Facts and Figures: National Planning and Budgeting
Since 2009, the Palestinian Government has officially engaged with gender responsive planning and budgeting, with the adoption of a Cabinet decision on mainstreaming gender in budgetary processes in 2009. Subsequently in 2012, the Palestinian Cabinet passed a resolution for forming the National Committee for Gender Responsive Budgeting.
Gender mainstreaming is one of the five governing principles of the three-year Palestinian National Development Plan (2014-2016). The National Development Plan of 2014-2016 contains 2 strategic objectives on gender equality and women’s empowerment out of a total of 20 strategic objectives. By comparison, the National Development Plan of 2011-2013 had only one strategic objective on gender equality and women’s empowerment among 17 strategic objectives overall.
In 2011, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, with support from UN Women, developed and endorsed the Cross-Sectoral National Gender Strategy 2011-2013, the first Palestinian strategy on gender equality and women’s empowerment. UN Women supported the Ministry to review this Strategy in 2013 to pave the way for the development of a new Cross-Sectoral Strategy developed for the period 2014-2016, aligning on the Palestinian Government’s planning cycle.
35 gender units have been established in ministry and security institutions to support and guide the work in ministries and relevant institutions in mainstreaming gender and women’s empowerment.