Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - gender budgeting pilots: evaluation report

Key Findings

Officials in the Scottish Exchequer and the OECD reviewed the activity undertaken for, and the results of, the pilots; how effectively the pilot areas were able to implement the suggested approach to gender budgeting areas; implications arising for policy development and redesign; and finally, their ability to link this activity to Level 3 or Level 4 budget lines. The evaluation findings set out below, and recommendations, are drawn from that review, and feedback from both pilot teams, as well as an overall assessment of the evidence against the pilot aims.

Government of Canada‘s gender goals were ‘borrowed’ for this pilot, and were found by pilot areas to be broadly applicable to Scotland and relevant for each portfolio’s activities. However, it was considered that the development of Scottish gender goals would improve their relevance within the unique Scottish context. This was partly because it would mean the respective impacts of reserved and devolved matters could be reflected.

Overall the Canadian goals were a useful starting point for the pilot exercise, however, it would be beneficial to consider the extent of the impact of reserved matters if Scottish gender goals were to be developed. This was beyond the scope of this pilot.

Both pilot areas faced challenges in categorising the identified activities within Level 3 and 4 budget lines within the timeframe of the pilot. This suggests that the current approach to budget setting does not readily enable budgets to be mapped against gender goals, and flags up challenges for further performance reporting against portfolio level gender objectives or priorities.

A key step in establishing a gender goal based approach to budgeting is to categorise the funding for policies identified as contributing towards the goal through the budget. This is evidenced in approaches in other countries, noted as successful by the OECD, where a significant focus is placed on identifying and monitoring the progress of funding allocations marked as substantively supporting progress towards a gender goal.

Moving quickly to a similar approach would be challenging within Scottish Government’s existing budget process, where allocations are made to portfolio funding envelopes rather than on the basis of portfolio objectives. Portfolios are not currently required to report spending activity against objectives, and so the ability to monitor the performance of policy budget lines against priorities requires additional analysis. Further work to explore how the Scottish Government might replicate the monitoring of policy activity against goals within the context of existing budget processes or budget improvement initiatives could be beneficial.

Both the Justice and Economy portfolio teams identified a tension between attempting to tackle cross cutting gender goals, whilst for practical reasons of the pilot, staying within the policy remit of their respective portfolios. To tackle this successfully, it was suggested that budgets might need to be set at goal level rather than portfolio level. One advantage of such an approach would be to strengthen both the focus on achieving gender goals and objectives, but also allow for better join-up and efficiencies for cross-cutting activity.

The current envelope based budgeting approach means that funding for programmes can sit in a single budget line, across multiple budget lines and/or make up only part of a budget line. This is particularly true for cross-cutting strategies. This therefore means identifying budget lines and figures that relate to advancing gender equality is challenging. Both pilot areas were able to identify several relevant Level 3 and Level 4 budget lines, but where programme funding only accounted for part of a funding line they faced challenges in quantifying an exact funding level hypothecated towards the relevant programme. Furthermore, where programmes helped a range of people, pilots faced further challenges in identifying or estimating an amount or percentage of funding spent on activity directly targeting the gender goal.

In some cases, following the OECD’s recommended approach to aligning activity could be particularly challenging where a high proportion of funding is allocated to agencies and public bodies. This highlights a potential challenge in understanding how agencies are considering gender issues when allocating their budgets, and how agency or public body equality strategies can be aligned with Scottish Government ambitions. One option would be for more involvement of agencies to support alignment of activity and priorities and it could be useful to explore this approach further. Whilst there is a wider context to consider, one benefit might be better alignment of funding to goals, and potential opportunities for collaborative policy development.

Both pilot areas reported that the resource needed to undertake the recommended approach was considerable, and required policy, analytical and finance input. The resource required to undertake a systematic approach to budgeting, so that there can be better leverage progress towards gender goals, might therefore be significant. Both pilot areas reported that doing so alongside existing portfolio work to support the consideration of Scottish Government statutory equality duties would therefore be challenging. Should the Scottish Government wish to consider opportunities to integrate a goals based approach into existing processes, further development work may be needed to build internal capacity.

The OECD noted that the pilot activity templates were completed to a very high standard, showing the detailed knowledge of the issues facing each policy area in relation to gender equality. They were impressed with the detailed and considered suggestions made by portfolios for how Scottish Governnment might redesign or better leverage impacts if working to deliver overarching goals. This expertise is a key strength that Scottish Government can draw on when considering how new gender equality budgeting approaches might be implemented.

Pilot areas reported that if the goal focused approach tested in the pilots was to be attempted more broadly, a manageable process with a clear focus would be beneficial. They also indicated that doing this alongside existing portfolio work undertaken to support the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement (EFSBS) might not be practical with existing resources. If fully rolled out, it would represent a fundamental overhaul to gender budgeting, and it would be a challenge to conduct this alongside the existing Equality Impact Assessment to ensure the Budget is compliant with all legal duties. Significant investment, including upskilling and additional headcount, were thought likely to be required.

While analysts currently play a lead role in completing equality assessments, both pilot areas found that a mixed team of analysts and policy experts was required to identify a portfolio objective and consider gaps or changes to activity against the identified gender goals. If the approach was implemented outside of pilot projects, greater policy input would be required for the development of overarching gender goals and the redesign or development of policies to achieve these goals.