Gender-responsive budgeting is often confused with a formal “equal split” – half for women, half for men. In reality, it is about something entirely different.

It is about ensuring that the community budget takes into account the needs of different groups of residents – women and men, children and the elderly, male and female veterans, people with disabilities, and internally displaced persons. And that every decision on expenditure is based on an analysis of the actual situation.

Following amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine, a gender-based approach has become mandatory at all stages of the budgetary process – from planning to implementation. But when it comes to implementing this in practice, communities often have to find the answers themselves.

As Inna Sviatna, National Advisor on Municipal Finance and Public Investment Management and Head of the relevant working group, explains, U-LEAD with Europe systematically supports communities on their path towards implementing gender-responsive budgeting, as this requires both the formulation of comprehensive statistics and the ongoing efforts of all budget administrators.

The case of Lypovets community

In Lypovets community in Vinnytsia region, a gender analysis was conducted on 53 budget programmes – across all sectors: education, social protection, healthcare, culture, sport, housing and utility services, and so on.

Halyna Poiedynok, Head of the Finance Department at the Lypovets City Council, speaks about this without boasting, but with a clear understanding of the scale of the undertaking, ‘We have no claim to being the best. But I believe we have done a complex job – using accessible methods and clear approaches.’

Each programme was examined separately in the community. The following were analysed:

• the composition of staff by gender and age;
• wage levels;
• access to decision-making;
• the existence of social needs;
• the participation of different groups in the use of services.

Even management programmes – such as financial management – have been analysed from a gender-sensitive perspective.

‘We set ourselves the task of determining whether a programme is gender-sensitive or gender-neutral, and where we can exert influence and where we cannot. Because not all processes can be changed overnight,’ notes Halyna Poiedynok.

However, one of the biggest challenges is the lack of reliable statistics. Due to the war, migration, and changes to the registers, communities do not have a complete record of their population. Some people live without being registered. Children attend school in other communities. Data from different services do not always match.

‘We will not be forming a “reliable sum of unreliable data”. We work only with what we can verify: financial statements, budget documents, official registers. If there is no accurate data, we honestly state this,’ explains Halyna Poiedynok.

Therefore, Lypovets community is simultaneously working on developing a gender profile for the community – a document that will enable information to be systematically collected and updated.

Sport, roads and reserve funds: Where gender is “visible”, and where it is not

Gender analysis within the community has revealed some less obvious aspects. For example, there are significantly more boys than girls at the sports school. But this does not mean that the figures need to be “levelled out” artificially.

‘We cannot force a girl to take up taekwondo if she has no desire to do so. Our task is to provide opportunities. If someone wants to do sport, they should have access to it. If they want to dance, they should have access,’ says Ms Poiedynok.

Another example is urban improvement. Street lighting, accessibility, benches, and public transport stops are matters of safety and accessibility for different groups, particularly women, the elderly, and parents with children. Even the reserve fund has been defined by the community as a “mixed” programme:

‘During the planning stage, the reserve fund is neutral. But during implementation, it becomes sensitive – because in the event of an emergency, lonely people, people with disabilities, and mothers with children are the first to need support.’

Thus, the gender analysis in Lypovets has not remained merely on paper. Gender indicators have already been included in budget requests. Local programmes feature separate sections on the impact on different population groups. New social challenges have been taken into account when drawing up the medium-term forecast.

‘We should give everyone the opportunity to develop – regardless of whether they are a woman or a man, a child or a veteran. We should ensure equal access to services. That is the main objective.’

Budget as a tool for justice in difficult times

During a period of recovery and limited resources, the quality of budgetary decisions becomes a particularly sensitive matter. Communities do not simply plan their expenditure – they set priorities for development, access to services, and the level of support for different groups of residents. Therefore, gender-responsive budgeting is gradually shifting from the realm of formal compliance with requirements to that of strategic management.

Inna Sviatna observes that there is demand among communities for the implementation of gender-responsive budgeting, and U-LEAD continues to provide support in this area:

‘The key challenges are the lack of statistics – in particular, data on the population and service users disaggregated by gender, age, place of residence, disability status, and so on. Work should begin with the formation of data on the situation of women and men, drawing on official state statistical, financial and administrative reports, as well as analytical reports and studies by state authorities, local governments, international organisations, academic institutions, civil society organisations and so on. To collect additional data, it is advisable to conduct focus group discussions, surveys, observations, interviews and so on. As a next step, we recommend creating a gender profile for the community and ensuring it is kept up to date.’

The experience of Lypovets community demonstrates that, even under challenging conditions, it is possible to take a systematic approach to analysing budget programmes, integrate the gender perspective into local documents, and make it part of routine management practice. Such examples contribute to shaping a new culture of the budgetary process in Ukrainian communities.