The government’s aim is to systematically integrate the gender perspective into all public policies, including fiscal policies, through a gender-sensitive state budget, Commissioner for gender equality Josie Christodoulou said Thursday.
The Commissioner made statements during an event in Nicosia, on the occasion of the completion of integrating gender perspective into the state budget. Christodoulou said that a substantial step was made in safeguarding the management of public resources to equally respond to the needs of all citizens.
She went on to say that this is a process that was adopted by 189 countries, including Cyprus, in the framework of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at the 4th UN World Conference on Women in 1995.
The declaration explicitly calls on governments to integrate a gender perspective into fiscal policies and to assess the way in which public spending affects women. She noted that thirty-one years later, Cyprus is proceeding with this very important reform.
The Commissioner added that this development is mainly due to the political will of the government, which has set gender equality as a horizontal priority, promoting substantial institutional and legislative reforms.
Christodoulou said that the law ensures that ministries, deputy ministries and the broader public sector plan, implement and review policies taking into account their different impact on women and men.
She described this as a powerful policy tool that, after examining how fiscal decisions, policies and actions affect women and men differently, helps us to ensure that state resources are distributed, precisely, on the basis of these differences, fairly and effectively.
The Commissioner added that the key to the success of the project and to the design of targeted fiscal policies is the collection of gender-specific statistical data which provide the quantitative picture that allows the design of even more targeted policies and actions.
She also said that Cyprus received support through the European Commission and exchanged experiences and good practices with other European states with greater experience in gender budgeting issues.
In her statements the Commissioner noted that preparing a gender budgeting is a long-term process, which requires a change in culture, continuous training, collection of reliable statistical data and close cooperation between all stakeholders.
But she appeared optimistic saying that foundations have now been laid and the progress made allows us to look to the future with greater optimism.