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Despite advances in skills and education, women’s labor force participation has been stuck at 53% since 1990.
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This isn't just about fairness. When half the population is locked out, development stalls.
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A path for women to earn, contribute and lead
A broadband connection can unlock work and income, yet millions of women remain offline and excluded from the digital economy. Gaps in social protection, including limited income support and unaffordable care push millions of women out of the labor force and hold back national progress. At the same time, lack of access to credit is holding women led businesses back from growing and hiring.
By focusing on digital use, social protection and access to capital, we can help dismantle these systemic obstacles and create real opportunities for women, strengthening local and national economies.
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Opening digital doors
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Opening digital doors
300 million more women using broadband. By 2030, the World Bank Group aims to enable 300 million more women to use broadband, unlocking essential services, financial services, education, and job opportunities. For example, through the Chad Digital Transformation project, we are investing in the expansion of broadband to 4.5 million people, half of them women. The project increases the use of digital payments, and strengthens government capacity on online safety and digital trust to ensure women can access and benefit from digital services.
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Building secure lives
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Building Secure Lives
250 million more women supported through social protection. The World Bank Group is working to support 250 million women with social protection programs by 2030, focusing especially on the poorest and most vulnerable. Social protection helps women manage risk and stabilize income through support such as cash assistance and access to jobs. It is especially critical for women balancing caregiving responsibilities or working in informal employment. For example, the Urban Productive Safety Net and Jobs Project is expanding women’s economic inclusion by pairing income support with skills development and pathways to employment. By addressing both immediate needs and long-term opportunity, the program is helping women strengthen livelihoods and build greater economic security in urban communities.
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Financing new futures
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Financing new futures
80 million more women and women-led businesses with capital. By 2030, the World Bank Group seeks to provide 80 million more women and women-led businesses with capital, addressing a critical constraint to entrepreneurship growth. Access to finance remains one of the biggest barriers facing women entrepreneurs, limiting business growth and job creation. To help close this gap, the World Bank Group facilitates access to private capital and markets for women-led businesses through initiatives such as Banking on Women, the Guarantee Platform, and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).
Our targets
By concentrating on these areas, we can break down deep rooted barriers and create more jobs. Learn More.
250M MORE
Women supported through social protection
How women grow economies
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Women’s economic lives look different from place to place. But when women earn, build businesses, and step into leadership, the effects extend beyond individual households, into their communities and beyond.
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Democratic Republic of Congo
Democratic Republic of Congo
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Entrepreneurship ignites change in the Democratic Republic of Congo. With World Bank support, women-led businesses helped create nearly 15,000 full-time jobs across four cities.
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Bangladesh
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Opportunity transforms lives in Bangladesh. The RAISE program has helped turn skills training and small loans into steady income and deliver nearly 45,000 new or improved jobs for women.
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Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
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Forging new futures in Papua New Guinea. Women are stepping into technical and leadership roles in industries where they have long been excluded. Closing the gender gap could increase the GDP by up to 20 percent.
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The path to unlocking women’s potential.
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This is not an individual problem. It’s a systemic one. Solving it requires a coordinated effort between the public and private sectors. Our plan focuses on three areas:
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Build the foundation
Health and learning, safety, legal reforms
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Build the Foundation
Women can’t move forward economically without safety, health, and basic rights. Preventing gender-based violence and expanding access to education and health care create the stability women need to look for work or start businesses of their own. Over time, some build skills and step into leadership roles if they choose. A strong foundation makes it easier for women to build economic lives that make sense for them.
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Expand access to opportunity
Connectivity, childcare, financial inclusion
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Expand access to opportunity
Many women are ready to work or grow something of their own but lack access to the support that makes it possible. Reliable services and social protection can reduce risk and make planning for the future feel within reach. When access improves, women are better able to enter work, stay employed, or build small businesses over time. Expanding access turns potential into real economic participation.
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Harness the power of the private sector
Investment, markets, supply chains, workplaces
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Harness the private sector
Most jobs are created by businesses. The World Bank Group works with companies and investors to help women access financing, reach markets,
and succeed in the workplace. When women can grow a business or move
into better jobs, they often bring others with them. Working with the
private sector is how individual gains translate into job creation and stronger local economies.
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Opportunity changes everything
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Progress is already taking hold. Across sectors, women are turning new skills, tools, and protections into meaningful work. These gains ripple outward, strengthening local industries, reducing poverty and building more resilient economies.
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NORTH MACEDONIA
Care Economy
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North Macedonia
Care Economy
Investing in care can change lives on both sides of the service. As North Macedonia expands in-home care for older people and those with disabilities, women are gaining skills and steady income in their own communities. These new roles offer more productive work and remove a long-standing barrier that kept many women out of the workforce. The result is a care economy that supports independence while creating jobs.
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Angola
Agribusiness
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Angola
Agribusiness
Rebeca Rocha is building one of Angola’s most promising agribusinesses and bringing her community with her. With training, financing, and continued support, she has turned a small idea into a growing enterprise that creates jobs and strengthens local markets.
Agribusiness gave Rebeca a path from uncertainty to entrepreneurship. She began with limited resources and no formal business experience, but saw potential in Angola’s growing demand for locally produced yogurt. With targeted support, she gained the skills to formalize her business and pursue new opportunities.
Training and coaching transformed her business from informal to investable. Through the World Bank–supported project, she learned financial management, marketing, and quality control. This helped her secure equipment, improve production standards, and build a stronger foundation for growth.
Her growing enterprise is creating jobs and generating income for local families. Rebeca now employs community members, expanding opportunities for women and young people who previously had limited access to stable work. As production increases, more families benefit from steady income and new skills.
With the right support, women-led businesses can lift entire communities. Rebeca’s story shows how access to skills, financing, and markets unlocks the potential of women entrepreneurs. Her success is paving the way for others — and strengthening Angola’s rural economy.
Her growing enterprise is creating jobs and generating income for local families. Rebeca now employs community members, expanding opportunities for women and young people who previously had limited access to stable work. As production increases, more families benefit from steady income and new skills.
With the right support, women-led businesses can lift entire communities. Rebeca’s story shows how access to skills, financing, and markets unlocks the potential of women entrepreneurs. Her success is paving the way for others — and strengthening Angola’s rural economy.
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Somalia
Construction
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Somalia
Construction
Women entering Somalia’s construction sector are proving that skill, not gender, determines success. Through a World Bank–supported urban infrastructure project, women are gaining paid work and technical training while helping rebuild their cities. As they take on roles once closed to them, they are supporting their families and changing perceptions about who belongs in construction.
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Algeria
Digital Entrepreneurship
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Algeria
Digital Entrepreneurship
In Algeria, women entrepreneurs are going digital, showing that economic empowerment is about more than access to finance. With support from We-Fi, women-led businesses are building the confidence and capability to grow online and reach new markets. As skills strengthen and institutions align,
entrepreneurs are expanding what’s possible for their businesses and for the economy around them.
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Georgia
Technology & Innovation
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Georgia
Technology & Innovation
See how the World Bank–supported Georgia National Innovation Ecosystem (GENIE) project is helping women entrepreneurs build technology companies that create jobs and attract investment. Through training, mentorship, and early-stage support, women-led startups are turning ideas into viable businesses in a competitive sector. By reducing barriers and expanding
access, GENIE is helping level the playing field while making Georgia competitive globally.
Partnerships power progress
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No single institution can unlock women’s potential alone. Progress depends on partners who can shape policy, mobilize capital, and deliver solutions at scale. Together, we can turn opportunity into jobs and lasting growth.
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Government and policy leaders
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Government and policy leaders
Creating the conditions for women’s economic participation.
Reform laws and policies that shape opportunity
Labor, property, and business laws determine women’s participation in the job market and their ability to become leaders
Invest in systems women rely on
Locking things in place like childcare, social protection, education, and transport help women enter and remain in the workforce.
Strengthen safety and accountability
Addressing gender-based violence and workplace safety reduces risk and expands women’s freedom to participate economically.
Scale impact nationwide
Government leadership enables reforms to reach millions of women, not just individual projects.
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Private sector and investor
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Private sector and investors
Turning opportunity into jobs.
Finance women-led businesses
Provides capital that allows women-owned firms to start, grow, and hire.
Expand markets and supply chains
Opens pathways for women to sell goods and services beyond local markets.
Improve workplace practices
Helps employers improve safety, retention, and career progression by adopting more inclusive workplace practices.
Create jobs at scale
Successful enterprises grow into reliable sources of employment.
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Development partners and global initiatives
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Development partners and global initiatives
Driving learning and scale.
Fund evidence and innovation
Partners support research and pilots through mechanisms like the Umbrella Fund for Gender Equality.
Test what works across contexts
Global initiatives generate practical evidence on how to improve women’s economic participation.
Share lessons across countries
Learning travels faster and reaches more people when partners coordinate.
Support scale and drive results
Evidence-backed approaches help governments and investors act with confidence.
Working as One World Bank Group
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The Gender Department works across the World Bank Group to align this effort with our mission to empower people and strengthen economies. IBRD and IDA support policy reforms and systems that expand women’s opportunities. IFC opens private-sector markets and financing. MIGA helps de-risk investments that can create jobs for women. And ICSID strengthens investor confidence through legal stability.
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Across the Bank
Center for Research on Women and Jobs (CRWJ)
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Across The Bank
Center for Research on Women and Jobs (CRWJ)
By bringing together data, research, and country experience, we’ve created a hub focused on how women participate in the economy and what helps them succeed at work. It translates evidence into practical insights that
inform policies and programs supporting jobs, entrepreneurship, and productivity. This work helps countries expand women’s economic participation and drive growth.
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IFC
Empowering women
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IFC
Empowering Women
Meet Bayermaa, a weaver whose business growth shows what’s possible when women can access capital and reach new markets. Through IFC’s work with companies and financial institutions, women entrepreneurs are creating jobs and opening safer, more inclusive workplaces. Bayermaa's story highlights how private investment can support leadership, resilience, and opportunity at the community level.
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MIGA
Advancing gender equality
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MIGA
Advancing Gender Equality
MIGA uses guarantees to unlock private investment that supports women’s economic inclusion. Through the World Bank Group Guarantee Platform, MIGA helps expand financing for women-owned businesses, strengthen leadership across sectors, and address gender-based violence risks as part of its work to create safer environments for women. See how risk mitigation can become a catalyst for safer, more inclusive growth.
Halima Abukar
Somali construction worker
“My neighbors used to say construction wasn’t for women. Now, they ask me how to join! There’s no such thing as ‘men’s work’ or ‘women’s work. If you have the skill and determination, you can do anything.”
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Stay involved
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Dive deeper into the data, programs, and conversations driving women’s economic progress worldwide.
View Resources & Events
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Contact Us
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