Fiscal Policy for Sustainable Development in Asia-Pacific: Gender Budgeting in India

314 Pages·2022·5.031 MB·English

by  Lekha S. Chakraborty

Fiscal Policy for
Sustainable Development
in Asia-Pacific
Gender Budgeting in India
Lekha S. Chakraborty
Fiscal Policy for Sustainable Development
in Asia-Pacific
Lekha S. Chakraborty
Fiscal Policy
for Sustainable
Development
in Asia-Pacific
Gender Budgeting in India
Lekha S. Chakraborty
National Institute of Public Finance
and Policy
New Delhi, Delhi, India
ISBN 978-981-19-3280-9 ISBN 978-981-19-3281-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3281-6
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For my mom.
Preface
Fiscal policy is prima facie gender-neutral. But it can turn gender blind
due to the socio-economic asymmetries in development across gender.
The role of public policy is to ensure “Leave No One Behind” in the
journey towards sustainable economic growth. Gender budgeting, as a
Public Financial Management (PFM) tool, is about applying a “gender
lens” in fiscal policy frameworks to redress gender inequalities by ensuring
fiscal transparency and accountability.
In 2016, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for the first time
ever, asked its member nations to integrate gender budgeting into PFM.
Gender budgeting has reached the world stage when United Nations
Secretary-General (UNSG) High-level Panel on Women’s Economic
Empowerment in 2016 identified gender budgeting as one of the tools
to ensure gender equality.
Extraordinary times require extraordinary policy responses. In the
times of global uncertainties and the COVID-19 pandemic, it is oppor-
tune to unpack what gender-responsive fiscal policy entails. With many
governments preparing public finance strategies for the post-pandemic
fiscal year, we now have a renewed opportunity to strengthen gender
budgeting as an effective PFM tool to redress mounting inequalities. In
Asia-Pacific, gender budgeting has evolved as a fiscal innovation, that
translates gender-related commitments to fiscal commitments through
identified processes, resources, and institutional mechanisms, impacting
both the spending and revenue sides of the budget. In a country like
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viii PREFACE
India, where it is well known that gender discrimination starts even
before birth resulting in adverse sex ratios at birth, gender budgeting is a
powerful tool to redress gender inequalities.
The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), an
independent think tank of the Ministry of Finance, is the pioneering insti-
tute to conduct gender budgeting in India. Since 2004, at national and
selected subnational levels, gender budgeting has been institutionalized
within the Ministry of Finance using NIPFP methodology for preparing
the analytical matrices. India is a leading example of sustainable gender
budgeting in Asia-Pacific region.
Korea has integrated gender budgeting within National Finance Law
in 2006, within the legal fiat. In the Philippines, gender budgeting was
made mandatory by legally earmarking 5% of all sectoral expenditure
on women. However, the “earmarking” can only be a second-best prin-
ciple of gender budgeting. The fiscal marksmanship—possibility of fiscal
forecasting errors—of gender budgeting is a crucial determinant to under-
stand why higher budgetary allocation does not automatically ensure
higher public expenditure for women’s empowerment.
The overall macroeconomic environment of Asia-Pacific region—espe-
cially the procedures that relate to “fiscal rules” and avoiding fiscal
austerity—plays a crucial role in ensuring gender equitable outcomes of
gender budgeting.
I hope my book will interest students, economists, media professionals,
and policymakers who are searching for understanding gender budgeting,
and how countries can promote greater gender equality through public
finance management.
New Delhi, India Lekha S. Chakraborty
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the National Institute of Public Finance and
Policy (NIPFP) for the enabling environment to write this book. I
express my gratitude to NIPFP, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, New York for granting me
permission to use my selected working papers in this book.
I benefitted immensely from my presentations in international
meetings—including the American Economic Association Meetings in
Atlanta—and from my professional interactions with eminent scholars
and policymakers, to write the book. I would particularly like to thank
the Governing Board of Management of the International Institute of
Public Finance Munich, where I am a Member; the International Working
Groups on Gender, Macroeconomics and International Trade; Econo-
metric Society of India and the Research Group on Employer of Last
Resort for enabling academic deliberations.
I express my sincere gratitude to my mentors and colleagues at NIPFP,
Levy Economics Institute, Centre for Development Studies, American
University, University of Utah, Uppsala University, Carleton University;
IMF, World Bank, and various UN entities where I worked on short
stints. I must record my appreciation for my research interns for their
help in analysis, at various stages of my book.
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I express my gratitude to two anonymous reviewers of the book to
whom it was sent by the Palgrave Macmillan. I immensely benefitted from
their comments.
I express my love to my family—particularly my son—for their
immense support.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
The Macroeconomic Backdrop 2
The Rationale 6
The Analytical Framework 7
Ex Ante and Ex Post Frameworks of Gender Budgeting 10
The Structure 13
References 15
2 Macroeconomic Policy Coherence for Gender
Equality in Asia-Pacific 19
Fiscal Policy Stance 21
Effective Fiscal Management and Governance 25
Inequalities in Fiscal Policy 25
Linking Resources to Results: Outcome Budgets 26
Normative Framework and Methodology to Analyse
the Fiscal Policy for Gender Equality 29
Monetary Policy Stance 30
Structural Reforms 33
Mapping of Macro Policies in Asia-Pacific 36
Identifying Specific Policy Tools 37
References 39
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