This presentation was made by Scherie Nicol and Pinar Guven, at the 3rd Experts Meeting on Gender Budgeting held at the OECD Conference Centre, Paris, on 19-20 September 2019.

1. OECD Review of Gender Equality in Canada:
Mainstreaming, Implementing & Budgeting
Scherie NICOL & Pinar GUVEN
3rd SBO Experts Meeting on Gender Budgeting
19 September 2019, Paris, France
OECD Scan:
Equality Budgeting in Ireland

2. • High profile supportive
developments relating to
equality in recent years
• But key equality gaps remain
• Range of national strategies
in place to address these
2
Equality in Ireland:
recent developments

3. • High level political commitment
• Institutional infrastructure in
place
• Introduced on pilot basis in 2017
• Covers 9 grounds of
discrimination
• Build on Ireland system of
performance budgeting
• Developments informed by
Expert Advisory Group
• Supported by key tools:
SWITCH model and poverty
proofing of policies
• Parliament showing close
interest
3
Equality budgeting in Ireland:
key characteristics & strengths

4. 4
Equality budgeting in Ireland:
an international comparison
Gender budgeting dimension
Do OECD
countries have it?
Does Ireland
have it?
Strategic framework
National gender equality strategy 71% n
Legal basis for gender budgeting 53% n
Annual budget circular with details and instructions on the application of gender budgeting 53% n
Inter-agency group to ensure coordination and/or exchange of good practices on gender budgeting 47% n
Tools of implementation
Ex ante gender impact assessment of all major policies included in the budget 53% n
Ex ante gender impact assessment of selected policies included in the budget 76% n
Gender dimension in resource allocation 53% n
Gender dimension in performance setting 59% n
Gender statement: general statement 47% n
Gender incidence analysis of the budget as a whole 18% n
Ex post gender impact assessment of all major policies 18% n
Gender dimension in spending review 24% n
Gender audit of the budget 29% n
Audit of gender budgeting systems/processes 24% n
Enabling environment
Standard guidelines from central budget authority on how to apply gender budgeting 71% n
Structured engagement with civil society on gender equality issues 41% n
Expert / consultative group advises on the application of gender budgeting 41% n
Training and capacity-development in the application of gender budgeting 59% n
General availability of gender disaggregated data 65% n
Sector-specific availability of gender disaggregated data 65% n
Ex ante phase: budget preparation
Concurrent phase: tabling of the budget
Ex post phase: after the budget year ends

5. • Scope is broad with many
dimensions
• Lack of overarching equalities
strategy & goals
• Limited incentives for
departments to engage
• Built on performance budgeting
which in itself faces its own
challenges
• Impact of efforts to date remain
limited
• Remains difficult to obtain
information on equality needs
5
Equality budgeting in Ireland:
key challenges

6. 6
Key OECD recommendations to
boost impact of equality budgeting
1. Build in incentives for departments
to engage
2. Set out over-arching equality goals
to focus government efforts
3. Table an equality budgeting
statement alongside the budget
4. Develop tagging functionality
5. Expand poverty proofing of policies to look at how poverty intersects with
equality dimensions
6. Compliment developments on expenditure side with increased efforts on
tax side
7. Build capacity in departments and improve collection of data

7. 7
Equality budgeting in Ireland:
Future potential

8. OECD Review of Gender Equality in Canada:
Mainstreaming, Implementing & Budgeting
Thank you