Gender Responsive Budgeting for women’s empowerment: A collaborative engagement in Malarani Rural Municipality, Nepal

Abstract

Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is a strategic approach to integrating a gender perspective into the planning process and promoting gender equity and equality. The Government of Nepal endorsed GRB in 2007/2008 and made it mandatory. Accordingly, local governments have sought to undertake gender-responsive planning. However, studies show they lack a robust assessment of gender-based needs and have faced challenges in adopting GRB. To address this issue, we adopted a co-production approach where researchers and Malarani Rural Municipality in the Arghakhanchi district of western Nepal, jointly assessed the municipal plan and worked collectively to understand and revisit the gender responsive activities and plans. In this article, we provide details of this co-production process. Drawing on our engagement and the subsequent uptake of GRB in this rural municipality, we emphasise the importance of enhancing local capacity to self-assess their development policies and plans through a gender lens and ensure GRB for gender-balanced local planning processes. We conclude that although GRB is not a panacea to gender inequalities, it can ease access to resources for addressing gender disparities and promoting women’s empowerment through inclusive planning processes, especially at the municipality level.