At a Glance: · As the 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development demonstrates, gender equality is a core development objective in its own right. But gender equality is also smart economics, enhancing productivity and improving other development outcomes, both for the next generation and for the quality of societal policies and institutions. · The World Bank Group (WBG) promotes gender equality in developing countries through lending, grants, knowledge sharing, analysis and policy dialogue. · In fiscal year 2011, US$25 billion of the World Bank’s lending and grants were allocated to gender-informed operations, representing 60 percent of the World Bank’s lending and grants. Gender is a special theme of the Bank's $49.3 billion fund for the poorest, the International Development Association (IDA), for 2011 - 2014, which means the Bank will be putting more emphasis on gender-related projects. Context During the past decades, women's and girls' education and health levels have improved greatly. Two-thirds of all countries have now reached gender parity in primary education, and in over one-third, girls significantly outnumber boys in secondary education. But in many parts of the world, too many women are still dying in childbirth, or, at alarming rates, not being born at all. Women continue to lack voice in the household and the ability to participate in decisions that are relevant for them, their families, and their societies. In addition, women’s access to economic opportunities are often very limited. This inequality is manifestly unfair. It is also bad economics: under-investing in women puts a brake on poverty reduction and limits economic and social development. Gender equality is a longer-term driver of competitiveness and equity that is even more important in an increasingly globalized world. No country can afford to fall behind because it is failing to enable women and men to participate equally in the economy and society. What We Are Doing
The World Bank Group (WBG) promotes gender equality in developing countries through lending, grants, knowledge, analysis and policy dialogue. In Fiscal Year 2011 (July 2010 to June 2011), just over $25 billion, or 60 percent of the World Bank's lending and grants, were allocated to gender-informed operations in education, health, access to land, financial and agricultural services, jobs, and infrastructure. The Bank is committed to ensuring high levels of gender mainstreaming in its operations, and that all Country Assistance Strategies are gender informed. (Gender-informed operations systematically consider gender inequalities and try to address them in design, implementation, expected impact and monitoring).
Latest Developments
In September 2011, the WBG launched World Development Report 2012: Gender and Development, the first in the series to focus on gender. It identified areas where domestic policy efforts as well as the support of the international community are required to address persistent inequality, since higher incomes alone will do little to reduce existing inequalities. These areas include: reducing excess deaths of girls and women and eliminating remaining gender disadvantages in education; narrowing disparities between women and men in earnings and productivity; diminishing gender differences in household and societal voice; and, ensuring that systemic gender discrimination is not passed on to future generations. In order to operationalize these findings, the World Bank has identified five strategic directions to increase attention to gender equality, and to provide a framework for our work going forward. Gender is also a special theme of the Bank's $49.3 billion fund for the poorest, the International Development Association (IDA), for 2011 - 2014, which requires greater emphasis on gender-related work, and is being tracked as part of our corporate monitoring.
Related highlights of our work include:
· All the Bank's six Regions are launching regional Gender Action Plans in 2012. · World Development Report Companion reports are being launched around the world, bringing the analysis and conclusions to regional and, at times, country level. · The World Bank's global, ThinkEqual, campaign is continuing to raise worldwide awareness of gender equality issues. As of March, the #thinkEQUAL hashtag has reached an estimated 43.9 million people in English, French, Spanish and Arabic, and has been mentioned more than more than 16,000 times on Twitter. · Efforts to improve data are proceeding apace, supported by such frontier efforts as Women, Business and the Law and in partnership with key international agencies. · A new World Bank Advisory Council on Gender and Development has formed and meets on a regular basis to advise the Bank and forge partnerships on innovative initiatives to support gender equality. Examples of our Work Policy dialogue: The World Bank is working to better gender-inform Development Policy Loans (DPL) in order to support critical institutional reforms. One example is in Pernambuco, Brazil, where gender disparities continue to impede the social and economic opportunities of women. In this case, policies that address gender disparities are being supported, including organizations that prevent and address domestic violence. Promoting access to basic services: In Lao PDR, the House Wiring Assistance Program was designed to enable poor rural households, which are disproportionately female-headed, to access electricity. As part of this program, a pilot project, Power to the Poor, was launched in September 2008, offering households a concessionary credit of US$80 to cover the high cost of connecting to the electricity grid. Once connected, households spend approximately US$1 per month instead of $US3 per month, which they previously paid for car batteries, diesel fuel, candles and the like. Since the project launch, the connection rate in the 20 pilot villages increased from 78 percent to 95 percent overall, and from 63 percent to 90 percent for female-headed households. http://go.worldbank.org/GG6C607UA0 Generating knowledge: A World Bank study in Ethiopia examined if it is possible to secure land rights at necessary scale and speed in a way that empowers women instead of disenfranchising them. 20 million land use certificates were issued to 6 million households in less than two years. The study finds that the operation’s massive scale did not bias the process against participation by women and that providing space for both spouses’ pictures on the certificate was a very effective way to ensure joint certification: depending on geographic location, between 40 and 90 percent of titles were issued jointly between spouses. Women respondents with joint certificates almost universally pointed to this having improved their economic and social status, and there was a significant positive impact on land-related investment. Evidence of this cost-effective measure led the World Bank to provide $30 million in support for this nationwide program that increased land-registration and certification throughout the country. http://go.worldbank.org/6RLMMPB9I0 Engendering mining for development: Through the “Women in Mining” (WIM) program in Papua New Guinea, which began in 2003, the World Bank has helped promote the empowerment of women in mining communities. More than 1,000 women and 100 men have benefited from training and capacity building programs, which have created a platform for dialogue and action for all relevant stakeholders. Effective partnerships: One successful example is the partnership between the Nike Foundation, the governments of Liberia and Denmark, and the World Bank, in Liberia, where the three-year Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (EPAG) Project aims to increase employment and incomes among 2,500 adolescent girls and young women aged 16-27 years. As of July 2011, the project had trained nearly 1200 adolescent girls and young women, 85 percent of whom have transitioned successfully to work. For more examples of gender-related work, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org/gender Contact: Alejandra Viveros, (202) 473-4306, aviveros@worldbank.org Updated March 2012
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