Effectiveness of gender budgeting on gender equality: Evidence from selected sub-Saharan countries.

Abstract

This paper studied and analyzed the effect, if any, of gender budgeting on gender equality. Studies have been done on the importance of gender equality to governments through growth and development but there is still research needed on whether gender budgeting can lead to gender equality or at least lead to a reduction of gender inequality. Gender budgeting is a strategy to use public spending and collection to reduce the inequality between genders. Government budgets and fiscal measures such as gender budgeting can be key measures to enhance women's development and gender equality. The paper used GDI and Gil scores as proxies for gender equality and use an Ordinary Least Squares fixed effect econometric model to model the effect of gender budgeting on variables such GDP, labor force participation, education and health. These scores were tested to find their effect on gender budgeting. The study found that gender budgeting reduces the Gil index but has an increasing effect on GDI. The study also concluded then gender budgeting has no effect on GDP which shows that gender budgeting is more significant in increasing the gender equality indexes compared to economic growth. Furthern1ore, public spending on education and health will lead to an increase in GDI and Gil