About this book: Budgets are not gender neutral. They affect women and men in different ways, reflecting the uneven distribution of power within society as economic disparities, different living conditions, and ascribed social roles. Despite being signatories to the major international agreements that call for gender equality, most African countries have fallen short of their promises as their gender initiatives are facing a host of challenges relating to policy implementation, program design, management and tracking, and capacity building issues.

These are some of the findings of this book on Gender Budgeting as a Tool for Poverty Reduction. The book highlights the centrality of gender budgeting as a tool for improved transparency and accountability in the fight against inequity and poverty. Using the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) framework, it showcases national and sectoral gender budgeting experiences in three African countries - South Africa, Rwanda and Uganda - to serve as best-practice models for other African countries. The findings reveal that there is no specific template for gender budgeting and that all three countries studied are experiencing serious constraints in terms of implementation of policies and programs designed to promote gender equality in budgetary processes.

Making gender visible in budgets would thus require that African countries pay greater attention to CEDAW obligations, take concrete and decisive measures to improve accountability, and contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The book also identifies capacity weaknesses in gender budgeting that should be addressed in order to raise the standard for accountability and transparency in the countries’ budgetary processes.

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The publication is the result of a collaborative study undertaken by the Foundation’s Technical and Advisory Panel and Network (TAP-NET) on Professionalizing the Voices of the Private Sector and Civil Society (VOICENET).