1. Budgeting for Strategic & Societal Issues
Too much, or not enough?
Ronnie Downes
Deputy Head, Budgeting & Public Expenditures, OECD
Senior Budget Officials, Jerusalem, 7 June 2018

2. OECD Budget Recommendation
“the budget is a central
policy document of
government”
“helps to turn plans and
aspirations into reality”
“supports, and is supported
by, other pillars of modern
public governance”

3. OECD Budget Principle #1
“Manage within clear, credible
fiscal limits”
- Sound sustainable fiscal policy
- Support counter-cyclical policy
- Manage resource
endowments
- Fiscal rules may help
- “Top down budgeting”

4. OECD Budget Principle #2
“Align budgets with the
strategic priorities of
government”
- Stronger multiannual
dimension
- Budget allocations should
correspond readily with
national objectives
- Close working relationships at
the centre of government

5. Areas of strategic alignment
• MTEF – bringing budget process and planning
process closer together
• But what about cross-government policy issues?
– Gender equality
– Environment
– Sustainable Development Goals
– Wellbeing

6. The challenge of gender equality
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7. • question, rather than protect, “baseline” allocations and the policies
they embody
• direct resources in support of political plans and priorities
• use the full budget cycle to make space for evidence, analysis and
critical perspectives
• stand inside, rather than outside, the government-wide continuum
of public policy making
Gender budgeting is a microcosm of these challenges
7
Modern budgeting seeks to…
Gender equality: relevance for budgeting?

8. 8
Budget preparation
phase
• Gender needs
assessment
• Budget baseline
analysis
• GBA ex ante
• Gender
informed tax and
spend decisions
Budget approval
and implementation
phase
• Gender impact
assessment of budget
• Gender budget
statement: qualitative
and quantitative
dimensions
• Scrutiny and
accountability in
parliamentary debate
After spending / tax
measures are in
place
• GBA ex post
• Comprehensive
spending
review
• Gender audit of
the budget
Gender budgeting
applications across the budget cycle

9. 9
Gender budgeting:
increasing use in OECD countries
CHE
GBR
USA
AUS
CZE
DNK
EST
GRC
HUN
LVA
LUX
NLD
NZL
NOR
POL
SVK
SVN
FRA
TUR
AUT
BEL
CAN
CHL
FIN
DEU
ISL
IRL
ISR
ITA
JPN
KOR
MEX
PRT
ESP
SWE
Introduced
Not planned
Planned
Not responded

10. 10
Gender information
published with the annual budget
OECD
Country
General
statement
on gender
objectives
Progress
statement
Informat-
ion on
spending
allocated to
gender
equality
projects
Gender
impact
analysis of
specific
budget
measures
Gender
impact
analysis of
budget as a
whole
Canada    
Iceland 
Japan  
Korea    
Mexico     
Portugal  
Spain     
Sweden  

11. • Comprehensive set of model budget reforms
• Advanced practices for ex ante and ex post RIA
• Performance budgeting embraces gender budgeting
For reflection…
• Line ministries determine gender objectives
• Scope for stronger government-wide coordination
• Role of over-arching strategy
• No specific link to goals, metrics or targets
11
2018: Focused Budget Review of Austria

12. Gender Equality in Canada:
Mainstreaming, Governance and Budgeting
Strong analytical record: “GBA+”
Feminist government: new rigour
2017: Gender Statement in Budget
Draft OECD findings: must be anchored
as part of broader, directional
framework
2018: Equality Statement in Budget:
- including new Gender Results
Framework

13. Annual Experts Meeting on Gender
Budgeting – Vienna, 18-19 June 2018
• Gender equality strategy
• Institutional roles
• Gender budgeting in
taxation
• Civil society engagement
• Governance guidelines

14. The environmental challenge
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15. “Paris Collaborative on Green budgeting”
• Launched at One Planet
Summit, 12 December
2017 in Paris
• Convened by OECD,
working in close
partnership with
governments and
experts

16. using the tools and processes of budgeting
… to improve the impact of environmental
policies
… to better understand the fiscal dimensions
of environmental trends and transitions
… and help achieve national and
international environmental targets
16
“Green Budgeting?”

17. Domestic and international action on
environment:
– Air pollution, biodiversity, water, climate
– International agreements (Paris Agreement,
Aichi Biodiversity Targets, related Sustainable
Development Goals)
– “Investing in Climate, Investing in Growth” :
imperative to align policy and all financial flows
17
“National and international targets?”

18. Office of the
Secretary General
Public Governance
Committee
WP of Senior
Budget Officials
(SBO)
SBO Performance
and Results
SBO Financial
Reporting and
Accounting
Environment
Policy Committee
Joint Meeting, Tax
and Environment
Experts
WP on Climate,
Investment &
Development
WP on Biodiversity,
Water & Ecosystems
Committee on
Fiscal Affairs
Joint Meeting, Tax and
Environment Experts
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Work with broader OECD networks

19. 19
Green budgeting: from concept to outputs?
Green Budget Baseline Analysis :
“heat map” of existing policies
Green Balance Sheet :
Valuing, and getting value from,
natural capital
Long-term sustainability reports :
Beyond demographics
Sectoral profile :
How effectively have
environmental tools been applied?
Tax decarbonisation country scan :
Implications for revenue policy
Environmental cost-benefit
assessments :
routine, standardised
Green Budget Benchmarks :
e.g. effective carbon tax
Analysis of “harmful subsidies” :
Are policies internally coherent?

20. 20
Draft output:
prototype “Green Budget Statement”Green Budget Statement
Environmental Impacts of Budget Measures
A. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2)
year:- 2018 2019 2025 2030 2040 2050
SUMMARY
National Pathway for CO2 Emissions
125.0 110.0 90.0 85.0
Pre-budget projection 127.5 131.5 132.4 133.3 130.2 130.0
Relevant budget allocations (€ millions, cumulative) €1,677 €1,721 €717 €302 €240
Budget impacts on carbon emissions (est.) 0.1 -2.8 -15.2 -28.3 -34.4
I - Electricity and Heat Production 0.1 0.9 -1.8 -5.4 -7.6
II - Built Environment -0.4 -1.3 -2.4 -2.6 -1.9
III - Transport 0.3 1.0 -2.2 -6.2 -8.5
IV - Industry Specific Emissions -0.5 -1.6 -4.7 -8.0 -9.4
V - Agriculture, Forestry & Land use -0.7 -1.6 -3.2 -4.6 -5.2
VI - Other Programmes 1.3 -0.2 -0.9 -1.5 -1.8
Post-budget forecasts 127.5 131.6 129.6 118.1 101.9 95.6
For future action -4.6 -8.1 -11.9 -10.6
I. ELECTRICITY AND HEAT PRODUCTION Sectoral emissions pathway 12.0 9.0 6.0 3.0
Pre-budget projection 11.5 12.5 14.0 15.0 14.0 13.0
I.a Ocean energy prototype development 0.1 -0.1 -0.2 -0.3 -0.4
resource allocation (€ million) €270 €300 €27 €0 €0
I.b Renewable energy: Offshore windfarm array 0.1 0.4 -0.2 -1.1 -2.0
resource allocation (€ million) €32 €80 €70 €5 €5
I.c Decomissioning of turf generation plants 0.1 1.2 -0.6 -3.0 -4.0
resource allocation (€ million) €27 €38 €4 €0 €0
I.d Other measures -0.2 -0.6 -0.8 -1.0 -1.2
resource allocation (€ million) €45 €41 €39 €12 €7
sub-totals 0.1 0.9 -1.8 -5.4 -7.6
€374 €459 €140 €0 €0
Post-budget forecasts 11.5 12.6 14.9 13.2 8.6 5.4
For future action -2.9 -4.2 -2.6 -2.4
II. BUILT ENVIRONMENT Sectoral emissions pathway 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0

21. 18 May - Working Lunch of delegates from the Joint
Meetings of Tax and Environment Experts.
22 May - Introductory workshop on Green
Budgeting tools (organised back-to-back with
the Working Party on Biodiversity,
Water and Ecosystems, 23-24 May)
20 June - Experts Workshop on Green Budgeting:
Mapping the forward agenda and testing
initial outputs.
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Engaging OECD working groups

22. The SDG challenge
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23. Rising to the challenge?
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24. Towards more integrated approaches
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25. Towards more integrated approaches
25

26. Towards more integrated approaches
26

27. Towards more integrated approaches
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28. Link to Outcomes / Wellbeing goals
1. Economic indicators
– Competitiveness
– Potential growth
2. Social / Inclusive indicators
– Poverty, inequality, relative income
– Health, Education
– Cultural life
3. Sustainability indicators
– Environment
– Human and physical capital
– Fiscal and Societal Resilience
Examples: France, NZ, OECD

29. 1. Just focus on today’s top priorities
– political direction
2. Comprehensive supplementary data with budget
– Impact assessments, distributional analyses
3. Open data with “tagging” – let stakeholders find
their own stories
– Implications for FMIS?
4. Re-engineer budget narrative to tell a holistic story
– Sweden Budget Review 2016:
re-purpose the 27 “Expenditure Areas”?
– New Zealand: Wellbeing Budget
The budget as a strategic policy
document: 4 possible approaches
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30. THANK YOU !