By Mona El-Chami, Maja Bosnic and Srinivas Gurazada
If you’ve ever wondered how public financial management (PFM) systems integrate gender considerations so that public funds benefit everyone more equally, we’re going to share with you what we’ve learned from our latest data.
Since 2020, 32 national and subnational governments have applied the Public Expenditure & Financial Accountability (PEFA) Gender Framework, creating the first global dataset on how PFM systems address gender issues. The results show progress and increased commitment but also highlight remaining gaps in achieving gender‑equality outcomes.
These 32 assessments provide a baseline for understanding where PFM systems stand today, identifying gaps, and how governments could become more gender‑responsive. PEFA Gender benchmarks good practices and informs dialogue between ministries of finance, agencies, and development partners
A global overview: Most systems are at an early stage
Across the board, most governments are still at the beginning. Only a few have embedded gender requirements into core PFM tools such as budget circulars or annual reporting frameworks. One global weakness jumps out: analyzing the gender impact of new policies. This isn’t just a PEFA finding—it lines up with broader trends. For example, OECD data shows that fewer than half of OECD countries routinely conduct gender impact assessments before rolling out new policies. The IMF’s reviews of G20 economies find advanced gender practices in only a handful of countries like Canada, Austria, France, and Japan.
Where countries are making progress
Despite the gaps, there are signs of real progress:
- Budget circulars are gaining ground: Nine countries now include gender requirements in their budget call circulars. While circulars do not guarantee implementation, they set the stage for ministries to begin factoring gender into budget planning.
- Sex-disaggregated performance data is becoming common: More than half of the assessed governments now collect or publish sex-disaggregated data related to service delivery. This mirrors priorities among OECD members, who see robust gender data as the first step toward effective GRB.
- Expenditure tracking is emerging: Though only a few governments have tagging or classification gender-related spending, this practice is expanding. The IMF research highlights gender-budget tagging as key for medium-term planning and accountability.
Where key gaps persist
One major gap is gender impact assessment. Understanding how a policy affects men and women differently is crucial for credible GRB systems, but this was assessed as weak for most governments. Another area lagging behind is legislative scrutiny of gender impacts—almost all assessments gave low scores for both budget and audit review. Without this, reforms risk remaining technical exercises instead of driving real change in allocations and outcomes.
Three lessons emerge
- Progress is happening “from the middle”: Tools such as budget circulars and performance data are advancing faster than upstream policy analysis.
- Central guidance matters: When ministries of finance integrate gender requirements into core processes, other aspects of gender-responsive PFM strengthen too.
- Data is outpacing decision-making: Sex-disaggregated information is increasingly available, but it’s not yet consistently used to shape policy or allocate resources.
What these findings mean for the future
With these first-generation assessments, we now have a global baseline: countries are committed to integrating gender into the budget cycle, but most are still early in building institutional frameworks.
Going forward, three areas offer potential promise:
- Strengthening upstream gender analysis;
- Enhancing legislative engagement;
- Embedding gender-responsive budgeting into mainstream PFM reforms.
PEFA Gender will continue to be a vital lens, helping governments and development partners track progress, set priorities, and build stronger gender‑responsive public financial management systems over time.
We’ll keep sharing updates as new data emerges. It’s clear—we’re on the path, but there’s plenty of work ahead!
