1. GN-PBO Webinar Series: “Gender Budgeting and Impact Analysis”
Helmut Berger
Kristina Fuchs
Parliamentary Budget Office
24th April 2017

2. Agenda Parliamentary Budget Office
Gender Equality in Austria: Framework and Facts
Performance Budgeting Framework: Gender Aspects
Regulatory Impact Assessment: Gender Aspects
Gender Equality and Gender Budgeting – Examples from the Parliamentary Debate
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3. Parliamentary Budget Office
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4. Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO)
Established in 2012 in course of substantial budget law reform
Main Tasks:
Support the Budget Committee in form of written expertise, analysis and short studies on budgetary matters presented by government according to budget law
Prepare brief information and short analysis upon request of Members of the Budget Committee
Support other Parliamentary Committees regarding impact assessment of new legislation
Consult Parliament on performance and gender budgeting
Currently 8 headcounts (6 academic experts); part of Parliamentary Administration (with independent direct access to MPs)

5. Budget law reform package: Gender Budgeting
Major federal budget law reform introduced outcome orientation as a new budget management principle, to be considered especially in accordance with the targets of gender equality
Commitment to effective gender equality in provisions of Austrian Constitution and new federal budget law
Since 2013: Performance budgeting and result-oriented management of administrative units
Since 2013: New regime of impact assessments and internal ex-post evaluation of new regulations and projects with budgetary consequences
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6. Gender Equality In Austria: framework and Facts
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7. Gender Pay Gap in EU Member States 2015
Source: Statistics Austria
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8. Gender Pay Gap 2006-2015 Source: Statistics Austria
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9. Female Employment rate in the EU in 2015
Source: Statistics Austria

10. Part-Time rate in the EU in 2015
Source: Statistics Austria, in German available only

11. Members of Parliament - National Council
Members of Parliament - Federal Council
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12. Performance Budgeting Framework: Gender Aspects
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13. performance Budgeting Framework
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14. Gender Equality/Gender Budgeting and the Budget Law (I)
Gender Equality is an integral part of the new Performance Budgeting System.
Under each of the 33 budget chapters Ministers have to define up to 5 outcome- oriented objectives, at least one has to address gender equality.
Progress has to be reported in Annual Federal Performance Report (to be submitted to Parliament by October 31th).
Most Ministries have defined targets with impact on the society; some use internal organisational targets.
Relevant Austrian gender equality issues have been addressed: e.g.
major income imbalances between women and men
unequal rates of part- and full-time employment (significantly more women in part-time work than men)
high numbers of women receiving financial state support
unequal rates between women and men engaged in unpaid work
legal requirements of federal budget law have mostly been fulfilled
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15. Gender Equality/Gender Budgeting and the Budget Law (II)
Wide variety of gender objectives:
Reduce gender pay gap
Improve distribution of paid and unpaid work between women and men by the tax system
Improve representation of women in institution´s board of directors – pre- defined number of women in entities belonging to the state (state holds a minimum of 50 %)
Improve balance between family and career – increase number of teleworking places
Safeguard in particular women, children and elderly people against violence
Sustainable development of rural regions concerning equal opportunities for women and men
Reduce poverty among women
Ensure equal treatment regarding mobility and assure equal access to traffic services
Consider the specific situation of women during the execution of a prison sentence with the focus on reintegration and relapse prevention
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16. Regulatory Impact Assessment: Gender Aspects
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17. Outcome-oriented impact assessment
Since the 1st of January 2013 public administration has to provide an impact assessment (IA) for every new draft law, regulation or major project with budgetary consequences.
New regime comprises definition of objectives, outputs and indicators and a two-step procedure to identify and assess substantial impacts in various policy areas (so called “impact dimensions”).
Ministry staff is provided with an IT-Tool to carry out assessments and to present results.
IA has to be part of consultation materials and legal materials provided to Parliament.
An internal evaluation has to take place within five years, to be included in a Report on Internal Evaluation of Impact Assessment to Parliament.
As of April 2015 Government introduced the possibility of a simplified IA.
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18. The impact dimension of gender equality
Does a proposed government bill cause effects on the equality of women and men by suggesting changes to
Payments to natural or legal persons (who benefits?)
Employment, income, and education (distribution of new jobs between men and women, development of Gender Pay Gap and participation of men and women in educational offers)
Unpaid work (childcare, housework, care for the sick and elderly and formal and informal voluntary work)
Public revenue (distribution of tax burdens and reliefs, exemption causes)
Decision-making processes and decision-making bodies (representation)
Health (prevention, medical products, physical and psychological stress factors, and life-habits)
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19. Challenges
The new impact assessment regime in Austria is still rather young and there is a broad variety in the quality of assessments
Possibility of simplified IAs has not in general boosted quality of remaining full IAs
Regulatory Impact Assessment and Performance Budgeting System require Ministry staff to formulate meaningful objectives and indicators and measure outputs and impacts
Lack of experience among Ministry staff, but support and quality assurance by Federal Performance Management Office (FPMO)
Traditionally strong Ministry of Finance focus on financial impacts on public budgets
PBO scrutiny concentrated on IAs of new legislation debated in Budget/Finance Committee, but increasing assessments of IAs in other policy areas
Too little ownership for impact dimension and assessments of other ministries
Little impact on policy design, limited interest for evaluation reports
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20. Gender Equality and Gender Budgeting – Examples from the Parliamentary Debate
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21. Gender Equality in the Budget Debate (I)
Outcome orientation provides information for a sound discussion of the gender dimension and gender impacts of the budget
High importance of gender equality and gender budgeting in the budget debate
All political parties took part in the discussion on gender targets with different approaches
Topic seems to be „female“:
Most of the speakers were female Members of Parliament
No clear distinction between gender equality objectives and female promotion (e.g. women and leadership)
More questions and statements concerning equal treatment of women, only in single cases questions concerning equal treatment of men
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22. Gender Equality in the Budget Debate (II)
High interest from the MPs, but also criticism and challenges to improvement
Objectives, measures/activities and performance indicators were questioned
relevance and clearer definition of the objectives
lacking target-orientation of defined measures/activities
level of ambition regarding the performance indicators
use of inadequate indicators in respect of the envisaged outcome
availability of adequate funds
General overview on the gender targets in the federal budget report was missing
Coordination between Ministries should be enhanced
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23. Gender Equality/Gender Budgeting – Challenges (I)
The level of defined objectives, activities and indicators differs in respect of quality and ambition.
Ambitious general objectives set by Ministries, which cannot be fulfilled by just one Ministry (e.g. reduction of the gender pay gap).
Success of efforts and activities becomes evident only in the medium term.
Lack of oversight reporting on the complete number of measures and performance indicators applied by Ministries results in a poor overall picture.
Objectives and measures concerning gender equality were hardly coordinated between Ministries. Federal Performance Management Office is now in charge of coordination.
Use of internal organisational objectives (e.g. promoting leadership training possibilities for women) instead of objectives affecting the general public.
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24. Gender Equality/Gender Budgeting – Challenges (II)
An overview of the planned resources for enhancing gender equality is not possible due to the lack of reference to the budget.
Missing a clear distinction between gender equality targets, female promotion and social targets.
International comparisons and improvements of international ranks are not used as performance indicators.
Some good examples of gender responsive budgeting have been identified (e.g. reduction of gender pay gap, as well as the application of gender based project grants).
In most policy areas, valid sex-disaggregated and gender-related data to identify the gaps are not available. Therefore a fact based statement about the gender-differentiated impact of revenue-raising policies and the allocation of resources is not possible. Sex-disaggregated data collection as a defined measure is rare.
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25. Implementation of Gender Budgeting in Austria
Gender Equality and Gender Budgeting are an integrated part of the performance budgeting system and legal requirements of the federal budget law have mostly been fulfilled
Gender Budgeting is considered on all budget management levels and the new federal budget law is a lever for gender equality
Higher Awareness of Gender Budgeting/Gender Equality, intensive discussion of the objectives in the budget committee and in the plenary sessions
But there is room for improvement regarding the implementation (e.g. coordination between the Ministries, gender-disaggregated data, stronger connex to budget)
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26. Thank you for your Attention
Contact: Helmut Berger Tel.: ; Kristina Fuchs Tel.: ;
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