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South Asia Gender Innovation Lab

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Events

Webinar WEESA

Police Role in Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response

16 Days of Activism 2023

Date/Time: December 6, 2023 from 9:00 to 10:00 AM EST

Moderator:

Sofia Amaral, Economist at World Bank – South Asia Gender Innovation Lab

Presenters:

Sandip Sukhtankar, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Virginia
Sarah Khan, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Yale University

Description:

Inadequate police responsiveness to rising yet under-reported gender-based violence has prompted reforms which seek to increase accessibility and accountability. However, most of these reforms have not been rigorously studied and the limited evidence that has been available is mixed, if not pessimistic, especially within patriarchal settings. Drawing on findings from a large-scale randomized controlled trial of a police reform (to date) in Madya Pradesh, India, and a community policing initiative in Pakistan, this learning event examines the role of police and efficacy on ongoing reforms. The findings offer evidence of what is working (and not), with policy implications as governments in South Asia and elsewhere consider gender-targeted police reforms.

 

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Webinar: From Safety to Empowerment: Pathways for Improved Mobility for Women in South Asia

December 7, 2022

Moderator: Karla Dominguez Gonzalez, Senior Gender Specialist, World Bank Group

Opening Remarks:  Kevin Tomlinson, Practice Manager for Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice in South Asia, World Bank Group

Speakers:

Ashwani Kumar, Principal Resident Commissioner, Government of India

Nobonita Chowdhury, Director, Gender, Justice and Diversity and Preventing Violence Against women Initiative, BRAC

Andrea Maria Navarrete Mogollon, Bogota Bicycle Program Manager, Undersecretariat for Mobility Policy, District Secretariat for Mobility

Closing Remarks: Shomik Raj Mehndiratta, Practice Manager, Transport in South Asia, World Bank Group

Description: In this session, leading practitioners discussed the importance of enhancing safer mobility and best practices to improve safety for women and girls in South Asia.

Video Link

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Roundtable Discussion: Towards Safer Migration: Countering Human Trafficking in an Integrated South Asia

November 30, 2022

Moderator: Diana Jimena Arango, Senior Social Development Specialist, World Bank Group

Opening Remarks: Maurizio Bussolo, Lead Economist in the Chief Economist Office for South Asia, World Bank Group

Speakers:

Charimaya Tamang, Founding Member and President, Shakti Samuha (NGO), Ramon Magsaysay Award 2013 recipient

Peppi Kiviniemi-Siddiq, Senior Regional Migrant Protection Specialist, International Organization for Migration

Priya Dhanani, Assistant Director, Women’s Empowerment Program, The Asia Foundation

Closing Remarks: Cecile Fruman, Director, Regional Integration and Engagement in the South Asia Region, World Bank Group

Description: The session provided important insights into how regional integration can be used as a tool to prevent risk factors for human trafficking and promote safe migration across South Asia.

Video Link

Women's Groups in South Asia

Webinar: Women's Groups in South Asia: Landscape, Impact, and the Future

May 25, 2022

Moderator: Soumya Kapoor Mehta, Senior Social Development Specialist, World Bank Group

Presenters:

Thomas De Hoop, Program Area Lead, Food Security, Agriculture and Nutrition, American Institutes for Research

Sapna Desai, Associate, Population Council

Amna Javed, Economist Consultant, World Bank Group

Sarah Haddock, Senior Social Development Specialist, World Bank Group

Discussant: Najla Sabri, Social Development Specialist, World Bank Group

Description: Co-organized by the South Asia Gender Innovation Lab (SAR GIL) and the Evidence Consortium on Women's Groups (ECWG), the webinar will present findings from three streams of work supported by the South Asia Gender Innovation Lab.

·         A typology of women’s groups in South Asia with a particular focus on the design frameworks, implementation modalities, and composition of groups.

·         Findings from a recent systematic review that assesses the impacts of SHG interventions on women’s economic participation and empowerment outcomes in South Asia.

·         Implementation and design experiences from the Strengthening Afghan Women’s Economic Empowerment Project (SWEEP) in Afghanistan.

View the recoding and presentations here

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Launch Event: Women's Economic Empowerment in South Asia (WEESA) Community of Practice

Moderator: Robin Mearns, Practice Manager, South Asia Social Sustainability and Inclusion, World Bank Group

Opening Remarks: Hana Brixi, Global Director, Gender Group, World Bank Group

Speakers:

Renana Jhabvala, National Coordinator, Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) of India, Chair of SEWA Bharat  

Ashwini Deshpande, Professor of Economics and Founding Director of Centre for Economic Data and Analysis (CEDA), Ashoka University

Diva Dhar, Deputy Director (Data & Evidence), Women’s Economic Empowerment, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Closing Remarks: Mandakini Kaul, Regional Coordinator, South Asia Regional Integration and Engagement, World Bank Group

Description: The launch event featured an esteemed panel of speakers who provided important insights about the ways critical evidence on “what works” in advancing women’s economic empowerment can be translated into action. In addition, it highlighted the role of WEESA in amplifying evidence to actors beyond the WEE community.

Video Link 

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Webinar: Strengthening Human Capital in South Asia by Preventing Child Marriage

Moderator: Maria Beatriz Orlando, Lead Social Development Specialist, South Asia Social Sustainability and Inclusion, World Bank Group

Opening Remarks: Robin Mearns, Practice Manager, South Asia Social Sustainability and Inclusion, World Bank Group 

Discussant: Lori Heise, Technical Director, Prevention Collaborative and Professor of Gender and Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Presenters:

Anaise Williams, Researcher, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health & World Bank South Asia Gender Innovation Lab

Rajan Subedi, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer, Care Nepal

Rawnak Jahan, Tipping Point Team Leader, Care Bangladesh

Description: The session presented evidence on the impact of WEE programs on child marriage in the region based on the findings of a new synthesis paper by SAR GIL. Speakers shared lessons from implementation, strategies to avoid unintended harm, and highlighted the importance of preventing child marriage to strengthen human capital, a priority for South Asia.

Video Link

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Webinar: SARCE- Social Norms Intervention with Gender Innovation Labs

Speakers:

Hans Timmer, Chief Economist, South Asia, World Bank Group

Maurizio Bussolo, Lead Economist, South Asia, World Bank Group

Ana Maria Munoz Boudet, Senior Social Scientist, Poverty and Equity Global Practice, World Bank Group

Rachael Pierotti, Social Development Specialist, Eastern & Southern Africa, World Bank Group

Kate Ambler, Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute

Elizaveta Perova, Senior Economist, East Asia & Pacific, World Bank Group

Benjamin Burckhart, Senior Development Specialist, East Asia & Pacific, World Bank Group

Sarah Haddock, Senior Social Development Specialist, South Asia, World Bank Group

Amna Javed Consultant, South Asia, World Bank Group

Lourdes Rodriguez, Senior Economist, Latin America & Caribbean, World Bank Group

Manuel Contreras, Senior Economist, Latin America & Caribbean, World Bank Group

Lili Mottaghi, Senior Economist, Middle East & North Africa, World Bank Group

Nausheen Khan, Impact Evaluation Analyst, Development Research Group, World Bank Group

Hala ElBehairy, Research Associate, Poverty Action Lab, Middle East and North Africa

Description: This workshop focused on policy and operational interventions aimed at improving women’s outcomes by shifting social norms. It featured all the World Bank Gender Innovation Labs (GIL), discussing a range of initiatives, approaches, and lessons learned from their work across different world regions. 
Watch the event

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Webinar: Women’s Entrepreneurship - Minding the Skills Gap- Does Access to Training help to improve business performance among female-owned enterprises?

Presenters:

Diego Ubfal, Economist, World Bank Africa Gender Innovation Lab

Leonardo Lacovone, Lead Economist, World Bank, Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice

Ambika Sharma, Analyst, World Bank’s South Asia Gender Innovation Lab

Michael Frese, Full Professor for Management & Entrepreneurship, Asia School of Management

Description: The session summarized the global literature on business trainings that are designed around women’s constraints in developing countries and featured recent evidence on soft skills training for women from an influential randomized controlled trial in Togo. Additionally, it presented recent evidence from an impact evaluation on a large-scale pilot of soft skills training in Mexico and discussed meaningful business training to a vast number of women. 

Watch the event

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Webinar: What Works for Women’s Work? Insights from a Systematic Review of Evaluated Interventions in South Asia

June 2, 2021

Moderator: Kathleen Beegle, Lead Economist, World Bank

Presenter: Ana Maria Munoz Boudet, Senior Social Scientist, World Bank 

Discussant: Amer Hasan, Senior Economist, World Bank

Description:  The session presented findings from a systematic review, conducted by the South Asia Gender Innovation Lab, of skill-building interventions and those that provide women with assets. Additionally, the methodolgy and the process followed to conduct the review were discussed. 

Video Link

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Webinar: Childcare Solutions: The impact of childcare on women’s labor force participation – the devil in the details

April 28, 2021

Speakers

Emcet Tas, Senior Social Development Specialist, World Bank Group

Elizaveta Perova, Senior Economist, World Bank Group

Matt Wai-Poi, Lead Economist, World Bank Group

Description: This session featured findings from three different studies released by the East Asia and Pacific Gender Innovation Lab (EAP GIL), the Mashreq Gender Facility (MGF), and the South Asia Gender Innovation Lab (SAR GIL), which show that making childcare services available increases women’s chances of participating in the labor market. 

Video Link

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Webinar: The Impact of COVID 19 on School-age Girls and Adolescents

December 9, 2020

Chair: Lynne Sherburne-Benz, Regional Director, World Bank Group

Presenters:

Sarah Baird, Associate Professor, George Washingon University

Tazeen Fasih, Lead Economist, World Bank                                                     

Shwetlena Sabarwal, Senior Ecoomist, World Bank                                                   

Koen Geven, Economist, World Bank

Discussant: João Pedro Azevedo, Lead Economist, World Bank

Description: This webinar discussed the impacts of COVID-19 on school-age children and adolescents in South Asia and shared experiences from ongoing efforts to mitigate them. It featured findings from a recent COVID-19 survey on adolescent well-being in Bangladesh, and from an intervention supported by the World Bank in Pakistan to keep girls in school and promote distance learning during the pandemic. 

Video Link    Presentations

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WEBINAR: Exploring Gender Discrimination in Workplace Supervisor-Subordinate Relationships: Experimental Evidence from India's Gig Economy

November 10, 2020

Moderator: Emcet Tas, Senior Social Development Specialist, World Bank Group

Presenter: Martin Abel, Assistant Professor, George Washingon University

Discussants:

Kathleen Beegle, Lead Economist, World Bank

Shubha Chakravarty, Senior Economist, World Bank

Description: This webinar presented the findings of a working paper supported by the South Asia Gender Innovation Lab that tests whether gender discrimination by surbordinates presents a barrier for female managers in India's growing gig economy.

Video Link    Presentations


 

Contact Us

Isis Gaddis
Program Lead
igaddis@worldbank.org