The Impact of Fiscal Restraint on Budgetary Allocations for Women's Programs

The paper reviews the gender-differentiated effect of macro-economic policies by examining the impact of persistent revenue shortfalls on the part of the national government in 1997-2003 on the budget allocations for programs that support gender equality and womens priority public services in selected departments -- Department of Health (DOH), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and Department of Education (DepEd). The analysis includes grouping the agencies programs, activities and projects (PAPs) into gender-relevant categories and tracking the impact of the overall contraction of national government expenditures on the expenditure obligations for these expenditure categories. At the same time, the study undertakes a gender disaggregated benefit incidence analysis of the mainstream or untargeted expenditures of the selected departments. Lastly, the study emphasizes that budget analysis has to be better informed by gender analysis given that, even if there is no gender bias in the formal policies and procedures that govern the delivery of services of various government agencies, gender bias might result from the informal rules, attitudes and behavior not only of service providers but also that of the target clientele.