31st Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities – 19-21 October 2016
Jean-Louis Testud: "Gender budgeting is a key mechanism for equality between women and men"
Strasbourg, 20 October 2016
The Congress debated a report on gender budgeting on 20 October 2016. The report, presented by Jean-Louis Testud, Chair of the Governance Committee, pointed out that this approach comprises a gender-based assessment of budgets, incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of the budgetary process and restructuring revenues and expenditures to promote gender equality.
Where the use of transport is concerned, for example, research shows that men and women have differing habits and needs. Women tend to make shorter and more frequent journeys and are the main users of public transport and yet, in many countries and cities, transport policies are devised by men and based solely on their own needs.
Mr Testud stressed that "gender budgeting has proven to be an important mechanism for ensuring greater consistency between economic goals and social commitments at local and regional levels". Reiterating the ambitious goal underpinning the project, he emphasised that this tool contributed to a higher rate of economic growth and greater economic stability.
Through its active commitment to equality between women and men, the Congress is contributing to the framing of Council of Europe strategy in this area. The Congress recommended that local and regional authorities introduce gender budgeting methods in their annual budgets and exchange experience with those cities and regions already practising this approach. The Congress also invited national authorities to allocate funding to encourage the development of pilot projects for the statistical analysis of gender segregated data.