Nepal’s constitutional provisions, legal frameworks, and international commitments strongly emphasize equity in education through inclusive planning and budgeting.
Policies such as the National Education Policy (2019), the Act Relating to Free and Compulsory Education (2018), the Consolidated Equity Strategy for Education, and the Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) Guidelines form the foundation for equitable education financing.
The Constitution of Nepal (2015) mandates resource allocation for gender and social justice, with provisions ensuring the right to education (Article 20), women’s rights (Article 38), children’s rights (Article 40), social justice (Article 42), and the rights of marginalized groups (Article 18).
GRB aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 4 (Quality Education), Goal 5 (Gender Equality), Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities), Goal 16 (Peace & Justice), and Goal 17 (Partnerships).
The School Education Sector Plan (SESP: 2023-2032) institutionalizes GESI-responsive budgeting through accessible infrastructure, inclusive curricula, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), assistive technologies, gender-sensitive capacity-building initiatives, and more.
Key areas include ensuring inclusive decision-making, budgeting, and monitoring; supporting leadership roles, training, and gender-sensitive curricula; addressing barriers; promoting equitable access; and ensuring dedicated GESI funding. Economic opportunities, fair wages, and workload mitigation further promote gender equity.
GRB ensures that financial resources address disparities by funding initiatives that foster lasting social transformation and create an equitable environment.
It focuses on equitable access, participation, and learning outcomes, particularly for girls, Dalits, linguistic-gender-religious minorities, children with disabilities, and other disadvantaged groups.
Rather than focusing solely on women and girls, GRB ensures that the diverse needs of all learners are met through accessible learning materials, gender-responsive practices, and inclusive infrastructure.
By mainstreaming inclusivity across the entire budget cycle—planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation—GRB supports evidence- or need-based decision-making to remove barriers to education for all, including marginalized groups.
GRB in education involves assessing educational needs, identifying disparities through disaggregated data, and prioritizing investments for equitable education. This approach complements Nepal’s commitment to gender and social justice by directing financial resources to areas of vulnerability.
GRB requires gender gap assessments in policies, plans, and budgets, ensuring gender-specific priorities and aligning them with both national and international commitments.
GRB integrates GESI principles into financing, planning, and monitoring processes, strengthens public advocacy, ensures inclusive infrastructure, offers scholarships, promotes gender-sensitive curricula, trains teachers, and equitably distributes resources.
The Ministry of Finance’s GRB manual mandates gender-sensitive budgeting, expenditure tracking, and performance evaluation, emphasizing inclusive programs, accessible infrastructures, and targeted interventions for marginalized communities.
Capacity development for education planners on gender-responsive planning/budgeting, inclusive pedagogies, safe infrastructure, and gender-disaggregated data is crucial for achieving policy alignment and sustainable equity.
GESI analysis is essential for identifying the needs, barriers, and inequalities faced by different genders and marginalized groups.
Planning must establish explicit GESI objectives to ensure equitable access, meaningful participation, and improved learning outcomes, along with inclusive infrastructure that considers safety and accessibility.
Educational content should be free from stereotypes and reflect diverse linguistic, cultural, and gender representations.
Training programs and policies should incorporate gender-responsive pedagogy, legal protections, and equitable evaluation methods. Budget allocations must prioritize infrastructure improvements, scholarships, and incentives, alongside partnerships with communities and awareness campaigns to support sustainable change.
A gender analysis of the education sector is critical to ensure resources are equitably distributed and effectively utilized.
Inclusive stakeholder engagement—encompassing policymakers, educators, gender experts, community leaders, students, and researchers—is equally important for translating concepts into action.
Sex-disaggregated data to assess access, retention, learning outcomes, and barriers is essential.
Need assessments should identify gender-specific educational gaps, guiding interventions such as scholarships, safe learning environments, and teacher capacity-building accordingly.
Budget formulation should be categorized into direct, indirect, and neutral aspects to ensure measurable gender-responsive objectives.
Inter-ministerial coordination is necessary to strengthen justifiable budget allocation, approval, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E).
Institutional capacity should be enhanced through GESI budgeting training, involving local governments and school management committees for sustainable practices.
A structured assessment framework is required to track budget allocations and implement informed interventions.
The impact of budgets should be classified as direct, indirect, or neutral to ensure equitable resource distribution and active participation of women and marginalized groups.
A gender-responsive checklist is essential to evaluate programs’ effectiveness in addressing educational barriers, promoting equality, and enhancing leadership opportunities for women and marginalized groups.
GRB considers five key domains: participation in planning and implementation, capacity enhancement, benefits and control in programs, creation of employment and income generation opportunities, and the reduction of unnecessary workloads.
GRB should categorize interventions within these domains, assigning scores to determine whether programs are directly gender-responsive, indirectly gender-responsive, or neutral.
Strengthening institutional capacity and coordination remains crucial for embedding GRB perspectives into education policies and planning.
Key areas include ensuring inclusive decision-making, budgeting, and monitoring; supporting leadership roles, training, and gender-sensitive curricula; addressing barriers; promoting equitable access; and ensuring dedicated GESI funding. Economic opportunities, fair wages, and workload mitigation further promote gender equity.
This systematic approach will integrate GESI principles into education budgeting, ensuring a data-driven and accountable approach.
Effective GRB implementation requires strong coordination between federal, provincial, and local levels.
To achieve this, stakeholders should be sensitized on GRB, MoUs should be established with relevant ministries, periodic GESI committee meetings should be held, and information-sharing networks across government levels should be created.
Capacity-building efforts will further equip local stakeholders with technical skills, while gender-responsive budget audits ensure accountability.
Governance structures include GRB Committees at sectoral and local levels, Gender Focal Points (GFPs) in ministries, and the Gender Responsive Budget Committee (GRBC) responsible for monitoring budget allocations and equity impact.
Strengthening monitoring systems and engaging educational planners and practitioners regularly will help mainstream GRB implementation.
Despite these mechanisms, challenges such as limited technical expertise, weak institutional support, and insufficient gender-disaggregated data may hinder effectiveness.
Strengthening institutional capacity and coordination remains crucial for embedding GRB perspectives into education policies and planning.
For sustainability, preparing and disseminating education-specific GRB guidelines, developing institutional capacity, coordinating with development partners, conducting periodic GESI audits from an equity-in-education perspective, and collecting and updating gender-disaggregated data through the Integrated Education Management Information System (IEMIS) are crucial.
The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MoEST), in collaboration with the Centre for Education and Human Resource Development (CEHRD), can develop and disseminate guidelines, conduct stakeholder orientations, and ensure policy alignment.
Institutional capacity-building will include capability assessments, establishing dedicated GESI sections, and conducting Training of Trainers (TOT) and Master Training of Trainers (MTOT) programs to integrate GRB into the broader educational discourse.
Joint meetings at federal, provincial, and local levels are necessary to align GRB strategies with the priorities of development partners (DPs) and civil society organizations (CSOs).
A provincial and local level GESI strategy will further integrate GRB across governance levels and ensure inclusive and equitable resource allocation.
Despite Nepal’s progress in integrating gender and social justice into educational financing, challenges remain.
Limited disaggregated data hinders targeted interventions, while gaps in budget execution and inter-ministerial coordination prevent full utilization.
To address these challenges, capacity-building for relevant personnel, gender impact assessments, and expenditure tracking are essential.
Planners and practitioners should prioritize gender-disaggregated evidence, institutional capacity-building, and stakeholder engagement to drive evidence-based decision-making and create a path toward sustainable development.
Strengthening monitoring systems and engaging educational planners and practitioners regularly will help mainstream GRB implementation.
Collaboration between different tiers of government, educational institutions, development partners, and civil society organizations will further enhance policy effectiveness and institutional sustainability.
Effective GRB implementation also requires political and administrative commitment, including leadership from MoEST, CEHRD, provincial and local authorities, and GESI committees at all levels.
A technical working group will strengthen implementation, ensuring accountability across divisions and branches. Institutionalizing gender-responsive budget codes into the e-AWPB, gender-disaggregated data in IEMIS, and a GRB costing framework are necessary.
Sustained collaboration across government tiers and with other stakeholders is also essential.
GRB in Nepal’s education sector could be a critical pathway for achieving sustainable development through equitable resource allocation.
Aligning with constitutional mandates, national policies, and international commitments, targeted investments are necessary to address deep-rooted disparities.
Planners and practitioners should prioritize gender-disaggregated evidence, institutional capacity-building, and stakeholder engagement to drive evidence-based decision-making and create a path toward sustainable development.
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