Case Study: Gender-Responsive Budgeting, Mexico

Gender-Responsive Budgeting is a tool involving programming and budgeting to modify negative impacts caused by the gendered social order by addressing gender inequalities. Genderresponsive budgets address changes in both law and political frameworks and ultimately lead to a more efficient use of resources.

Some key points

• Gender-Responsive Budgeting is about well-spent money that is more effective, rather than simply moving a percentage of funds from one place to another
• It’s also about shifting the rules of money and actions, not just money itself
• Member states must recognise that budgets are not just about money: they are a declaration of priority, in that they set out the quality of activities and the order they will be addressed
• Budgets are interlinked with programs in the first place, but also laws and technical procedures that need to be modified as well
• Policies should be aimed at gender equality, rather than being viewed as “for women”, as policies for women risk reproducing traditional gender roles and inequalities
• Budgets should address the fact that persons, women and men, are diverse. Therefore, programs should not be addressed with a single measure; rather, budgets should include differentiated actions that bear in mind the diversity of population
• Implementing Gender-Responsive Budgeting is a long-term process. But by changing one program at a time – one law at a time- a difference can be made!

The above text is taken from the following case study (please take your time to read through it):