One key mechanism to support governments in realising their gender equity strategy is gender responsive budgeting (GRB). GRB can act as a powerful enabler for the successful delivery of a gender equity strategy, both in terms of the direct impact on policy funding and the signal that it sends to the community about the transparency and accountability that the government is applying in carrying out the strategy.

GRB enables decision-makers, administrators and the public to evaluate how policy decisions are contributing to a government’s gender equity strategy. It also enables greater understanding of how the decision-making process is aligned to achievement of the strategy.

GRB is most effective in supporting change when it is elevated above a 'tick the box' exercise. Achieving this is principally down to the culture of the administration that is making decisions based on the GRB information – that is, there should be a genuine intent that the budgeting process should be gender-responsive in order that it can contribute to achievement of a gender equity strategy that the government has articulated.

Key recommendations for governments:

• Review their current levels of gender-disaggregated data in relation to each policy area and develop a plan to comprehensively collect this data in future. This will support evidence-based decision-making and enable tracking of the impacts over time.
• Identify specific policy areas or departmental portfolios where gender inequity is most apparent. Select from these as opportunities for one or more pilot projects to apply gender budgeting techniques to address these inequities.
• Prepare to communicate to the public how the GRB process works, including the point in the decision-making process where GRB is applied and the expected impacts of the decision on the different genders.