The pandemic has deepened long-standing gender gaps, with women continuing to bear the burden of unpaid work.

By structuring spending and taxation in ways that advance gender equality—a process called gender budgeting—governments can help close the gap.

In recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8, the Chart of the Week takes stock of gender budgeting practices in Group of Twenty countries using data from a recent IMF survey.

The research shows that while all G20 countries have enacted gender focused fiscal policies, the budgetary tools to operationalize, evaluate, monitor and audit these policies remain more limited. Too few countries assess the upfront impact of policies on gender or evaluate their effectiveness ex-post.

IMF staff assessed the relative performance of country practices, using a gender budgeting index (GBI) framed around the four pillars of the IMF’s gender budgeting framework.

The index uses data collected from the IMF survey and ranks countries high, medium, or low, depending on how they score. As the Chart of the Week shows, relative to their G20 peers, Canada, Mexico , France, South Korea, and Japan score high on the GBI.

More than half of G20 countries have a legal framework in place requiring that gender goals and activities be incorporated in the budget, and almost all collect gender-disaggregated statistics to some degree.

Countries also try to bring a gender perspective to the budget preparation process, by linking goals and performance indicators to gender, or by issuing budget circulars with a gender lens. However, just one third carry out up front gender assessments to understand the potential impact of new policies on gender equality.

G20 countries score relatively low in integrating a gender perspective into budget execution. Gender information is rarely included in government annual financial reports. Only seven countries do ex-post gender impact assessments and seldom use them to improve policy design. Few countries audit gender activities and programs, though there is some oversight by legislatures in about half of G20 countries.

Responses to the IMF survey highlight some of the challenges to effectively implementing gender budgeting, including a lack of guidance, coordination, and expertise in gender analysis and data. But the survey also reveals the keys to success: strong political backing, legislative requirements, and a ministry of finance that is firmly in the driver’s seat.

Making the impact of policies on equality more visible through better analysis and reporting can make a real difference in woman’s lives.

Teresa Curristine is a Deputy Division Chief in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, where she advises governments on managing their public finances. She leads capacity development missions and research teams working on a variety of public financial management areas including fiscal frameworks, fiscal transparency, performance budgeting, gender budgeting and public investment management. She is co-editor of the IMF’s PFM blog. Prior to joining the IMF, she worked for the OECD where she managed projects on improving public sector efficiency and results. She has published several articles and edited three books. She was a lecturer at the University of Oxford from where she received her PhD.

Nino Tchelishvili is a Technical Assistance Advisor in the public financial management division of the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, working on wide range of PFM topics including gender budgeting. She has been involved in capacity development missions, regional workshops, as well, as analytical work on gender budgeting. Before joining the IMF, she served as an advisor on the World Bank Board. Prior to this, she was the deputy head of the State Treasury for the government of Georgia for many years. She holds an MA in development economics from Williams College, MA.

Sureni Weerathunga is a Research Analyst in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department. Prior to joining the IMF, she worked as an economics research assistant at Verité Research, Sri Lanka and served as a visiting lecturer in statistics at Sri Lanka’s Sabaragamuwa University. She was the independent budget expert/ primary researcher for the 2019 Open Budget Survey of Sri Lanka conducted by the International Budget Partnership. She has published several articles on labor economics and co-authored articles in the field of public financial management. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics (Hons.) from Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka.

This article first appeared at the IMFBlog, a forum for the views of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff and officials on pressing economic and policy issues of the day. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF and its Executive Board. Reprinted with permission.