A year in review: 2018 Annual Report

As we approach our AGM and produce our official annual report, we take a look back at the activities and achievements of the past 12-18 months…

This year has been a busy one for the Women’s Budget Group. We have continued our widely used analysis of the UK Budgets and Financial Statements, as well as publishing a number of briefing papers on key social and economic policy issues. We have produced a ground-breaking report on the impact of austerity on BME women since 2010; drafted a casebook on the history of our work on gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) to be shared with civil society organisations around the world; joined with women’s organisations to highlight important issues for women at the snap general election in 2017; and worked with Oxfam to write a report and produce resources to inform their developing work on GRB.

In July 2017 we delivered a workshop on housing in partnership with the Greater London Authority, the final in a series of training events to build the capacity of feminists and other activists to mobilise against gender inequitable austerity policies and engage with public decision makers. We also produced a series of introductory resources on feminist economics to disseminate to student feminist societies across the country. Finally, in March 2018, we published produced a major report exploring the potential economic impact of Brexit on women – the first analysis of its kind to be carried out in the UK.

WBG also began the process of redesigning our website with a focus on improving the categorisation of content, making it easier for visitors to search for specific pieces of research and analysis. We continue to disseminate our findings and expertise via the existing website, social media, newsletters, events and in print, broadcast and online media.

We secured new funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, the Sisters’ Trust and the Smallwood Trust. We continued to be funded by Barrow Cadbury and the Open Society Foundation and undertook consultancy work for Oxfam. Thanks to additional funding, we’ve also been able to grow our staff team to 3 people!

To summarise all of this activity in a somewhat more engaging way, we’ve produced a short, reader-friendly version of our annual report. You can view a PDF of the annual report summary here.