This presentation was made by Eileen Regan and Matthew Wilson , at the 3rd Experts Meeting on Gender Budgeting held at the OECD Conference Centre, Paris, on 19-20 September 2019

1. Impacts of Gender Budgeting:
Examples from Canada and Iceland
Eileen Regan and Matthew Wilson
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
3rd Experts Meeting on Gender Budgeting
OECD Conference Centre, Paris, France
19-20 September 2019

2. Recap from earlier sessions
Gender budgeting:
• Is used by governments to budget more effectively and promote
gender equality
• Is not separately budgeting for women and men
• Enables broader and deeper consideration of citizens’ social,
financial and economic needs, while using a gender lens
• Can highlight the amount of public money that goes to women
and to men, and assist in determining whether changes should be
made for reasons related to gender equality
• Facilitates better informed decision-making amongst politicians
and public officials, at key stages of budget cycles and related
financial processes

3. Gender budgeting integrates social perceptions into financial
planning and budgeting by aiming to:
• Identify the different impacts of government budgets (in whole or
individual measures) on women and men; and consider how those
impacts result in gender inequalities in the home, the workplace
and or wider society, which contributes to social injustices amongst
their citizens, and adversely affect economic growth in the country
• Rely on the above findings at various stages in the budget cycles
and related financial processes, e.g. when formulating, prioritising,
deciding, delivering and/or reviewing their budgets accordingly
• Consider potential mitigations to reduce identified negative gender
impacts, as appropriate

4. • At present, 17 member countries (of 34) have adopted gender
budgeting in some form (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile,
Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea,
Mexico, Norway Portugal, Spain and Sweden).
• A further two are introducing gender budgeting (France and
Turkey).
• Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate.
OECD budgeting and public expenditures in OECD countries.
OECD. 2019: https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/budgeting-and-
public-expenditures-in-oecd-countries-2018_9789264307957-en#page107

5. • Various interpretations of gender budgeting in the noted OECD
countries.
• Questions arise on gender budgeting use, such as:
o What impacts arise from a country’s interpretation of gender
budgeting?
o Case studies – Canada and Iceland (and others in future –
interested?)

6. Case studies on Canada and Iceland
• Both countries have long-standing traditions of gender equality.
• Distinct ‘phases’ in the development of gender budgeting in
each country:
o Transitioning from gender equality legal protections and
commitments, to gender mainstreaming
o Incrementally integrating gender budgeting using GIA and a data
driven, targeted approach (Legal and other requirements; Political
commitments; Departmental submissions; Budget documentation;
Transparency; Data; Knowledge; Culture)
o Impacts?

7. Impact Examples of Gender Budgeting
in Canada and Iceland
“Impact: in terms of:
• Increasing the breadth and depth of GIA application
• Raising the priority of gender equality outcomes

8. Examples on
increasing the breadth and depth of GIA application in
Canada

9. Example 1:
GBA+ on Primary Inspection Kiosks Improved Airport
Service Delivery
• The Canadian Border Services created Primary Inspection Kiosks to
improve border services for international travellers at Canada’s busiest
airports.
• GBA+:
o Informed the design and operation of the kiosk, to ensure no individuals with
common identity factors are unfairly disadvantaged by the new technology
o Helped to identify that the kiosk’s facial authentication technology could
impact certain people differently, due to their gender, age, mobility and
ethnicity
o Informed the development of a mitigation strategy for the facial recognition
technology

10. Example 2:
GBA+ on Research Funding Application Criteria Enables
Deeper Understanding of Concussion
• The Canadian Institute of Health Research applied GBA+ and changed its
application criteria for research funding that is either directly or indirectly
related to concussion.
• GBA+ identified research that found gender and age are key variables
explaining the incidence, symptoms and recovery from traumatic brain
injury.
• For example, women were reported to experience more symptoms,
greater cognitive decline and poorer reaction time.
• The criteria now requires an applicant to indicate if and how sex and
gender are integrated into the research design.

11. Examples on
raising the priority of gender equality outcomes in Canada

12. Example 1:
GBA+ Challenge Function Exercised to Improve Quality of
Departmental GBA+ Analysis and Information
• In Budget 2018, the Canadian Government acknowledged that GBA+
(Gender-Based Analysis Plus) experience and expertise would continue to
benefit from further development across the federal government.
• The Government remarked on the quality and application of GBA+
undertaken by departments the Gender Statement accompanying Budget
2018, stating it had insufficient analyses due to a lack of data, particularly
in relation to intersecting identity factors.
• The Government committed in Budget 2018 to publishing GBA+ analysis
for all budget items, starting with Budget 2019.
• That commitment was placed on a legislative footing via the enactment of
the Canadian Gender Budgeting Act in December 2018.
• Subsequently, Budget 2019’s accompanying Gender Statement contained
GBA+ information for each policy area for the first time.

13. Example 2:
Employment Insurance (EI) Parental Sharing Benefit
• Wanted to give parents more flexibility in how parents share the care of their child
in the first year following birth or adoption.
• Budget 2017: New Gender Statement included measures aimed at reducing the
gender wage gap and encouraging greater workforce participation among
women.
• Budget 2018: Pillar 2 of new GRF contains a section entitled “equal sharing of
parenting roles and family responsibilities” and the key indicator “proportion of
time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by gender”.
• Changes came into place on March 17, 2019 and parents can now receive extra
weeks of Employment Insurance (EI) parental benefits so they can share the
work of raising their children more equally.
• Drew on success in Quebec (“large and persistent impact” on gender dynamics):
o Fathers who took leave were found to be more likely to do housework (and spend 23% more
time doing this work)
o Mothers were found to be more likely to engage in paid work. Under QPIP, Quebec dads also
spent an average half-hour more per day at the family home than those outside of Quebec

14. Example 3:
Gender Statement, the GRF and Continued Support for
Domestic Violence Victims
• Evidence:
o Women, children, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ
persons are at greater risk of experiencing family violence and its impacts
o Approximately 4,000 Indigenous women were murdered or went missing
between 1980 and 2012
o Indigenous women make up only 5 per cent of the female population in
Canada, but account for 24 per cent of all victims of homicide
• FVPP goal: to improve the safety and security of indigenous women,
children and families by providing emergency shelters to persons escaping
domestic violence and a variety of educational and support services.

15. • Prior to 2017, there was no “gender specific” budget chapter. FVPP
funding commitments came within Chapter 3: “A better future for
indigenous people”.
• Introduction of Canadian Gender Statement in 2017 gave cross-cutting
policies a more natural place within the budget.
• Budget 2018 included the GRF, its six “Pillars” and the Summary
Placemat.
• 4th “Pillar” included commitments aligning directly with the aims of the
FVPP, e.g.:
o “Fewer women are victims of intimate partner violence and sexual assault”
o “Fewer women killed by an intimate partner”
• GBA+ matters like FVVP are kept in the spotlight, increasing transparency.

16. Examples on
raising the priority of gender equality outcomes in Iceland

17. Example 1:
GIA and Sanitary Towel Tax
• June 2019: a bill enacted to reduce the tax rate on essential women’s
hygiene products and contraceptives
• Decreased the standard VAT rate of 24 per cent to 11 per cent, in line with
the tax rate for goods such as food and other essential products, and
some male contraceptive products
• Effective September 2019
• GIA:
o Reduction will increase the health products’ affordability and thereby their
accessibility
o Provides women with more equal access to those products
o Expected to bring long-term public health improvements for women, and save
them and the health service money
• Change at a cost to the state due to lost revenue as a result of the lower
tax rate

18. Example 2:
GIA and Income Tax Credit for Couples
• 2015 Parliamentary Budget Committee proposal: to continue the
unused income tax credit for couples
o The existing credit allowed the partner with the higher earnings to benefit from
the unused tax credit of the partner with the lower earnings
o The Committee proposal aimed to significantly amend a legislative proposal
already put forward by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs
• Ministry proposal: to simplify the existing income tax system, moving
from three bands to two, abolishing the unused tax credit for couples

19. • GIA revealed the discount:
o Generally had resulted in the man’s receipt of the tax credit due to the
woman’s lower income
o Had provided an incentive for a woman to bear the burden of unpaid
household and care work and be the secondary (lower) earner, while the man
remains the primary (higher) earner and receives the credit (tax credit
available to those who reach the higher bracket, not the partner who is in the
low bracket.)
• GIA undermined the Budget Committee’s proposal, which:
o Would compound adverse disproportionate impacts already arising for
women from the existing tax discount
o Would continue to result in men receiving tax benefits based on the work and
salaries of women, increasing men’s disposable income and the gender
income gap, contrary to the Government’s goal of economic equality between
men and women
• GIA highlighted the Ministry’s proposal would remove those effects, and no
longer allow the partner with the higher earnings to benefit from the
unused income tax credit of the partner with the lower earnings.
• Result: Budget Committee amended its proposed change in light of the
GIA findings.

20. Examples on
increasing the breadth and depth of GIA application in
Iceland

21. Example 1:
Parliamentary Resolution on Government Gender Equality Action
Plan 2016-19, GIA and Labour Market/Equal Pay
• Parliamentary Resolution on the Government’s 2016-19 Gender Equality
Action Plan: Paragraph 8 prioritised a number of equal pay-related actions
• Minister of Social Affairs and Equality introduced a bill in 2017
• Enacted as the new Equal Pay Certification Act (the Act) - effective 2018
• Aim: to prioritise wage equality and close the gender wage gap in Iceland
by 2022
• GIA relied on existing data highlighting gender wage disparities
o Statistics Iceland recorded in 2015 that women in Iceland earned 14-20 per cent
less than men
o Companies and institutions covered by the Act will be assisted in: eliminating
whatever gender-based bias they may have in their employees’ pay; and, in
identifying indirect work selection, i.e. why women are not taking up certain
jobs and instead choose others

22. Example 2:
Parliamentary Resolution on Government Gender Equality Action
Plan 2016-19, GIA and Parental Leave
•
• 2000 legislation regulating parental leave in Iceland changed and
introduced nine months parental leave, with three months earmarked for
mothers and another three months for fathers (non-transferrable), along
with another three months for either.
• Research shows that since then:
o Fathers’ participation in childcare has changed radically
o Mothers return to work earlier, and get back to working ordinary hours
faster
o Fathers’ leave the main driver in this development
• Parliamentary Resolution on Government’s 2016-19 Gender Equality
Action Plan, paragraph 9 prioritised “the resuscitation of the parental leave
system”, following on from changes that had been made due to the
recession, lowering the payment.
• Followed on from Parliamentary Resolution for the Government Gender
Equality Action Plan 2011-14 and the working group brought together with
the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing.
•

23. •
• 2016 Government “Statement of Fiscal Policy and Fiscal Strategy Plan”
o Agreed to increase the maximum monthly payment
o Recognised academic research evidencing fathers who had built up closer
relationships with their children
o Challenged gender-stereotyping to change attitudes at home, the
workplace and in general society
o Promote gender equality
• 2019, Government extended parental leave to 12 months for a number of
reasons, including the research findings noted above
o Believed such an extension would bridge the gap that presently exists
between parental leave ending and a playschool slot opening up
• Now, it appears the Government plans to introduce this change between
2020-21

24. Concluding remarks
• Summing up
o Impacts noted
o Others?
• Future plans
o Case studies on other OECD countries – interested to work with others
o Typology reporting on findings

25. Questions & Discussion
Thanks for your attention.