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Good practice Imported

Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting — Bhutan's National Commission for Women and Children

Bhutan · Thimphu · See the Bhutan profile · See the Thimphu profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 55% 63/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Bhutan's National Commission for Women and Children, set up in 2004, has embedded gender-responsive budgeting across ministries since 2013 — even as women's National Assembly seats collapsed from ~17% (2023) to ~4% after the January 2024 election.

Nu 225.208 million → Nu 531.164 million
Gender-tagged budget allocation (2014-15 to 2019-20)
8.5% → 14.9% → ~17%
Women's share of National Assembly seats (2013-2022/23)
2 of 47 (~4.3%)
Women's National Assembly seats after collapse (January 2024)
Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting — Bhutan's National Commission for Women and Children

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC), Royal Government of Bhutan
Period
2004–present
Keywords
gender budgeting, public administration, gender mainstreaming, political representation

Context

Bhutan's National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC), established 2004 and made fully autonomous in 2008, coordinates Gender Focal Points across ministries. Under the 11th Five Year Plan the government adopted Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting (GRPB), piloted in agriculture, health and education; UN Women and the Asian Development Bank published Bhutan's first sectoral gender diagnostic in 2016.

Results

Gender-tagged budget allocations rose from Nu 225.208 million (2014-15) to Nu 531.164 million (2019-20), per Bhutan's own national review. Women's share of National Assembly seats rose from 8.5% (2013) to 14.9% (2018) to ~17% (2022-23), per IPU Parline data.

Conclusions

Despite two decades of institution-building, downstream political outcomes have been volatile: women's National Assembly representation collapsed to 2 of 47 seats (~4.3%) after the January 2024 election, and the April 2023 National Council election was described in local reporting as a 'setback for women', with only one woman elected outright before two more were appointed by the King — showing institutional budgeting mechanisms have not, on their own, translated into durable gains in women's political representation.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC), Gender Focal Points across ministries

Conditions for success

  • Institutionalised gender-tagging within the national budget process
  • An online Gender Equality Monitoring System (GEMS) to track sector-level progress

Common failure modes

  • Budget-side gender mainstreaming did not prevent a sharp collapse in women's parliamentary representation after the 2024 election

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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