Analysing Gender Responsiveness in Pakistan's Federal Budget FY2023-24

In 2023 the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus of the National Assembly of Pakistan launched a Gender Budgeting Strategy - a roadmap for integrating gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) into planning and public finance management to improve gender equality and women’s empowerment in Pakistan.

of the Federal Budget FY2023-24 generates evidence to help legislators, government officials and civil society to support the implementation of the Strategy. The analysis is based on tagging each allocation and expenditure to identify gender-relevant funds, categorize them under six themes and rank their relevance. Its findings show that 3.38% or PKR 488,509 million of the total Federal Budget FY2023-24 of PKR 14,454,563 million is of high relevance, i.e., directly benefitting women, girls and gender-diverse persons. PKR 603,457 million, 4.17%, is of medium relevance, i.e., budgets that are not specifically designed for gender equality but may potentially promote it. PKR 212,365 million, 1.47%, is of low relevance, i.e, may create an enabling environment for Ranked according to allocations places Social Protection (social safety nets for the vulnerable) on top with a total gender-relevant amount of PKR 499,940 million. Second is Women’s Economic Empowerment (supports girls, women and gender-diverse persons to access and generate incomes) with PKR 442,497 million; followed by Social Services (access to education, healthcare and other basic services) with PKR 254,799 million; Climate Change (adaptation and mitigation measures) with PKR 74,959 million; Gender Based Violence (budgets to prevent or respond to GBV) with PKR 31,912 million; and, PKR 225 million for Institutions Advancing Women’s Rights.

Recommendations for improved gender-responsiveness of public budgets include regular generation of robust information to help more strategic public finance decisions that promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment in Pakistan.