Webinar: Gender Responsive Budgeting – Experiences and Potential

Gender responsive budgeting can help achieve real change by better responding to the needs of people, especially women, girls and marginalised groups. Join us as we discuss how we can learn from each other and work together to make this vision a reality.

In this webinar, we discuss how gender-responsive budgeting works in different countries and contexts. We share experiences, achievements, and challenges. Our speakers provide practical examples and highlight the lessons they have learned through thinking, training, learning, and implementing gender responsive budgeting initiatives.

From the UK, Mary-Ann Stephenson from the Women’s Budget Group talks about how we analyse budgets for their gender impact, train others, and influence policies in the local context and beyond.

From Austria, Michaela Schatz helps us learn about the City of Vienna’s success in gender-responsive budgeting implementation. We see how focusing on gender equality in city budgets improves services and opportunities for citizens. We also discuss the lessons learned and challenges the City of Vienna goes through and the improvements it makes.

In Kenya, the Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development (CCGD) is trained and trains people in gender-responsive budgeting at the local level. The organisation also tries to network and collaborate with other initiatives. They share how this training helps in promoting gender equality in governance and plans to expand their work nationally.

We also hear from Serbia and the Western Balkans, where Olja Jankovic Lankovic from UN Women Europe and Central Asia takes us through how UN Women and its partners are pushing for gender equality and gender responsive budgeting in Serbia. Their work shows the impact of advocating for change together but also is a great case that we can learn a lot from in terms of challenges faced.

Lastly, we hear from Cyprus. Mary Pyrgos is the head of the Cypriot organisation FIMONOI. FIMONOI and other organisations launched the Cyprus Platform for gender budgeting in February 2024. Mary walks us through the follow-up of the conference, the implementation with the auditor’s general office as well as the challenges faced.

This webinar aims to not only show the value of gender-responsive budgeting but also to encourage us to support its principles and encourage discussion and networking. By working together and sharing knowledge, we aim for a future where gender equality is a reality for everyone.

Watch a recording of the webinar below.