Given increasing recognition of the need for direct public participation in the development and implementation of public policies, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) posed the question as to how their staff members who are advising on public finance management (PFM) reforms can ensure that women are not excluded when the demand-side component of these reforms is designed.

This brief attempts to stimulate further discussion toward answering this question. The brief does this more by posing further questions than by offering answers. The shaded boxes, in particular, pose explicit questions that designers and managers of PFM reforms might want to ask. The questions in the shaded boxes focus on gender issues. They are intended to assist in diagnosing some of the gender issues relating to existing or planned PFM reform programs. The text suggests a range of further questions that relate to participation and accountability in general, rather than specifically from a gender perspective. If these more general questions are not answered adequately, then women alongside men will likely not participate effectively.