As of 1 January 2021, only 11% of countries had finance portfolios held by women and less than a third of all heads of national audit offices are women? On 17 March, 2021, at this side event of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, IBP, INTOSAI IDI, and UN WOMEN hosted a lively discussion on the barriers women confront in public finance institutions and the steps that need to be taken to enable greater gender parity in leadership of these institutions.

The discussion was moderated by Malado Kaba, Board Member of International Budget Partnership and former Minister of Economy and Finance. Speakers included:
- Marta Acosta Zúñiga, Auditor General, Costa Rica
- Beena Pallical, General Secretary, Dalit Arthik Adhikar Andolan, India
- Zineb Bouba, Head of the Unit for Economic and Financial Reporting and Gender Budget Reporting, Department of Financial Studies and Forecasting, Ministry of Economy, Finance and Administrative Reform, Kingdom of Morocco
- Rehemah Namutebi, Director General of National Budget, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Republic of Rwanda