Gender architecture of the defence sector financial system: a digital budgeting model for the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Abstract

The article develops the conceptual foundations of gender-responsive budgeting in the defence sector and proposes a gender architecture model for the financial system of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The relevance of the study is driven by the changing personnel structure of the military: according to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, as of 1 January 2025 more than 70,000 women served in the Armed Forces, including over 5,500 on the front line. The methodology combines systems, institutional, process and risk-oriented approaches, structural analysis of the budget cycle, and comparison with OECD and PEFA practices. The study deliberately rejects the interpretation of the share of “gender-sensitive” expenditure as a direct measure of budget efficiency, because such a share does not by itself capture service quality, outcomes or the extent to which differentiated needs are met. Instead, an indicator system is proposed that separately assesses the coverage of identified needs by budget decisions, expenditure traceability, the quality of sex-disaggregated data, performance results and control. The scientific novelty lies in structuring the gender architecture of defence finance as the interaction of five interrelated circuits—institutional, analytical, budgetary, digital and managerial—and in designing a digital feedback cycle in which evidence on differentiated needs is linked to budget justification, execution, monitoring and subsequent adjustment. The model does not treat gender-responsive budgeting as a separate social expenditure block; it embeds the gender dimension into ordinary public financial management procedures. Its practical value is the possibility of using the proposed architecture when preparing budget requests, programme passports, procurement plans for equipment and medical support, as well as in internal control and audit. The article also specifies methodological limitations: the model is conceptual and requires further validation on departmental microdata, while security restrictions and data protection rules must be observed. The proposed approach therefore provides a framework for evidence-based defence budgeting without claiming that gender balance or a higher expenditure share automatically means greater financial efficiency.