Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021: Documents, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-and-spending-review-2021-documents.
[12] HM Treasury of the United Kingdom (2020), Policy Paper: Spending Review 2020, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2020-documents/spending-review-2020#impact-on-equalities.
[11] Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (2020), Tax Benefits Study, https://www.airef.es/en/spending-review-phasetwo-tax-benefits/ (accessed on February 2023).
[2] Nicol, S. (2022), “Gender budgeting: The economic and fiscal rationale”, OECD Journal on Budgeting, Vol. 22/3, https://doi.org/10.1787/9ca9b221-en.
[9] Nicol, S. (2022), “Gender perspectives in spending review”, OECD Journal on Budgeting, https://doi.org/10.1787/4b676369-en.
[15] Nicol, S. and P. Güven (2019), “OECD Scan: Equality budgeting in Ireland”, OECD Journal on Budgeting, Vol. 21/1, https://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/equality-budgeting-in-ireland.pdf.
[6] OECD (2022), DAC gender equality policy marker (webpage), https://www.oecd.org/dac/gender-development/dac-gender-equality-marker.htm (accessed on February 2023).
[10] OECD (2020), OECD Spending Review Survey.
[14] OECD (2018), Gender Equality in Canada: Mainstreaming, Governance and Budgeting, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264301108-en.
[3] OECD (2015), “Recommendation of the Council on Budgetary Governance”, OECD Legal Instruments, OECD/LEGAL/0418, OECD, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/principles-budgetary-governance.htm.
[1] OECD (forthcoming), Gender Budgeting in OECD Countries - 2022 Update.
[16] OECD (forthcoming), Introducing Spending Reviews in the Czech Republic: Stocktake Report, OECD Publishing, Paris.
[7] OECD (forthcoming), OECD Review of Gender Equality in Colombia.
Notes
← 1. The strategy itself does not define a co-operating role.
← 2. See https://www.mfcr.cz/cs/legislativa/metodiky/2004/metodika-rozpoctovani-genderova-politika-13111
← 3. Rules of Procedure of the Government /Article IV (7) (c)/ and Legislative Rules of the Government /Article 9 (2) (b)/. The legislative rules state that regulatory impact assessment is a mandatory part of the Czech legislative process (and regulatory impact assessment guidelines also require that a gender impact assessment is conducted – with the exception of certain cases).
← 4. This requirement is set out in Strategy 2021+ and the timescale for it to be fulfilled is between January 2023 and December 2024.