In promotion of gender equality the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has a role different from the other Govern-ment ministries in Finland. It is responsible, in the same way as all the other sectors, for the mainstreaming of gender equality objectives into its statutory duties in the field of social and health policy. Furthermore, the work of three public equality authorities is funded within the Ministry’s budget framework, namely the Ombudsman for Equality, the Gender Equality Unit, and the Council for Gender Equality. In the pilot project the gender impact assessment is confined to the direct effects of the targeting of, in particular, social income transfers and their funding.

The State budget finances through the main title of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health only about one fifth of all social protection expenditures. The Ministry is however responsible for the major part of the legislation on social protection expenditures and their financing. That is why the targeting analyses have been made from a broader perspective than that of the actual budget expenditures.

Gender impact assessment and monitoring presuppose a good knowledge basis. Considered from this perspective, there is much to develop in terms of statistics and other information production, such as research and calculation systems, within the Ministry’s administrative sector, as appears from chapter 4.

The present economic situation of women and men is dealt with in chapter 5. A description of the principles of the main benefit schemes and analyses of the outputs, i.e. allocation of different benefits, are included in the same chapter. This chapter also deals shortly with the service sector. There is a great deal to develop in this sector in the compilation of statistics on inputs and outputs with a view to producing gender-specific basic information. Since the local authorities and joint municipal boards are in practice responsible for service provision, it is important to ponder in the future how the local government could increase its responsibility for mainstreaming the gender equality objectives into its own operations. Chapter 7 deals with the breakdown of social insurance contributions and taxation. In addition, the chapter gives some examples of applications by means of which and by developing which it would be possible to deepen the analysis of the targeting impacts in regard to the entire income transfer institution, services included.

The report does not provide a simple answer to the question how the gender impact assessment of the Ministry’s budget proposal should be conducted. The different sub-areas of the income transfer institution are meant for different social risks which partly affect differently women and men. Therefore there are differences in the gender relevance of the schemes (chapters 2, 6 and 7). The report provides starting points for identification of the gender and equality relevance in the different duties of the sector so as to enable a more detailed setting of objectives.

The Government’s annual budget is in its present form a compact document, and so there is not much room for concretising the gender equality objectives. It may also be impossible to concretise part of the objectives at annual level. The summary, chapter 8, presents what methods could be introduced in both the process of drafting the budget and the monitoring systems in order to develop gender impact assessment. It is possible to use in the assessment more forums related indirectly to the drafting of the budget than what are involved in the traditional budget process.

Key words: gender equality, gender impact assessment, mainstreaming, social income transfers, taxation