Outcome LAC_D_2.2

Public and private financing advance gender equality through gender responsive budgets, policies, strategies and instruments

As part of the work to promote Public financing to advance gender equality through gender responsive budgets, policies, strategies and instruments , in 2023 UN Women ACRO finalized and launched the publication “Gender Budgeting. A roadmap for its implementation from Latin American experiences” capturing advances and main results of 12 countries of the region in including gender budgeting in their planning and budgeting normative and policy frameworks. The study shows how 4 countries (Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru) make gender budgeting mandatory within their Public Planning and Budgetary Laws while 10 countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Uruguay) integrate it in their long-term development strategies. Also 11 countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Dominican Republic) have included instructions to advance gender budgeting within their call circular or budgetary guidelines within the last three years. Additionally, 7 countries of the region (Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, México, and Dominican Republic) have institutionalized gender budget markers or gender budget classifiers that allow to track amounts specifically allocated and spent for gender equality, thanks to the strengthened budgetary instruments focused on transparency and accountability. For example, data shows that in these 7 countries exist allocations to policies to eliminate violence against women facilitating social control on this area. The data gathered, analyzed and presented in this document demonstrates the importance of the information development, systematization and availability to provide structured instruments to be used by countries as examples of good practices and move forward with its own strategies and tools. Also, the document is valuable because it shows the progress made in the region in terms of GRB, result of its promotion, and availability of technical assistance. The publication reached 1,116 total clicks by December 2023. Additionally, in 2023 UN Women also launched the digital platform presupuestoygenero.net collecting 296 documents in the library section classified by theme, type of resource, country and language. It also includes a tools section, with 162 tools, organized in 9 categories according to their use within the budget cycle. Furthermore, the initiatives section, was also updated with the information of 12 national gender budget initiatives, including a brief summary, bibliography of relevance and a template with the extended information. At the launching in March, the platform accounted for 4,262 visits reaching up to 20,472 visits in December, showing the increasing interest in its content. This was a result of a specific visibility strategy maintaining regular publications on UN Women social media. Visits include a wide range of countries including not only LAC region countries representing approximately 41% of total access to the knowledge platform (being Guatemala, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Chile among the top 5 countries) but also the United States Germany, Russia, Great Britain, and China. This is particularly interesting considering that the platform has not yet been translated into English. Considering the Latin America and the Caribbean. Overall view of Latin America countries and other access countries are outside the region. The hashtag #PresupuestoYGénero created to follow-up on the discussions showed by December 2023 an increased from 7,547 to 11,446 interactions, from 1,464 to 2,289 shares and a total audience reach from 80,449 to at least 145,585 in social media. Furthermore, in line with the Global report “Strengthening public financial management to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment” UN Women ACRO produced in 2023 a regional report to analyze the progress of indicator 5.c.1, using the information provided by the voluntary reports of 10 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2021 with UN Women’s assistance. The results proved that 20% of the countries were fully compliant with the indicator's requirements while the rest 80% were close to meeting mentioned requirements. The report was used as one of the main documents informing the regional consultation prior to the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68), on the priority theme “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective ”, organized during the 65? Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean in October 2023, at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) headquarters in Santiago, Chile. As of today, the report has reached 162 visits in UN Women LAC website. Also, in the area of Public Finance, in partnership with FLACSO Argentina UN Women ACRO organized the third edition of the virtual specialized course on Gender Responsive Budgeting for women in politics, reaching out to 300 women leaders in decision making position. By the end of the course 89,5% of the participants reported an increased knowledge of instruments and tools to promote and implement gender-responsive budgeting. Regarding the work with the private sector, a WEPs regional strategy was developed and implemented in close coordination with all LAC countries. UN Women ACRO provided technical support to 14 COs with WEPs presence through regular meetings with WEP focal points, bilateral meetings with country focal points to support strategies and plans in the territory, providing talks and training for companies from different countries, meetings with companies for WEPs submissions at the regional level. Furthermore, in collaboration with WEPs focal points UN Women ACRO organize the second edition of the WEPs cycle, including a set of 6 sessions addressing a diverse range of issues such as: Gender Procurement, marketing and communication without stereotypes, business case, new masculinities, monitoring & transparency, gender pay gap. reaching out 6,689 people registered and 14,630 views on Linkedin. The series had 880 viewers on Linkedin and 1,724 people connected on Zoom. A total of 24 speakers participated and 11 companies from the region presented good practices. In addition, panelists from 9 different countries in the region participated: Uruguay, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, Chile, El Salvador, Venezuela, as well as representatives from HQ and the Regional Office. ACRO also supported the supervision and execution of due diligence processes for approval and publication of new signatories throughout the region. As a result, during 2023, 254 new companies joined the WEPs, reaching 2,342 signatories throughout the region, making Latin America and the Caribbean being the leader region with the higher number of WEPs signatories in the world. Furthermore, the region is also positioned as a relevant and thriving region in WEPs issues, through the participation of our region in task forces and initiatives led by HQ, such as the WEPs focal points meetings and the WEPs 2.0 initiative with commercial banks in Ecuador and Bolivia. Accompaniment and technical assistance for the WEPs 2.0 process in Banco Sol and Banco Pichincha, through the review of tools used in the process and support for a workshop given to the Board of Directors of Banco Sol in Bolivia. The strengthening of alliances allows us to provide a solid and articulated response to the private sector on issues of gender equality and women's empowerment in the business world. Through the strengthening and joint work with UNGC (Global Compact) at the regional level, a work plan was implemented that included reviewing all the contents of the TGE (Target Gender Equality) accelerator to align them with the WEPs

Public and private financing advance gender equality through gender responsive budgets, policies, strategies and instruments

Gender-responsive budgets (GRB) play a crucial role in ensuring that women’s specific needs and priorities, especially those facing multiple forms of discrimination, are considered and addressed in funding and investment decisions and service delivery. Aligned to the UN Women Strategic Plan 2022-2025, the UN Women Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean prioritized the promotion of more effective interventions to achieve public financing to advance gender equality through gender-responsive budgets, policies, strategies, and instruments. These actions are related to Latin America and the Caribbean’s Strategic Note (2023-2025), which proposes three outcomes that configure a results framework with 9 effects, including public and private funding to promote gender equality with gender-responsive budgets, policies, strategies, and instruments. UN Women supports member states to design and implement gender-responsive national and local plans and budgets by (i) increasing awareness, capacities, and political will to integrate gender equality in financing; (ii) providing assistance to design sector strategies, plans, monitoring frameworks, and budgets; (iii) generating and disseminating knowledge; and, (iv) establishing and managing broad-based partnerships across the UN system, with development partners, international organizations, academia, and civil society organizations to promote gender-responsive planning and budgeting. In terms of policy support, UN Women and ECLAC provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance and DIPRES in Chile to develop theoretical frameworks for gender mainstreaming in the budget cycle,? a guide for applying the gender perspective in the budget, and a training cycle that counted on the participation of 386 public officials of all Chilean ministries and National Congress, the Judiciary, and the Comptroller General of the Republic over the course of 3 workshops. The objective of this technical assistance was to provide guidelines on the types of approaches used in budgeting processes with a gender perspective at the international level, with a view to adopting a conceptual framework to guide the incorporation of this perspective in the Chilean budget cycle. The technical assistance plan included a technical note that analyzes the theoretical frameworks for gender mainstreaming in the budget cycle, experiences in defining approaches in the Latin American and Caribbean region and internationally, and guiding questions for defining the GRB application guide. Also, it incorporates a review of the normative framework and recent experiences of Ministry of Finance and DIPRES to incorporate the gender perspective in the budget and in particular in the definition of approaches. As a result, a guide will be developed for the application of the gender perspective in the budget, which includes the identification of the different stages of the budget cycle, the process and timetable for its application and suggestions for updating for future budget periods. Finally, a capacity building will be built for government entities on the guide for the application of the gender perspective in the budget. In terms of capacity building , a partnership with International Monetary Fund (IMF) and UN Women was carried out to implement the second edition of GRB workshop to deepen the gender-sensitive public financial management approach through conceptual and practical tools in order to foster peer learning and support innovations in this field. As a result, 124 officials working in budget cycles in LAC ministries of finance received UN-Women and IMF training to strengthen the approach to GRB. The virtual workshop was held for four days (April 8-11 th ), divided into conceptual sessions, case studies with examples from countries in the region presented by international experts and country officials, and training in tools for implementation. Target audience was middle and senior officials from finance ministries working on GRB, budget processes, public finance regulations, monitoring and evaluation of performance budgeting and gender equality ministries associated with GRB. The workshop is being coordinated with the participation of CARTAC, the Inter-American Development Bank, OECD and international experts. The main objectives include support to ministries of finance in the introduction or strengthening GRB. The workshop will focus on the use of tools such as impact assessments to improve policy design, budget markers for identification and tracking, budget annex reports to improve transparency, and instructions in budget circulars. The workshop addressed GRB and climate change, gender spending reviews, recent studies of legal frameworks, among the areas of recent development.The workshop also presented recent work in these areas by the IMF and other organizations and how they apply or can be applied in the countries of the region. provided participants with analytical tools and create a space for exchange of experiences to facilitate the introduction of gender-sensitive public finance. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through indicator 5.c.1 measures the efforts made by governments to monitor and identify budget allocations for gender equality.In 2018 and 2021, UN Women, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as custodians of information for indicator 5.c.1, invited world governments to report data in terms of their progress. In the region, UN Women supported countries to report on systems to track public allocations to gender equality. Planned actions in 2024 included support in the new round of data collection on systems to track gender budget allocations. All country data is self-reported via a questionnaire sent directly to the Government by the custodians, therefore, training sessions with country offices will be held so they can support governments. UN Women also produced and currently administrates the specialized digital platform www.presupuestoygenero.net, an accessible virtual space for tools, bibliography, and good practices on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in LAC. It also produced a specialized newsletter which contains information on gender-responsive budgeting, exchange of experiences, and best practices. During 2024 a specialized LinkedIn newsletter on gender-responsive budgeting was implemented and resulted in 68,712 subscribers. The Newsletter contains information on gender-responsive budgeting, exchange of experiences, and best practices. In March first GRB LinkedIn Newsletter edition was published achieving 29,142 impressions (number of times it appeared on LinkedIn), 1,071 interactions (sum of likes, comments, shares) and 423 direct reactions. Second edition published in August reached 20,348 impressions, 659 interactions and 297 direct reactions. Un Women for the Americas and the Caribbean will continue using these tools to disseminate knowledge products and advocate for the implementation of GRB in the region. In partnership with FLACSO (The Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences), UN Women strengthened institutional capacities through the yearly virtual specialized course on Gender Responsive Budgeting for women in politics, "Gender Budgeting: Tools for Latin American Women Politicians", aimed at delivering public services with a gender perspective. In the three years this course has been implemented, UN Women has reached 300 women leaders in decision-making positions. In 2024, an impact report will be developed to analyze the 2020 to 2023 course editions and determine their impact on budgetary processes aimed at gender equality. It will also identify recommendations to help improve the impact of these trainings for women in politics.