A/HRC/43/45/Add.1 32. The Government has been making dedicated efforts to eliminate corruption and curb illicit financial flows. It has long been committed to zero tolerance towards corruption and established the Vice-Ministry for Institutional Transparency and the Fight against Corruption. The Vice-Ministry has implemented various measures focusing on prevention, including establishing a computerized system to receive reports from the public and developing anti-corruption guidelines for municipal authorities. The investigation into the cases of tax evasion by the Joint Special Commission for the Investigation of the Panama Papers has also led to the drafting and ongoing consideration of a bill on combating the use of tax havens.78 33. However, one critical component missing in the existing framework to combat corruption, tax evasion and other illicit transactions is the protection of witnesses and whistle-blowers, in line with article 32 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Without an effective legal framework to protect witnesses and whistle-blowers, efforts to combat the incidence of corruption, tax evasion, smuggling and other illicit transactions would be rendered futile. Establishing a legal framework that adequately protects those who wish to provide information to the authorities would be a fundamental step towards ensuring proper investigation and prosecution of such crimes. D. Persistent gender inequality 34. The Plurinational State of Bolivia stands out as a gender equality champion for its strong commitment to this principle and it is one of very few countries in the world to have achieved gender parity in parliament.79 While this in itself is a positive achievement, gender parity has not been achieved in the judiciary or the executive, or at the municipal level. Furthermore, the State still lags behind in terms of economic and labour inclusion of women. The labour force participation rate of women in the formal labour market is much lower than for men (56.6 per cent for women, compared to 79.4 per cent for men),80 which reflects the many challenges for women to obtain formal employment opportunities, such as a lack of education and skills, care responsibilities and domestic violence. As a result, women often end up with precarious jobs in the informal and low-productivity sector, and the vast majority of them (97.9 per cent) are not affiliated to or paying into the pension system.81 35. The country has a policy of gender budgeting, and departmental and municipal governments are authorized to allocate up to 5 per cent of their general budget to gender equality.82 However, a study shows that in 2017, the municipalities allocated on average only 3.37 per cent of their budget to gender equality and some municipalities even spent zero per cent.83 While the same study shows that municipalities have increased investments in facilities and programmes that provide for care services, there remains a critical need for further investment in order to encourage better distribution of domestic and care-related work and to promote women’s contributions to the economy. 36. Of various forms of inequality worldwide, women’s unpaid domestic and carerelated work is a crucial and yet often neglected consideration in the design of policies and economic reforms. Mainstream economic thinking does not take into account the value of unpaid domestic and care-related work and its contribution to the economy.84 In the 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 12 Cámara de Senadores, “Anuncian tratamiento”. UNDP, “Share of seats in parliament (% held by women)”, Human Development Data (1990–2018). Available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/indicators/31706 (accessed on 24 December 2019). UNDP, “Country profile: Bolivia (Plurinational State of)”, Global Human Development Indicators. Available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/BOL (accessed on 24 December 2019). Social Panorama, p. 194. Plurinational State of Bolivia, “Informe del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia”, national-level review of implementation of the Beijing Declaration. Available at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ content/documents/13013Bolivia_review_Beijing20.pdf. See Plataforma de Justicia Fiscal desde las Mujeres, “Ranking municipal en igualdad y equidad de género 2017”, 2017. See A/73/179.