2018
Addressing inequalities and accelerating SDGs

Projet d’appui à la Budgétisation Sensible au Genre au Royaume du Maroc (BSG)

Agence Française de Développement
Africa
2018

Since 2002, Morocco has been engaged in the institutionalization of the gender approach by making gender equality one of the pillars of its constitution. The country is today taking things further, by implementing an innovative Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) approach, of which one of the issues is to promote equal access for women and men to public resources and services. A budget that does not take gender into account increases inequalities as it treats women and men in the same way. A gender responsive budget leads more to a questioning of the impact that each budget operation can have on one or other gender. GRB does not mean separate budgets depending on the gender, nor increasing resources earmarked for women. It does, however, involve adapting the existing budget so that better account is taken of the specific needs of women and men. AFD is supporting Morocco’s ambitious approach by financing a public policy loan to ensure that GRB becomes a real tool for guiding Morocco’s public action, targeted on the effective reduction of gender inequalities. At the same time, AFD is implementing a capacity building program to support the ownership of GRB and its proper implementation by all ministries. This support follows on from the many sectoral operations conducted to date in Morocco and has been designed in coordination with the European Union and UN-Women, which have been supporting the country on gender since the early 2000s. Furthermore, AFD is mobilizing committed French public actors for this project, who are convinced by the issue, first and foremost the Secretariat of State for Gender Equality and Expertise France. This project is fully in line with the achievement of SDG n° 5, by targeting the reduction of gender inequalities in Morocco. By better taking into account the different needs of women and men in budget programming in all sectoral policies, it also contributes to more effective public finance management, enhanced budget transparency and greater accountability by public authorities. Through GRB, this project therefore contributes to strengthening the equity of Moroccan society, while increasing the confidence of citizens in public institutions.