Gender Responsive Budgets (GRB)
Since 2020, the Foundation’s regular gender assessments of federal and provincial budgets generate evidence for legislators, government officials and civil society to promote GRB. The Foundation regularly delivers tailor-made training on GRB to diverse stakeholders. Specialized support is provided to national and provincial legislators to advance gender mainstreaming. For example, with the Foundation’s support, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Women Parliamentary Caucus successfully lobbied for an allocation of PKR1 billion for women’s empowerment in the province’s budget FY2021-22 and increased it to PKR3.5 billion in FY2022-23. These allocations expanded opportunities for women to start enterprises, develop skills, access education and play sports. The funds also increased shelters, forensics capacities, police desks and other GBV-response facilities.
In 2022 the Foundation with Publish What You Fund conducted a study on Investments in Women’s Financial Inclusion & Empowerment in Pakistan.
This was part of a multi-country study carried out Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Uganda.
In Pakistan the Foundation assessed federal and provincial budgets of five fiscal years (FY2015-20), identifying 1,674 government projects with a combined expenditure of PKR131,998.8 billion. It made a series of recommendations for the government, civil society and the private sector to improve the transparency of funding information and advance the women’s economic empowerment agenda. https://www.oakdf.org.pk/publications/
