The World Bank In Gender

Gender equality for all people is a matter of fairness and justice. Gender equality is a principle of international law recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It is also essential for development. Growing evidence shows how removing gender barriers unlocks economic productivity, reduces poverty, deepens social cohesion, and enhances wellbeing and prosperity for current and future generations. Women’s participation and leadership improves the management of natural resources, strengthens resilience, and makes economies more competitive.

When women thrive, countries and communities thrive. ​Long-run income per capita would be almost 20% higher if women were employed at the same rate as men.   

And yet, progress on gender equality Sustainable Development Goal 5 is worryingly off-track.

Urgent action is needed to address gender-based violence (GBV). As of 2018, one in every three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence by a non-partner. Gender-based violence hurts survivors, their families, communities, and entire societies – often across generations, undermining quality of life and livelihoods.

Expanding economic opportunities for women can drive inclusive growth. Women have near equal access to education, but average female labor force participation has been stagnant since 1990 at 53% versus 80% for men​. On average across countries, long-run GDP per capita would be almost 20% higher if gender employment gaps were closed.

Women’s leadership enhances long-term economic, environmental, and social outcomes, and strengthens institutions.  Research has correlated higher net profit margins for firms and lower CO2 emissions with more women in decision-making roles. The global share of formal firms with majority woman ownership or a woman as top manager is 25%.

Last Updated: Oct 15, 2024

Consistent with the World Bank Group’s mission, the 2024–2030 Gender Strategy expresses the bold ambition to accelerate gender equality to end poverty on a livable planet. In its ambition, the new strategy prioritizes three strategic objectives: end gender-based violence and elevate human capital, expand and enable economic opportunities, and engage women as leaders.

World Bank Gender Strategy 2024-2030 was informed by an extensive and inclusive consultation process and by a series of thematic policy notes and causal evidence briefs, along with data, research, global knowledge, and lessons from experience. Three retrospectives feature lessons learned from the World Bank’s work on gender equality:

• Gender Equality in Development: A Ten-Year Retrospective
• Retrospective of IFC’s Implementation of the World Bank Gender Strategy 2016- 2023
• Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement (2012-2022)

Implementation

The WBG Gender Strategy 2024–2030 expresses the bold ambition to accelerate gender equality to end poverty on a livable planet. The strategy will be translated into action by enhancing strategic country engagement, delivering results at scale, engaging differently, and mobilizing for impact.

To achieve gender equality outcomes with greater ambition will require strategic country engagement as One WBG. Strategic country engagement includes integrating gender analysis in core and country analytics to influence policy dialogue, prioritizing specific gender equality outcomes, and advancing these outcomes in a coherent manner across the public and private sectors in alignment with client priorities.

To assist clients to achieve better gender equality outcomes at scale, the WBG will set gender strategy targets, plan for ambitious and transformative gender equality results, and monitor gender equality indicators. Two targets and five ambitious gender equality results are aligned with the new World Bank Corporate Scorecard.

Delivering on the ambition of the new WBG Gender Strategy requires engaging differently. The World Bank Group will engage differently by: 

• Mobilizing concerted action through data, knowledge, and advocacy with partners
• Assisting countries in institutional and policy reforms
• Replicating and implementing programs at scale
• Facilitating government and private investments

WBG gender architecture, capacity and incentives will be strengthened to enhance strategic country engagement, deliver gender equality results at scale, and engage differently.

Last Updated: Oct 15, 2024

Social Innovators: Initiatives from Partners and Stakeholders

Women still face barriers to financial inclusion, with only 68% of women in developing countries having a financial account, compared to 74% for men. Overall, women in the poorest countries have a harder time opening a business, earning an education, or owning their financial future, and barely half (52%) can access the internet.

To highlight the innovative work to help empower women economically, we asked our partners to give examples of projects that help accelerate gender equality, increase women’s economic empowerment, and improve women’s human capital and wellbeing:

Evidence informs our operations

The Gender Innovation Labs (GILs) enable the use of evidence to improve gender-related outcomes in operations and policies. The GILs conduct research to understand the causes of gender inequalities and test innovative solutions to address them. They collaborate closely with stakeholders to ensure that their findings have a tangible impact on policies at a large scale.

The GILs' work includes identifying gender-related constraints and factors, generating evidence on innovative solutions, informing policy dialogues, and collaborating with operational teams on program design. The GILs are well-equipped to respond to the need for investments in data and evidence, as outlined in the new World Bank Group Gender Strategy 2024-2030. They can effectively implement the test-adapt-expand approach to innovation and support staff capacity building in addressing gender issues through knowledge events and operational team support.

The World Bank ‘s Gender Data Portal is a comprehensive source for the latest sex-disaggregated gender statistics providing open access to over 1000 indicators compiled from officially recognized international sources covering demography, education, health, economic activities, assets, leadership, gender-based violence, and more. This portal allows users to easily access and explore the data through interactive data visualizations, data stories, and compelling narratives with the goal of influencing policy and decision-making. Key indicators to monitor progress on gender equality are compiled in our Country Gender Landscape Briefs, available for 192 countries.

Results Highlights:

The WBG is engaging at scale to support gender equality:

• In Nigeria, we are taking comprehensive approaches to supporting women and girls’ empowerment, increasing secondary school enrollment for girls from 900,000 to over 1.6 million and supporting livelihoods of 460,000 women in six states with $17 million in business grants.
• In Togo, a new Multiphase Programmatic approach provides tailored activities in agriculture to support gender equality-- with mechanization, access to inputs and irrigation, food safety trainings, strengthening cooperatives and access to finance for both women and youth in soy and maize value chains.
• In Mozambique and Madagascar, we are strengthening institutional capacity for the implementation of gender equality policies. And directly supporting over two million girls to stay in—or return to—school.
• In Tajikistan, the World Bank Group aims to strengthen participatory local governance, improve the quality of local infrastructure, and increase extracurricular or livelihood opportunities for youth and is prioritizing women’s participation in decision-making about community investments.
• In Peru, the World Bank Group and the government are working together to advance women’s leadership in the education sector by using Whatsapp messages to motivate teachers to apply to roles as school principals.
• Jordan, the World Bank Group aims to address constraints that women face to enter and stay in the labor force related to workplace conditions, financial inclusion, transportation, and childcare.
• The World Bank Group supports India’s investments in women. Operations in Tamil Nadu and Sikkim focus on whole-of-government approaches and Bihar’s State Rural Livelihood Program has mobilized more than 7 million rural women into self-help groups with support from the World Bank.
• The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (“We-Fi”):has facilitated billions of dollars to women-led SMEs (WSMEs). Since 2018, We-Fi has allocated over $350 million to its Implementing Partners, who have collectively reached nearly 400,000 WSMEs across 82 countries. These efforts have mobilized over $5 billion in public and private sector funding for women entrepreneurs – nearly half in Africa and over 60% in IDA and countries affected by fragility, conflict and violence. We-Fi is also spearheading the WE Finance Code, an ecosystem-wide initiative to bridge the financing gap for women through. 28 countries have committed to piloting the Code and over 100 executives have been identified as Champions to advocate for women’s financial inclusion.

Last Updated: Oct 15, 2024