Thailand Gender-Responsive Budgeting — From Constitutional Commitment to Whole-of-Government Implementation

Thailand enshrined gender equality in its 2017 Constitution and enacted the Gender Equality Act (2015), establishing a Committee to Promote Gender Equality (CPGE). At Thailand's request, the OECD prepared a Gender Budgeting Action Plan (published 2020, document GOV/PGC/SBO(2020)14), providing a roadmap for integrating gender considerations into Thailand's annual budget cycle across all central agencies.

From fiscal year 2020, the Bureau of the Budget began requiring all spending ministries to include gender-impact information with budget requests, identifying how expenditure differently affects women, men, the elderly and other groups.

In December 2021, the Cabinet formalised Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) as mandatory government-wide policy for all central agencies and local administrative organisations. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with UN Women, the Secretariat of the Senate and the Secretariat of the House of Representatives to support training and monitoring, and the framework is now operational in more than 30 line ministries.

Women's representation in the House of Representatives rose from 5.4% in the 2019 general election to 16.2% in 2020 and 19.4% in 2023, and the 2023 cabinet included eight female ministers, the highest number in Thailand's political history. The OECD and UN Women note, however, that direct causal attribution of these parliamentary gains to GRB is not established; systemic factors including party reform and civil-society mobilisation also contributed.

Challenges remain in linking budget allocations to gender-specific outcome targets, and the OECD recommends strengthening performance measurement.