Uruguay’s Law No. 18,104 on Equal Rights between Men and Women of 2007 established, for the first time in the country’s history, that the State must adopt all measures necessary to ensure the appropriate design, formulation, and execution of, and the proper follow-up on, public policies so these can incorporate the gender perspective.
In this context, the 2007-2011“First National Plan on Equal Opportunities and Rights” (PIODNA), which stresses the need to incorporate the gender approach in public policies and the national budget, was approved in 2017. Significant progress has been made since then, including the development in 2013 of a pilot experience with five State entities (the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, and the National Public Education Administration) to promote the incorporation of the gender perspective in the definition of their budgetary planning strategic objectives and indicators. This experience made it possible to identify several factors necessary to advance the formulation of a gender policy included in the public budget.
In 2016, a Gender Equality Budgeting Project was implemented. This project brought attention to, and identified, public expenditures in actions designed to achieve gender equality, both in Budgeting Programmes already in operation and public investments. Two years later, in 2018, the 2030 National Strategy for Gender Equality was approved. This strategy established the need to work on the openness and consolidation of gender-responsive budgeting in all execution units and brought attention to the budget lines for the promotion gender equality, as well as to the need to monitor, evaluate and/or redefine the budget to ensure the mainstreaming of the gender approach in all of the State’s budgetary programmatic areas.
In 2019, Law No. 19,846 on the “Approval of Emerging Obligations under International Human Rights Law in relation to equality and non-discrimination between women and men, including formal and substantive equality and equal recognition”, which repeals Law No. 18,104 of 2007, became effective. This law states that budgets must include operational expenses and investments for the creation and strengthening of mechanisms and actions to achieve gender equality, and also that those expenditures and investments must be identified to make accountability and the evaluation of results easier. It also established that all public entities or agencies must have Specialized Gender Units.
More recently, Law No. 19,924, which approved the 2020-2024 National Budget, established the obligation to create Specialized Gender Units in all public entities, giving them, among other things, the competence to advise the agency they belong to to mainstream the gender perspective in their planning processes, human resource management, the fulfillment of their duties and their budget.
Ever since the 2018 budgeting cycle, the Planning and Budgeting Office (OPP) has published annual accountability reports and budget execution assessments that include the gender equality policy annex. This annex is a compilation of information submitted by each government entity regarding all actions in the area of gender already implemented and to be implemented by them.
In addition, in 2018 the Court of Accounts performed an audit on the level of preparedness for the implementation of the SDGs, with a particular focus on SDG 5, for the period 2015 to June 2018.