Hawke Research Institute
Professor
Rhonda Sharp used the new videoconferencing facilities of the Hawke
Building, City West to participate in a session of the Canadian
Parliament's Standing Committee on the Status of Women on 5 December
2007. She was one of three invited presenters on gender-responsive
budgeting. Rather than travel to Ottawa for the presentation Professor
Sharp proposed videoconferencing. In her presentation she spoke of
government budgets as the major source of finance for gender equality
and women's empowerment. As the heart of the budget process is a
political process, it requires both contestation and commitment. It is
also important to be able to access and analyse gender-desegregated
data. Policy issues include the problematic use of tax concessions to
increase retirement savings for women and low income men.
Gender-responsive budgeting needs to be done as the normal everyday work
of politicians, NGOs, the bureaucracy and ministries of finance.
