How to Prepare a Gender Budget Statement

Gender budgeting integrates a gender perspective into the budget process by promoting gender equality through both fiscal policies and public financial management (PFM) tools. A key PFM tool specific to gender budgeting is the Gender Budget Statement. Governments prepare Gender Budget Statements as a transparency and accountability document to communicate how the budget aims to improve gender equality. Gender Budget Statements must be accessible to a broad audience and present information that is succinct and easily understood. Typically, these statements are summary documents that bring together a government’s commitments, goals, priorities, plans, and strategies for addressing identified gaps in gender equality. They are prepared as part of the budget process, highlighting the programs and policies that have been designed to advance gender equality, along with the resources allocated. They are presented to the legislature with the budget documentation to support parliamentary scrutiny and debate. This note provides guidance on how to prepare a Gender Budget Statement. It covers the content that a typical statement should include, suggests steps for developing a statement, highlights the benefit of a staged approach to implementation and includes illustrative country examples.