SL makes an effort towards gender budgeting

Sri Lanka is exploring the possibility of introducing gender-based budgeting as part of its effort to improve women empowerment in the country.
The proposal was made in the 2024 budget speech presented to Parliament by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, yesterday.
Accordingly, related legislation would be drafted alongside introducing laws for the empowerment of women, said Wickremesinghe.

This is not the first time Sri Lanka has made an attempt towards gender budgeting.
In the 2018 budget, the National Budget Department of the Finance Ministry introduced a new policy strategy for gender responsive budgeting, to be implemented under the medium-term budgetary framework.

However, despite the effort, there was limited oversight and monitoring of the implementation of this initiative.
According to an analysis by Verite Research in 2021, there was little or no progress in the achievement of any of the key performance indicators (KPIs) outlined. 

Gender budgeting is emerging as a significant socioeconomic tool globally, for transparency and accountability. It typically analyses budgetary policies and identifies the effects on gender development. 
It is an analysis of the entire budget process through a gender lens, to identify the gender differential impacts and to translate gender commitments into budgetary commitments.

This policy tool is increasingly viewed as a bridge between two parallel agendas focused on gender and domestic revenue mobilisation. 
Gender budgeting was first introduced in Australia in 1984 and has since spread to more than 80 countries. (SAA)