The World Bank’s key corporate targets are on track, while our work aims to heighten attention to gender inequalities and put greater emphasis on impact and results. Three recently published retrospectives feature lessons learned from the World Bank’s work on gender equality:
The World Bank uses a “gender tag” to indicate Bank operations that close gender gaps analysis, design, and indicators for results. There has been a dramatic rise in the share of operations that are gender tagged, from 50% in 2017 to 92% in 2022. This increase in number is matched by increased ambition to take these operations to scale and to tackle the most impactful gender gaps.
Similarly, the IFC uses a “gender flag” to indicate IFC investments and advisory services operations that close gender gaps by conducting an analysis of the gap between women and men the project can contribute to reducing; defining at least one gender-related intervention to reduce the identified gender gap; and including sex-disaggregated indicators to track implementation. IFC operations with a gender lens have risen, with delivery on its 2030 commitments on track. In FY22, all gender-related targets in the IFC Corporate Scorecard and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) were exceeded.
In support of this, the WB curates data through the Gender Data Portal, which is a comprehensive source for the latest sex-disaggregated gender statistics providing open access to over 900 indicators compiled from officially recognized international sources covering demography, education, health, economic activities, assets, leadership, gender-based violence, and more. This Portal allows users of all technical backgrounds to easily access and explore the data through interactive data visualizations and compelling narratives with the goal of influencing policy and decision-making.
Gender Innovation Labs (GILs) in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia, generate public goods to promote gender equality. GILs conduct impact evaluations of development interventions seeking to generate evidence on how to close gender gaps in human capital, earnings, productivity, assets, voice, and agency. The GIL research supports evidence-based policy making for governments, development organizations, and the private sector to address the underlying causes of gender inequality.
Selected results highlights:
Ending Gender-Based Violence:
- By 2023, the World Bank had increased the percentage of incorporated GBV prevention or response in its operations from 38 in 2012, to 390 in 97 countries. These operations exist in every sector, every region, and at every level of country income. Tracking just four percent of the 390 operations where financing is clearly specified totaled $680 million in investments.
- In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a $100m GBV Prevention and Response Project aimed to increase participation in GBV prevention programs and to increase utilization of quality, multi-sectoral response services for survivors of GBV. Working through non-governmental and civil society organizations, the project reached 7 million people.
Economic Opportunities
- Zambia: The World Bank is putting more cash directly into the hands of women to help them take control of their economic destinies and that of their families. These cash transfer programs have helped more than 973,000 families, and sent livelihood packages, including, life and business skills training, mentorship, and support through savings groups, to 75,000 women.
- South Asia (SA): WePOWER – The World Bank supports a women’s professional network that aims to close gaps in women's employment in the energy sector and enrollment in STEM education. By 2021, WePOWER completed 1,400+ gender focused activities: STEM awareness sessions, study tours, internships, hiring, technical trainings, and building female-friendly facilities – benefitting more than 28,000 women.
Engage Women as Leaders:
- Panama: World Bank support to the National Indigenous Peoples Development Plan project has helped increase the participation of indigenous women in decision-making spaces such as the National Council for the Integral Development of Indigenous Peoples (CONDIPI). In 2018 only 8% of CONDIPI participants were indigenous women. In 2023, more than 35% are women, including 12 advisors, reaching 17 indigenous women out of a total of 48 representatives.
- Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (“We-Fi”): has shown the essential role of women entrepreneurs. Since 2018, We-Fi has worked with hundreds of partners in over 60 countries to support women entrepreneurs, catalyzing billions in funding to provide finance and training, and address systemic data & policy gaps.
Last Updated: Sep 27, 2023