COVID-19 and fiscal policy: Applying gender-responsive budgeting in support and recovery

Date: Monday, April 12, 2021

This policy brief presents entry points for the application of gender-responsive budgeting to COVID-19 support and recovery packages. Drawing on country examples, the brief provides recommendations on the use of gender budgeting tools to identify gaps in policy responses and direct spending towards gender-responsive COVID-19 support and recovery packages.

A guide to public investments in the care economy: Policy support tool for estimating care deficits, investment costs, and economic returns

Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2021

UN Women has emerged as a global leader in the promotion of the care economy, and this work has highlighted the urgent need to invest in childcare facilities through private and public partnerships to reduce women’s unpaid care work and to allow women to take an active role in the economy. This policy tool provides a blueprint for making a policy case for sustained investment in the care economy.

Assessing the gendered employment impacts of COVID-19 and supporting a gender-responsive recovery

Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2021

This policy tool is designed to document the extent to which gender inequalities in the labour market are being exacerbated by the pandemic, thereby informing a better understanding on how to protect workers and promote a gender-responsive economic recovery. The tool will also help identify policies for improving working conditions in female-dominated economic sectors and promoting greater inclusion of women workers in new promising sectors, thus widening their opportunities.

How to assess fiscal stimulus packages from a gender equality perspective

Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2021

UN Women continues to argue that it is important to ensure that adopted economic stimulus and recovery package are gender-responsive. Packages must be implemented in a way that does not disproportionally and negatively impact women and girls. Policies adopted in response to the COVID-19 crisis must identify areas that macro-level policies can effectively target to address gendered impacts of the crisis. This policy tool is specifically designed to achieve this.

Investing in free universal childcare in the Republic of North Macedonia: Analysis of costs, short-term employment effects and fiscal revenue

Date: Friday, January 31, 2020

This paper examines the case for investing in free universal childcare services in North Macedonia in order to reduce gender inequality in employment, labour market activity and earnings; promote higher human capital through greater enrolment of children in early childhood learning and development; and ensure equal access to all children in formal childcare as to foster the life chances and well-being of young children.

Fiscal space for social protection: A handbook for assessing financing options

Date: Thursday, October 31, 2019

This handbook provides practical guidance, elaborated with case studies, on how additional fiscal space can be created for a universal social protection system. The analyses should help governments on how they can increase spending on priority sectors for women, children, and vulnerable groups.

Costing of a package of family-friendly transfers and services to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment: An introduction to the calculations and results

Date: Friday, August 30, 2019

This discussion paper presents a costing analysis for a set of family-friendly services and transfers: income protection for children, people of working age, and older persons; universal health coverage; and early childhood care and education and long-term care services. The costing shows that such a package is affordable in many countries.

World survey on the role of women in development: Report of the Secretary-General (2019): Why addressing women’s income and time poverty matters for sustainable development

Date: Monday, June 17, 2019

The 2019 “World survey” is focused on the reasons for the high levels of income poverty and time poverty among women and contains an analysis of the rationale for taking an integrated policy approach to addressing the double bind experienced by women in that regard, as a timely and relevant means of achieving sustainable development, in particular in low-income contexts.

Investing in early childhood education and care in Kyrgyz Republic: An assessment of care deficits, costs and impact on employment, gender equality and fiscal returns

Date: Thursday, April 25, 2019

This study contributes to the policy debate on early childhood education and care (ECEC) expansion in the Kyrgyz Republic, and shows an estimated cost of providing universal childcare, it’s employment impact on men and women, as well as the tax revenue implication from the increased employment. The report argues that access to quality, formal ECEC plays a crucial role from the perspective of children as beneficiaries and parents as primary providers of care.

Gender equality and inclusive growth: Economic policies to achieve sustainable development

Date: Tuesday, January 29, 2019

This publication shows that economic growth is an inherently gendered process and that gender-based inequalities can, in fact, be barriers to shared prosperity. It argues that, for growth to be gender-equitable and truly inclusive, the pattern of growth must create decent work and productive employment for women and men. This would require policymakers to rethink the role of macro-level economic policies, including trade, industrial, macroeconomic, finance, and investment policies.