The National Development Strategy of Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244) makes gender equality integral to a variety of goals, from land reform to health care. Women’s economic empowerment is critical to progress, helping women like these, who manage a small food processing business, get enterprises off the ground. Photo: UN Women/Rena Effendi.

The National Development Strategy of Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244) makes gender equality integral to a variety of goals, from land reform to health care. Women’s economic empowerment is critical to progress, helping women like these, who manage a small food processing business, get enterprises off the ground. Photo: UN Women/Rena Effendi.

Planning and budgeting for empowerment and equality

Governance and national planning

Public plans and budgets are an expression of national priorities. When they take gender into account, they can be designed to end discrimination. Budgets and plans that equally respond to the needs of both women and men can contribute to progress across all of the Sustainable Development Goals, supporting realization of the promise of leaving no one behind. They can, for instance, target resources to deliver high-quality health services to all women, or invest in infrastructure for women in slums to escape poverty—among many other issues.

UN Women, having pioneered gender-responsive planning and budgeting around the world, champions the integration of gender equality into national plans to achieve the global goals. The work below illustrates just a few of UN Women’s many contributions.

An early start on the global goals

Within the first year of the 2030 Agenda, UN Women had already supported more than 80 governments in making gender equality a central focus of plans and budgets aimed at implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. In Kosovo, we backed the alignment of the National Development Strategy 2016-2021 with gender equality targets and indicators under the goals, covering issues such as land reform and the extension of health services to women in informal jobs. A major national dialogue brought leaders together from the government, business, academia, civil society and international organizations to map top priorities, with three agreed—gender equality, as well as care for the environment and youth employment. To connect the policy process to public awareness, UN Women then coordinated 45 events that reached 20,000 people with messages around the global goals.

 

28

countries increased budget
allocations for gender equality

In

26

countries, civil servants of
national AIDS coordinating bodies
increased their capacities
for gender mainstreaming

 

44,542

people trained by
the Training Center

The 2016 National Women’s Forum on HIV and AIDS is one of the many activities promoted by a UN Women-supported national network of women living with HIV in Ukraine. Photo: Alina Yaroslavskaya.
The 2016 National Women’s Forum on HIV and AIDS is one of the many activities promoted by a UN Women-supported national network of women living with HIV in Ukraine. Photo: Alina Yaroslavskaya.

Engaging women living with HIV

In 10 countries, UN Women collaborated with the International Community of Women Living with HIV to offer a series of workshops that train women on how to advocate the inclusion of their perspectives in policy-making to localize the 2030 Agenda. In Ukraine, this process led a national network of women living with HIV to spearhead the country’s first-ever forum on Gender Equality and HIV/AIDS. Supported by UN Women, the forum drew women from across Ukraine as well as other countries in Europe and Central Asia, resulting in agreement on a common advocacy strategy for continued engagement in implementing the global goals.

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In Suva, Papua New Guinea, decision-makers from across the region learnt about the financial benefits and impacts of spending on women and men at a regional workshop on gender-responsive budgeting. Photo: UN Women/Preeya Ieli.
In Suva, Papua New Guinea, decision-makers from across the region learnt about the financial benefits and impacts of spending on women and men at a regional workshop on gender-responsive budgeting. Photo: UN Women/Preeya Ieli.

Budgets bolster empowerment

In Asia and the Pacific, UN Women brought together government officials from 15 countries to learn about gender-responsive planning and budgeting. Sri Lanka’s Cabinet subsequently mandated that 11 national ministries—as well as all provincial councils, and district and divisional secretariats—allocate at least 25 per cent of investments in rural economic development to women. New funds will support gender equality in diverse areas, from technical education to fisheries to housing and construction. The Ministry of Finance backed implementation of the decision by instructing ministries to ensure that budgetary proposals for 2016-2017 include specific plans and funds for gender equality measures.

Changing the game for girls in South Africa