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Minute of the Finance and Resources Committee of 3 March 2022- submitted for approval as a correct record

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Business Bulletin

By Councillor Mumford - Embedding Gender Budget Analysis

“Committee:

1.       Notes that gender budgeting is an internationally recognised tool to expose the gendered impact of public spending and ensures consideration of spending decisions through this lens;

2.       Recognises that the First Minister’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls recommended that local authorities integrate intersectional gender budget analysis into their budget setting procedures;

3.       Recognises that the Council’s response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Scottish Specific elements of the Public Sector Equality Duty responded to this recommendation stating that “gender budget analysis would be a positive step forward and perfectly feasible at the present time”, while disagreeing with the need for a statutory duty;

4.       Notes that the Scottish Women’s Budget Group’s project ‘Gender Budgeting from Theory to Action’ aims to support greater use of gender budgeting tools in local decision making in Scotland to reduce inequalities;

5.       Therefore requests a report to this committee within 2 cycles into measures that the Council can take to introduce, embed or improve intersectional gender budgeting including but not limited to:

a.    A strategy for resource allocation to achieve equality;

b.    Greater intersectional data gathering;

c.    An equalities budget statement alongside all submitted budget motions;

d.   Strengthening IIAs for spending decisions and ensuring greater opportunities for scrutiny by elected members and the public;

e.    Investing in gender competence of officers and elected members;

f.    Mechanisms and structures to improve gender budgeting such as working groups, taskforces and champions;

6.       And further requests that officers engage with the Scottish Women’s Budget Group within the next cycle to explore the possibility of Edinburgh Council undertaking a pilot gender budget analysis project with them.”