This presentation was made by Aline PENNISI, Italy, at the OECD-MENA Network meeting dedicated to Budgeting for Societal Outcomes:Gender, Youth and SDGs Budgeting, held in Caserta, Italy, on 18-19 July 2019

1. Italy’s gender budget
OECD MENA Network meeting - Budgeting for Societal Outcomes
July 2019

2. Introducing gender budgeting in Italy
 A provision for gender budgeting was introduced in 2016 in the
Italian Public Finance and Accounting Law. It calls for the different
impact on women and men of the State budget revenues and
expenditures to be assessed:
o after various parliamentary attempts over the past years
o supported by Italian G7 Presidency and the introduction of 12 "BES“
(Equitable and Sustainable Well-being) indicators in addition to GDP in the
planning and monitoring of public finances cycle
o among a strand of initiatives to make public policies more «visible» in the
budget
 It was conducted as a pilot project for the first time on the Final
Account / End-of-Year Budget 2016.
 An annual report is delivered to Parliament each year
Some relevant BES indicators: absolute poverty index, healthy life expectancy at birth,
overweight index, early leavers from education and training, rate of non-participation
in work, ratio of employment rate of women 25-49 years old with pre-school children
to women without children.
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3. Already existing experiences
 Some successful gender budgeting initiatives had been and are being
carried out at regional, provincial and municipal level.
o Several regional governments have passed laws to introduce pilot projects or to make
gender budgeting part of the routine process for approving the annual budget.
o Several local administrations have committed themselves to gender budgeting, signing
the European Charter for equality of women and men in local life.
 Other significant initiatives of Gender Responsive Budgeting have been
put in place by the National social security institute (INPS) and by some
public universities
 HR policies for public employees have invested in gender balance issues
since 2006 and most administrations were familiar with this kind of exercise
 The actual practices are fragmentary and often discontinuous; there
are no common guidelines and in several cases the gender budgeting
exercises are closer to a context analysis than to a gender
mainstreaming tool.
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4. Map of developments at the local level
4
2009: 56 gender budgets 2018: 137 gender budgets
Source: G. Badalassi (2017)

5. Main actors
 The State General Accounting Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance,
responsible for the State Budget and Final Accounts preparation as well as for collecting
data on public employees
 The Department of Finance of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, responsible for the
analysis of the impact of major revenue policies
 The Department of General Affairs of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, responsible
for data on payments of wages and salaries of employees of all central government
administrations
 All Ministries and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers report according to
guidelines issued by the MoF (through a dedicated annual circular)
… in collaboration with Department for Equal Opportunities of the Presidency of the
Council of Ministers throughout the whole process….
And specific agreements with:
 National Statistical Office (Istat), to collect / elaborate relevant indicators
 National Social Security Institute (INPS), to produce specific policy monitoring
indicators and develop gender impact assessments (thanks to the rich administrative
database)
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6. 6
Main tools
Analysis of gender
inequality through
indicators
in the economy and
society
among central
government
employees
Classification of
budget
expenditures
Gender neutral
Gender sensitive
Aimed at reducing
gender gaps
Analysis of main
tax policies
redistribution effect
of personal income
tax-rates
specific tax relief
measures
Actions taken by
Ministries to reduce
gender inequality
sectoral policies
HR policies
Classification of
legislation
Protection laws or
positive action laws
With or without
financial effects on
the State budget

7. Gender equality in the economy and society
Labour Market
Although declining, the gender gap continues to
penalize women in the labour market
Family-work balance
Domestic and nursing duties within the family are still
strongly based on the contribution of women.
Work protection, retirement
and social assistance
Women have a lower disposable income and a higher
poverty risk (especially single women with children)
Education and gender
stereotypes
Scientific technical disciplines are still mainly a male
issue; new ICTs are used by both genders
Contrasting gender
violence
The decrease in acts of violence against women has
been small in recent years
Health, lifestyle
and safety
Health, life-quality and security still appear to be
gender-connected issues
Participation in economic,
decision-making, political
and administrative
processes
Female representation has increased but there are still
strong inequalities, even in national elective chambers
Indicators Main Insights Nr. of indicators
12
12
15
24
17
25
20

8. Composition of
permanent employees
 Several administrations are composed by a majority of
women but the female representation decreases when
considering the higher positions
 From 2008 to 2018 women benefited as a whole of a
more favorable replacement rate
 In Ministries and at the Presidency of the Council of
Ministers, women have higher level of education
 The gender gap in the use of professional training of
employees reflects gender composition of the personnel
in each sector
 Part-time is a tool used mainly by women to balance
their working needs with family responsibilities
 Family leaves are mainly used by women while men tend
to use them less frequently and for shorter periods
Top management
Replacement rate
Portion of employees holding
only the min. compulsory
level of education
Portion of managers
holding a post graduate
degree
Indicators Main Insights
Part-time employees and
portion of new mothers
opting for part-time
Parental and family leaves
Professional training
Gender equality among central government
employees

9. Survey on actions taken by administrations to
reduce gender inequality
Human
Resources
Policies
Policy Area Policies
• Work-life balance measures implemented in the year and number of
employees involved since 2014
• Professional development initiatives to promote gender awareness and
an equal opportunity culture in the work place
• Implementation of the triennial plan of positive actions for the removal
of obstacles that prevent gender labour equality conditions to be fully
achieved (article 48 of Legislative Decree n.198 of 2006)
Sectoral
Policies
• Measures aimed at “reducing gender inequalities” carried in the year
• Details on policies or services classified by administrations as “gender
sensitive”
• Ministerial specific addresses on gender equality
• Additional information on monitoring systems, result assessment
procedures and the availability of gender classified data

10. Reclassification of State budget expenditures
 Expenditures aimed at reducing gender inequalities
 They are directly connected or aimed at reducing gender inequalities
inequalities or promoting equal opportunities (e.g. women's
entrepreneurship funds, female employment incentives, life-work
balance measures)
 Sensitive expenditures, relating to measures which have a different
impact on men and women
 They are in favour of individuals or not, but somehow indirectly affect
gender inequalities
 Neutral expenditures, with no effect on gender
 They have no direct or indirect impact on gender (for example: interest
and debt repayments, acquisitions of financial assets, depreciation,
royalties and utilities, etc…)
 That are not classified sensitive or aimed at reducing gender disparities
10

11. Gender gap reduction spending 2017-2018
(commitments, net of personnel expenditure).
Billions of euros and %
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Expenditures for gender gap reduction
Presidency of the Council of Ministers (2,5%):
DPO specific projects; Centres against violence and
shelter houses for victims; Celebrations for the 70th
anniversary of the recognition of electoral rights to
women; Work-Life balance measures for public
employees
Social security (88,3%): Maternity and paternity
allowances; Assistance for families with disabled
persons; Revaluation of pensions in favour of
midwives; Paid-leave for women victims of gender
violence
Local governments (0,3%): Fund for early
childhood services; policies for immigrants from
countries where female genital mutilations are
practiced; maternity and paternity allowances for
municipal and provincial secretaries
Sectoral policies (1,2%): Gender equality
counsellors; incentives for firms practicing gender
equality measures; projects awarded to civil society
organisations; nurseries for children of detainees;
School projects against bullying and in favor of
gender equality; social protection measures to ensure
voluntary return in the country of origin of the victims
of human trafficking; Call center for prevention of
female genital mutilation; incentives for female
entrepreneurship in agriculture
International organisations (7,2%): Participation in
international organisations and cooperation projects
aimed at reducing gender inequalities
Measures for central government employees
(0,5%): Measures to favour life – work balance (day-
care for children of employees, summer camps or
expenses to support flexible work initiatives ; training
on gender topics
Milion euros % Milion euros %
Gender neutral 617.818,8 80,00 584.855,1 79,99
Aimed at
reducing
gender
inequality
2.138,6 0,28 2.258,7 0,31
Gender
sensitive
152.283,9 19,72 144.009,8 19,70
Total 772.241,3 100,00 731.123,6 100,00
Expenditure
classification
2017 2018

12. Expenditures for gender-connected measures
12
Gender sensitive spending 2018
(commitments, net of personnel
expenditure). Billions of euros and %.
Expenditures for gender gap reduction
2018 (commitments, net of personnel
expenditure). Billions of euros and %.

13. Guarantee fund for SMEs. Loans and
guaranteed amounts for female
entreprises (Meuro), 2008-2018.
Source: Mediocredito Centrale
13
Promoting female entrepreneurship (extra-budgetary
revolving funds) The guarantee fund for SMEs insures loans through a
state guarantee. It is an extra-budgetary fund managed
by Mediocredito centrale on a Central Treasury
account.
Since 2013, a special section promotes women's
entrepreneurship, with contributions from the State
budget and Presidency of the council of minister’s
autonomous budget.
Women’s enterprises, without age limits, can benefit
from concessions in the form of direct guarantee, co-
guarantee and counter-guarantee to cover financial
transactions for their business. Female participation to
enterprises must be no less than 60 percent and can
have different forms (cooperative companies; people's
companies; capital companies; individual companies in
various sectors and start-ups). Professionals can also
access the fund since 2015.
Other tools include:
• credit facilities for self-entrepreneurship and self-
employment for young up to 35 years of age and
women of all ages (zero rate and possibly assisted
by guarantees), again a special revolving fund,
similar regional funds.

14. Schools participating to the STEM
program in 2018.
Source: MIUR / PCM
14
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)
for girls in primary and secondary schools
Since 2017 the Ministry of Education and
Presidency of the Council of Ministers support
free summer camps in science, mathematics,
computer science and coding. The main
objective is to bring (mainly female) primary and
secondary school students closer to the study of
STEM subjects (and to encourage help work-life
balance, with the opening of schools for two
weeks during the summer time).
In 2017, 200 schools received funds for 2 Meuro;
in 2018, 318 schools received 3 Meuro.
In 2018, 4,559 girls took part in the courses (over
60 percent). Overall, 3,227 days of activity and
about 13,000 hours of training were provided.
As a result of participating in the 2018 summer
camps, 1,018 girls (22 percent of the
participants), said they wanted to continue their
studies in science subjects.

15. 15
Fist steps towards gender impact
assessments: some examples
 The use of the child bonus measure - a contribution payable to new
mothers as an alternative to taking parental leave in the months
following the birth of the child - has a positive impact on the job offer
(30% more days) and on the wages of mothers (26 per cent more) but
is concentrated in the short term. In fact, already from the year after
the use, the gap is gradually reduced, until it disappears.
 The introduction of gender quotas for boards of public listed
companies has lead to an increase in the number of women in boards
(even above the required level) and a similar trend is visible also in
other businesses. However, there are no significant effects on the
company's performance, the share of female employment on work-life
balance conditions.

16. Italy has a individual and progressive income tax regime, with several types of
deductions and detractions for family size and some family related incentives. The EC
estimates show a higher inactivity and even higher low-income trap for second earners
than in other countries, and relative disadvantage for low-income couples with two children
compared to EU average.
A first analysis :
 Using the tax-benefits microsimulation model of the Department of Finance which
combine data from the household survey on living conditions and income and tax
declarations, to assess the effectiveness of the redistributive effect on the income
of men and women, measured through Gini index
 Identifying and starting to analyze which tax relief measures aimed directly or
indirectly at reducing gender inequalities
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Analysis of tax policies
Couple without childrenCouple with two children

17. Income tax policy has a slightly higher equalizing effect among
women
Gini concentration indexes for gross and
disposable incomes of men and women
(*) The Gini index is a measure of the inequality of the
income distribution that takes values from 0 to 1. A low
index indicates the tendency to equality, while a high value
indicates a strong inequality.
Average tax rate for men and women by
type of prevailing income
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18. 18
Women seem to benefit more than men of tax relief measures
aimed at balancing private and professional life
• but it is difficult to establish this precisely because of family strategies
oriented to maximize deductions
• and women have, more often than men, an insufficient income to benefit
from these types of tax relief measures.
Amount of tax relief related to life-work balance policies consumed by women
and men. Taxation year 2015. Values in millions of euros.

19. Spreading the word through the «open
budget app» The App can be downloaded at:
http://bilancioaperto.mef.gov.it/landing.html
The Gender Budget webpage:
http://www.rgs.mef.gov.it/VERSIONE-
I/attivita_istituzionali/formazione_e_gestione_del_bilancio/rendiconto/
bilancio_di_genere/

20.  The State budget does not fully and punctually identify all
interventions and expenditures aimed at reducing gender
inequalities
 A wide variety of regulatory measures do not require resources to be financed and
do not appear in the budget (e.g., «pink quotas» in electoral laws; measures against
violence; etc.)
 Some interventions, even though financed by State contribution, are carried out by
other public administrations in the context of their own autonomy (e.g., childhood
services/local government; guarantee funds for female businesses/extra-
budgetary; tax relief measures, etc.)
 Line ministries have difficulties with the classification exercise
 in particular, in identifying «sensitive» expenditures and performing gender
mainstreaming
 some of the expenditure considered neutral may hide important gender effects
which merit a more thorough analysis
 There is still little investment in impact assessment
Preliminary assessment
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21. Next steps
 Establishing a steering committee to provide both methodological issues and
tools for practical implementation (members should include the various
institutional actors and possibly some subject experts, as well as
representatives of the line Ministries)
 Refining the State budget expenditure reclassification criteria,
especially concerning the «gender sensitive» category (which lacks a
consistent interpretation on behalf of the administrations)
 Integrating the gender dimension in all sectoral policies, notably in those
concerning individuals and families by developing monitoring systems with
gender breakdown and more impact evaluation practices of these policies
 More training training courses for staff working on gender budget and other
gender issues