ERI experts participated in training on "Gender Mainstreaming in National Planning and Budgeting Systems"
On October 26-27, 2021, experts of the Secretariat for Sustainable Development Goals of Economic Research Institute JSC participated in a two-day training on the topic "Gender Mainstreaming in National Planning and Budgeting Systems." This training seminar wa.organized by UN Women UN Organization and was held online on Zoom platform.
This training seminar was attended by Deputy of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Irina Smirnova, representatives of both central and local executive bodies. Furthermore, representatives of non-governmenta.organizations were invited to the event, in particular, Margarita Uskembayeva, the President of the Institute of Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities of Kazakhstan.
Maria Dotsenko, the UN Women Representative made a welcoming speech . She noted the importance of this training aimed at improvement of state processes of strategic planning and budgeting by integrating gender perspectives into national policies, strategies and programs.
Irina Smirnova, the deputy of Mazhilis focused in her speech on the relevance and necessity of introducing gender budgeting into public policy processes.
Margarita Uskembayeva noted that the introduction of gender-responsive budgeting will result in ensuring a fair distribution of budget funds in the interests of women/men and socially vulnerable groups of the population. She also voiced a number of problems that can be solved with the introduction of gender-responsive budgeting at the national level.
Svetlana Garashchenko, an International Expert on Gender Budgeting, acted as a Consultant Coach. At the beginning of the training, the Coach told on the importance of a gender-responsive approach for implementation of effective public policy, defined the concepts of "gender" and "gender equality".
"Sex and gender have different characteristics. And, despite the obvious differences, both terms - "sex" and "gender" - are used as synonyms," the expert noted.
The differences between these concepts were considered and discussed using practical examples. The training participants were made more clear that sex is a biological concept defined at birth, and gender is a social gender formed by the relationships and roles of men and women, which is manifested in all spheres of life.
Moreover, an International Expert also noted the difficulties in achieving gender equality - these are traditionally distributed gender roles of women and men, stable social stereotypes.
Svetlana Garashchenko outlined the goals, principles, and stages of gender budgeting as the next issue of training. It was mentioned here that it is important to take into account the problems and needs of women and men and their groups when planning gender politics.
"In other words, gender-based budgeting is an approach to budget implementation that focuses on people – men/women, disadvantaged groups," the Consultant Coach stressed.
The second part of the training seminar was devoted to the international experience of implementing gender-responsive budgeting. Gender initiatives of the OECD countries, Canada, and Ukraine were considered.
For example, in Ukraine, the introduction of gender-responsive budgeting was initiated by the Strategy of Reforming the Public Finance Management System for 2017-2020. At the legislative level , the Methodological recommendations on implementation and application of a gender-oriented approach in the budget process were adopted.
On the next day of the training, participants worked with regulatory documents on planning and budgeting to introduce gender-beased aspects and gender-oriented indicators and criteria. Based on the results of practical classes, an attempt was made to develop a Roadmap for introduction of gender-responsive budgeting into the budget process and regulatory legal acts.
According to the participants, the training was very interesting and useful for each listener. During the training, a gender quiz and group discussions were held to fully understand the concept of "gender" and gender-based approaches. Practical work with cases was also carried out with the participants of the training.
Various questions were asked to the International Consultant and many questions were answered exhaustively.
In conclusion, it was concluded that the inclusion of a gender-responsive approach in regulatory, strategic and policy documents will make the process of developing and implementing gender politics "visible" in terms of their impact on various groups of women and men (children, youth, the elderly, students, pensioners, people with disabilities).
"A gender-based approach is the key to the effectiveness and sustainability of national, regional and local development," the participants of the training note.
