Gender - About Us

World Bank attention to gender equality issues began in the 1970s, but the Bank’s emphasis increased markedly since the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Gender equality is now a core element of the Bank’s strategy to reduce poverty and a Gender Mainstreaming Strategy Paper was adopted in 2001.

In 2007, the World Bank launched A World Bank Group Action Plan: gender equality as smart economics—a four-year action plan to improve women’s economic opportunity by increased access to land, labor, agriculture and financial services, and by ensuring that women’s needs for infrastructure are better served.

In addition to the Gender Action Plan, World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick in April 2008 announced six new gender-related commitments on behalf of the World Bank Group:

	To measurably improve the integration of gender equality into the Bank’s agriculture and rural developments projects by the end of the implementation of the Gender Action Plan in December 2010.
	To channel, through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), at least $100 million in credit lines at commercial banks for women entrepreneurs, by the end of 2012.
	To have World Bank Country Directors report by June 1 2008 on what the Bank is doing and what more it should be doing to empower girls and women economically in the countries the Bank works with.
	To launch a work program with private and public sector leaders on “young women count for economic development,” at an event prior to the 2008 Annual Meetings.
	To create a Private Sector Leaders' Forum to support the Gender Action Plan and convene their first meeting on the margins of the 2008 Annual Meetings.
	To increase IDA Investments for Gender Equality. Mr. Zoellick will ask for a review of IDA-funded activities with regard to gender mainstreaming at the end of the IDA15 cycle.

The World Bank-wide team working on gender issues and gender-focused thematic groups.

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