Key principles of gender-responsive budgeting discussed in Uzbekistan

The webinar presented experiences of UN Women, International Labour Organisation, UNICEF and UNDP on gender-responsive budgeting. According to UN Women, gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is an approach to systematically integrate gender equality objectives into government policy, planning, budgeting, monitoring, evaluation, and audit. It does not mean simply developing a separate budget for women. It is a comprehensive policy that also includes the collection and allocation of public resources to empower both women and men by considering diversity of their rights, needs, interests, educational, geographical, ethnic, income and dis/ability backgrounds throughout the lifecycle and minimising negative aspects of gender inequality.

Currently, Uzbekistan is developing three major strategies until 2030 - on social protection, employment, and poverty reduction. It is important to mainstream gender equality in these strategies to ensure that no one is left behind, said Ms Gulnora Marufova, First Deputy Minister of Makhalla and Family Support and member of Gender Commission under the Senate of Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan. She also expressed her confidence that capacity building activities on GRB would help to improve the quality of legal acts and promote gender equality in Uzbekistan.

Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Jamshid Abruev shared the progress of collaboration with international development agencies in promoting gender equality.

Gender audit, analysis of gender issues based on sex-disaggregated data are an inherent component of GRB. Academia and research centres play a vital role in providing the evidence base for tailoring policies. Ms Victoria Alexeyeva, Deputy Director of Ijtimoiy Fikr Research Center, spoke about research projects conducted by the centre to support the government in tackling gender-based inequalities..

In her presentation, Ms Margarita Ozonas Marcos, ILO International consultant, presented the main principles of GRB, as well as key tools and methods of GRB and the role each government agency and civil society organisation play in the successful introduction of this approach in the policy-making process.
In the Q&A session, the participants discussed models of GRB in different countries and the ways of its integration in Uzbekistan.

Video materials shared during the presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mquOclPJYPs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVW858gQHoE