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Good practice Imported

France's Transversal Budget Document on Gender Equality (DPT Égalité Femmes-Hommes)

France · Paris · See the France profile · See the Paris profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 55% 63/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

France attaches an annual gender-equality budget document (DPT) covering about 48 programmes and €5.8bn, but the Cour des comptes calls its funding growth a 'trompe-l'œil' and IGF/IGAS finds ex-ante gender-impact assessments are almost never actually measured.

5.8 billion EUR
Credits identified as gender-relevant (PLF2025) (PLF2025)
4-12 %
Estimated cost of gender discrimination to GDP (2024)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Direction du budget (Ministère chargé des Comptes publics)
Period
2010–present
Keywords
public finance, budget policy, gender equality, government

Context

France attaches a Document de politique transversale (DPT) on gender equality to its annual Budget Bill, statutory since Article 128 of Loi n2005-1720, in its current format since around 2010 and continuing through PLF2026.

Results

The PLF2025 edition identifies credits across roughly 48 budget programmes totalling EUR5.8 billion in commitment authority (EUR6.5 billion executed in 2023); the dedicated Programme 137 amounts to EUR85.1 million. A joint 2024 IGF/IGAS inspection cites a 23% gender pay gap and estimates gender discrimination costs France 4-12% of GDP.

Conclusions

Both the Cour des comptes (2023) and IGF/IGAS (2024) are sharply critical: credit growth from EUR128 million (2017) to EUR3.3 billion (2024) reflects reclassification of existing spending rather than new investment, a legal requirement for ex ante gender-impact assessment is 'almost never' carried out, and Social Security spending is excluded entirely.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Ministry of Finance, line ministries, IGF/IGAS (oversight)

Conditions for success

  • Enforcement of the existing ex ante gender-impact assessment requirement
  • Inclusion of Social Security spending in scope

Common failure modes

  • Credit growth reflects reclassification, not new investment ('trompe-l'oeil')
  • Legally required ex ante gender-impact assessments almost never carried out

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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