Gender budgeting exercises now take place in more than forty countries around the world, originally inspired by the early experience of countries such as Australia and given further momentum by the United Nations' commitment to gender budgeting in the Beijing Platform for Action. They take place both inside and outside government and there is a wide diversity in the ways in which they are conducted and their scope.

Policy-makers and civil society groups in the UK are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of using gender budget analyses to help achieve gender equality and to improve the policy making process. The WBG is working to expand understanding among policy makers and opinion formers of the gender implications of economic policy and the use of gender budget analysis.