Türkiye mainstreams gender responsive planning and budgeting with new strategy
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The 2024 meeting of the Advisory Board established within the scope of the "Implementation of Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting in Turkey Project" funded by the European Union and the United Nations, with the Ministry of Family and Social Services as the beneficiary and the Presidency of the Presidency of Strategy and Budget as the co-beneficiary, was held chaired by the Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş and with the participation of relevant public institutions.
At the meeting, UN Women Türkiye Country Director Asya Varbanova, Head of Civil Society, Fundamental Rights, Justice and Home Affairs Section of the EU Delegation to Turkey Alexander Fricke, Deputy Chairperson of the TGNA Commission on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Tuba Vural Çokal and Deputy Chairperson of the Presidency's Strategy and Budget Directorate Kutluhan Taşkın gave information on the activities carried out within the scope of the gender responsive budgeting.
Emphasizing that the project is an effective step that will contribute to the improvement of women's rights in Türkiye, Minister Göktaş said: "With the Action Plan we have prepared as a result of our two-year work, we aim to provide a roadmap for the institutionalization of the perspective of Gender Responsive Budgeting in Türkiye."
"Türkiye is among the 23 countries implementing gender responsive budgeting."
Minister Göktaş stated that important developments have been achieved in the project in the last three years. Stating that the Investment Program Preparation Guide for the 2024-2026 period and the Budget Preparation Guidelines for central and local governments included the principle of gender responsive budgeting for the first time, Göktaş said, "We managed to increase the number of indicators on women's empowerment in central government budget programs. Thus, we pioneered institutions to keep gender-based records and to make it more visible and calculable how the services they provide affect women and men." She emphasized that as a result of these advances in the project, according to the 2023 OECD report, Türkiye has became one of the 23 countries implementing gender responsive budgeting.
"The Strategy Document and Action Plan provide a very important framework for institutionalizing gender responsive budgeting."
UN Women Türkiye Country Director Asya Varbanova stressed the need to continue and expand the efforts to institutionalize gender responsive budgeting. "Establishing a system for monitoring resources allocated for women's empowerment is crucial and the Strategy Document and Action Plan we are launching today provides an important framework in this regard."
Strategy Document and Action Plan for Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting
The Strategy Document and Action Plan for Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting which will be implemented between 2024 and 2028, includes 16 strategies and 56 actions in defining, planning-budgeting, implementation and monitoring-auditing stages. The 12th Development Plan, which entered into force in 2023, includes the policy priority "Ensuring equal opportunities for women and men and women's empowerment priority will be ensured to be included in all plans, programs, policy development and implementation processes" reflecting the gender mainstreaming perspective and the sub-measure "Budgeting activities sensitive to equal opportunities for women and men will be expanded and integrated into budgeting processes". With this document completed within the scope of the project, it is aimed to make a significant contribution to the successful implementation of gender responsive budgeting especially the effective implementation of the relevant measure in the 12th Development Plan.