Why is the empowerment of women and girls important?
Life’s chances should not be preordained at birth. Under-investing in women is bad economics; it limits economic growth and slows down poverty reduction, which is one reason countries with greater gender equality tend to have lower poverty rates. Evidence links increases in women’s productivity and earnings to lower household poverty; in Sierra Leone, for example, lack of adequate actions to address women’s anemia is estimated to result in agricultural productivity losses of almost US$100 million during the next five years. In Brazil, the survival probability of a child increases by about 20 percent when income is in the hands of the mother.
What is the current status of gender equality in developing countries?
During the past decades, women’s and girls’ education and health levels have improved in most poor countries. In low-income countries, more than 37 million girls have been enrolled in primary school since 1995, improving girls’ enrollment rate from 80 percent of boys’ enrollment rate in 1995 to 88 percent in 2005. Since 1970, average life expectancy for women increased by 15 to 20 years in developing countries.
But progress is lagging on improving women’s economic opportunities. In low-income countries, women consistently trail men in formal labor force participation, access to credit, entrepreneurship rates, income levels, and inheritance and ownership rights.
In low-income countries the female labor force shrunk from 53 percent in 1980 to 49 percent in 2005, while men’s employment rate remained steady at 86 percent. Women in Africa receive less than 10 percent of all credit going to small farmers and 1 percent of the total credit to the agricultural sector, while they make up a majority of agricultural workers.
What is the World Bank doing to promote gender equality?
To help increase women’s economic opportunities, and to speed implementation of its 2001 Gender Mainstreaming Strategy, the World Bank Group in 2007 launched Gender Equality as Smart Economics, a four-year action plan (GAP). With resources from the Bank’s own funds and donor contributions, the GAP’s budget now totals US$63 million.
Key donor partners in the plan’s implementation include the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Nike Foundation. Through competitive calls for proposals, the GAP is now funding 195 World Bank projects and analytical work focusing on the GAP’s target sectors in more than 73 countries.
What are the latest developments in women’s economic empowerment?
In April 2008, World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick committed the Bank to new measures to boost women’s economic empowerment: By 2010, at least half of the Bank’s rural and agricultural projects, expected to total US$800 million, will address a gender concern; by 2012, the World Bank Group will channel at least US$100 million through IFC to women entrepreneurs; IDA will increase investments for gender equality; and innovative engagements with foundations and the private sector will help boost women’s economic empowerment.
The Bank’s June 2009 gender monitoring report shows that progress is being made on several fronts: The percentage of rural projects designed to be responsive to gender issues increased from 43 percent in 2005 to 59 percent in 2008, and rural projects—including gender-informed monitoring and evaluation—rose from 17 percent to 31 percent between 2005 and 2008. In addition, IFC increased its credit lines for women entrepreneurs through five commercial banks in 12 countries by US$48 million.
Overall, of all the Bank’s loans during FY 2008, 45 percent included gender issues in design, compared with 35 percent two years earlier. Gender coverage in loans in the economic sectors—agriculture and rural development, economic policy, private sector development, and infrastructure—increased most, indicating that the volume of investments in gender in the economic sectors is starting to catch up with the social sectors.
In addition President Zoellick committed the Bank to launch an Adolescent Girls Initiative as part of the GAP, to support the transition from schooling to paid employment of young women through skills training. Activities are underway in Liberia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Rwanda, and (South) Sudan. In January 2009, as part of the objective to foster public private partnerships for women’s empowerment, the World Bank Group also launched a Private Sector Leaders Forum at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
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