NWCI Launches new Research on Gender Responsive Budgeting
Published: Monday, October 09, 2017
On 21 September, NWCI launched our new research on incorporating gender budgeting into the Irish budgetary process. The launch of Towards gender responsive budgeting in Ireland, took place in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in Dublin. There was great interest in the event, which attended by civil society representatives and Oireachtas members.
Orla O’Connor, NWCI Director, opened the event, stating that the budget is the principal expression of a Government’s priorities and is a critical opportunity to advance women’s equality. She said that NWCI has campaigned for many years for the introduction of gender budgeting and welcomed the Government commitment to gender proof the budget.
Josepha Madigan, T.D., Chair of the Budgetary Oversight Committee, launched the event. Deputy Madigan spoke about how gender budgeting should be the cornerstone of the budget process. She concluded by affirming that the Budgetary Oversight Committee will make progress towards gender budgeting in its work. The Committee has committed to working with NWCI to do so.
Independent socio-economic consultant Camille Loftus, who conducted the research for NWCI, presented its main findings. She outlined how taking gender into account in the budgetary process is good for the economy and for society and in line with good practice budgetary reform already underway in Government.
Dr Elisabeth Klatzer, leading Austrian expert on gender budgeting, spoke about the Austrian experience of knitting gender budgeting into its budget reform process and provided an insight in to lessons that could be learned from this.
Dr Angela O’Hagan, member of the Equality and Budget Advisory Group of the Scottish Government and Convenor of the Scottish Women’s Budget Group discussed the ongoing process of incorporating gender budgeting through parliamentary engagement in Scotland.
Sarah Swaine, from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, spoke about the Government’s next steps for gender budgeting in Ireland, highlighting how gender budgeting is good budgeting.
There were also speakers from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC). Laurence Bond, Director of IHREC, spoke about the organisation’s work on human rights and equality proofing. He outlined the relationships between budget frameworks, human rights and equality.
The final speaker, Dr Mary Murphy, Commission Member of IHREC, launched a special edition of the Administration Journal on Human Rights and Equality Proofing. The journal features a number of articles on how policy and budget proofing can advance human rights and equality.
Read NWCI's new research - Towards Gender Responsive Budgeting in Ireland.