PRESUPUESTO SENSIBLE AL GÉNERO EN ROSARIO: UNA MIRADA A LOS ACTORES, LOS PROCESOS Y LAS IDEAS

Abstract

Public budgets are a reflection of social and economic priorities of each government. Taking into account that public policies have a differential impact on men and women, they become a key element in promoting equal opportunities and gender mainstreaming in public policies. A gender responsive budget (GRB) implies that both the goals and the budget allocation tries to meet those differing needs, generating greater transparency, accountability and a more efficient allocation of resources. However, there are yet many challenges faced when promoting them.

Rosario is a city located in Santa Fe Province, Argentina and it is the third most populated city in the country. It is also the city with the longest uninterrupted succession of socialist governments in Latin-America. It has a long story on gender policies and now GRB is in its institutional agenda. There are different actors and processes that have influenced this phenomenon: the learning process generated by the Participative Budgeting program, the incidence of the women movement, the articulation with the global gender agenda, and the ideology of the governmental party.

The primary research question of this thesis seeks to identify how those processes and actors influenced the incorporation of GRB in the institutional agenda of Rosario City, by describing and analyzing the initiatives already undertaken. The project is conducted as a case study and the research implicated a fieldwork based on interviews with different governmental agents and other citizens.

The results obtained demonstrate that these four processes were certainly present in advancing the issue of GRB in Rosario. The analysis showed that domestic Participative Budgeting and the party ideology opened participation channels and sensitized the different actors becoming the gateway for the emergence of the issue. Meanwhile, women's movement and the gender global agenda (represented by international organizations) had a direct impact on this process, pushing the issue into the agenda. It can be said that all these processes were combined in a complex and contingent way resulting in the entrance of GRB in the Rosario Municipality agenda.