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Countries that have worked on gender budget initiatives include:

The following publications are excellent resources on gender budgets:


  • Engendering Budgets: A Practitioners’s Guide to Understanding and Implementing Gender Responsive Budgets. Debbie Budlender and Guy Hewitt. London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2003.
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  • Budgeting for equity: Gender budget initiatives within a framework of performance oriented budgeting. Rhonda Sharp, UNIFEM, 2003.
    Download here >>
  • Gender Budget Initiatives: Why They Matter in Canada Alternative Federal Budget 2006: Technical Paper 1, by Isabella Bakker
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  • Alternative Budgets: Budgeting as if People Mattered. John Loxley. Fernwood Publishing and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2003.

    An exploration of alternative budgets including pro-poor, pro-environment, and pro-women budgets at national, regional, and civic levels.

  • Gender Budget Initiatives: strategies, concepts and experiences, papers from a high level international conference “Strengthening Economic and Financial Governance through Gender Responsive Budgeting”, Brussels, 16-18 October 2001. UNIFEM, 2002.

    Cases from Andean Region, France, India, Philippines, Tanzania, and Uganda.

  • Gender Budgets Make Cents. Debbie Budlender, Diane Elson, Guy Hewitt, Tanni Mukopadhyay. London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2002.

    An overview of gender responsive budgets.

  • Gender Budgets Make More Cents: Country Studies and Good Practice. Debbie Budlender and Guy Hewitt, G. (eds), London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2002.

    Best practices in gender responsive budgeting.

  • Gender Budget Initiative Background Papers. Diane Elson. Commonwealth Secretariat, 1999.
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  • Gender Budget Initiative Tools. Diane Elson. Commonwealth Secretariat, 1999.
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  • How to do a Gender-Sensitive Budget Analysis: Contemporary Research and Practice. Debbie Budlender and Rhonda Sharp with Kerry Allen. AusAid and Commonwealth Secretariat, 1998.
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  • Show Us the Money! The Politics of Process of Alternative Budgets. CHO!CES and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 1998.

    An excellent popular education resource on how to do alternative budgets.

For more general information on gender budgets visit: