Re: CivilSociety 26 Gender Budgeting in the Civil Society * Christine Färber • The Council of Europe has defined gender budgeting as the application of gender main­streaming in the budgetary process. It adds an economic and fiscal dimension to the cross­cutting task of ensuring„gender equality“, and renders the budget transparent and easier to manage. • This is important to the citizens, both women and men, and the parliament since crucial questions about the future of society, such as demographic development and the potential of labour and education, are addressed from a qualitatively different perspective. Gender budgeting thus makes a major contribution to economic development and the stabilisation and spread of democracy. • Legally speaking, gender budgeting is based on the constitution(the Basic Law), the Treaty of Amsterdam and equal opportunities legislation. Important gender budgeting aspects we­re defined under the gender mainstreaming process pursued by the Federal Government un­til the year 2006, especially with regard to assessing the impact of legislation. After 2006 the gender mainstreaming process, although binding to member States as a European strategy, came more or less to a halt at the national level. In contrast, concrete legal foundations for gender budgeting were put in place in Austria in 2005. • One core element of gender budgeting is the implementation of gender equality by means of the budget. The budgetary cycle consists of the preparation of the budget, the execution of the budget and the rendering of accounts. Gender budgeting can be implemented in all three phases by incorporating gender information in the budgetary process; this information can then be used as a basis for decisions by policy-makers. • The budget is a complex and voluminous document. Gender budgeting should render it transparent, not more complicated. Gender indicators are therefore used to describe budget­related benefits for women and men and the impact on gender relations in society. * The German term„Bürgergesellschaft“ has slightly broader connotations than„Zivilgesellschaft“(civil society) and shifts the emphasis to individual citizens and groups who wish to contribute actively to and participate in the social and po­litical life of a community or country, not only as an advocacy group.(translator´s note)