A/HRC/32/43/Add.1 46. The Directorate informed the Independent Expert that, with the support of United Nations partners, it had implemented a gender-responsive budgeting policy since the early 2000s whereby budgeting took gender inequality into consideration. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, now part of UN-Women) reported that, in 2002, with the support of the World Bank, the Ministry of Finance and Privatization had carried out a preliminary study on the “methodological feasibility of budgetary accounts for gender and childhood in Morocco”.15 This was followed up by a joint initiative of the Ministry of Finance, Privatization and UNIFEM, with the financial support of the Government of Belgium. In 2014, UN-Women recognized the success of Morocco in implementing gender-responsive budgeting.16 This approach of performance-based and gender-responsive public finance has been enshrined in the new organic law on finance. The law explicitly stipulates that gender equality must be taken into account in the definition of objectives, results and indicators of performance in line budgets, and further mandates the publication of the Gender Report as an official document that is part of the annual finance bill. Following a visit to Morocco in 2012, the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice pointed out that the gender-sensitive budgeting approach implemented in Morocco should permit, inter alia, systematic analysis of inequality that hindered development and provide opportunities to take remedial action. The report also underscored that this approach embedded accountability in overall policy processes, and translated policy commitments and legal obligations into outcome-focused financial allocations that should contribute to the elimination of discrimination and the promotion of equality and human rights. 17 47. The Independent Expert also received information that, despite the availability of public information, the multitude of sources of information and the variations in format from one institution to another made it difficult to obtain a comprehensive and detailed overview of the budgetary situation. A single official platform with harmonized and easy-to-comprehend data could improve effective access to information for the general population. 48. The Independent Expert notes some findings from the World Bank client feedback and stakeholder consultations, which reviewed the previous country partnership strategy between the World Bank and Morocco.18 The review reported that one of the most common requests made by civil society organizations during consultations on the strategy was for the chance to be involved in the country’s development programmes from inception to implementation, including in the decision-making process. There was also a widely echoed request for increased transparency and participation at all levels of decision-making. Similar concerns were voiced by a number of civil society actors with whom the Independent Expert met, who also reported that the performance of public services, and social programmes in particular, had fallen well below people’s expectations, especially in lagging regions and some urban and peri-urban areas. C. Development assistance 49. The Government informed the Independent Expert that its national development goals were aligned with the development objectives to be achieved in collaboration with the 15 16 17 18 14 See http://gender-financing.unwomen.org/en/highlights/gender-responsive-budgets-case-of-morocco (accessed on 29 February 2016). Ibid. See A/HRC/20/28/Add.1, para. 85. See World Bank Group, “Country partnership strategy for the Kingdom of Morocco for the period FY 2014-2017”.