ABSTRACT
This chapter exposed the state of gender responsive budgeting of the Union Parishad’s upper level (hereinafter UP) and the state of the voice being raised at the local level. For empowering women and agency building, the international community’s role, the state, the marketplace, and the family are analyzed and it is found that efficiency in planning remains a debatable issue in terms of gender mainstreaming. Data revealed that the external issues of the government offices – at the sub-district level – including lack of bottom-up approach of planning, lack of disclosure of monetary allocation information, patron–client relationship, local power structure, lack of autonomy, lack of coordination, lack of uniformity and lack of monitoring, etc., are hindrance in the participatory gender responsive budgeting process. There is a presence of comprehensive national mechanisms and institutions, for example, the National Women’s Council for Development (NWCD) for the advancement of women in Bangladesh, but it did not work in the way it was assumed to work. The gender-disaggregated data dissemination in different ministries only indicates the percentage of direct and indirect impact on gender. How a particular programme is making a direct or indirect impact on both males and females is absent. This is a persistent problem in determining gender responsive programmes and activities at the central government level that affect participatory gender responsive budgeting at the local level.
