Abstract
Gender inequality carries significant economic costs by keeping women from realizing their full potential. Moreover, climate change threatens to further exacerbate gender inequalities around the world as women tend to be more vulnerable to its effects. While Bangladesh has made significant progress to empower women, gender gaps persist with climate change as an added obstacle. This analysis examines the ways that gender and climate change issues intersect in the country and draws recommendations for policies, including through gender responsive budgeting, that can advance both women’s empowerment and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Women’s Empowerment, Gender Budgeting, and Intersection with Climate Change1
Gender inequality carries significant economic costs by keeping women from realizing their full potential. Moreover, climate change threatens to further exacerbate gender inequalities around the world as women tend to be more vulnerable to its effects. While Bangladesh has made significant progress to empower women, gender gaps persist with climate change as an added obstacle. This analysis examines the ways that gender and climate change issues intersect in the country and draws recommendations for policies, including through gender responsive budgeting, that can advance both women’s empowerment and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
A. Macro-Criticality of Gender Equality in Bangladesh
1. Greater gender equality and economic participation of women can yield significant economic gains for Bangladesh. Women and girls make up half the world’s population, yet their participation in the economy is limited leading to substantial productivity losses. Cuberes and Teignier (2012) found that existing gender gaps in the labor market could be costing Bangladesh as much as 21–34 percent of its potential national income. Similarly, Ostry and others (2018) estimate that Bangladesh would gain nearly 40 percent of its current GDP level by closing gender gaps in labor force participation. From a macroeconomic perspective, reducing barriers to women’s economic participation and narrowing gender gaps in health, education, and decision-making power could hence lead to large potential welfare and output gains for Bangladesh.
GDP Gains From Closing Gender Gaps in Labor Force Participation
(in percent of GDP)
Citation: IMF Staff Country Reports 2023, 410; 10.5089/9798400260728.002.A003
Source: Ostry and others (2018). Based on 128 countries.2. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, and gender inequality could intensify the effects of climate change and natural disasters on women. Since women tend to have fewer assets and income-generating opportunities, are less educated, and more likely to work in the informal economy, they are often especially vulnerable to the shocks generated by climate change. In countries like Bangladesh, where both domestic and international migration are key drivers of economic development, women are also more likely to remain living in rural areas and working in agriculture, while men migrate for economic opportunities. This leaves women disproportionately exposed to the direct effects of higher temperatures, rainfall variability and sea level rise on the natural habitat.
3. Recognizing the macroeconomic benefits and unequal climate change impacts on women, Bangladesh includes women empowerment as a core goal of national planning efforts. Women’s well-being is explicitly considered in many of the country’s laws and national plans, including the annual budget, the Five-Year Plans, Vision 2041, the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006, and the National Women Development Policy 2011. Policy efforts have focused on increasing economic empowerment for women, particularly in education, health, and employment. To date, gender disparity in education has been largely eliminated and maternal mortality has declined substantially. Nevertheless, important gaps remain in women’s economic participation, with women less likely to be formally employed and working relatively low-skilled jobs, corresponding to low earnings, poor working conditions, and lack of social safety nets and job security.
4. Gender responsive budgeting (GRB) is a core tool used by the Government of Bangladesh to channel public resources toward gender equality and women’s empowerment. Bangladesh started adopting GRB practices as early as FY06, focusing initially on the expenditure of four select ministries/divisions. GRB has since evolved to become a central part of the government’s performance-oriented budgeting process as part of the Medium-Term Budgetary Framework (MTBF), which also includes climate budget tagging. Nonetheless, the ex-post nature of GRB in Bangladesh coupled with shortcomings in methodology and absence of effective impact evaluation mechanisms limit its relevance in the broader public policy dialogue.
5. The IMF-supported program covering 2023–2026 encourages the government’s efforts to advance women’s empowerment. By supporting a sustainable increase in revenue collection and rationalization of untargeted and environmentally harmful subsidies, the program aims to help Bangladesh create the necessary fiscal space to invest in social programs2 and development infrastructure, which in turn is expected to improve women’s access to education, health care and economic opportunities. In addition, reforms under the Resilience and Sustainability Fund (RSF), which seek to bolster Bangladesh’s resilience to climate change, are expected to support the well-being of women who are on average more exposed to the effects of climate change and natural disasters. Lastly, by supporting policies that facilitate skill development, trade and foreign direct investment, the IMF-supported program expects to encourage upskilling of female workers and creation of more good quality jobs.
6. Against this background, this paper takes stock of the current state of gender equality in Bangladesh, examines the interaction of gender inequality and climate change, and identifies policies to close remaining gender gaps while also addressing climate change. Given the centrality of GRB to the country’s gender policies, the paper also examines the benefits and shortcomings of current GRB practices and draws lessons on how to improve them.
B. The State of Gender Equality in Bangladesh
7. Gender equality and women’s development are emphasized in Bangladesh’s longer-term development goals. The 7th Five Year Plan (FYP) adopted a gender strategy aimed at increasing women’s access to resources and opportunities and reducing structural and institutional barriers to equal rights for women, while the ongoing 8th FYP (July 2020 – June 2025) sets a vision where women will be recognized as equal contributors in economic, social, and political development. The Perspective Plan (2021–41) emphasizes increasing labor force participation, skills developments, higher education, and technical and vocational education for ensuring gender equality and overall development of women. Specific goals targeting women, as set out in the Gender Budget Report (2023–24), include ending all forms of discrimination and violence against women, eliminating child marriage, valuing unpaid care and domestic work, ensuring full and effective participation and equal opportunities at all levels, guaranteeing equal rights to economic resources as well as access to ownership and control, ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health, enhancing the use of enabling technology, and adopting and strengthening sound policies and enforceable legislation.
8. In the past half-century, Bangladesh made significant progress in reducing infant mortality and maternal mortality and raising women’s education (Figure 1). Bangladesh’s life expectancy at birth, which stood at 46.6 years in 1971, had increased to 72.9 years in 2020, and life expectancy of females at birth has exceeded that of males since 1990. The maternal mortality rate was also brought down from 441 in 2000 to 123 per 100,000 live births in 2020. The educational attainment of Bangladesh’s women reached 93.6 percent of that of men and full parity in enrollment in secondary education has already been achieved. The emphasis on reproductive healthcare, family planning, economic participation, and structural and legislative support from the government have contributed to such progress. Nonetheless, gender gaps persist in tertiary education (World Economic Forum (WEF), 2023).
Bangladesh: Gender Progress and Gaps 1/
Citation: IMF Staff Country Reports 2023, 410; 10.5089/9798400260728.002.A003
Sources: World Development Indicators, World Bank; UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division); and UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).1/ South Asia and upper middle income country groups follow the World Bank’s definition based on World Development Indicators database.9. Globally, Bangladesh ranks high in political empowerment. According to World Economic Forum (WEF)’s 2023 Global Gender Gap Index, Bangladesh ranks at 7th position out of 146 countries and first in South Asia on political empowerment, and Bangladesh has been served by women as heads of the government for more than half of the years since its independence (over 29 years)—the longest duration globally.3 Article 65 (3) of the constitution reserves 50 seats for women in the parliament, while in all local government bodies 33 percent of the seats are reserved for women.4 This sustained empowerment in the political spheres has helped Bangladesh’s progress in narrowing gender gaps (WEF, 2023).
Proportion of Seats Held by Women in National Parliments
(In percent of total)
Citation: IMF Staff Country Reports 2023, 410; 10.5089/9798400260728.002.A003
Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union.10. The rights of women are officially recognized in national laws, including the constitution. Various articles of the constitution ensure equal opportunity and protection to all citizens and no discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, and place of birth is allowed. In addition, articles such as 28(2) and 28(4) highlight equal rights for women and men in all spheres of the state and public life while allowing the state the freedom to make special provisions for women or children. Bangladesh has also ratified international commitments, such as the Convention of the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (1984) and is a signatory to Beijing Platform of Action (1995). In the country’s legal framework, several legislations have been passed and policies adopted for ensuring gender equality and the empowerment of women.5
11. Women’s economic empowerment in Bangladesh still needs attention (Text Figure 1 and Figure 2), reflecting low female labor force participation (FLFP), wage discrimination, limited participation in decision making, and inadequate representation in senior positions in the labor force. Despite its rising trend, the FLFP in Bangladesh at 42.7 percent remains relatively low by international comparisons. Lack of skills and training have limited women’s access to quality jobs.6 Even in sectors with high levels of women’s participation such as the Ready-Made Garment (RMG) sector, women are concentrated at the lowest rungs of the work pyramid, with very limited access to leadership and decision-making positions. Financial inclusion of women also lags comparators.
Gender Parity
Citation: IMF Staff Country Reports 2023, 410; 10.5089/9798400260728.002.A003
Source: World Economic Forum.Note: Based on available data, country groupings are calculated as an average based on definitions in the IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook for Asia and the Pacific. (ASEAN refers to Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao P.D.R., Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, and South Asia refers to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka)Bangladesh: Women’s Economic Empowerment 1/
Citation: IMF Staff Country Reports 2023, 410; 10.5089/9798400260728.002.A003
Sources: International Labour Organization; Quarterly Labor Force Survey 2023: Bangladesh (Apr-Jun 2023), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics; Global Findex Database, accessed from Gender Data Portal, the World Bank; and Financial Access Survey, IMF.1/ The classification of country grouping for South Asia, East Asia & Pacific, Upper Middle Income is based on the World Bank’s definition from World Development Indicators database.12. Social norms and gender biases often prevent women from participating in the economy on equal footing with men. Child marriage remains prevalent in Bangladesh, with 51percent of women between the ages of 20–24 having married before their 18th birthday and 33 percent of girls aged 15–19 already married as of 2019 (UN Women 2022). In addition, inequities in property and inheritance rights and difficulties in accessing divorce serve to disempower women within marital and familial relations (Bangladesh Planning Commission, 2020). Domestic violence against women remains an issue and further discourages women’s participation in the economy (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 2016). Moreover, women are expected to shoulder the lion’s share of unpaid domestic and care work, spending seven times more time on these activities than men (BBS, 2022), and a large proportion of women work as unpaid laborers in family farms and enterprises with no access to their own income (Kabeer and Natali, 2013).
C. The Intersection of Gender and Climate
13. Climate change poses a substantial threat to women’s development in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is among the most vulnerable countries to climate change and natural disasters worldwide, suffering from already high and increasing temperatures, sea level rise, and frequent flooding and cyclone.7 Like other economic shocks, climate shocks generally impact the most vulnerable households and individuals the worst due to their already fragile starting position (Hallegatte et al. 2016). Women in Bangladesh are on average less educated than men, have lower access to finance, are less likely to own land or property, and disproportionately work in the agricultural sector and informally, leaving them highly exposed to the effects of climate change. Women are also especially vulnerable to food insecurity caused by climate change due to their nutritional requirements during pregnancy, lactation, and childbirth. Moreover, climate-related stress tends to heighten social tensions which increases the risk of gender-based violence (UN Women and IUCN 2022).
Employment by Sex, Sector and Formal Status, Aged 15 +
(ln million)
Citation: IMF Staff Country Reports 2023, 410; 10.5089/9798400260728.002.A003
Sources: Bangladesh Labor Force Survey, 2016–17.14. Existing gender roles and divisions of labor can render women uniquely exposed to certain climate hazards. For example, women in Bangladesh are primarily responsible for collecting drinking water and biofuels to use in cooking, already contributing to women’s time poverty (see text figure, UNDP 2021). These tasks can become especially dangerous or time-consuming in the aftermath of flooding or during droughts. Women also tend to be less mobile than men as they are tasked with taking care of children while men migrate in search of paid work. This makes women less able to move if climate conditions become inhospitable and can make evacuating disaster areas more difficult (UN Women and IUCN 2022).
Who Collects Drinking Water in Climate Vulnerable District?
(in percent)
Citation: IMF Staff Country Reports 2023, 410; 10.5089/9798400260728.002.A003
Source: United Nations Development Programme.15. Important synergies exist between policy efforts to build resilience to climate change and to advance women’s empowerment and well-being. Existing research on how to foster women’s empowerment highlights the importance of safe water and hygiene, equitable access to finance, education, land ownership, transportation, affordable childcare, and diversified labor market opportunities (Kochhar et al. 2016). Improvements in these areas would simultaneously increase women’s resilience to climate change as they will be less likely to fall ill in the aftermath of climate-related disasters, better able to borrow or change jobs to overcome climate-related shocks and make strategic decisions to prepare for the effects of climate change and natural disasters. Building a social safety net that protects women from different shocks they may experience over a lifetime, including climate-related shocks, would also improve women’s welfare and resilience.
16. The Government of Bangladesh officially recognized the need to integrate a gender perspective in its climate change strategy as early as 2008. The first Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP), published in 2008, highlighted the special vulnerability of women due to their lower socio-economic status and frequent responsibility for collecting drinking water for their families. The report further recommended “comprehensive study of the impact of climate change on women and gender relations and the development of recommendations to address these in all actions under the BCCSAP.” Since then, an official Climate Change Gender Action Plan (ccGAP) to ensure gender equality and inclusion in climate change related policies was published in 2013 and is currently being updated to align with the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan, the National Adaptation Plan, and the updating of the BCCSAP.
17. The updated draft ccGAP includes both sector-specific and cross-cutting priority actions. Sector-specific priority actions aim to improve women’s access to and control over land, water and forest resources, promote climate-smart agricultural, fishing and livestock rearing technologies among women, provide women training to enable livelihood diversification, enhance women’s access to early-warning systems, give women a stronger role in infrastructure development, and improve access to safely managed water and sanitation facilities as well as to affordable health care. Cross-cutting priority actions focus on encouraging participation of women at all levels of climate policy design and implementation, raising general stakeholder awareness of the gender-climate nexus, mobilizing financial resources for the implementation of gender-responsive climate action, and collecting and disseminating relevant data.
18. One particularly innovative action under the ccGAP concerns the fostering of women leadership in renewable energy development. The inclusion of this action signals the government’s intention to not only support women in adapting to the negative effects of climate change but to also encourage women’s equal participation in the green transition, ultimately ensuring that they reap equal benefits from it. For the first time, women have been recognized as “change agents”, not just beneficiaries. The ccGAP’s recognition of women’s priority role in achieving widespread adoption of clean cooking solutions and sustainable forest management further contribute to these goals.
19. While the ccGAP holds significant promise to improve the gender-responsiveness of climate action in Bangladesh, its ultimate impact hinges on its successful implementation. There were significant implementation gaps in the 2013 ccGAP as identified by a joint review of UN Women, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), and Action Aid in 2018, pointing to the need to enhance government ownership. Hence, the updated ccGAP designates the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change to lead the ccGAP implementation, and is also aligned with the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) to facilitate the integration of relevant interventions in ministry-level action plans. Specific time-bound immediate, mid-term, and long-term priorities have also been established in the updated ccGAP. Looking ahead, securing high-level support and buy-in from the concerned ministries and stakeholders, setting clear benchmarks and timelines for achieving them, budgeting adequate resources, and establishing transparent reporting mechanisms will be key for effective implementation.
D. Gender Responsive Budgeting
20. Gender responsive budgeting (GRB) is a strategic approach to incorporate gender considerations in the budget process, including planning, allocation, and monitoring of budget execution. Approaches to GRB, also sometimes called “gender-sensitive budgeting” or simply “gender budgeting”, vary across countries but generally entail elements of the following: identifying gender-related goals in the budget planning stage for all sectoral ministries, mapping tax and expenditure policies to said targets, and assessing the effectiveness of said policy measures via institutional monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. By drawing attention to the differential impacts the budget has on women vis-à-vis men, GRB aims to support equitable distribution of public resources for the benefit of all.
21. Bangladesh was an early adopter of gender budgeting practices. Gender considerations were formally introduced into the budget process as part of the adoption of the Medium-Term Budgetary Framework (MTBF), starting with four ministries in FY06 and covering 44 (out of 62) ministries and divisions in FY24. Under the MTBF guidelines, each ministry or division must evaluate the impact of its medium-term strategic objectives on women’s advancement as well as on poverty reduction and climate change and calculate the share of total budget allocation relevant to each of these three objectives. The resulting gender-related allocations are recorded in the Recurrent Capital Gender and Poverty (RCGP) database, further broken down into recurrent vs. development spending (UN Women, 2014).
22. Since 2009, Bangladesh has also published an annual ‘Gender Budget Report’. The ‘Gender Budget Report’ is prepared by the Finance Division and presented in parliament together with the budget every year in June. It provides a summary of each Ministry/division’s activities to promote women’s development, evaluates Ministries/divisions’ key performance indicators related to women’s advancement, and analyzes trends in gender-related budget allocations over time. It also takes stock of how the status and well-being of women is progressing against national objectives enshrined in the constitution, other laws, and the government’s strategic plans (e.g., Five-Year Plan, ‘Vision 2041’ Perspective Plan), and offers policy recommendations for the way forward.8,9
23. Bangladesh’s budget allocations for women empowerment have risen over time (Text Figure 2). According to the RCGP database, gender-related budget allocations increased from 24.7 percent of the total budget in FY10 to 34.4 percent in the latest FY24 budget. While some of the increase over time is likely attributable to more comprehensive reporting of gender-related expenditure across ministries and divisions, these sizable numbers reflect the government’s commitment to directing budget resources to advance women’s well-being. A ministry-wise breakdown of gender-related budget allocations reveals the four highest nominal allocations in the Local Government Division, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Secondary and Higher Education Division, and Road Transport and Highways Division, whereas the largest share of the budget benefiting women was found in the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA), Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, Medical Education and Family Welfare Division, and Ministry of Railways, all with shares above 60 percent (Ministry of Finance 2023). A more detailed breakdown of gender-related budget allocations (e.g., by project or activity) is not available in the RCGP.
Budget Allocations for Women Development in Bangladesh
Citation: IMF Staff Country Reports 2023, 410; 10.5089/9798400260728.002.A003
Source: Ministry of Finance (2023). Gender Budget Report FY24.24. The increasing focus on gender budgeting and the rising share of gender-related budget allocations have coincided with notable improvements in gender equality in Bangladesh. Although it is difficult to causally link these developments, it is noteworthy that the past 15 to 20 years have seen significant advances in Bangladeshi women’s education and health outcomes (see Figure 1). These improvements are intrinsically linked to the explicit focus the government has placed on women’s empowerment, including through its gender budgeting efforts.
25. Bangladesh’s gender budgeting practice shows key strengths in its integration in core budget processes, though the GRB data management could be enhanced. Through its integration with the MTBF, GRB in Bangladesh is well-embedded into the budget process and fully owned by the government. All major Ministries and divisions undertake GRB. The tagging of gender-relevant budget allocations is supported by a formal framework (the RCGP model) and line ministries receive official instructions from the MoF on its application. Nevertheless, the data management system of the Gender Budget Report needs further improvement, including to establish and automate the data submission process among ministries and divisions. Such process will help facilitate the production and publication of annual Gender Budget Report that analyzes key trends in gender-relevant budget allocations and links them to tangible outcomes such as gender ratios in primary, secondary and tertiary education, women’s participation in government programs, or maternal mortality rates.
26. Bangladesh also has scope to improve the effectiveness of its gender budgeting efforts. Priorities include:
GRB could be better integrated into the strategic phase of budget formulation as well as in project planning and execution. Although the Gender Budget Report analyzes the pace of progress on gender-related key performance indicators (KPIs) and highlights key challenges by relevant ministry/division, it stops short of providing an in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of government spending in reaching women’s development goals. Moreover, gender-related objectives are not systematically considered during the strategic phase of budget preparation. This means that GRB practices in Bangladesh remain largely ex post in nature, happening post-budget preparation. On the other end, development project design, monitoring and evaluation do not sufficiently incorporate explicit gender criteria, further undermining the link between strategic objectives and budget execution.
Updating the RCGP model for tagging gender-relevant budget allocations, tracking gender budget execution, and making the RCGP database more widely accessible would render GRB simpler and more transparent, enhancing its role in public policy debate. While relatively detailed, the current methodology still has blind spots10, which leads to potentially significant mismeasurement of gender-relevant allocations. Moreover, the execution of gender-relevant allocation is not tracked which, given historically significant under-execution of budgeted spending, means the gender content of actual spending remains unknown. Lastly, the RCGP database is not made publicly available which undermines transparency and makes it impossible for civil society organizations to scrutinize the data and methodology (UN Women 2014, 2016).
Extending GRB to revenue policy formulation and local governments would enable a fuller mainstreaming of gender in the government’s fiscal policy. GRB in Bangladesh currently focuses on the expenditure side of the budget, whereas gendered impacts of the tax system have remained largely unexplored. Moreover, local government institutions have not yet been sensitized to GRB methods despite playing a crucial role in the delivery of government services that impact women’s lives.
Finally, it is important to address data gaps and capacity development needs that may be required for ministries and divisions, including Finance Division, in order to (i) identify critical gender inequalities in their respective sectors, (ii) develop relevant budget plans, and (iii) design and track appropriate performance measures for assessing the associated gender progress. A forward-looking assessment of GRB, currently planned by the MoWCA with the support of UN Women, is expected to help in identifying the most critical areas where further training and development is needed.
27. As adapting to and mitigating climate change have become increasingly important policy goals, Bangladesh has developed climate budgeting tools similar in nature to GRB. The Climate Fiscal Framework (CFF), which sets out an institutional framework for embedding climate change aspects in Bangladesh’s Public Financial Management (PFM) systems, was adopted in 2014. Climate budget tagging has been carried out since 2018 and culminates in an annual Climate Budget Report, which—like the Gender Budget Report—presents data on climate-relevant spending by Ministry/division and evaluates trends against goals enshrined in national policy documents.11 Given the similarities in underlying processes and overlapping policy goals, gender and climate budgeting efforts are by nature complementary.
28. Aligning GRB and climate budgeting tools would help to realize the synergies between gender and climate action. Strategic objectives defined in MTBFs could be chosen such that they benefit both climate- and gender-related policy goals and modified from year to year based on the findings of both the Gender Budget Report and the Climate Budget Report. Moreover, reforms to the RCGP model and database, such as the introduction of dedicated codes in the government’s budget and accounting system iBAS++, should be designed such that they easily facilitate the cross-tagging of expenditures (and ultimately revenues) that benefit both women’s development and climate-related goals.
E. Conclusions
29. Bangladesh has made important strides in empowering its women, but additional efforts are needed to support women to reach their full potential. Particular attention must be paid to policies that support women’s successful labor force participation, such as expanding women’s access to skills development and higher education, decreasing women’s unpaid care burden by expanding affordable childcare and critical infrastructure, reducing informality, and addressing gender norms that discourage women from seeking formal and higher-paying jobs. Persistent gender gaps in access to finance should be tackled via policy interventions to increase women’s financial literacy and strengthen women’s property rights. Policy efforts are also needed to address persistently high rates of child marriage and violence against women.
30. The special needs of women as well as their capacity to act as change agents should be recognized in Bangladesh’s climate policy. Women’s disproportionate vulnerability to the effects of climate change calls for special policy focus on raising their resilience. Policies that foster women’s empowerment simultaneously increase women’s ability to cope with climate-related shocks and adapt to changing climate conditions, but dedicated resources should also be channeled towards policy actions that explicitly address the intersection of climate change and women’s empowerment as identified in the updated ccGAP. Well-designed adaptive social safety nets that adequately cover women are one way to protect against climate shocks, whereas expanding existing social programs targeted to women such as the Mother and Child Benefit Programme and rural employment programs would contribute to raise resilience more broadly. Simultaneously, women’s role as ‘change agents’ in the green transition should be fostered.
31. GRB is a powerful tool to ensure that budget resources are strategically utilized to progress on the country’s gender equity goals, but improvements to the current system are needed. Gender-related policy goals should receive greater attention during the strategic phase of budget formulation as well as in project planning and execution to render GRB in Bangladesh more effective, and impact evaluation of the government’s gender policies should be strengthened.12 The existing RCGP model for tagging gender-relevant budget allocations could be updated to be simpler to use while resulting data should be recorded transparently, track execution rates, and be made publicly available to inform policy debates. Ultimately, GRB should be extended to the revenue side of the budget and to local governments.13 Finally, synergies between gender- and climate-related goals should be considered in the formulation of strategic planning documents such as the upcoming 9th Five Year Plan and in the design of budget tagging and monitoring systems.
References
Cuberes, David, and Marc Teignier, 2012, “Gender Gaps in the Labor Market and Aggregate Productivity.” Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Sheffield.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2016, “Preliminary Report on Time Use Survey (TUS) 2021.” Statistics and Informatics Division, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2022, “Report on Violence Against Women Survey 2015.” Statistics and Informatics Division, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Planning Commission, 2015, “7th Five Year Plan (FY2016- FY2020): Accelerating Growth, Empowering Citizens”. General Economics Division (GED), Bangladesh Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Planning Commission, 2020, “Making Vision 2041 a Reality, Perspective Plan Of Bangladesh 2021–2041”. General Economics Division (GED), Bangladesh Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Planning Commission, 2020, “8th Five Year Plan (July 2020-June 2025): Promoting Prosperity and Fostering Inclusiveness”. General Economics Division (GED), Bangladesh Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Hallegatte, Stephane, Mook Bangalore, Laura Bonzanigo, Marianne Fay, Tamaro Kane, Ulf Narloch, Julie Rozenberg, David Treguer, and Adrien Vogt-Schilb, 2016, “Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty”, Climate Change and Development Series. Washington, DC.
Kabeer, Naila and Luisa Natali, 2013, “Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Is there a Win-Win?” Institute of Development Studies, Working Paper 417.
Kochhar, Kalpana, Sonali Jain-Chandra, Monique Newiak, eds, 2016, “Women, Work, and Economic Growth: Leveling the Playing Field”, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC.
Ministry of Finance, 2023, “Gender Budget Report FY2023–24”, Finance Division, Ministry of Finance, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Ostry, Jonathan, Jorge A. Alvarez, Raphael A. Espinoza, and Chris Papageorgiou, 2018, “Economic Gains From Gender Inclusion: New Mechanisms, New Evidence,” IMF Staff Discussion Notes No. 2018/006, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC.
UN Women, 2014, “Assessing the Effectiveness of Gender Responsive Budgeting in Bangladesh”, UN Women supported by Asian Development Bank.
UN Women, 2016, “Gender Responsive Budgeting in the Asia-Pacific Region, A Status Report”, UN Women.
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UN Women and IUCN, 2022, “State of Gender Equality and Climate Change in Bangladesh”, https://wedocs.unep.org/20.500.11822/40845
United Nations Development Programme, 2021, “National Human Development Report 2021: Bangladesh : Advancing human development in Bangladesh: Looking Ahead”, New York.
Prepared by Genet Zinabou (FAD, lead), Jayendu De and Saiful Islam (both APD), in collaboration with UN-Women in Bangladesh.
Existing social programs run by the Government of Bangladesh’s which support women empowerment and facilitate formal employment include the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs’ Mother and Child Benefit Program, Micro-Credit for Women Self-Employment, Skill-Based Training Program for Women for Livelihood, Development of Women Entrepreneurs in Economic Empowerment at the grass root level, as well as Rural Development and Cooperative Division’s Integrated Rural Employment Assistance for Poor Women.
The current Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, has served as Prime Minister totaling almost 20 years while Khaleda Zia served for 10 years and 60 days.
In addition, in the proposed Political Parties Registration Act (2020), provisions are included to ensure representation of women (at least thirty three percent) in all the committees (Ministry of Finance 2023).
Some of these include the Acid Crime Prevention Act 2002, Domestic Violence Act 2010, Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act 2012, Hindu Marriage Registration Act 2012, Overseas Employment and Migration Act 2013, Domestic Violence Rules 2013, Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017, Dowry Prevent Act 2018, and the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act 2020.
For example, women’s participation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Bangladesh ranges from 9 percent to 13 percent in public institutions and is 33 percent in private institutions (Draft National Strategy for Promotion of Gender Equality in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Bangladesh).
See IMF Country Report No. 23/66.
A similar annual Climate Budget Report is produced also since FY19.
The methodology used to calculate the share of budgetary allocations for women’s development, namely the RCGP model, is described in the Gender Budget Report (see Ministry of Finance 2023). According to this model, the share of recurrent expenditure that benefits women is calculated based on employment shares of women in each Ministry/division, whereas the relevant share of development projects and programs is derived from a more complicated scoring system which assigns a percentage score between 0 and 100 for the degree of impact on women’s development across sixteen criteria.
For example, to compute gender allocations for development projects, each project is assigned a percentage indicating what portion of the total expenditure is expected to directly benefit women (with benefits to women classified across 14 categories). In practice, this percentage can be difficult to determine, leading to significant noise in the data. Moreover, the 14 categories used for assessing gender impact are not applicable to certain sectors such as infrastructure sectors, where direct beneficiaries are not easily identified, leading to expenditures in these sectors often being coded as having “neutral” gender impact for lack of better information.
See the latest version for FY24 available here on the Ministry of Finance website.
To facilitate this, Finance Division and MoWCA could organize tripartite meetings with all divisions and ministries during the budget planning stage. Moreover, a robust monitoring system to track progress towards gender-related goals could be anchored by the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the Ministry of Planning who would provide input to the Gender Budget Report.
Bangladesh has scope to improve the periodicity and quality of its reporting on SDG Indicator 5.c.1 and use this reporting tool to regularly assess its GRB practices as well as gaps that require attention.
