In representing and defending the interests and rights of the people, parliamentarians have a duty to ensure that legislation is not gender-blind and adequately considers the needs and interests of both men and women. Mainstreaming gender in legislation, and particularly in the budgeting process, is critical to establishing a framework in which gender equality can thrive in society. This exercise requires a sound knowledge of legislative and budgetary processes, access to sex-disaggregated data and strong cooperation with women’s groups and governmental bodies alike.
This handbook is designed to assist parliamentarians in carrying out their oversight role on gender by developing a better understanding of the concept, providing a summary of the budget cycle process, discussing gender budgeting, and examining the gender dimensions of parliamentary committees, as well as suggestions for changing attitudes as a strategy for achieving gender equality.
As part of its efforts to strengthen the capacity of parliaments to promote gender equality, the IPU convened a seminar for members of parliamentary bodies that deal with gender matters. The seminar, on The Role of Parliamentary Committees in Mainstreaming Gender and Promoting the Status of Women, was held in Geneva from 4 to 6 December 2006, and brought together over 100 parliamentarians and parliamentary staff from 36 countries.
This report serves not only as a record of the event, but also as a practical tool for parliaments and their members to pursue efforts to mainstream gender equality in their work. Whether it is through specialized parliamentary bodies on gender equality, or through conventional committee structures, parliamentarians are well placed to ensure that legislative outputs address the needs of all sectors of society. We hope that you draw inspiration from this report for your future work.
Nepal is making a new constitution, which will be a culmination of the People's Movement, and thus must be based on the aspirations of the people of Nepal. However gender-friendly Constitution may seem, it will not automatically lead to an increase in gender equality, but the process of constitution making creates an opportunity for women to make some significant progress towards the realisation of their rights. Women should not miss this chance.
There is significant number of women members of the Constituent Assembly. Some of these members are women with great knowledge and experience and understanding of the possibilities that the Constituent Assembly opens up for women. Some of the others may have a less clear idea of what a constitution is and how they can, through this process; contribute to the improvement of the position of women. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issues that women members of the Constituent Assembly, and those who in the broader society will be supporting them and hoping to work through them, will need to address in order to achieve a good constitution for the women of Nepal. It is not a paper of answers - it is more an agenda.
In February and March 2001 the CPA, with the assistance of the CPA Malaysia Branch and the approval of the CPA Executive Committee, arranged a Study Group in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Gender-Sensitizing Commonwealth Parliaments. The aims of the Study Group were set out as:
Just as Indonesia varies geographically, culturally and socially, so do women across the archipelago. Women’s roles have become increasingly public; women today enjoy many of the same educational opportunities as men and make up a significant proportion of the labour force. Women make up just under half of the civil service, and there are now more women than ever sitting in parliament.
The Government of Indonesia is committed to upholding women’s rights through a number of legal provisions, and is signatory to several commitments and covenants regarding gender equality. While a Presidential Decree issued in 2000 mandates gender mainstreaming as a task to be undertaken by the government, the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment has drafted a new law on gender equality, which they hope to have passed this year, and implemented by 2011. The law would replace the Presidential Decree in order to ensure gender sensitive policies are implemented across all ministries and local governments, and would have the legal jurisdiction to do so.
This guide demonstrate that women’s collective efforts in the legislature are crucial not only because of their impact on public policies that effectively respond to citizens’ demands and interests, but also because of their effect on the consolidation and progress of women’s leadership. Nonetheless, cross-party work within the legislative branch faces many challenges: building consensus while maintaining equilibrium between commitment to gender issues and party visions; keeping gender issues on the public agenda; and creating a sustainable critical mass of women legislators committed to advancing a gender equality agenda.
Women in legislatures worldwide have used diverse practices to make progress on priority issues and decrease the gender gaps in their countries. This should serve as an incentive to increase the number of women in parliaments and support their efforts so they can propose actions that ensure the continuation of the achievements of their predecessors.
This series of knowledge briefs was produced by UNIFEM on the basis of research conducted under the European Commission-supported programme ‘Integrating Gender Responsive Budgeting into the Aid Effectiveness Agenda’. The research, which was carried out in ten countries (Cameroon, Ethiopia, India, Morocco, Nepal, Mozambique, Peru, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) investigated how gender responsive budgeting (GRB) tools and strategies had been used in the context of aid modalities, such as general budget support (GBS) and sector budget support (SBS).
The research aimed to increase national partners’ and European Union decision-makers’ understanding of the opportunities for using GRB to ensure that aid contributes to the achievement of gender equality goals.The knowledge briefs aim to provide guidance on using GRB tools to integrate a gender dimension into new modalities of aid financing, so that these support the implementation of governments’ gender equality commitments. The target audiences are programmers and policy makers working for national governments, the European Commission, and bilateral donors.
The series of briefs consists of:
