10 Advancing Gender Equality in Nepal: Refining gender-responsive budgeting for transformative impact 3. Upgrading the GRB Framework by Enhancing the Use of GRB Tools The GRB system adopted by the government of Nepal provides a solid foundation for upgrading the system to fully implement GRB using various tools available throughout the planning and budgeting processes. The government has introduced GRB guidelines that guide government institutions to classify programmes and expenditures based on five indicators(with sub­indicators) to facilitate gender coding in budget preparation and execution. The classified budget allocations are in an annex to the annual budget, categorised as directly responsive, indirectly responsive, or neutral. The indicators point to relevant issues with a strong potential impact on gender equality: • Women’s participation in formulation and implementation of the programme • Women’s capacity development • Women’s share in the benefits • Promotion of employment and income generation for women • Qualitative improvement in women’s time use and reduced workload objectives based on national and international commitments, such as the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) of the UN Agenda 2030, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA). • Budget formulation and planning: Integrating gender perspectives into budget formulation, ensuring that resources are allocated to address gender-specific needs and gaps in sectors such as health, education, social protection, and economic empowerment. • Monitoring and evaluation: Establishing gender-disaggregated indicators and monitoring frameworks to assess the impact of budget allocations on gender-equality outcomes. • Accountability mechanisms: Creating institutional accountability by involving various stakeholders, including civil society, in the monitoring and evaluation of GRB implementation. As outlined above, a simpler and more applicable GRB framework and directive are necessary to effectively translate GRB policy into practice, ideally covering the following elements: • Gender analysis of budget policies: Assessing how different budget policies impact men and women differently, identifying gender gaps, and addressing the specific needs of marginalised or disadvantaged groups. • Identification of gender equality priorities: Setting clear gender-equality To better ensure the implementation and operation of these GRB elements, we make the following recommendations: • Embed gender equality perspectives throughout all steps of the planning and budgeting cycle(policy, revenue, planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring, auditing, reporting, etc), by making use of all the available GRB tools. • Add gender-impact analyses to current expenditure tracking.