Gender Responsive Budgeting as an Accelerator to Women’s Economic Empowerment

Abstract

Budgets are universally considered influential for achieving development objectives whether at the national or county level. Governments are dependent on budgets to distribute resources amongst its citizens for their daily needs. Repercussions of budget policies on men and women affect the two genders in different ways due to the society expectation of the roles either gender should play. Most marginalized women are confronted by poverty and lack incomes to invest in their economic and social development. They also lack access to education, services, and non-monetary resources, all of which traps them in a vicious cycle of poverty. This paper seeks to demonstrate that GRB initiatives improve women’s economic empowerment. It will use external desk research to demonstrate the role of GRB as a tool for women empowerment. The research design chosen for this paper widely avails statistical and documented information related to the topic.
The theoretical framework of this study is based on the Human Development theory based on an all-inclusive statistical measure (Human Development Index) as an indicator of economic growth with human development. The HDI brought a paradigm shift as to how development was viewed. Other related theories empowering women include the Empowerment Theory which promotes creation of a responsive community which is dependent on the help of the larger society and political environment and the Institutional Design Theory which focuses on the need to allow women to effectively take part in the politics of the country.