Gender mainstreaming in finance ministries

Ministries of Finance appear largely to have escaped careful scrutiny in attempts to sensitize different divisions of government to gender concerns. This paper shows three possible points of entry to engendering the work of Ministries of Finance: at the level of ongoing macroeconomic management, which includes the annual budget of the government and the fiscal deficit, external and internal debt, and the balance of payments; at the level of structural reforms-particularly deregulation, liberalization, and privatization-which are intended to improve efficient resource use and eradicate poverty; and in the specific context of credit liberalization and the provision of micro-credit. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.