USAID Addressing Gender Issues in State Budgeting Processes

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Reducing legal and regulatory barriers that impinge on the equality of women and other vulnerable gender groups is a priority of USAID. On September 12-13, the Governance for Inclusive Growth (GIG) Program and the National Assembly introduced new features of the 2015 State Budget Law, which goes into effect January 2017, to deputies of 14 Provincial People’s Councils in the North. The goal was to enhance the state budget oversight skills with a focus on gender-based budgeting. One of the recommendations that emerged from the workshops was to discuss the law’s implementation and the National Assembly’s oversight responsibilities, especially since gender budgeting in the state’s budget-making process is new. Since the workshops, the National Assembly and the Vietnam Women’s Union sent an official request to the Vietnam Office of Government to promulgate a decree on gender budgeting to ensure proper inclusion of gender issues in the state budget-making process.