Infrastructure that Works for Women

In the quiet riverside village of Majgaon in Assam, India, the air hums with the sound of engines from boats slicing through the water. At the helm of a boat is Runu Hazarika, one of the few women in her village who run a mechanized water transportation business.

For Runu and several women like her across the world, access to modern, inclusive infrastructure is more than just physical assets. It's about agency, dignity, and economic independence. When women can move safely, work freely, and lead businesses, entire communities benefit. 

But roads, grids, transit systems, and land policies that shape daily life often create barriers to women's economic participation. While women are more educated and skilled than ever, workforce participation has stalled at 53%, compared to 80% for men. Unsafe transport, unreliable energy, and discriminatory land systems continue to hold them back. 

The economic cost of this gap is substantial. Research shows that, by removing barriers to women's participation in the labor force, national output could increase by as much as 15-20% in many countries. Closing this gap is both good for women as well as the economy, with jobs offering women growth and stability.  

Building infrastructure that works for women is the result of choices made in policies, regulations, and the way systems are designed and governed. Addressing these bottlenecks is where the biggest gains lie. By strengthening institutional capacity, updating regulations, and creating the right incentives for both public and private investment, countries can build infrastructure services that reach more women more fairly. These also unlock new pathways for economic growth. 

The World Bank Group supports countries in assessing and addressing their infrastructure challenges through engagement as well as strategic advice.

Transport that opens doors

In transport, the She Drives Change toolkit helps policymakers bridge long-standing gaps in mobility, employment, and entrepreneurship. It provides a structured approach to identifying and addressing disparities across every subsector, from urban transit to rural roads, railways, aviation, maritime transport, and economic corridors. It also offers targeted interventions, practical indicators, and success stories drawn from projects from the World Bank and partner organizations worldwide.

Building on this momentum, the Women in Transport Network was launched in early 2025 to scale up what works. Created by the World Bank Group, Asian Development Bank, the German Agency for International Cooperation, the European Investment Bank, and the International Transport Forum, the network supports governments in Europe and Central Asia, and in the Middle East and North Africa, to share lessons and strengthen institutional ownership of inclusive transport systems. An associated report calls for a greater focus on women's employment in transport and proposes actionable steps to address barriers to women's education, employment, and promotion in the sector.

Rethinking cities, risk, and land for women

Cities, disaster risk systems, and land policies shape nearly every aspect of women’s daily lives- how safe they feel, how quickly help reaches them during emergencies, and whether they can access credit or inherit property.

A new World Bank Group course, Enhancing Disaster Risk Management through Gender-Inclusive Assessments, is helping teams understand how gender roles and norms shape disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and reconstruction. It also helps identify and address gender gaps in disaster risk management operations. Another tool, the Guidance Note on Integrating Gender into Land and Property Valuation and Taxation, shows how neutral frameworks often mask unequal outcomes.

These initiatives reflect the World Bank Group’s “Knowledge Bank” approach by bringing public and private expertise into a unified offer. This is so clients and front-line teams can access targeted policy know-how and scale what works. 

Energy for shared growth

Reliable energy transforms women's lives. It frees time, improves health, and expands opportunities to learn, earn, and lead. But, for many women, unreliable electricity or the daily burden of cooking with firewood still defines life at home and limits what's possible outside it. 

Through ESMAP, the World Bank Group is scaling clean-cooking programs that make daily life safer and healthier. In India and across Africa, women-run energy enterprises are supplying affordable, modern stoves that reduce smoke, save time, and create jobs.

Surjamani Devi from Bihar, India received a gas stove through the pilot project. She said: "The earthen stove consumed more firewood and wasted so much time. The smoke was harmful to our eyes. The children couldn't study. They had to sit outside due to the smoke. It darkened the walls and the entire house. The entire family's health has improved."

Regional alliances such as WePOWER, RENEW MENA, and WEN-Africa are ensuring that women are not only beneficiaries but leaders in the energy transition. They do this by mentoring young professionals, creating pathways into technical and leadership roles, and shaping policies for scaling women's participation across the energy workforce. Between January 2024 and November 2025, these networks collectively launched over 7,000 initiatives, reaching more than 95,000 girls and women.

In Africa, Mission 300, a joint initiative of the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank, aims to expand electricity access to 300 million people by 2030, with women and girls as key beneficiaries. This initiative integrates grid expansion with off-grid renewable energy solutions. Beyond energy, World Bank Group initiatives are also making artisanal and small-scale mining, where women comprise half the workforce, safer and more sustainable. 

Rewiring infrastructure for opportunity

These initiatives work because they address systems and not just symptoms. They develop clearer rules that attract private investment and equip public institutions with the mandate and capacity to deliver. 

When infrastructure systems work for women, participation rises, jobs multiply, and markets grow. In villages like Majgaon, Runu and other women lead, build, and transform their communities. The hum of boat engines on the river isn't just the sound of commerce. It’s the sound of opportunity.