UN Women Programme in Ukraine continues supporting gender responsive budgeting initiatives at the local and national levels

Pustomyty town, L’viv region, Ukraine, 7-10 August 2013, UN Women Programme “Increasing Accountability in Financing for Gender Equality” in partnership with Friederich Ebert Foundation conducted training “Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) at the Local and National level: Finalization of GRB analysis of selected social & economic programmes and development of a generalized matrix of gender indicators for monitoring and evaluation of results on gender equality in budgetary programs”. This is the third training module of the School “Gender and Social & Economic Justice” that aims to strengthen capacity of consultants and local authorities on the GRB methodology and its application to the municipal programmes on social and economic development.

The training was attended by 20 participants from different cities of Ukraine: L’viv, Kharkiv, Poltava, Kherson, Zhitomir, Lutsk, Chuguev, Bakhchisaray, Gola Pristan’, Kyiv etc. Gender equality advocates, GRB consultants and experts, representatives of CSO’s and local government participated in the event.

The main objectives of the final training module were the following:

• to present and discuss final results of GRB analysis in the pilot cities of Ukraine (L’viv, Kharkiv, Gola Pristan’, Bakhchisaray) and provide recommendations for improvement;
• to identify GRB lobbying campaigns’ key messages;
• to develop a Joint Action Plan for GRB lobbying campaigns at the local level;
• to develop a generalized matrix of gender indicators for monitoring and evaluation of results on gender equality in budgetary programs.

At the training the results of GRB analysis in four pilot cities were presented and discussed. Mrs. Olga Zhukova, head of Youth Organization “New Generation” analyzed the main processes related to gender budgeting such as planning and policy making. Mrs Tatiana Ivanina, head of Poltava Regional Division of League of Social Workers of Ukraine talked about the ways of formulating recommendations for authorities to lobby GRB at the local and national level. Discussed and finalized recommendations were included into the key message to local government, civil society and mass media. Methodic recommendations on evaluation of budget programmes effectiveness developed by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine were discussed by the participants and as the result gender-sensitive indicators for a typical list of budget programs were developed.

More specifically, training results were the following:

-Four pilot cities presented results of GRB analysis:

• Establishment of training center “Successful business” in Bakhchisaray city: GRB analysis;
• Improvement of reproductive health services quality in Gola Prostan’ town, Kherson region: GRB analysis;
• GRB analysis of City Programme of Development of Private Entrepreneurship in L’viv in 2011-2013 and Recommendations for the analogic Programme in 2014-2016;
• Gender budgeting of urban projects on improving apartment building areas (equipping kinds’ playgrounds) in Kharkiv;

-GRB lobbying campaigns’ key messages were identified for four pilot cities;

-preliminary Joint Action Plan for GRB lobbying campaigns at the local level was developed;

-gender indicators for monitoring and evaluation of results on gender equality in budgetary programs were developed.

The training is a further step for lobbying GRB initiatives at the local and national levels in Ukraine.