PARLIAMENT AND THE BUDGETARY PROCESS, INCLUDING FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE Geneva (Switzerland), 19-21 September 2007 Organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union

	Over the past five years, the Inter-Parliamentary Union has organized regional seminars aimed at improving MPs' and parliamentary staffers' understanding of the three phases of the budgetary process (elaboration, reading in Parliament and oversight) and its gender implications. The proposed regional seminar was the seventh in the series. It brought together members of parliament and parliamentary staff from Europe and Central Asia to debate ways and mechanisms to strengthen their role in the budgetary process, through an exchange of experience. An important amount of time was set aside to debating gender-sensitive national budgets. The seminar took place from 19-21 September 2007 at the Centre international de Conférences de Genève (CICG) in Geneva.

SESSION DOCUMENTS
	General report [PDF]
	General Information [PDF]
	Invitation to the Regional seminar [PDF]
	Registration form [PDF]
	Hotel reservation form [PDF]
	Programme [PDF]
RELATED SITES AND DOCUMENTS
	Women in politics
	Women in National Parliaments
	Women in politics: Bibliographic database
	PARLINE: Bodies dealing with the status of women and gender equality
Note: Documents in PDF format require Adobe Acrobat Reader

PROGRAMME
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
10.00 - 10.30	Opening Ceremony
10.45 - 12.45	General introduction : The budget: Purpose, composition and terminology Mr. Len Verwey, Senior budget analyst, Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) Presentation will be followed by a debate
12.45 - 14.30	Lunch break
14.30 - 16.00	General introduction to the budgetary process, reviewing the variety of national approaches and processes Dr. Joachim Wehner, Lecturer in Public Policy, London School of Economics Presentations will be followed by a debate
16.00 - 18.00	The respective roles of Government and Parliament in the budgetary process Mr. Jean Jacques Viseur, former Minister of Finance, former MP (Belgium) Presentations will be followed by a debate
Thursday, 20 September 2007
9.30 - 11.00	Accountability and transparency in the budgetary process: Parliamentary oversight of the budget Mr. Jean Jacques Viseur, former Minister of Finance, former parliamentarian (Belgium) Presentations will be followed by a debate
11.00 - 11.30	Coffee break
11.30 - 13.00	The role of parliamentary committees in the budget process Dr. Joachim Wehner, Lecturer in Public Policy, London School of Economics Presentations will be followed by a debate
13.00 - 14.30	Lunch break
14.30 - 16.30	Accountability and transparency in the budgetary process: The National Audit Dr. Arpad Kovacs, President, International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) Presentations will be followed by a debate
16.30 - 16.45	Coffee break
16.45 - 18.00	A gender-sensitive budget: what does it mean? Ms Elizabeth Villagómez, International consultant Presentations will be followed by a debate
Friday, 21 September 2007
9.00 - 11.00	Gender impact analysis of the budget Ms Elizabeth Klatzer, Expert, Gender budgeting, Watch Group - Gender and Public Finance (Austria) Presentations will be followed by a debate
11.00 - 11.30	Coffee break
11.30 - 13.00	Mechanisms and methods for developing a gender-sensitive budget Ms Elizabeth Villagómez, International consultant Presentations will be followed by a debate
13.00 - 14.30	Lunch break
14.30 - 16.00	Evaluation of the seminar Final report of the seminar and closing