10.2 Dedicate budget and track use of financial resources to increase gender equality and diversity

Description of Best Practices

Develop a policy statement on gender budgeting and obtain board approval

Establish budget committees with an equal representation of women and ensure their participation in budgetary planning and decision-making processes

Train all managers and budget committees on gender budgeting

Company and project budgets are developed including perspectives and needs of female and male employees equally and aim to reduce gender inequality

Ensure budget priorities and spending allocation close gender equity gaps in high impact areas including:

Talent outreach
Recruitment and hiring
Talent development and training
Employee benefits
Leadership development

Monitor and evaluate the degree to which the budget contributed to closing gender equality and diversity gaps

Company reports on budget used for gender equality and diversity initiatives in annual reports or other publicly available reports

Challenges of Implementation

Budgeting decisions are typically made by individuals who may not understand the importance, relevance, or business priority of considering gender equality and diversity implications of budgets

Budgeting as a topic may be considered too technical an issue by managers of key departments within the organization, e.g., Human Resources Department

What Success Looks Like

Leadership commitment and support to use the budget as a tool to allocate company resources in an equitable way, thereby achieving equality and diversity, in provision of benefits, training opportunities, policy impacts, leadership development opportunities and onsite facilities

A policy statement on the company’s commitment to gender budgeting approved by the Board and published

All budgets within the company include a gender equality and diversity perspective

Women are represented and participate in budgetary planning and decision-making processes

All managers and budget committees are competent on gender budgeting

Sex-disaggregated data are available and used to make decisions that equally benefit female employees

Existing company budgets are assessed from a gender equality and diversity perspective, to identify and reduce gender inequalities and diversity disparities