FAFIA and Gender Budgeting

Tue, 12 May 2009

The Auditor General Reports on Gender-Based Analysis

In April 2008, the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women recommended, in its ninth report, that the Auditor General's Office examine the implementation of gender-based analysis in the federal government.

Mon, 09 Mar 2009

Status of Women's IWD math doesn't add up

By Erin Simpson | March 6, 2009

The federal government's Status of Women department is very excited about International Women's Day this year. A whole week of events allows Canadians to "celebrate progress toward equality for women and their full participation, reflect on the challenges and barriers that remain, and consider future steps to achieving equality for all women, in all aspects of their lives." This year's theme: "Strong Leadership + Strong Women + Strong World = Equality".

I like it. It's very mathematical.

Wed, 26 Mar 2008

FAFIA'S FEDERAL GENDER BUDGETING INITIATIVE

FAFIA launched its gender budgeting project in October 2007 with the support of Oxfam Canada and the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. This project has a national focus and relies on the ongoing engagement of many of FAFIA’s members and partners who are dedicated to substantive equality in Canada.

Gender budgeting addresses women’s inequality by examining a government’s budgets through a gender lens and, in particular, where its tax and spending priorities lie.

Thu, 01 Nov 2007

The Fallacies of Income Splitting

Income splitting is when one tax payer transfers a portion of the income they control to someone else for tax purposes, so that they are subject to a lower tax rate. The goal of income splitting is to pay less tax collectively. Income splitting is generally a bad public policy for women. It attempts to achieve family work life balance by encouraging one full timer to go to work and one family member to stay at home.

Gender Budget Initiatives - A Global Overview

Gender Budget Initiatives come in a variety of forms and are all quite diverse. They have been initiated by and have involved different players. Some GBIs are national-level projects, others also target local government. Local GBIs tend to be based on more participatory methods, engaging communities in their analysis and in changing budget priorities and allocations. The most powerful GBIs are frequently those which are citizen-led.

Deputy Minister of the Department of Finance discusses gender-based analysis at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women

On April 17 2007, the Deputy Minister of the Department of Finance, Mr. Robert Wright, was invited to discuss gender budgeting at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

Read about the efforts of the Finance Department on gender-based analysis, and Mr. Wright's views on Income Splitting and Status of Women funding.On April 17 2007, the Deputy Minister of the Department of Finance, Mr. Robert Wright, was invited to discuss gender budgeting at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

UNPAC's Gender Budget Project

The overall goal of UNPAC's project is to reduce women's poverty. They understand women's poverty as financial in that women are too often "money-poor" but we also see that women are what we call "time-poor" in that there are simply not enough hours in a day to do all the things that need to be done.

Government policies and budgetary decisions can either alleviate or exacerbate this time crunch.

For tools and information on implementing a gender budget, please visit UNPAC's website at:
UNPAC

Tue, 26 Sep 2006

Cuts to Status of Women and Court Challenges Program Undermine Government’s Commitment to Women’s Equality

Ottawa: FAFIA, a pan-Canadian alliance of women’s and human rights organizations, is denouncing the $5 million cut to the federal department of Status of Women over two years. These cuts will be taken from its modest annual budget of $13 million. The grants and contributions arm ($11 million) of the department was not affected. September 25, 2006

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