GENDER BUDGETS MAKE CENTS Understanding Gender Responsive Budgets

Debbie Budlender: Debbie Budlender is a principal researcher for the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE), Cape Town, South Africa. A founding member of the South African Women's Budget Initiative, she is the leading international adviser on gender responsive budget (GRB) initiatives, having worked in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas. She has also written extensively on this area. has written numerous books and articles on gender equality and economic life. She was responsible for Progress of the World's Women 2000, the UNIFEM biennial report, and co-editor of a special issue of the World Development journal (July 2000) on Growth, Trade, Finance and Gender Equality. She advised the Commonwealth Secretariat on the development of the expenditure tools for the GRB initiative and UNIFEM on the implementation of its global programme on gender responsive budgets. She is also a member of the UK Women's Budget Group. Commonwealth Secretariat, and programme manager of the Commonwealth GRB initiative. He advises Commonwealth governments on the implementation of gender responsive budgets and also provides technical support to other intergovernmental organisations and developmental agencies. Tanni Mukhopadhyay: Tanni Mukhopadhyay is a Policy Specialist with the Human Development Report Office at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) New York. She has worked as a researcher with the University of Cambridge and with the Commonwealth Secretariat on its GRB initiative. She has also worked with, and conducted research on, the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in India, and the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) in Thailand. Her main areas of research have been on poverty, trade policy and market access issues. The views expressed in the document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policy of the Commonwealth Secretariat, any other agency or any government identified. 4 Foreword The Commonwealth commitment to gender equality, declared by Heads of Government at Harare in 1991 as a fundamental principle, was reaffirmed by Heads in their endorsement of the 1995 Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development and its update. Subsequent meetings of Commonwealth Finance, Education, Health, Law and Women's Affairs Ministers among others have worked to advance the Commonwealth vision of " a world in which women and men have equal rights and opportunities at all stages of their lives to express their creativity in all fields of human endeavour. " The Commonwealth's impetus towards encouraging member countries to integrate …