Program gender budgeting in Serbia: Lessons and challenges

Abstract

The ways of designing and implementing of governmental budgets have a strong impact on the possibility either to decrease or increase inequalities between women and men in every society. They also influence the gender regime and other structural relations in a society. This paper elaborates public budgets from the perspective of their impact to the gender relations within a broader context of developing gender sensitive approach to macroeconomic policies and public finances. This approach includes gender analysis of the budgets at all managerial levels and implementation of strategic policies and measures that result from this analysis. At the same time, they are directed towards promoting gender equality and enhancing the process of economic and social development. Despite the progress in developing scholar literature on gender budgeting and prominent cases of good practices all around the world, this topic has not been widely accepted in Serbia. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to contribute to better understanding of the gender sensitive (engendered) approach to budgeting, finances and development, with particular respect for the program budgeting model, as well as to promote its implementation in Serbia.