Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 2012-2022 Contents Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement i Contents Acknowledgments   vi Abbreviations and Acronyms   vii Executive Summary   1 Expansion and diversification of the engagement on GBV  1 Lessons from the past 10 years  4 Priorities for the next 10 years  6 1. Introduction  8 Methodology  11 2. A Vision for the Next 10 Years  12 Area 1: Consolidate and scale up  13 Area 2: Build off of SEA/SH risk mitigation and the flexibility of corporate requirements  15 Area 3: Mobilize dedicated financing for catalytic investment along the project cycle, from assessments to pilot interventions, and process and impact evaluations   16 Area 4: Cultivate partnerships for implementation and policy dialogue   17 3. How Did We Get Here? Accelerators of Institutional Change  19 Social movements, global commitments, and evidence boosted GBV programing  20 Internal accelerators prompted a focus on risk mitigation and then prevention  21 The global reckoning on GBV prompted changes in World Bank institutional culture  23 Contents ii Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 4. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22  27 Lesson 1: GBV prevention and response is essential to reaching development goals  28 Lesson 2: Work through established sectoral entry points  30 Lesson 3: Address prevention and response needs simultaneously  37 Lesson 4: Invest in recruiting specialized staff and provide regular training  39 Lesson 5: Ensure appropriate technical rigor, or reconsider design, especially when working on social norms  40 Lesson 6: Ground design and implementation in targeted analytical work  42 Lesson 7: Take advantage of the structure and flexibility of corporate requirements  44 Lesson 8: Consolidate SEA/SH risk-mitigation, response, and accountability systems to generate economies of scale  46 Lesson 9: Partnerships at various levels are central to a comprehensive approach  47 Lesson 10: Apply different modalities in FCV contexts  49 5. Overview of the Expansion of World Bank Work on GBV, 2012–22  53 One-third of World Bank operations now integrate GBV prevention and response  54 Operations now reach countries at all income levels and in all regions  54 Operations integrating GBV prevention and response are now present in 97 countries, across all regions  55 GBV prevention and response is integrated into sectoral operations, with few stand-alone projects  56 Key areas of investment in GBV prevention and response  56 Teams are deploying various lending instruments to foster GBV prevention  59 DPFs used in combination with IPFs support the passage of key reforms and enable their implementation  61 6. Impacts and Multiplier Effects  62 Investments in GBV prevention and response generate multiplier effects   63 The World Bank’s internal capacity to monitor results and evaluate impact lags behind the uptick in operations on GBV   63 Collecting data on GBV prevalence has budget implications  64 Contents Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement iii 7. Conclusion  65 References 67 Annex A. Methodology   71 Annex B. Structured Interview Guides for Task Teams   80 Annex C. Coding Keywords for Atlas   84 Annex D. Partner Organizations and Donor Communities Consulted   86 Annex E. IFC GBV and Harassment Interventions 2014–22   87 Annex F. PDO: Stand-Alone GBV Prevention Projects and Operations   89 Annex G. RESPECT Framework: Common Interventions and Examples   91 Annex H. Resources: GBV Operations and Client Dialogue   95 Annex I. GBV-Related GIL, DEC, and DIME Impact Evaluations   97 Annex J. Regional Action Plans on GBV Prevention and Response   103 Boxes Box 1.1. Recommendations of the 2013 Stocktaking 10 Box 3.1. The Expanding Evidence Base on GBV Prevention 22 Box 3.2. The World Bank Institutional Effort to Address Sexual Harassment 24 Box 4.1. Finding Economic Entry Points for Enabling Reform 29 Box 4.2. Integrating GBV Response within Health Systems Strengthening 32 Box 4.3. The Role of the Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice in GBV Prevention 33 Box 4.4. Integrating GBV Prevention within Health Systems Strengthening 34 Box 4.5. Investing in the Ministry of Women Affairs in Nigeria for GBV Prevention 36 Box 4.6. Building on Established Sector Work for GBV Prevention 38 Box 4.7. Data-Driven Institutional Transformation 43 Contents iv Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 4.8. Ecuador: Partnering with Civil Society to Design and Implement Projects 48 Box 4.8. Ecuador: Partnering with Civil Society to Design and Implement Projects (continued) 49 Box 4.9. Adding Value in a Crowded Donor Space in Fiji 50 Box 4.10. Cox’s Bazaar: Survivor-Centered, Cross–Global Practice Collaboration in a Situation of Forced Displacement 51 Box 5.1. The RESPECT Framework for Preventing Violence against Women 57 Box 5.2. GBV as Part of Macrolevel Reforms Promoting Gender Equality 60 Box A.1. Rapid Review of Operations FY2013–FY2016 72 Figures Figure ES.1. Operations Including GBV Prevention and/or Response, 2017–22, Number 2 Figure ES.2. Operations Including GBV Prevention and Response, 2017–22, Percentage 2 Figure 1.1. Expansion of GBV Prevention and Response, 2013 Versus 2022 10 Figure 2.1. Entry point pathways for increased investment in GBV prevention and response 18 Figure 3.1. Evolution of the World Bank Group’s GBV Agenda 25 Figure 4.1. Entry Points for Client Dialogue 28 Figure 4.2. Number of Operations, by Implementing Agency 35 Figure 5.1. Number of Projects with GBV Prevention or Response, 2017–22 54 Figure 5.2. Percent of Project Operations with GBV Prevention or Response, 2017–22 54 Figure 5.4. GBV Prevention and Response in World Bank Projects, by Region, FY2022 56 Figure 5.5. Distribution of RESPECT Framework Strategies among Practice Groups 58 Figure 5.6. RESPECT Framework Categories 58 Figure 5.7. Projects by Lending Instrument (N=390) 59 Figure A.1. Projects Contributing to GBV Prevention and Response, 2013–16 79 Figure A.2. Distribution of RESPECT Framework Categories, 2013–16 79 Contents Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement v Maps Map ES.1. Projects in Every Region Include GBV Prevention and Response 2 Map 5.1. Projects in Every Region Including GBV Prevention and Response 55 Tables Table 3.1. IDA Policy Commitments in Addressing GBV 24 Table 4.1. Regional and Sectoral Distribution of Operations with GBV-Related Activities 31 Table B5.1.1. The Seven Strategies of the RESPECT Framework 57 Table A.1. Regional and Sectoral Distribution of Projects Selected for Task Team Interviews 74 Table A.2. Summary of Case Studies and Operational Lessons 76 Table A.3. The Interviewees 77 Table C.1.: Summary of Codes Used to Conduct Interview Qualitative Analysis 84 Table F.1. Stand-Alone GBV Prevention Projects 89 Table F.2. Operations: GBV Integrated in PDOs 89 Table G.1. Summary of Recommended Interventions, by RESPECT Framework Category 91 Table H.1. GBV Prevention and Response Resources: Operations and Client Dialogue 95 Table I.1. Summary of GIL Impact Evaluations Related to GBV 97 Table I.2. Selection of Development Impact Evaluation (DIME)/Development Economics Group (DEC) Studies Examining and Analyzing GBV-Related Issues 101 of GP ToCs and typical interventions Matrix  105 Acknowledgments vi Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Acknowledgments This report is dedicated to survivors of gender-based violence around the world. It represents a com- mitment to continuing action to eradicate this violence. The work has been led by Diana J. Arango (Senior Gender Specialist) and Patricia Fernandes (Lead Social Development Specialist) under the guid- ance of Louise Cord (Global Director), Hana Brixi (Global Director), Nikolas Myint (Practice Manager), and Andrea Kucey (Practice Manager). Core members of the team are Alys Willman (Consultant, former World Bank), Mirai Maruo (Gender Specialist), Farwah Qasim (GBV Specialist, Consultant), and Ariana Maria del Mar Grossi (Consultant). Directors and Practice Managers have provided guidance and support, including Robin Mearns (Social Sustainability and Inclusion, South Asia region), Senait Assefa (Social Sustainability and Inclusion, Africa region), Maria Marcela Silva (Transport, Africa region), Ximena Del Carpio (Poverty, Latin America and the Caribbean), and Nicolas Peltier-Thiberge (Global Director, Transport). The report has benefited from advice supplied by peer reviewers Varalakshmi Vemuru (Practice Manager), Michael Mahrt (Senior Social Development Specialist), and Alexandra Bezeredi (Lead Social Development Specialist) and from the inputs of Pamela Chebiwott Tuiyott (Senior Social Development Specialist), Manuel Contreras-Urbina (Senior Social Development Specialist), Elizabeth Susan Graybill (Senior Social Development Specialist), Giorgia Demarchi (Senior Social Development Specialist), Sama Khan (Consultant), Laura B. Rawlings (Lead Economist), Christine Montgomery (Manager) and Kristyn Schrader-King (Senior External Affairs Officer). The report team also thanks all the task team leaders and team members; country management unit focal points, including Country Directors and Country Managers; Gender Innovation Lab colleagues; specialists in gender-based violence; and focal points who participated in interviews and provided addi- tional information and resources. The work of gender-based violence prevention and response at the World Bank is a product of many who have supported growth in the commitment to address this scourge. In particular, we would like to recognize the leadership of Mamta Murthi (Human Development Vice President), Maninder Gill (Director), Caren Grown (Former Director), Enzo De Laurentiis (Chief Procurement Officer), Marianne Fay (Country Director), Anna Bjerde (Managing Director), Axel van Trotsenburg (Senior Managing Director), Hartwig Schafer (Former Vice President), Carlos Felipe Jaramillo (Regional Vice President), Franz Drees-Gross (Regional Director), and Annette Dixon (Former Vice President). Many partner organizations provided valuable insights during consultations to inform the report—these are listed in annex D. Abbreviations and Acronyms Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement vii Abbreviations and Acronyms CMU country management unit IFC International Finance Corporation (World Bank) DRC Democratic Republic of Congo IPF investment project financing DPF development policy financing IPV intimate partner violence DPO development policy operation NGO nongovernmental organization ESF environmental and social framework MFI multilateral financial institutions FCS fragile and conflict-affected states PforR program-for-results FCV fragility, conflict, and violence PDO project development objective FY fiscal year SEA/SH sexual exploitation and abuse and GBV gender-based violence sexual harassment GIL Gender Innovation Lab SSI Social Sustainability and Inclusion GM grievance mechanism TTL task team leader HNP Health, Nutrition, and Population UN United Nations IBRD International Bank for UNFPA United Nations Population Fund Reconstruction and Development WHO World Health Organization IDA International Development Association (World Bank) Executive Summary Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 1 Executive Summary G ender-based violence (GBV) represents steady focus on GBV as part of IDA commit- a critical barrier to development glob- ments since IDA17 each cycle has included policy ally. As the most extreme manifestation commitments with increasing levels of ambition. of gender inequality and the most prevalent form A rise in GBV during the COVID-19 shock of of violence worldwide, its impacts extend far 2020–22 provided additional impetus. beyond individual survivors, with implications for the productivity and well-being of families and communities, often across generations. Expansion and diversification of the This report reviews progress on GBV pre- engagement on GBV vention and response in World Bank lending operations over the past decade to inform the Lending operations incorporating activities to way forward in this area of work for World prevent and/or respond to GBV have increased Bank staff and our government counterparts more than 10-fold, from 38 in 2012 to 390 and development partners. It builds on the in 2022. In fiscal year (FY) 2021/22 alone, the 2013 report Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: number of operations including GBV prevention What is the World Bank Doing and What Have and response activities rose by 80 percent (fig- We Learned? (Willman and Corman 2013), which ure ES.1). One-third of World Bank operations identifies opportunities for the World Bank now incorporate such activities, up from 9 per- to become more active on GBV. It draws on a cent in 2017 (figure ES.2). comprehensive review of the active portfolio, a detailed review of dozens of project documents, World Bank–financed initiatives to prevent interviews with staff in 24 project teams, and and/or respond to GBV are present in over case studies on 10 operations. 97 countries (map ES.1). This is a substantial change from 2012, when World Bank–financed The expansion of World Bank engagement on operations with GBV-related activities were GBV has taken place in a context of a global concentrated in 21 countries, of which 8 were reckoning on gender equality and GBV that has in Africa. Investment has also expanded beyond resonated with World Bank staff and client fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) contexts. countries. The survivor-centered #MeToo move- Today, over half (63 percent) of World Bank ment placed GBV at the center of client dialogue operations with GBV-related activities are active in many countries. High-profile cases of sexual in non-FCV contexts. exploitation and abuse (SEA) in World Bank operations, including two World Bank Inspection GBV prevention and response is most often Panel cases in the Africa region, one in 2016 and integrated into sectoral projects. The vast one in 2017, as well as among other humanitar- majority of GBV interventions consist of project ian organizations, prompted an overhaul of World subcomponents or activities focusing on GBV Bank systems and practices and increased as a means of achieving a larger development investment in specialized staff and training. A objective—for example, training health workers Executive Summary 2 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Figure ES.1. Operations Including GBV Figure ES.2. Operations Including GBV Prevention and/or Response, 2017–22, Prevention and Response, 2017–22, Number Percentage 160 35 33% 141 140 30 120 25 100 # of proj cts 20 # of proj cts 19% 80 78 14% 15 13% 13% 60 52 43 41 35 10 9% 40 20 5 0 0 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Y r Fisc l r Map ES.1. Projects in Every Region Include GBV Prevention and Response N = 390 Europ & C ntr l Asi 10 Middl E st & North Afric 23 South Asi 50 E st Asi & P cific Afric E st L tin Am ric 53 & th C ribb n 110 52 Afric W st 92 Executive Summary Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 3 in gender-sensitive, quality GBV responses as DPOs with prior actions related to GBV spread part of health sector operations or detection across all regions. of sexual abuse experienced by children within education projects. Increasingly, the World Bank Group is devel- oping coherent approaches to tackling GBV Most investment focuses on strengthening sys- that include supporting policy reforms through tems to address GBV prevention and response. DPOs and using IPFs to support implementa- These investments include strengthening systems tion. Program-for-results (PforR) financing has to support women and girls to live lives free of also been utilized to incentivize institutional violence and receive the care they need if they changes that create a more enabling environ- do experience violence, especially in health and ment for prevention. education, and upgrading physical infrastructure to enhance safety through environmental design The increase in lending for GBV-related and codes of conduct and training for front- activities reflects a clear preference of cli- line staff, such as transport workers. This focus ent governments to invest in prevention and aligns with global guidelines for evidence-based response. This is a significant change from 10 violence-prevention strategies as laid out in the years ago, when most of the World Bank work RESPECT framework (WHO 2019). A smaller related to GBV was financed by trust funds. number (12 percent) of operations with activities These trust funds continue to play a catalytic in GBV prevention and response include aware- role, but they are no longer the primary source ness-raising interventions. However, the nature of funding for prevention and response efforts in of these GBV activities and the fact that they most client countries. are integrated in projects at the sub-activity level made it impossible to examine whether these As more operations have taken on GBV-related interventions constituted stand-alone activities activities, the monitoring and evaluation of or were incorporated into a broader package of interventions has improved. Projects that activities as encouraged by global evidence. In address GBV at the component and project lev- interviews, task team leaders (TTLs) and man- els systematically include results indicators to agers saw an important comparative advantage track progress.1 Relatively few projects make use in preventing GBV through livelihoods support—of of implementation monitoring tools such as pro- 390 operations, 32 took this approach. cess evaluations; increasing the uptake of these could help generate lessons for adjusting project While the bulk of operations (79 percent) that implementation and informing future projects. have focused on GBV prevention and response since 2017 have been investment project It is still too early to assess the full impact of financing (IPF) operations, the World Bank is the substantial increase in investment on GBV. increasingly supporting legislative reform to Many operations are in the early implementation address GBV. This includes, for example, sup- phase, with activities related to GBV either not porting legislation addressing child marriage yet started or barely postlaunch, and available or legal protections against sexual harassment monitoring and evaluation data are still limited. in the workplace through development policy While the number of impact evaluations asso- financing (DPF). The 2013 review identified only ciated with World Bank–financed operations is six development policy operations (DPOs), all of increasing, important knowledge gaps remain in which were in the Latin America and Caribbean understanding the impact of some of the largest region, and five of which were in Brazil (Willman and most common investments, such as those and Corman 2013). Today, there are 44 active in strengthening health, education, and social 1 See the Gender Data Portal (dashboard), World Bank, Washington, DC, https://genderdata.worldbank.org/. Executive Summary 4 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement protection systems; fostering women’s economic Lesson 2: There are entry points across all empowerment; improving infrastructure; and sup- sectors to expand work on GBV. porting macro-level reforms through legislation and policy. There is a particularly large knowl- With operations featuring GBV response and edge gap around the effectiveness of behavior or prevention activities now present in all 15 attitudinal change activities in addressing GBV. Global Practices, teams can draw on a solid Given the growing number of World Bank oper- knowledge base, entry points, and workable ations reportedly incorporating these kinds of models. These cover, for instance, work on cul- activities across all Global Practices and regions, ture shifts in schools within education projects; there are significant opportunities to learn les- systemic changes in health policies and proce- sons during implementation and adapt programs dures, along with training for front-line health and expand approaches based on emerging evi- workers, to remove barriers to response services; dence on what works. and combining livelihood support with training and dialogue interventions to mitigate the risk of household violence. In this regard, most lend- ing operations work through core development Lessons from the past 10 years ministries, such as education, health, or infra- structure, with decades of experience as World This report reflects on the lessons learned in Bank partners. Relatively fewer operations rely project design and implementation during a on gender ministries as their primary coun- time when the focus on GBV prevention and terpart. In addition to relying on established response across sectors has increased sig- sectoral entry points, many teams recommended nificantly. As GBV prevention and response is investing in counterparts responsible for the integrated across the World Bank portfolio, task overall coordination of the gender agenda to teams are building a solid body of knowledge of enable them to play a stronger coordinating role what works to prevent and respond to GBV within in GBV programing. World Bank systems.2 Key lessons are as follows: Lesson 3: Prevention and response need to Lesson 1: GBV prevention and response is be addressed simultaneously. essential to reach development goals. Part of preventing future GBV means build- Lending operations that include activi- ing an environment that acts against drivers ties related to GBV are increasingly likely to of violence and supports help-seeking by emerge in dialogue on broader challenges, such survivors. Teams have learned to focus on as working conditions for women and wom- strengthening both reporting and case man- en’s employment and productivity, or sectoral agement systems to deal with cases of GBV, issues, such as school dropout. Framing GBV as improving protocols and training government an essential part of the gender equality agenda counterparts in their implementation, while at creates space for solutions-oriented dialogue to the same time introducing measures to prevent inform project design. further violence. 2 Much of this knowledge is summarized in VAWG (Violence against Women and Girls) Resource Guide (dashboard), World Bank, Washington, DC, https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/violence-against-women-and-girls/resources; Violence (dashboard), Gender Data Portal, World Bank, Washington, DC, https://genderdata.worldbank.org/topics/violence/; World Bank (2022a). Executive Summary Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 5 Lesson 4: Specialized staff and a fidelity to design that is not always feasible investments in technical capacity are in World Bank–supported projects given capac- essential. ity constraints. It will therefore be important to monitor and evaluate the results and implemen- Investment in specialized staff at World Bank tation experience of these intensive community headquarters and in country offices has been a awareness-raising efforts to assess what con- central factor in the expansion of the work on ditions are needed for World Bank operations GBV over the past 10 years. However, demand to effectively implement such approaches and for addressing GBV in lending operations con- if, looking forward, these types of engagement tinues to stretch existing capacity. Investing in programs should be expanded (and under what a growing cadre of specialists will be critical to circumstances). supporting project design, evaluations, and effec- tive implementation. Lesson 7: Corporate requirements introduced to address SEA/SH are key Lesson 5: Analytical work is critical to entry points for GBV programing. inform design and implementation. The corporate requirements on sexual exploita- Teams rely on gender assessments and diagnos- tion and abuse and sexual harassment (SEA/ tics, as well as deep-dive work on operational SH) risk mitigation introduced in 2018 have challenges or policy questions, to guide project been instrumental in internal capacity build- design. Mappings of service providers and referral ing, providing structure and impetus to client networks have also been instructive in informing dialogue, and applying risk analysis to project project design. Teams have invested in the devel- design. Teams saw clear progress in identifying opment of quality assurance tools to monitor sectoral entry points for risk mitigation that implementation, many of which have been taken are now a core part of many operations. Teams up by clients at scale. Some projects have built in stressed that conversations with clients on SEA/ just-in-time assessments and process evaluations SH risk mitigation can be an important starting in addition to regular project management infor- point to addressing GBV more systematically as mation systems to allow for course corrections a development issue. during implementation. Lesson 8: There are opportunities to invest Lesson 6. Additional analysis is needed to in systems to generate economies of scale. inform effective approaches to shift social norms. Now that risk-mitigation systems have been embedded into individual World Bank opera- A number of World Bank–supported oper- tions in many client countries, there is a need ations have included indirect approaches to to consolidate and move toward country-level shifting behavior through economic empower- approaches. Some requirements—for example, ment, livelihoods, and education investments. risk analysis of project geographic areas or ver- These are promising interventions with poten- ification of service providers—will need to be tial for scale and replication. In addition, about met for every project. However, other activities, a third (37 percent) of operations that include such as service mappings, referral pathways, and GBV-related activities are implementing inter- sectorwide codes of conduct, could be stream- ventions directly aimed at shifting social norms lined across the portfolio and made available as through intensive community engagement. a public good for all projects at the country and These types of social norms programs require Country Management Unit (CMU) levels. Executive Summary 6 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Lesson 9: Partnerships are central to builds on the World Bank’s established compar- advocating for change. ative advantage, relative to other development partners, in investing in well-targeted, evi- Partnerships at the global, national, and local dence-driven prevention work by undertaking levels have been indispensable to the expan- the following: sion and diversification of World Bank work on GBV. In developing these relationships, • Consolidate and scale promising models, draw- teams emphasized the need to take the time ing on established sectoral entry points . The to understand the efforts of other partners to World Bank is supporting government efforts determine where the World Bank can add value. in core areas essential for comprehensive GBV At the international level, the World Bank has prevention and response, including strength- contributed to a shared research agenda and ening state systems for response services, helped lead global dialogue. At the national level, creating safe spaces, boosting livelihoods, and partnerships with United Nations agencies and changing attitudes and behaviors toward GBV national institutions have resulted in action and gender inequality. Investment in scaling up plans and strategies to guide policy reforms and these models, supported by specialized staff the financing of priority investments. Locally, and training, will contribute to evidence-driven nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have future interventions. helped the World Bank deliver last-mile interven- • Deepen prevention efforts linked to SEA/SH tions and supported implementation. risk mitigation . The SEA/SH risk mitiga- tion recommendations through the World Bank’s environmental and social framework Lesson 10: Investing in service delivery is (ESF) have inserted GBV squarely into client critical in FCV contexts. dialogue. Mobilizing the full potential of this opportunity will require the consolidation of World Bank work on GBV originated in FCV referral and case management systems and settings, where there is often acknowledgment a focus on support for policy and protocol by clients and other partners that tackling reforms at the country level, thereby creating GBV is an urgent priority. In these contexts, greater space for prevention work. World Bank investment has focused on strength- • Mobilize dedicated trust fund resources for tar- ening national systems for survivor-centered geting investments in impact evaluation and care while also ensuring quality of care, often piloting. Early work on GBV prevention and through parallel delivery systems relying on non- response relied heavily on trust fund financ- governmental partners. Mobile service provision ing, and these instruments continue to play an is a common feature of these operations, and important role. There is a need for steady, ded- mental health is taking on prominence. Because icated support for further assessments and FCV contexts can be especially dynamic, several pilot interventions, as well as the implemen- operations are employing process evaluations to tation of impact monitoring and evaluation, monitor and inform needed adjustments to inter- which could be provided through the strategic ventions during implementation. use of trust fund resources. • Strengthen global and local partnerships on GBV. The World Bank can deepen relationships with global partners on a shared research agenda, Priorities for the next 10 years support national prevention plans and strat- egies, build the capacity of governments to Drawing on the experiences of the past 10 implement and coordinate service provision, years, the report lays out a guiding vision and form partnerships with specialized agen- for deepening the work on GBV prevention cies and civil society to ensure high-quality and response in the decade ahead. This vision survivor-centered care. Executive Summary Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 7 In conclusion, and based on the lessons learned and strategies, and strengthening national over the last decade, the World Bank will systems for prevention and response; invest further in implementation, systematiz- • Deeper and more accessible technical expertise ing prevention and response across all lending through continued investment in specialized operations and ensuring that GBV activities staff at the World Bank and in client coun- are supported by global evidence. This includes tries; and continuing to strengthen systems and support- • Consistent tracking of World Bank investments ing the enabling conditions that prevent and in GBV across the portfolio to understand which protect against GBV. Going forward, this review activities projects are implementing, how they suggests a few milestones that are key to mea- are surmounting different challenges, and the suring continued progress toward ending GBV. cost implications. These include By consolidating the gains made over the past • Continued World Bank leadership in the global 10 years, the World Bank can continue to work movement to end GBV, with the World Bank toward the ultimate goal of ending GBV—and playing a stronger role in a shared global in the process, advance gender equality and research agenda, supporting national plans contribute to resilient, sustainable, and inclu- sive development. 8 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 1. Introduction Preventing and responding to gender-based violence (GBV) is a development imperative.3 As the most extreme manifesta- tion of gender inequality and the most prevalent form of violence worldwide, its impacts extend far beyond individual survivors, with implications for the productivity and well-being of families and communities, often across generations. A gender equality agenda within the larger global goals of advancing economic development, eliminating extreme poverty, and boosting shared prosperity must address the root causes of inequalities as well as their conse- quences for women and people of all gender and sexual identities who do not conform to entrenched gender societal norms, including LGBTIQA+ populations. 3 Gender-based violence (GBV) is an umbrella term for actions that cause harm to a person based on their socially ascribed gender and is rooted in unequal power relations. Introduction Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 9 T he World Bank has estimated that vio- Ten years ago, there was no systematic mecha- lence against women costs countries nism to identify opportunities for preventing or up to 3.7 percent of gross domestic responding to GBV through lending operations, product, more than double the expenditures to analyze and mitigate against risk introduced on education of most countries (Klugman et and exacerbated by operations, or to respond al. 2014). A recent International Monetary Fund to cases of GBV either within projects or in the study focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa found project context. Investment in activities related that an increase of 1 percentage point in the to prevention and response was mostly limited share of female survivors of violence may reduce to project subcomponents, the majority of which economic activity by an average of up to 8.7 were financed by donor trust funds rather than percent, resulting from a significant drop in core World Bank budgets. The 2013 review iden- women’s employment (Ouedraogo and Stenzel tified 38 World Bank operations active in 2008 2021). or later that had incorporated GBV prevention or response in some way, representing an estimated Addressing violence against women generates US$22.5 million in investment. One stand-alone multiplier effects for development. Reducing operation, the Great Lakes Emergency Sexual violence helps expand women’s access to essen- and Gender-Based Violence and Women’s tial services, labor markets, opportunities for Health Project, covering Burundi, the Democratic community engagement, and political partici- Republic of Congo, and Rwanda, accounted for pation and education. Women and girls who live 75 percent of the investment.4 More than half lives free of violence increase their agency to the 38 interventions were located in contexts make decisions and to take advantage of oppor- characterized by FCV. Most were financed by tunities for development. trust funds, with an average investment of US$450,000 per trust fund and a range from Over the past decade, the World Bank has US$10,000 to US$2 million. undergone a remarkable shift in its approach to GBV within lending operations. The 2013 By 2013, many of the World Bank’s devel- report “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: opment partners had been active in GBV What is the World Bank Doing and What Have prevention and response for years. While there We Learned?” (Willman and Corman 2013) doc- was occasional representation from the World uments limited but growing awareness among Bank in international forums, these spaces were staff and clients that GBV is a development frequently primarily occupied by United Nations constraint. World Bank–commissioned analyt- agencies, international NGOs, and some bilat- ical work conducted since the early 2000s has eral donors. Internally, there was still a general built some consensus on the relevance of GBV sense that the World Bank did not have a com- to development goals. World Development Report parative advantage in addressing GBV and that 2012 included an action point on GBV in an the issue should be left to more highly special- operationalization plan (World Bank 2011). GBV ized human rights organizations, nonprofits, or prevention was included as a priority within the United Nations agencies. International Development Association (IDA) 17 replenishment in 2013. That same year, the Ten years later, GBV prevention is now part World Bank developed an indicator on legal pro- of how the World Bank does business. Today’s tections from violence against women for the engagement in GBV has moved far beyond the Women, Business, and the Law 2014 annual report five key recommendations of the 2013 report (World Bank 2013b). (box 1.1). Operations including GBV prevention and response exist in every Global Practice, every 4 The 2013 review (Willman and Corman 2013) reported the budget allocation for the component at US$17 million. The amount was later increased to US$50 million. Introduction 10 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 1.1. Recommendations of the 2013 Stocktaking • Mobilize World Bank sectors for an integrated response. • Put more focus on prevention. • Capitalize on different entry points for client dialogue. • Build TTL capacity in GBV prevention and response. • Strengthen research, knowledge, and learning. Source: Willman and Corman 2013. Figure 1.1. Expansion of GBV Prevention and Response, 2013 Versus 2022 Comp rison of proj cts b tw n r ports 2012* 2022* Proj cts th t includ ctions to ddr ss GBV 38 390 DPOs th t includ ctions to ddr ss GBV 6 44 Inv stm nt** $225MM $680MM Focus d on Exp nd d to T r t r s FCV r s non-FCV r s S ctors of inv stm nt 8 s ctors All s ctors Countr nd r ion l 97 countri s 21 countri s cov r ( ll r ions n d) * The 2013 report cover the period 2008-2012 while the port folio n l sis for the 2022 reports covers FY 2017-2022. ** The investment in the 2013 report w s b sed on those projects th t h d n explicit focus on SGBV or components on this topic, while the level of investment in the 2022 onl reflects 4% of ll the projects included (3 st nd lone GBV oper tions nd 13 projects with bud ets t the component level). region, and at every level of country income (fig- early stage, and, while the number and breadth ure 1.1). This expansion has involved establishing of impact evaluations have increased, critical corporate systems for risk analysis and mitiga- knowledge gaps persist. tion focusing especially on SEA/SH, reporting and responding to cases of GBV, and tackling This report looks back at how the World Bank’s GBV as a development challenge in a variety of engagement in GBV prevention and response country contexts. Together with internal capac- has changed over the past decade and offers ity building and the hiring of specialized staff, guidance for deepening the work in the future. this has generated success in the expansion and The analysis is drawn from a review of the diversification of the World Bank portfolio. lending portfolio and project documents, inter- views with 53 World Bank staff representing It is too early to measure the full impact of 24 projects, and 10 case studies of operations. the marked uptake in GBV prevention and The report is aimed at capturing strategic and response across the World Bank portfo- operational lessons that can inform, strengthen, lio. Many of the relevant operations are at an and expand World Bank operational engagement Introduction Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 11 in GBV prevention and response and inform the was able to interview all TTLs and review all proj- World Bank Group Gender Strategy 2024-2030. ect documents in detail. The report also analyzes the range of World Bank investments against established global The 2022 stocktaking employs a more selec- best practice. For the latter, the report uses tive, mixed methods approach because of the the RESPECT framework—widely recognized as volume of operations to be covered in this the most comprehensive evidence-based set of review (Willman and Corman 2013). The meth- guidelines on GBV prevention and response—as odology drew on the following data sources (for the theoretical underpinning for multisectoral details, see annexes A–D): work on GBV (WHO 2019). • A portfolio review based on the identification of Following the introduction and a description of 390 lending operations (covering both the IDA the methodology, the report sets out a guid- and the International Bank for Reconstruction ing vision for the next 10 years of World Bank and Development (IBRD)) approved between work on GBV prevention. This vision is meant to FYs 2017 and 2022 that included activities orient the subsequent sections, which describe in GBV prevention and response. Operations contextual accelerating factors, both those involving only SEA/SH risk mitigation mecha- external to the World Bank as well as internal nisms were excluded. dynamics, that have moved the agenda for- • Structured interviews with teams representing ward, and key lessons learned over the past 10 24 projects to glean operational lessons. The years. The report then summarizes the increase 24 projects were selected with a view to repre- in operations addressing GBV prevention and senting the scope of World Bank work on GBV; response, with an analysis by sector, region, and illustrating scalable and replicable models; and type of instrument. The final section concludes. ensuring balance by region, sector, lending instru- ment, FCV status, and country-income level. • Case studies of 10 operations, including in-depth analysis of project documents and interviews Methodology with task teams to deepen the knowledge on operational constraints and learning. This report b ui lds on the methodolog y • Consultations with external partners to under- employed for the 2013 stocktaking of work on stand the World Bank comparative advantage GBV by the World Bank (Willman and Corman in the prevention space and opportunities for 2013). The 2013 report brought together data better aligning prevention activities with global from the World Bank Operations Portal, a desk efforts. review of project documents, and interviews with task teams. The researchers employed snow- The report includes quotations taken from inter- ball sampling to identify projects for analysis. views to illustrate salient points and messages. Because of the relatively small number of lend- All quotes appearing in this report have been ing operations with GBV prevention and response approved by the interviewees, who are identified activities identified at that time (38), the team by name or not, according to their preference. 12 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 2. A Vision for the Next 10 Years Once we start investing, the investments need to continue. The Bank teams cannot step out of this conversation for months while look- ing for trust fund resources... We have to be here. We have to stay in the dialogue, and we have to continue investing. —Sandor I. Karacsony, senior economist A Vision for the Next 10 Years Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 13 T he World Bank stands at a critical point With greater awareness of these compara- for reflecting on and reevaluating its tive advantages, the World Bank is now well role in GBV prevention and response. placed to continue mobilizing transformational If, 10 years ago, staff saw risks associated with investments in GBV prevention and response taking on the GBV prevention agenda, today as an essential component of the gender many perceive that the benefits of staying equality agenda. Meeting the World Bank’s full engaged and maintaining support clearly out- potential will entail strengthening the enabling weigh the risks. After several years of investing conditions, incentives, and resources to bring on in specialized staff and internal training, learning board specialized staff to aim beyond risk miti- the language and skills needed to engage with gation and approach GBV more holistically within clients and partners, and putting the institution operations. on the map of prevention and response work, most staff acknowledge the clear consequences Over the next 10 years, it will be important for of disengaging now. the World Bank to solidify its GBV prevention and response initiatives in four key areas. The vision presented here draws on the anal- ysis undertaken for this report detailed in the following sections. Area 1: Consolidate and scale up The knowledge and experience gained over the last 10 years allows for more targeted, evi- Consolidate and scale up proven prevention dence-driven engagement on GBV following and response models, drawing on established the World Bank’s comparative advantage. The sectoral entry points and continue investing in World Bank has a clear role to play in financing specialized staff and training. prevention and response models at scale, includ- ing the more specialized initiatives of other donor The expansion and diversification of activi- partners, and in helping increase country owner- ties addressing GBV across all sectors, regions, ship and investment through the following: and country-income levels have revealed clear opportunities for consolidating and scaling • Support for strengthening the health, educa- up prevention work. Most activities focus on tion, social protection, transport, and other strengthening critical systems, such as health, systems critical for GBV prevention and education, transport, and social protection, response, which helps improve services and thereby contributing to a more comprehen- increase trust in state institutions sive, survivor-centered prevention and response • Investments in women’s economic empower- approach. Drawing on established sectoral entry ment and increasing safety (for example on points, teams have been able to apply GBV public transport) at scale, which can drive prevention and response activities to achieve stronger labor markets and productivity broader project objectives. For example, in edu- • DPF to enable governments to make legislative cation projects, retention has been increased changes that create more enabling environ- by addressing sexual harassment and abuse in ments for GBV prevention and response schools, and transport projects have contributed • Strong convening power, which creates space to greater female labor force participation by for governments, civil society, and develop- enhancing safety on public transport. ment partners to align efforts and share knowledge The growing evidence base for prevention and • In FCV contexts, financing stand-alone oper- response interventions allows for the identifi- ations on GBV can strengthen national cation of additional opportunities within each response systems for the provision of survi- Global Practice to enhance the impact of oper- vor-centered services ations. The accompanying matrix summarizes A Vision for the Next 10 Years 14 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement the typical activities and indicators undertaken programs run by our government clients is or applied in operations by each Global Practice. also paramount. This requires investment in The matrix also identifies opportunities in proj- and time allocation for intervention model ects in each Global Practice to expand and adaptation processes, starting with formative enhance work on GBV. research and including piloting processes as part of operational activities or components. At least half of the projects across all regions Scale-up requires a gradual approach that can and Global Practices include activities aimed be closely monitored for fidelity to the original at promoting attitude or behavior change, but intervention as well as for success in implemen- it is not clear whether these are in line with tation. To contribute to ending GBV and growing global evidence. Interventions aiming at realizing the evidence base on how to do so sustainably, changes in social norms, attitudes, or behaviors such newly adapted, contextualized, and scaled require significant investment in staffing, con- intervention implementation processes should textual adaptation, and quality control, and they be documented and evaluated. are most effective if they are implemented as part of a larger support package. Because many Specialized GBV staff play an immensely of the 390 operations identified in this review valuable role in synthesizing and transmitting were in the beginning stages of implementation, global evidence, engaging with clients and it was not possible to assess how closely they leading stakeholder dialogues. Their knowl- are aligning with global evidence or what their edge of World Bank systems is a critical impacts will be. Going forward, it will be key for tool to operationalize global best practices these interventions to assess the outcomes and through World Bank operations . Their tasks results of their social norms programing and to include bringing technical expertise into client put in place corrective action as needed to align dialogue, assessing opportunities to integrate them with global evidence. prevention into operations, guiding analyti- cal research to help identify entry points for More operations could be encouraged to programing, leading intervention adaptation focus on underlying GBV drivers and risk fac- processes, identifying and working with govern- tors. In many cases, the enabling environment ment champions at the political and technical for successful work on social norms, attitudes, levels, liaising with civil society and development or behavior change may not be present or partners, designing project components, con- may not fit well within the scope of a project. ducting quality control during implementation, Teams can design projects to reduce risk fac- and ensuring proper monitoring of progress. tors and increase protective factors related to GBV as appropriate within the particular sec- Cultivating a pool of in-house experts requires tor and context without necessarily taking on up-front investments in training and men- social norms directly. toring to generate large payoffs in more effective client dialogue and project impact. Investment is needed in project design Because this role requires a unique skill set that and intervention adaptation and scale-up. can take years to develop, intentional invest- Although there is a growing body of evidence ment is important to support their professional on what works in addressing GBV in different development. settings and different sectors, many studies have been undertaken in only one site or with Investment is needed in specialized staff in small sample sizes. Investment in adaptation the regions and Global Practices. Particularly in to different contexts, regions, and populations Global Practices and regions with higher demand is needed. In addition, generating understand- for GBV work, specialists are important as a ing of how to scale these small-scale effective steady presence in operational dialogue and as a interventions into national or large regional source of technical support for task teams. Some A Vision for the Next 10 Years Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 15 of the CMU interviewees in countries where there Area 2: Build off of SEA/SH risk was significant uptake of the GBV agenda also mitigation and the flexibility of recommended investing in the decentralization corporate requirements of the GBV specialist positions to the country level to have “boots on the ground.” The corporate recommendations on the miti- gation of the risks of sexual exploitation and Support for GBV specialists to grow profes- abuse and of sexual harassment have been sionally and work on broader gender issues is instrumental in structuring client dialogue on also important, as is the need for gender and the SEA/SH risks and providing entry points social development specialists to expand their for the World Bank to address GBV more skill set to work on GBV. Investing in career broadly though operational components or development, such as training and mentoring, activities. Today’s client dialogue on GBV is more could help with retention of specialists, ensure solutions-oriented, evidence-driven, strongly sup- stronger expertise on GBV, and break artificial ported by CMU leadership, and informed by a solid silos between GBV and the gender equality and understanding of the World Bank’s comparative ESF agendas. Establishing technical competen- advantages in addressing GBV. The challenge now cies for GBV specialists within the World Bank is to realize the full potential to anchor dialogue human resources framework would also help on prevention and response beyond SEA/SH risk standardize such support throughout the World mitigation through the following actions: Bank. • Consolidating country-level SEA/SH risk mitiga- The World Bank could also invest in building tion work to build economies of scale. This would its roster of specialist consultants who can be mean differentiating portfolio-level invest- deployed in project support. The Gender Group ments from those needed at the project level. currently maintains a list of nearly 100 special- Where possible and appropriate, CMUs can ists, about half of whom are national experts on explore opportunities for national service map- GBV prevention and response. These specialists ping, sectorwide codes of conduct, and other could benefit from training in World Bank oper- tools implemented efficiently at the national ations and ESF recommendations to lessen the level or across several operations. This has burden of capacity building on the task teams the potential to lighten the burdens carried by that hire the specialists to support their projects. individual teams and promote collaboration. It can also leave room for further investments In countries with higher demand and lower of time and expertise to deepen the GBV pre- capacity, the World Bank can support clients vention and response dialogue within projects. in building local pools of GBV specialists. This • Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of could include support for universities or NGOs for activities to mitigate SEA/SH risk. While many training or degree programs as well as mentoring of the tools, such as codes of conduct and services. service mappings, are practices that are being followed, the analysis for this report did not As the World Bank portfolio continues to identify task teams that were systematically expand, there is also a need to strengthen monitoring the impact of these mechanisms internal learning and capacity building. on sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual Mentoring, shadowing opportunities, workshops, harassment or documenting experiences and and trainings to share knowledge on specific lessons to inform future SEA/SH risk mitiga- instruments, especially in expanding areas such tion practices. as DPF and PforR financing, as well as in Global • Optimizing the flexibility of ESF instruments for Practices where investment has increased, can the more intentional design of SEA/SH mitiga- be valuable in ensuring that staff are learning tion activities. Instruments such as stakeholder from project experiences. engagement plans and codes of conduct do A Vision for the Next 10 Years 16 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement not need to be fully fleshed out at proj- asked to report on GBV outputs and outcomes ect approval; teams could adopt a phased at midterm and in the implementation com- approach and allow more time for adapting pletion and results report. these instruments to the local context and building local ownership. To advance institutional learning and con- tribute to the global evidence base, the World Bank could step up safe and ethically imple- mented evaluations in several specific areas: Area 3: Mobilize dedicated financing for catalytic investment along the • The impact of GBV prevention and response project cycle, from assessments to activities within economic empowerment oper- pilot interventions, and process and ations. The World Bank has been investing in impact evaluations improving livelihoods and boosting labor force participation and entrepreneurship around The World Bank’s clients have invested millions the world. In many cases, these programs are of dollars in GBV prevention and response, but targeted at women. A better understanding there is a gap in monitoring progress and eval- of how projects can address GBV as a means uating the impact of these activities. In order of supporting women’s increased agency and to maximize learning from operational experi- economic independence is critical. ence over the next decade, it will be important • The impact of systems strengthening efforts for the World Bank to do the following: on GBV. The bulk of operations incorporating GBV prevention and response activities are • Initiate tracking of investments in GBV pre- focused on systems strengthening, in line vention and response. At present, there is no with the RESPECT framework. While many mechanism to monitor the amount spent on systems-strengthening operations monitor GBV prevention and response activities within the impact of these efforts through measur- operations, as most are confined to sub- ing the uptake of services, few are collecting components for which budget is not listed in information on the enabling factors or barriers project documents. Without tracking, it is not that impact the project implementation and possible to identify how many GBV prevention achievement of outcomes. activities included as subcomponents in the • The impact of GBV prevention on economic identification phase are “lost” during imple- development outcomes . Assessments are mentation. Developing a system or indicator needed of the relationship between the prev- for reporting on this (potentially through the alence of GBV and the broader labor market Operations Portal) could help in understanding and economywide dynamics, including employ- what resources are flowing to what specific ment, productivity, and competitiveness, as activities and in identifying bottlenecks during well as sector-specific challenges, includ- implementation. Tracking GBV components, ing maternal health and school retention. activities, and funding allocation will also For example, many transport projects and a allow for studies on costing of implementation growing number of DPF operations focus on at scale, which, coupled with impact evalua- reducing harassment on public transport to tion, could give a more informed view of the enable women’s labor force participation, yet resources required to address GBV sustainably. there is little monitoring of these relationships. • Improve the monitoring of GBV-related activi- • The impact of SEA/SH risk-mitigation measures ties. Rapid assessments, process evaluations, and GBV prevention and response activities on and other qualitative tools can inform project project development objectives (PDOs). While implementation, allowing for needed adjust- all projects in high-risk areas are required to ments in real time. Staff working on projects have mechanisms in place to mitigate SEA/SH focused on system strengthening could be risk, there is no systematic monitoring of the A Vision for the Next 10 Years Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 17 impact these are having on PDOs. For exam- • Financing priority interventions as defined in ple, the World Bank could consider evaluating national action plans. Participating in existing the impact of codes of conduct and other GBV coordination mechanisms at the national measures considered good practice within our level is key to finding appropriate areas for operations to see if having them in place is a World Bank contributions at the country contributing factor to girls staying in school level across various sectors. Many countries or to reduced adolescent pregnancy. In efforts have developed national action plans, offer- to address GBV beyond SEA/SH mitigation, ing a useful starting point for understanding understanding the impact of these activities priorities and funding needs. Through partic- on achieving sector-specific outcomes is cur- ipation in existing coordination mechanisms, rently a missed opportunity. the World Bank can avoid the duplication of • The cost implications and benefits of prevention efforts by having clarity on what projects or programs. The World Bank has a comparative activities are already being funded by other advantage in supporting governments to take donors or multilateral financial institutions successful interventions to scale. There is a (MFIs). strong need to build in monitoring and costing • Strengthening national systems by partnering of the scaling process in order to generate les- with core ministries while building the capacity sons that can be applied to other countries. In of gender ministries to play a coordinating and consultations conducted for this report, exter- facilitating role. By taking advantage of estab- nal partners specified such costing studies as lished partnerships with sector ministries, the instrumental to building the global evidence base. World Bank has directed its financing in ways that have helped strengthen crucial health, education, and infrastructure systems. These have provided a strong foundation for deep- Area 4: Cultivate partnerships for ening work on GBV prevention and response. implementation and policy dialogue At the same time, there is a need for regional and country-level investments to strengthen Over the past 10 years, the World Bank has the capacity of less-established ministries to established a presence as a partner in global coordinate the GBV response across all sec- and national efforts to prevent and respond tors and levels of government. to GBV. Over the next decade, the World Bank • Connecting with NGOs to ensure context-rele- will need to continue to explore how its work fits vant and inclusive interventions. Civil society within global and national efforts through deeper partners often possess a long-standing pres- engagements with partners at various levels via ence and knowledge of violence-related the following actions: dynamics and drivers as well as relation- ships critical for prevention work. They are • Coordinating with global partners on a shared often indispensable for work on GBV, yet research agenda and alignment with established they have in many cases been overlooked or global strategies for prevention. Relationships had their contributions instrumentalized by with leading institutions in GBV prevention other actors. Relationships with NGOs will and response, such as the Sexual Violence need to be given greater priority if prevention Research Initiative and the Global Women’s activities are going to be well rooted in local Institute at George Washington University, contexts. various United Nations agencies, and oth- • In FCV contexts, facilitating critical service ers, have contributed greatly to the growing delivery and investing in alternative delivery evidence base. Continuing these efforts and mechanisms (such as through NGOs and UN working on translating global evidence into agencies) while building government capacity to tools for World Bank operations will be critical deliver. This will mean not only continuing to to solidifying the work in client countries. rely on parallel service delivery mechanisms A Vision for the Next 10 Years 18 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Figure 2.1. Entry point pathways for increased investment in GBV prevention and response St k hold r P thw Actions R sourc s Appro ch s • First, dr w ttention to GBV • Brin in ender speci lists, GBV speci lists, nd soci l • SCDs. issues in S stem tic Countr Di nostics (SCDs) nd Countr development speci lists prior • CPFs. Polic P rtnership Fr meworks (CPFs). to nd durin the Concept Note (CN) development st e. • N tion l str te ies nd commitm nt t n tion l • Second, usin n tion l str te ies ction pl ns inst GBV. nd n tion l ction pl ns s entr • Identif nd en e n tion l l v l • Upstre m n l tic l pieces. points, est blish polic di lo ue ch mpions nd focus on round development polic co lition buildin with • GBV/Soci l Development fin ncin (DPF). development p rtners, NGOs, speci lists. nd c demics, mon others. • Dr w on upstre m n l tic l work, includin t r eted pieces • Imp ct Ev lu tions on wh t prep red s p rt of SCDs to works to prevent nd identif ke sector l entr points. • En e clients nd loc l respond to GBV. • St rt di lo ue on relev nt GBV p rtners in discussin ke • Gender T GBV D shbo rd. IPF nd prevention nd response entr points. PforR with ctivities durin the identific - • VAWG Resource Guide. xplicit GBV • Dr w on NGOs, loc l tion st e. • GBV CoP evidence p e. compon nts women's movements, the • Dr w on countr -level co litions UN, loc l GBV coordin tion • Upstre m n l tic l pieces. to conve the ke mess e nd mech nisms, nd loc l discuss sector-specific • Re ion l/ lob l GBV/SD rese rch institutions to find oper tion l solutions with speci lists. oper tion l solutions th t overnment counterp rts. work t the countr level. • GBV experts t loc l level • Use the ender t on GBV s n (expert consult nts). entr point for di lo ue. • Imp ct Ev lu tions on wh t works to prevent nd • Di lo ue on GBV prevention • En e clients nd loc l respond to GBV. nd response does not lw s p rtners in discussin ke • Gender T GBV D shbo rd. come from discussin GBV entr points. Dr w on NGOs, directl . Issues such s • VAWG Resource Guide. loc l women's movements, G nd r incre sin fem le l bor force the UN, loc l GBV • GBV CoP evidence p e. qu lit p rticip tion, cre tin s fe outcom s coordin tion mech nisms, environments, nd improvin • Upstre m n l tic l pieces. nd loc l rese rch service upt ke c n le d to • Re ion l/ lob l GBV/SD institutions to find discussin GBV prevention—for speci lists. oper tion l solutions th t DPOs, IPF, nd PforR work t the countr level. • GBV experts t loc l level fin ncin . (expert consult nts). • Discuss risk miti tion • Discuss the potenti l for • ESF, Good Pr ctice Note (GPN) requirements under the ESF nd exp ndin the scope of GBV on IPF with m jor civil works present how SEA/SH miti tion prevention nd response SEA/SH nd Hum n Development miti tion me sures c n be exp nded to ctivities s e rl s possible oper tions. nd th ddress GBV more bro dl . For in the prep r tion process nvironm nt l ex mple, discuss how Codes of • Countr -level GBV service (ide ll t identific tion). nd soci l Conduct for tr nsport oper tors provider m ppin ( nd costin fr m work th t h ve been developed s • Brin GBV speci lists into the d t , where v il ble). (ESF) p rt of p rticul r investment initi l discussions with r quir m nts • VAWG Resource Guide. c n be rolled out to the sector counterp rts (identific tion) s whole. to ssess fe sibilit . • GBV CoP evidence p e. *Relevant stakeholder actions across all the pathways include through partnerships with civil society and during the CN development stage to identify UN agencies in the immediate term, but also activities or components aligned with the increasing government ownership and capac- operation’s PDOs; ity to deliver survivor services. • Identifying and engaging national champions • Bringing in gender specialists, GBV special- and focusing on coalition building with NGOs ists, social development specialists, and Global and academics, among others; and Practice gender focal points prior to and • Bringing in safeguard specialists. Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 19 3. How Did We Get Here? Accelerators of Institutional Change The growth of GBV prevention and response within the World Bank’s portfolio over a relatively short period of time has no single or direct explanation. The increasing focus and action have been influenced by external and inter- nal accelerators that supported and sustained a movement within the World Bank to take GBV more seriously as a core development issue. This section describes several external and internal accelerating factors and their influence on the expansion of the World Bank’s work on GBV. How Did We Get Here? Accelerators of Institutional Change 20 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Social movements, global clients were more receptive to lending opera- commitments, and evidence tions that could address it. World Bank staff boosted GBV programing learned about GBV from their families, friends, and colleagues and read about it in the countries The World Bank’s shift from viewing GBV as where they worked. The conversation reached a phenomenon largely outside its institutional into people’s professional lives in ways it had not mandate and realm of influence to actively previously done. Several task teams mentioned working to prevent and/or respond to violence the role these movements played in keeping in 390 operations occurred in the context of a the issue of GBV in the national conversation. global reckoning on women’s rights. The right to For example, in Egypt, vocal civil society groups live free from violence was fundamental to this were influential in creating momentum for this conversation. dialogue in the country. This momentum was a great contributor for pushing the first DPO in Beginning in 2017, what had been a frag- Egypt with a pillar on GBV. mented and often marginalized movement to prevent violence against women found a pow- Around the same time, several high-profile erful voice in the global #MeToo wave.5 Public cases of SEA/SH in other development orga- debate began to shift in many countries around nizations resonated internally with the World the world, as different social movements were Bank and added impetus to the risk-mitigation raising the issue at the same time. efforts. These included cases of sexual exploita- tion of survivors of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake by As a survivor-centered movement, #MeToo Oxfam International staff and similar cases quickly connected with movements in other involving UN agency staff and contractors (BBC countries and regions. These included the 2021; United Nations General Assembly 2017). #NiUnaMenos anti-femicide movement in Latin The number of cases indicated that harassment America, the #MosqueMeToo in the Middle East, and misconduct were not isolated incidents, but and similar movements across Africa and reflected a broader pattern of abuse of power South Asia (Teitel 2022). This global confluence and a certain level of institutional complicity. For of movements to address GBV is arguably the several organizations, including several UN agen- most expansive, diverse, and inclusive in history. cies, public outcry prompted an examination of In many landmark cases, verdicts have favored policies and procedures that facilitated SEA/SH. survivors, and fresh legislation protecting against harassment and abuse has been adopted in doz- New international commitments to GBV ens of countries. According to Women, Business, reduction helped anchor the World Bank and the Law, 159 countries had adopted anti-ha- work and deepen partnerships. Whereas the rassment policies as of 2019, the latest year Millennium Development Goals did not include for which data are available (World Bank 2021). any violence-related targets, the Sustainable Parliaments have adopted codes of conduct Development Goals, part of the 2030 Agenda for policy makers, and the UN and other devel- for Sustainable Development, contain two opment partners stepped up their institutional goals related to GBV. During the World Health responses (Stone and Vogelstein 2019). Assembly led by the World Health Organization (WHO) in May 2016, member states endorsed At the World Bank, this social movement con- for the first time a global plan of action on tributed to an environment where staff were strengthening the role of health systems in more aware of the pervasiveness of GBV, and addressing interpersonal violence, particularly 5 The #MeToo slogan originated with activist Tarana Burke in the United States in 2006. The aim was to build empathy and visibility for GBV survivors by amplifying the voices and experiences of women of color in underresourced communities. The #MeToo message went viral after actresses Ashley Judd and Alyssa Milano tweeted the hashtag in 2017. How Did We Get Here? Accelerators of Institutional Change Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 21 against women and girls and against children Orlando 2004), laid a solid foundation. Client dia- (WHO 2016b). By 2019, the International Labour logue in a handful of conflict-affected countries Organization had adopted the world’s first con- highlighted some of the World Bank’s com- vention supporting the right to a violence-free parative advantages on the ground. The World workplace, now ratified by 15 countries.6 Development Report 2012 (World Bank 2011) high- lighted the importance of addressing IPV. By the An increase in research on the drivers of time of the 2013 stocktaking report (Willman violence and programs to address it helped and Corman 2013), the World Bank had the lan- connect GBV prevention with core develop- guage to put GBV in development terms, a small ment interventions (box 3.1). With this work, but growing number of staff trained in violence the evidence base expanded further beyond rich prevention, and clients actively soliciting support countries to more FCV contexts and low-income on the issue. settings and to key subgroups such as displaced populations. A growing number of tools were now By 2014, the World Bank was investing more available for adaptation to different contexts, intentionally in GBV prevention and response. and there was a growing cadre of specialists in The first GBV specialist was hired that year to join violence prevention around the world to support the Gender Group, and the IDA17 cycle included a projects. specific focus on GBV in FCV settings. The first systematic review of reviews on GBV (Arango et The COVID-19 pandemic and accompany- al. 2014), as well as the Voice and Agency report ing economic and social instability gave new (Klugman et al. 2014), with an accompany- impetus to prevention work. GBV intensified ing resource guide, filled key knowledge gaps. around the world during 2020–22 as women The World Bank Group’s first corporate Gender were confined with abusers, isolated from sup- Strategy (FY2016–FY2023, in 2015) gave more port services, and subject to increased stress institutional weight to addressing GBV, including (Abel et al. 2020; Halim, Can, and Perova 2020; child marriage and early marriage. Peterman and O’Donnell 2020; UN Women 2020). For many task teams, this prompted The 2016 World Bank Inspection Panel findings greater attention to risk factors that predated on the Uganda Transport Sector Development the pandemic but were exacerbated by lockdown Project in 2016 sounded a wake-up call across measures and service interruptions. the institution, prompting a host of institu- tional changes. After an investigation found evidence of rampant sexual misconduct and abuse by contractors involved in the project, the Internal accelerators prompted a independent Global GBV Taskforce was estab- focus on risk mitigation and then lished in October 2016 to issue guidance on prevention how to strengthen World Bank systems, tools, and processes to prevent and mitigate against The World Bank’s policy and operational risk of SEA/SH, as well as other forms of GBV, framework for addressing GBV has evolved in World Bank–supported investment projects substantially over the past two and a half (World Bank 2017a, 2017c). decades. In the mid-1990s, seminal analyti- cal work, including a discussion paper (Heise, The Task Force recommendations led to the Pitanguy, and Germain 1994) and subsequent recognition of SEA/SH as a core operational papers exploring GBV from a development angle issue and were grounded in and integrated into (Bott, Morrison, and Ellsberg 2005; Morrison and the World Bank’s ESF as well as the World 6 Violence and Harassment Convention, Convention C190 (adopted at the 108th [Centenary] Session, June 10, 2019), NORMLEX, International Labour Organization, Geneva, https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C190. How Did We Get Here? Accelerators of Institutional Change 22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 3.1. The Expanding Evidence Base on GBV Prevention The growth in World Bank investment in GBV prevention and response draws on targeted invest- ments in research and evaluation. Two systematic reviews took stock of the available evidence and identified gaps in understanding for GBV and specific forms of GBV, including intimate part- ner violence (IPV), thereby expanding the evidence base in lower-resource contexts, fragile and conflict-affected situations, and areas of intervention (Arango et al. 2014; Ellsberg et al. 2015; World Bank 2016). As part of the Sustainable Development Goals process, UN agencies and development partners began to put resources into building the evidence base for preventing GBV, including the following: • The Sexual Violence Research Initiative, initially formed as a government agency in South Africa in 2003, reframed its focus on women and girls in 2013 and became an independent organi- zation in 2019.a It now leads the world’s largest networks on GBV prevention and response. • In 2015, the UK Department for International Development launched What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls?, which supported the implementation and evaluation of 15 evidence-based programs in Africa and Asia.b Since the launch, the World Bank has served as a member of the International Advisory Board. • In 2017, the European Union and the UN created the Spotlight Initiative, the world’s larg- est partnership focused on eliminating violence against women and girls as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.c The Spotlight Initiative, together with the UN Foundation, subsequently launched the #WithHer Fund in December 2021 to distribute grants to small organizations, often beyond the reach of official development assistance. • At the same time, donor partners and international organizations established the first global database on violence against women and girls.d A WHO multicountry study, the first stand- alone survey of violence against women and girls in five low- and middle-income countries, had been published in 2005 (García-Moreno et al. 2005). The database now includes information on 161 countries. • A number of toolkits and policy guidelines have been developed post-2015 to support the real- ization of the Sustainable Development Goals, such as the following: • WHO clinical and policy guidelines for IPV and sexual violence (WHO 2013) • INSPIRE, a set of seven strategies to prevent violence against children, developed by leading global institutions, including the World Bank, that overlap with the strategies on GBV preven- tion (WHO 2016c) • The RESPECT framework, prepared by a coalition of donor, multilateral, and bilateral agencies (WHO 2019) a. SVRI (Sexual Violence Research Initiative) (website), SVRI, Pretoria, South Africa, https://www.svri.org/. b. What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls? (website), South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa, https://www.whatworks.co.za/. c. Spotlight Initiative (website), Multi-partner Trust Fund Office, Bureau for Management Services, United Nations Development Programme, New York, https://www.spotlightinitiative.org/. d. Global Database on the Prevalence of Violence against Women (dashboard), World Health Organization, Geneva, https://srhr.org/ vaw-data. How Did We Get Here? Accelerators of Institutional Change Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 23 Bank’s updated Procurement Framework Country Services was essential in the rolling (World Bank 2017c, 2020) to ensure govern- out of SEA/SH risk-mitigation measures and ment and contractor accountability. From resulted in the creation of an additional GBV FY2019, all investment projects with major position based in Operations Policy and Country civil works were required to conduct a SEA/ Services to coordinate SEA/SH risk-mitigation SH risk-screening process and put in place efforts across regions. Overall, the number of relevant risk-mitigation measures, as articu- specialized staff has grown from 1 in 2014 to 10 lated in the World Bank’s Good Practice Note today across the World Bank Group. on Addressing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Sexual Harassment (SEA/SH) in Investment Project Staff training was a central part of the Task Financing involving Major Civil Works. In addition, Force recommendations and has helped shift the World Bank established a mechanism for the the mindset of staff to consider GBV within disqualification of contractors for noncompliance operational design and client dialogue (World with SEA/SH contractual provisions.7 Bank 2017c). This included a GBV Master Class in FY2017 developed by the Gender Group and The World Bank started a process of retro- SSI teams and an effort to target primarily fitting SEA/SH risk-mitigation measures into social development specialists working on the high-risk projects already being implemented. ESF. A second World Bank Inspection Panel case in the ProRoutes transport operation in the east- A steady focus on GBV as part of IDA commit- ern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2018 ments has spurred more action on GBV. Since gave new urgency to addressing the risk of SEA/ IDA17’s focus on addressing GBV in FCV settings, SH in the transport sector. CMUs—particularly each cycle has included policy commitments with in the Africa region—invested in reviewing their increasing ambition, from implementing the GBV portfolios to pre-empt risk conversations with Task Force recommendations tvo promoting sys- clients. Discussions initiated with counterparts temwide approaches (table 3.1). in the DRC were directly connected to other stand-alone investments in GBV in the country (US$100 million IDA Grant for DRC Prevention and Response in 2018) and increased resources The global reckoning on GBV for GBV response through health operations in prompted changes in World Bank the region more broadly. institutional culture The momentum generated by the SEA/SH Several initiatives have given voice to World risk mitigation agenda was also the catalyst Bank staff in raising awareness on the for hiring GBV experts across the World Bank impacts of GBV on them and their families. Group. In FY2017 and FY2018, five GBV spe- The 2015 murder of University of Virginia stu- cialists were brought on board and integrated dent Hannah Graham, daughter of World Bank into the Social Sustainability and Inclusion Group staff member John Graham, prompted a (SSI) teams to support the implementation US$1.2 million investment in research grants by of the SEA/SH risk mitigation agenda and an the World Bank, in partnership with the Sexual operational focus on GBV as a development Violence Research Initiative, to prevent and issue. Close collaboration among SSI teams, respond to GBV around the world (Shapiro 2015). the Gender Group, Procurement, Legal, and the This became a reoccurring investment over five ESF unit in World Bank Operations Policy and years, the Development Marketplace: Innovations 7 The Human Development Practice Group has issued a Good Practice Note on how to address sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment in its operations. See World Bank (2022c). How Did We Get Here? Accelerators of Institutional Change 24 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Table 3.1. IDA Policy Commitments in Addressing GBV IDA cycle Special theme Policy commitment IDA17 Fragile and conflict-affected Support efforts for addressing gender-based violence issues and states report on progress at the IDA17 Mid-Term Review. IDA18 Fragility, conflict, and violence Increase the number of operations in fragile contexts which prevent or respond to gender-based violence, including through access to essential services and livelihood support activities for women. Gender Implement the recommendations of the WBG Global Task Force on Gender-Based Violence, as applicable, within operations in IDA-eligible countries. IDA19 Gender Support at least five IDA countries to invest in GBV prevention and response, delivering safe, quality, inclusive health care and other services through health systems, and give countries to implement GBV prevention and response protocols as part of safe and inclusive schools. IDA20 Gender Support at least 10 IDA countries to strengthen national policy frameworks for prevention of and response to GBV, and in at least 15 IDA countries, of which five are FCS, support GBV related services in health systems, and implement GBV prevention and response protocols as part of safe and inclusive educational institutions. Box 3.2. The World Bank Institutional Effort to Address Sexual Harassment The World Bank strives to create a respectful workplace free from sexual harassment. Since the launch of the World Bank’s Action to Address Sexual Harassment in 2019, the Ethics and Business Conduct Department has led the institution in improving transparency, enhancing accountability, and scaling up prevention efforts. The World Bank has created the antiharassment coordinator function, which is fully dedicated to addressing reports of harassment, sexual harassment, and inappropriate behavior. The insti- tution has also introduced a definition of sexual harassment in staff rules that is in line with international standards and has scaled up training efforts, including mandatory staff training on preventing and addressing sexual harassment at the World Bank. To ensure that policies remain relevant, the Ethics and Business Conduct Department regularly checks in with external experts to review and benchmark World Bank policies. Seeking to advance a survivor-centered approach to sexual harassment, the World Bank co-leads a workstream on this effort with the Chief Executive Board Task Force on Addressing Sexual Harassment within the organizations of the UN system. Source: World Bank 2022b. How Did We Get Here? Accelerators of Institutional Change Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 25 Figure 3.1. Evolution of the World Bank Group’s GBV Agenda 1994 2012 2014 2021 Viol nc A inst World IDA17: for the first time sou ht to In FY21, 77 projects Wom n: The D v lopm nt ddress GBV issues s p rt of the included ctions to Hidden He lth R port (WDR) FCV speci l theme prevent or respond to Burden (WB 2012; stressed GBV. In response to discussion p per th t domestic Voice nd A enc Report: noted the COVID-19, emer enc b Lori L. Heise): violence w s m nitude nd cost of intimn te response oper tions encour ed the cle r m nifest - p rtner violence reco ni ed nd B nk to lever e tion of ender Violence A inst Women nd Girls ddressed GBV, he lth services inequ lit , nd Resource Guide L uched. Includes especi ll in he lth to en e in GBV hi hli hted the series of sector l resource sector prevention nd need to ddress response intim te p rtner WDR2021 spotli hted violence 2016 the need to invest in GBV d t GBV T sk Forc est blished (in response to Inspection P nel findin on the U nd Tr nsport Sector Development Project), nd kick-st rted WB’s 2018 efforts to est blish s stems Good Pr ctic Not nd procedures for SEA/SH on ddressin miti tion work throu h the SEA/SH in projects ESF with civil works published 1993 1994 1995 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2013 2015 2017 2020 2022 A str te ic review WBG Gender IDA18: supported IDA19: seeks to IDA20: of WB-fin nced Str te the implement - stren then continues to oper tions FY2016-FY2023 tion of the GBV s stems-wide support ddresin GBV: l unched, GBV T sk Force’s ppro ches in s stem-wide review of 38 WB included s p rt recommend tioins respondin to nd ppro ches to oper tions ctive of Pill r 4 - Voice nd oper tions in preventin GBV, t cklin GBV between 2008 nd A enc fr ile context to with focus on the nd includes nd 2013 with n prevent nd he lth nd new focus on explicit focus on IFC Respectful respond to GBV, educ tion sectors stren thenin GBV Workpl ce includin throu h n tion l polic Pro r m nd ccess to essenti l IFC Workpl ce fr meworks to Advisor Services services nd Responses to ddress GBV t l unches livelihood support F mil nd Sexu l the polic nd Violence in PNG institution l report found th t levels f mil nd sexu l violence cost GBV Retrospec- comp nies round tive: str te ic 10 d s in lost review of the time, equ tion to p st dec de of over $2.1m per e r WB efforts to ddress GBV 1993 1995 2015 UN Decl r tion on Beijin The 2030 SDGs dopted with the Elimin tion of Decl r tion lob l t r et to ellimin te ll forms Violence inst nd Pl tform of violence inst ll forms of Women for Action violence inst ll women nd irls in the public nd priv te spheres Glob l Mil ston s Source: Original. How Did We Get Here? Accelerators of Institutional Change 26 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement to Address Gender-Based Violence, which funded These initiatives encouraged more World Bank 50 winning initiatives valued at US$5 million.8 staff to come forward with their own stories of sexual harassment, leading to a new corporate In 2016, the World Bank sponsored a power- policy. This #MeToo movement within the World ful arts exhibition dedicated to its staff and Bank was voiced through internal blogs, a staff- their families who had experienced domestic led working group on sexual harassment, staff violence within their own homes. The World association survey results, and other internal Bank housed the Domestic Abuse Prevention stakeholders. In response, the World Bank Ethics Program internally as opposed to using an exter- and Business Conduct Department commissioned nal service.9 The program employs multicultural, an external review to assess World Bank policies, multilingual licensed clinicians and counselors on procedures, and practices on sexual harassment, a 24/7 hotline and offers free and confidential culminating in a sexual harassment policy in 2017 assessments, counseling, safety planning, case and the hiring of the first antiharassment coordi- management, and referral services to individuals nator in the department in 2019 (box 3.2). IFC has who are dealing with domestic abuse. had a similar policy since 2016 (annex E). 8 See Development Marketplace: Innovations to Address Gender-Based Violence (dashboard), World Bank, Washington, DC, https://www. worldbank.org/en/programs/development-marketplace-innovations-to-address-gender-based-violence. 9 See Domestic Abuse Prevention Program, Health and Safety Directorate, World Bank, Washington, DC, https://www.worldbank.org/en/ work-with-us/hsd/home/domestic_abuse_prevention_program. Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 27 4. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 We didn’t actually discuss [GBV] explicitly... We got to it completely in a different way. Not hiding it, but not particularly highlighting it because there was no need to highlight it. It was going right along with the project. —Aline Coudouel, lead economist What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 28 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Lesson 1: GBV prevention and Figure 4.1. Entry Points for Client Dialogue response is essential to reaching development goals 8% We got pushback when we presented GBVin 12% 35% a way that stigmatized male behavior or when the requirements seemed too cumbersome to be worth the effort. But, if we presented it in a 12% solutions-oriented way, we made progress. —Janette Uhlmann , senior operations officer 35% Client dialogue increasingly reflects an under- standing of GBV as essential to broader gender Corpor t r quir m nt equality objectives. In most cases, teams said Econ. Empow rm nt they arrived at a discussion on GBV as part Wom n’s s f t of broader conversations on employment, pro- COVID ductivity, and competitiveness or on sectoral N d for s rvic d liv r challenges, such as school dropout. Figure 4.1 summarizes the chief entry points identified by task teams in the interviews, highlighting that most relied on either economic empowerment or risk mitigation. For example, in Uzbekistan, in shifting this engagement. A decade ago, a development policy loan is addressing GBV relatively few task teams were initiating con- as part of reforms to create more inclusive versations on GBV directly, and usually only in labor markets and incentivize female labor more extreme situations where GBV prevalence force participation (box 4.1). Likewise, teams was interfering significantly with project imple- in Bangladesh broached the topic as part of mentation. Following the World Bank Inspection conversations on labor markets and working Panel cases, client dialogue centered on risk mit- conditions because sexual harassment in fac- igation of SEA/SH within the context of project tories was affecting women’s absenteeism and implementation and initiated discussions around productivity. how best to address gaps in service provision for survivors of GBV (beyond the risk-mitigation Several said that broaching the subject of agenda). GBV through the lens of women’s economic empowerment and broader development goals Framing GBV as an economic development helped avoid perceptions of moralizing or crit- challenge allowed space for governments to icizing core societal values, which can provoke broach the topic from a solutions-oriented resistance. standpoint. One TTL described field visits that facilitated conversations about tangible, every- Many felt that the focus on SEA/SH risk day challenges around which there was a certain mitigation following the Uganda World Bank amount of consensus. This formed the basis of Inspection Panel case had been a key element project design. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 29 Box 4.1. Finding Economic Entry Points for Enabling Reform Project: Uzbekistan: Supporting a Transparent and Inclusive Market Transition (P171151) Active: FY2021 Global Practice: Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment Total lending: US$500 million PDO: (a) Improving the efficiency, sustainability, and transparency of resource allocation in the economy and (b) enhancing economic inclusion and social resilience. In Uzbekistan, where the World Bank is active in supporting ambitious reforms implemented by the government, the World Bank has used its DPO and policy reform dialogue to advance the economic and social empowerment of women. The DPO in 2020 supported the implementation of the legal environment for action against GBV. It was the third DPO in a series started in 2018 supporting the country’s inclusive economic and social transformation. During the process of considering reforms for the third DPO, the World Bank was approached by the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to consider the inclusion of GBV-related reforms. UNFPA, which had been supporting the drafting and advocacy for legislation on gender equality in employment and protections from GBV, invited the World Bank to help champion the enactment of the legislation through its DPO policy dialogue. In September 2019, with advocacy support from the World Bank, two landmark laws were enacted. The first guaranteed equal opportunity in employment and nondiscrimination in access to public services, employment, and electoral candidacy. The second stipulated GBV as a distinct type of criminal offense, with requirements for the registration, processing, and enforcement of GBV cases. The World Bank team convened a discussion on the idea of using the third DPO to support sub- sidiary regulations to enforce the new GBV legislation between the Chairwoman of the Women’s Committee and the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for the DPO. The two agreed to work together on the prior action. The Deputy Prime Minister’s championship of the GBV issue and accompanying financial and budgetary commitments from the Ministry of Finance helped build sufficient consensus for the government to enact regulations establishing a systematic frame- work to protect GBV survivors. The empowerment of women has been central to the World Bank’s DPO engagements in Uzbekistan. In addition to the GBV reforms supported in 2020, other reforms include tax reforms in 2019 that created incentives for employers to formalize jobs, opening opportunities for women to enter formal employment; legislation in 2021 establishing equal pay for equal work for women; and reforms to maternity pay in 2022 that extended state-funded entitlements to women employed in the private sector. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 30 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement We went to visit the inspector general of the Ministry of Education. And we said,“tell us about your professional life and the problems you’re dealing with on a day-to-day basis.” And she says, “Well, I’ve got parents banging on my door, because I’ve got 34 cases of girls that have been harassed or abused in schools.” So the entry point is . . . the daily problems that, in this case, the inspector general is fac- ing. Obviously, everybody wants to make school safer for girls, and that’s the starting point. We hear about how bad the situation is from somebody that is dealing with it on a day-to-day basis, and we diagnose the problem that way. —Peter A. Holland,lead education specialist Lesson 2: Work through established and protocols for reporting and sanctioning sectoral entry points violence. These interventions can enhance protections against violence while promoting The expansion of GBV prevention and response positive, inclusive institutional cultures. There activities within operations across all Global are opportunities to enhance the prevention Practices has revealed new sectoral entry work within education projects that could points and theories of change (table 4.1). The draw on a growing evidence base in that sec- 2013 review identified GBV-related activities in tor, including establishing comprehensive sexual only eight of the World Bank’s sectors (Willman education and dating violence prevention pro- and Corman 2013). As part of the recommenda- grams (WHO 2019). Whole-school interventions tion to deepen and expand the work, the 2013 that aim to shift the operational culture of report included a matrix detailing possible theo- the school, through improving relationships ries of change to guide work in each sector, along between parents, teachers, students, and the with lessons and opportunities from operations. surrounding community, as well as improving At the time, these were nascent ideas, with a policies to protect children from abuse, have much smaller evidence base to inform them. shown promising results globally (WHO 2019). For example, an impact evaluation of the Good Based on experience with projects in every Schools Toolkit program in Uganda showed sig- Global Practice, it is now possible to clarify nificant decreases in several forms of violence the most common theories of change and give against girls, boys, and children with disabilities more specific examples of the types of inter- perpetrated by both teachers and peers over ventions financed in each. While there is no the two-year implementation (Devries et al. cookie-cutter standard for operations, there are 2015). common entry points and interventions in each • Within Health, Nutrition, and Population, oper- sector. ations have included components that focus on strengthening health systems to respond The accompanying matrix provides a more to the needs of survivors by training doctors, detailed overview of the ways in which projects nurses, midwives, and community health in every Global Practice are addressing GBV. officers to identify and refer GBV survivors; Summarized below are examples selected from improving the provision of services, including Global Practices that involve the largest number psychosocial support; and removing barriers of projects that include such activities. to access. There is strong evidence from both high- and low-income countries showing that • Many Education projects focus on creating the training of health staff without system- safe spaces for young people through phys- wide changes to promote survivor-centered ical upgrading (such as building separate care is ineffective in reducing violence (WHO latrines for girls) and strengthening policies 2019). For example, in Kenya, an emergency What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 31 Table 4.1. Regional and Sectoral Distribution of Operations with GBV-Related Activities N = 390 World Bank Global Practice AFE AFW EAP ECA LCR MNA SAR Total Agriculture and Food 4 3 2 9 Digital Development 1 4 2 1 1 9 Education 17 17 2 8 3 7 54 Energy and Extractives 3 3 3 1 3 1 14 Environment, Natural Resources, and the Blue 2 1 1 1 5 Economy Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation 3 2 1 1 1 8 Governance 3 3 1 3 1 4 15 Health, Nutrition, and Population 33 29 10 2 6 7 7 94 Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment 3 3 7 3 3 2 5 26 Poverty and Equity 1 1 Social Protection and Jobs 13 14 6 3 3 7 46 Social Sustainability and Inclusion 11 8 1 1 21 Transport 7 7 12 9 2 6 43 Urban, Resilience, and Land 8 3 5 1 8 2 8 35 Water 3 2 1 2 2 10 Total 110 92 53 10 52 23 50 390 Note: AFE = Eastern and Southern Africa; AFW = Western and Central Africa; EAP = East Asia and Pacific; ECA = Eastern Europe and Central Asia; LCR = Latin America and the Caribbean; MNA = Middle East and North Africa; SAR = South Asia. health operation designed GBV response barrier to participation. The majority of the into the government measures against the operations focus on cash transfers or vouch- COVID-19 pandemic, coupling the training of ers as a vehicle for strengthening women’s health staff with more systemic changes to livelihoods or on public works projects, often- policies and procedures (box 4.2). The World times accompanied by training in business or Bank has ample scope to promote such insti- life skills. These initiatives have been influenced tutional changes within health, nutrition, and by various studies indicating that cash trans- population (HNP) operations. Health sector fer and livelihoods programs can contribute to operations are an entry point for activities to reductions in GBV by relieving economic stress respond to GBV, including to promote healthy and that coupling transfers with interventions social norms and counteract harmful prac- promoting shared decision-making and coop- tices, such as female genital mutilation. eration within households can enhance these • Social Protection and Jobs finances a number of impacts if the programs are appropriately operations that promote women’s economic implemented and monitored (Doyle et al. 2018). empowerment and include components One of the most promising areas of interven- addressing GBV as both a project risk and a tion aimed at preventing IPV and violence What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 32 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 4.2. Integrating GBV Response within Health Systems Strengthening Project name: Second Additional Financing for Kenya COVID- 19 Health Emergency Response Project (CHERP) Investment project financing (IPF) lending: US$130 million, of which US$3 million was allocated for GBV activities Global Practice: Health, Nutrition, and Population and Social Sustainability and Inclusion Active: FY2021 Implementing partner: Ministry of Health PDO: To prevent, detect, and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 and strengthen national systems for public health preparedness. With reports of spikes in incidence of GBV extending from the COVID-19 lockdown, the President of Kenya pledged nearly US$75 million to be invested by 2026 in GBV prevention (Bhalla 2021). This announcement coincided with a government request for Additional Financing from the World Bank to strengthen the health system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The Kenya CMU therefore recommended inclusion of a US$3 million component to strengthen GBV response systems within the Additional Financing of the COVID-19 Emergency Health Response Project (CHERP). To respond to the complex task of integrating GBV response into an unprecedented health emergency response project, the World Bank and government mobilized expertise to inform a robust component on GBV response. Two World Bank staff GBV specialists worked with tech- nical guidance from the Gender Group and led consultations with other development partners. Solid analytical work on GBV previously conducted and financed under the Kenya Accountable Devolution Program (KADP), including a service gap analysis in four counties, had identified in advance sectoral entry points, while a pilot assessment of the survivor response systems in Bomet County informed the design of quality assurance tools and an action planning process, taken up by the Ministry of Health. Project activities under the GBV response component aim to improve the quality and capacity for GBV response in 10 counties through strengthening the capacity of health-care providers to offer first-line support and medical treatment; increasing the quality of service delivery through improved data collection and analysis; supporting the adaptation and application of a stan- dardized quality assurance tool to identify and address priority gaps in service delivery; and enhancing the safety of female front-line health workers. Deciding how to allocate resources to implement the activities involved intensive technical dis- cussions with the Ministry of Health counterparts, as well as discussions on procurement. The Task Team worked with the government to decide which activities would be contracted out and which would be implemented by the government bodies. A strong relationship with and trust in the government facilitated this. “Our immediate counterpart within the government team was very helpful,” says Anna Lisa Schmidt, senior social development specialist, “knowing the gaps on the ground and the speed at which things might happen or not happen.” What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 33 Box 4.3. The Role of the Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice in GBV Prevention The World Bank’s earliest operations related to GBV were led by the SSI Global Practice in FCV contexts, particularly in the Africa region. The availability of Trust Fund resources (including from the State and Peace Building Fund and from multidonor trust funds supporting operations in disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants) allowed SSI teams to draw on external expertise on GBV and to invest significant resources in analytical work (upstream ana- lytics and impact evaluation). Six of the eight GBV experts in the World Bank are mapped to SSI; the remaining two are mapped to Operations Policy and Country Services and the Gender Group. against children is parenting support. Such with HNP. Acknowledging the significant interventions could be integrated into social capacity challenges in government service pro- protection programs as part of larger pack- vision, these operations have primarily funded ages of household support (Kerr-Wilson et al. service provision by specialized organizations 2020). Because of the bidirectional relationship (UN Agencies, international NGOs, and local between GBV and poverty, operations that aim organizations) in protection, legal aid, psycho- at reducing poverty and increasing economic social support, and mental health care. More security may represent promising, scalable, and recently, in line with the RESPECT frame- cost-effective solutions (WHO 2019). work, this type of intervention has started to • In Transport , operations are investing in include investment in livelihoods and economic activities to prevent harassment on pub- empowerment activities through community lic transport and to prevent exploitation in platforms (boxes 4.4 and 4.5). project implementation areas. There is some global evidence that enhancing institutional When working through multiple sectoral entry culture, policies, and practices with the aim points World Bank operations rely on a range of addressing harmful norms and sanctioning of governmental implementing agencies, most violence in public spaces can improve per- of which correspond to sectors like health, ceptions of safety, though the impact on the education, or infrastructure. Management incidence of violence is unclear (WHO 2019). and teams said there was a need to invest in Some operations have invested in mobile phone gender ministries that have been traditionally applications for reporting violence on public underresourced, to enable them to play a role transport, though none have been evaluated in coordinating the GBV response across mul- for impact. The global evidence suggests that tiple sectors. In many cases, teams work with such initiatives may be useful in prevention as the women’s ministry or gender ministry in some part of a broader package of policy and proto- capacity. Only about four percent of the 390 col reforms (Kerr-Wilson et al. 2020). operations counted on the ministry of women or • Social Sustainability and Inclusion has the lon- gender as the chief implementing agency; how- gest-standing engagement in addressing GBV ever, in interviews, teams said they interacted with (box 4.3) and allocates significant resources these ministries for general coordination and other to GBV programming. Operations initially roles. In many countries, these ministries tend to focused on strengthening service provision be underresourced, with broad mandates, vaguely for survivors in FCV settings but increasingly defined roles, and minimal authority to direct the now incorporate strong emphasis on GBV pre- activities of other ministries. Nonetheless, min- vention. This has been accomplished partly by istries of gender or women are important entry strengthening health systems in collaboration points into national GBV coordination mechanisms. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 34 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 4.4. Integrating GBV Prevention within Health Systems Strengthening Project name: Democratic Republic of Congo Gender Based Violence Prevention and Response Project (P166763) IPF grant: US$100 million on integrated multisectoral response services for survivors of GBV and GBV prevention activities Active: 2018–23 Implementing partner: Social Action Fund (Lead), Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Gender PDO: The objectives of the project are to increase in targeted Health Zones (a) the participation in GBV prevention programs; (b) the utilization of multisectoral response services for survivors of GBV; and (c) in the event of an eligible crisis or emergency, to provide immediate and effective response to said eligible crisis or emergency. This project focuses on addressing GBV in the eastern DRC (North and South Kivu) and on expanding the coverage of services for survivors in the neighboring provinces of Tanganyika and Maniema. The project aimed initially to consolidate gains made in North and South Kivu, building on the les- sons learned under the Great Lakes Emergency Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Women’s Health Project (P147489), henceforth the GL GBV Project (active from 2014 to 2019), and subse- quently expanded activities (from Year 2 of project implementation) to Tanganyika and Maniema. These provinces were selected given the underlying high level of GBV (and acceptability of such vio- lence), aggravated by the conflict and instability. The DRC GBV Prevention and Response Project is expected to reach 785,000 beneficiaries. The project is being implemented by the Fonds Social of the DRC, a specialized parastatal agency under the Office of the President with a strong field presence (subnational offices) and solid procurement and contract management track record. As the first large-scale World Bank–funded intervention addressing GBV in Africa, the GL GBV Project informed the design of this project substantially. The initial project had been informed by in-depth analytical work on the drivers of conflict-related violence, including primary data collection. As that project was about to close, the World Bank Inspection Panel case in the east- ern DRC drew further attention to the large unmet needs for quality services for survivors of violence and acted as an essential driver in opening up a high-level discussion with the Ministry of Finance Democratic Republic of Congo on the follow-on operation. The discussion on SEA/ SH at the CMU level in the DRC was instrumental in creating an entry point to addressing GBV comprehensively and at scale in the portfolio. Key lessons from the GL GBV Project that informed the design of this project included the following: • The importance of shifting the focus toward prevention and behavior change activities at the community level, including livelihood-strengthening interventions. Consultations with implementing partners and communities indicated that a greater weight on livelihood activities and less emphasis on legal aid/access to justice would be important. The focus on prevention and broader dissemination of information is also considered key to creating an environment of trust where survivors of violence are better able to request services. Access to income-gen- erating opportunities was considered critical for survivors, and consultations highlighted the barriers in accessing Village Savings and Loans Association activities on the part of survivors. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 35 Box 4.4. Integrating GBV Prevention within Health Systems Strengthening (continued) • Further co-location of psychosocial support, case management, and legal aid interventions at the community level and to strengthen the community-level referral mechanisms. • Focus on assessing the quality of services. Experience under the GL GBV Project highlighted the importance of periodically assessing the quality of services provided. An initial quality review and social audit were undertaken under the GL GBV Project, and the initial results were discussed during project preparation and taken into account in terms of project design. In addition, the successor project included a comprehensive process evaluation to ensure contin- ued assessment of and feedback on critical aspects of service quality. Building on the lessons learned from the GL GBV Project, the new operation was fully coor- dinated by the Fonds Social of the DRC, given its track record of successful oversight of the implementation of multisectoral support for survivors. An essential lesson learned while building the capacity of the Ministry of Gender and the Ministry of Health was that this institutional strengthening aspect needed to be balanced with the primary goal of making services acces- sible to survivors—which is only possible with the support of dedicated and specialized NGOs. The new operation works primarily through partnerships with nongovernmental and civil soci- ety organizations for service delivery—contracted by the Fonds Social of the DRC—while also including an element of training and capacity building of the health sector for GBV response. This approach acknowledges the challenges of providing quality services at the community level given the capacity constraints and growing instability in some of the areas targeted. These challenges include inadequate staffing levels at the health facility level, increased difficulties in accessing services given the worsening security situation, and significant case backlog and “systems fail- ures” in the criminal justice system and in terms of the services provided by security forces. As of November 2022, the DRC Prevention and Response Project had reached 7 million people over- all (including through its prevention and livelihood interventions). Beneficiaries included 42,000 survivors of GBV reached with at least two essential services primarily delivered at the commu- nity level (in 80 percent of cases). Figure 4.2. Number of Operations, by Implementing Agency 100 87 80 64 64 59 60 40 17 16 20 14 11 11 0 Min. of Min. of Min. of Min. of Min. Min. of Min. of Min. of Oth r H lth Econ/ Educ tion Intr ./ Soci l/ Wom n/ A ricultur W t r nd/ Ministri s Fin nc Urb n D v L bor G nd r or En r What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 36 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 4.5. Investing in the Ministry of Women Affairs in Nigeria for GBV Prevention Project name: Nigeria for Women (P161363) Total lending: US$100 million, of which US$6.5 million was allocated for GBV activities Active: 2018–23 Implementing partner: Ministry of Women Affairs PDO: To support improved livelihoods among women in targeted areas of Nigeria. The Nigeria for Women Project is the first stand-alone project focused on women’s economic empowerment in Nigeria and the first World Bank operation to work with the Ministry of Women Affairs as a counterpart. Historically underfunded and understaffed, the ministry previously had no experience implementing a project at this scale. During preparation, the World Bank team made conscious investments in understanding the ministry’s capacity gaps through an institutional assessment, and it provided intensive technical assistance to the ministry during project preparation. This technical assistance project included the use of local and international consultants to provide day-to-day support to the project implementation unit on World Bank policies, project manage- ment, and research. The team also organized several workshops at the state and federal levels to improve their understanding of what works in women’s economic empowerment and GBV prevention programming. The project has leveraged US$12 million in additional funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to strengthen local technical expertise in changing social norms and layering other Human Development Practice Group interventions through women’s groups. Staff turnover in the ministry has been a significant constraint on the project. The project has had five project coordinators, and several project coordination unit members have had to be retrained. Training the team in innovative research tools, such as the Social Norms Exploration Tool, has been challenging as well because of the high level of technical rigor required.a The project has engaged a behavior change communication firm to support the project coordination units in conducting work on social norms change. Despite the challenges, the results of the investment in the ministry have been worthwhile. The project mobilized a first group in January 2021, and now these individuals are supporting nearly 20,000 women’s groups in six states. The project is also scaling up and expanding to 23 states with an estimated envelope of US$500 million. Through this sustained engagement, GBV compo- nents have become a feature of the government’s National Development Action Plan 2021–25. The ministry has become a partner in supporting the World Bank CMU in GBV safeguarding efforts and is envisioned to take on an active role in supporting other ministries on GBV inclusion as well. “The aim of the project is to get to a point where we build the capacity of the ‘crop,’” says Michael Gboyega Ilesanmi, a senior social development specialist and the project TTL. “The mid- dle-level staff of the ministry who can lead some of this GBV work and the government can own this [agenda].” He also points out that they have seen major improvements, and the capacity of the project coordination unit is now comparable with that of other ministries in Nigeria that have benefited from 50–60 years of World Bank engagement. a. SNET (Social Norms Exploration Tool) (dashboard), Institute for Reproductive Health, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, https://www.irh.org/social-norms-exploration/. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 37 We have to be very realistic about how we can move forward working with ministries of gender and  e have to invest in these coordinating ministries because, if we do not, then who will? the timelines. W This needs to become a part of the Bank strategy to embed sustainability in this agenda. If we invest in them, then we can get there. —Senait N. Assefa, practice manager We’ve had to invest so much of our time and resources to help get the client to where they are today. But, again, it’s what we signed up for. I always tell colleagues, for example, our colleagues in envi- ronment, their engagement with the Ministry of Environment that has led to the capacity they have today has lasted over 30 years. With the Ministry of Agriculture, about 50 years of engagement, and it is the same with health. . . . With this in mind, we should spend a lot more time investing in capacity building at the Ministry of Gender. —Michael Gboyega Ilesanmi, senior social development specialist Several TTLs emphasized the importance of Several teams learned this lesson the hard understanding the political economy, partic- way, as they moved to keep up with corporate ularly which actors hold influence and which requirements to mitigate risk. They observed have technical capacity in the design of that once SEA/SH risk-mitigation systems are reforms. Some operations had the benefit of put in place and people come to trust them, high-level political champions who created an teams can expect to see increased reporting of enabling environment for project dialogue. For all types of GBV. This is more a reflection of the example, in Jordan, the prime minister signed efficiency and credibility of the system than an the DPF himself. In the DRC, the president and actual increase in prevalence of GBV. the first lady have been strong champions as well as Nobel Laureate Denis Mukwege. Other Investments should focus not only on estab- important champions are mid-level staff in the lishing grievance mechanisms (GMs), but also ministries who stay through turnover at higher on training implementing partners to respond levels and understand the inner workings of the appropriately if survivors come forward. The bureaucracies. need for capacity building in the implementation of reporting and case management systems is a crucial lesson. Several teams recounted that they had focused their energy so intensively on Lesson 3: Address prevention and setting up GMs to receive complaints that they response needs simultaneously neglected to train project implementation units adequately in handling complaints. Preventing GBV means contributing to a sup- portive physical and social environment that The Mozambique Integrated Feeder Road may act as an obstacle to the perpetration Transport Project is an instructive example. of GBV and promotes help-seeking by survi- An initial complaint of GBV revealed the need vors. Key pieces of this approach are addressing for improving the accountability and response the drivers, risk factors, manifestations, and framework that was triggered when an SEA/SH impacts of GBV and reducing the stigma against case was reported through a GM. Subsequent survivors. If operations focus only on encour- improvement to create a fully functional system aging survivors to seek help, without sufficient were followed by an increase in reporting, which attention to ensuring that good-quality help is put the government’s response to the test. This available, they may do more harm than good. case served as an important learning experience What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 38 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 4.6. Building on Established Sector Work for GBV Prevention Project name: Tanzania Additional Financing to the Citizen-Centric Judicial Modernization and Justice Service Delivery Project (P172922) Active: FY2017, Additional Financing FY2022 Global Practice: Governance Total lending: US$90 million additional financing, of which US$3 million for GBV prevention and response Implementing agency: Judiciary of Tanzania PDO: Improve the efficiency and transparency of and access to selected citizen-centric justice services. Barriers to accessing justice services can pose serious obstacles to GBV survivors seeking account- ability or looking to leave abusive relationships. The prompt and effective investigation and prosecution of cases can send a signal that perpetrators will face consequences and that remedies are available for survivors. Bringing justice sector institutions closer to the people who need them most, and making them easier to navigate, is crucial to strengthening responses for survivors. The Tanzania Citizen-Centric Judicial Modernization and Justice Service Delivery Project was launched shortly after the country released a National Action Plan to End Violence Against Women in 2016. The project financed enhancement of data systems in the judicial sector for sex-disaggre- gation of data to allow better tracking of the response to survivors. In addition, the project put in place Integrated Justice Centers and Subordinate Courts, with Gender Desks staffed by specialized personnel trained to support survivors in cases of domestic and IPV and other forms of GBV, as well as legal aid services in family and probate law. The project also financed the establishment of an integrated justice center in Temeke Dar Es Salaam dedicated as a one-stop center for probate and matrimonial services. In its current phase, a US$3 million component on gender justice will support the implementation of Tanzania’s Gender Justice Policy Framework and Strategy. The component addresses specific constraints to women’s full access to justice services by increasing training for judicial officers on gender and GBV; amending legal procedures to remove gender-discriminatory elements; sim- plifying and reducing costs of processes; and promoting greater legal awareness. The additional financing also funds the expansion of mobile justice courts to more remote areas of the country. for the client as well as the World Bank, and it included in the results framework an annual was the first system put in place within a trans- survey for civil servants to assess awareness of port project following the Uganda Inspection sexual harassment in the workplace and related Panel findings and recommendations of the Task policies to address it. The team has formed a Force (World Bank 2017c). partnership with the Asian Development Bank to finance technical assistance for the government Some projects have integrated activities to on ways to respond to survivors. This will include educate and train counterparts in under- setting up a formal advisory committee for case standing GBV and responding to it. For management as well as supporting the adminis- example, the Tonga Second Resilience DPO tration of the annual survey and management of with a Catastrophe-Deferred Drawdown Option GBV case data. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 39 Lesson 4: Invest in recruiting In recent years, the World Bank has decommis- specialized staff and provide sioned some GBV specialist staff positions and regular training broadened the focus of new GBV positions to include social risk management. Senior specialist The increase in specialized staff at World Bank terms of reference have been expanded beyond headquarters and in country offices has been GBV. This loss of dedicated expertise can affect one of the most important driving factors quality at entry and implementation support, par- in designing operations that go beyond risk ticularly considering the massive expansion in the mitigation to working more actively on GBV number of operations addressing GBV. prevention. The first full-time GBV specialist was hired in 2014 in the Gender Group. Since then, the Staff spoke to the challenge of GBV special- number of specialized staff at the World Bank ists being stretched thin over many operations has increased to eight. Approaches to sourcing and to the emotional, mental, and sometimes GBV expertise have varied across regions and professional costs of doing this work. Some sectors. GBV focal points have been brought on felt that there were disincentives to specializing board on SSI teams in five regions; other sectors in GBV that hindered internal capacity building. and SSI regions have opted to work primarily with These include the emotionally draining nature external GBV consultants and local GBV experts. of working on GBV, often in very difficult con- ditions with risks of secondary trauma and GBV specialists require a unique skill set to burnout. Some noted perceived professional risks enable them to provide technical support in with specializing in GBV, including being pigeon- client dialogue and translate global evidence holed out of broader gender work. Beyond the for World Bank operations. They are required burnout potential, staff shared that the increas- to stay abreast of emerging best practices and ing volume of GBV work, although welcome, is to provide evidence-based examples of effec- unmanageable without increased resources. tive interventions to inform the policy dialogue. Specialists help identify opportunities to inte- ESF specialists also deal with heavy work- grate prevention and response into operations, loads that often make it impossible to look at and they work with government champions at social risks beyond the SEA/SH risk-mitiga- the political and technical levels. In many cases, tion recommendations. It is important that the these staff design project components and over- role of ESF specialists on SEA/SH and GBV be see implementation, and they often coordinate well understood by teams. While ESF specialists dialogue with clients, civil society groups, and can open up discussions on GBV more broadly donor partners. GBV specialists also play an through SEA/SH risk screening, their workload important role in raising awareness among their and expertise will, in most cases, not allow them colleagues by translating what is often viewed to engage in broader project design. In cases narrowly as a human rights issue into a develop- where clients are interested in working on GBV ment challenge within the World Bank mandate. beyond SEA/SH mitigation, it is often better to outsource to GBV specialists and consultants. Overall, the hiring of specialists has not kept pace with the increased uptake of GBV in lend- In the field, investing in quality staffing is ing operations, and more recent postings reflect essential to avoid doing harm. Because working a narrower focus on risk mitigation. Investment to prevent and respond to GBV often touches on in in-house expertise remains closely linked with social norms, power, stigma, trauma, and other the risk mitigation agenda, and the most recent sensitive matters, it requires a substantial invest- hires reflect this. Sectoral expertise that could ment in staffing. Projects often need to recruit provide technical guidance on program design in staff with specialized skills and to invest in important areas of growth (including Education and training as well as ensure proper mentoring and Energy and Extractives) is currently not available. oversight. This concern is also echoed in the World What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 40 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Bank Group Gender Strategy Mid-Term Review, operations that are scalable and require less which revealed challenges related to the gaps in client capacity building. Social norms, attitudes, knowledge and available expertise (IEG 2021). and beliefs that are tolerant of the use of violence against women and girls and gender inequality Tension between the government and civil have been shown to have strong associations society can affect whether and how staffing is with prevalence of GBV across a wide range carried out. If a lack of trust characterizes the of contexts (Arango et al. 2014; Ellsberg et al. relationship between the state and civil society, 2015). Activities commonly employed in this area governments may be wary of working with NGO include public multicomponent community-based implementers. In addition, if NGOs enjoy high education campaigns, community mobilization, levels of funding from other donors, reporting and high-dosage multicomponent group educa- to the government on activities that they have tion efforts that promote attitude and behavior been hired to implement through the project may change (WHO 2019). These focus on changing become contentious and difficult to incentivize. harmful norms that justify GBV and limit wom- en’s autonomy while reinforcing protective factors such as gender-equitable attitudes and aware- ness of and skills to prevent GBV. Lesson 5: Ensure appropriate technical rigor, or reconsider design, Effective social norms change requires sub- especially when working on social stantial human and financial resources. While norms a number of globally recognized programs and curricula exist, they require up-front investment There is strong potential to do more harm than in assessments, analysis, and adaptation with good in working on GBV if certain technical subsequent piloting in order to be contextually and resource conditions are not met. Ensuring relevant. Because social norms are highly context the ethical treatment of survivors, recruiting spe- specific, programs need to invest time and atten- cialized staff, implementing practices to avoid tion in understanding beliefs about gender and re-traumatization, adapting interventions to power and in implementing intensive long-term local contexts, and other needed measures are all work with women and men to shift toward more associated with costs in time and money. inclusive, positive behaviors. The most promising evidence for low- and middle-income countries The risk of harm is particularly high for comes from multiyear, multicomponent com- activities that aim to change social norms, munity mobilization programs such as SASA!, behaviors, or attitudes. Just over a third (37 SHARE, and COMBAT or from group-based work- percent, 144 projects) of the 390 lending oper- shops with women and men, such as Stepping ations with activities on GBV prevention or Stones (Abramsky et al. 2014; Jewkes et al. 2008; response included interventions targeted at Ogum Alangea et al. 2020; Wagman et al. 2015). norms, attitudes, and behaviors that condone or enable GBV. These include community mobiliza- World Bank projects that include activities tion activities (91) and group training (53). intended to shift social norms as a way of pre- venting GBV exist in every region and nearly More research is needed to understand whether every Global Practice. Many of these operations the World Bank has a comparative advantage in have only recently launched; it is not possible to the inclusion of stand-alone social norms inter- determine how many of the planned activities ventions at scale within operations, or whether described in project documents are being imple- social norms change is better achieved through mented, identify which activities have taken the supporting components in economic empow- appropriate steps to enable potential effective- erment, livelihood, and education-focused ness, or infer results achieved thus far. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 41 Several operations have adapted or are plan- It’s not reasonable to expect World Bank ning to adapt internationally recognized projects to be able to invest that kind of time programs. In some cases, projects were able to and mone y to provide additional training in plug into the ongoing implementation of these research methods to be able to use a tool. Our programs in partnership with donors to enhance clients don’t always have the built-in capacity to impact. For example, the Health and Gender do this on their own, so they may end up hiring Support Project in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, it out anyway. We have to think about the line teamed up with the UNFPA, which had been run- between using a particular tool or best practice ning SASA! in the camps, but had depleted the and the client’s capacity to actually implement relevant funding. it. —Victoria Esquivel-Korsiak, senior social development specialist Pulling men and boys into [SASA!] was also a bit tricky, because it’s a very conservative society. B ut if you come and see it now, it is such a vibrant operation. You have men of all At this point, it is difficult to determine whether ages and young boys who are engaged in this these social norms change interventions are activity, and they speak so knowledgeably and being implemented with fidelity, whether they eloquently about it—better than you and I can, are cost effective, and what impacts they may honestly, because they’re more aware of the be having on GBV. Because many are in the early context. They are taking these messages back stages of implementation, there is an opportunity to their homes and talking about it in shops, tea to build in process-monitoring mechanisms and stalls, and their places of work. impact evaluations to better understand the kind —Sabah Moyeen, senior social of social norms change interventions that are fea- development specialist sible as part of World Bank operations. At a minimum, teams should insist on the fol- In other cases where teams attempted to use lowing conditions when conducting work to existing tools to support social norms change, change social norms: they also needed to build capacity from the ground up. Nigeria for Women elected to use • Ensure that a dedicated GBV specialist on the Social Norms Exploratory Tool, a diagnostic the project team is trained in global best tool, to identify relevant social norms, develop practices in project design, survivor-centered strategies to shift harmful norms, and monitor approaches, ethical research, and monitoring. impact.10 Because this was essentially a qual- Depending on the project needs and context, itative data collection tool, the team invested this may be a local or international specialist. far more time and energy than initially expected • Commit sufficient resources to customizing in training the project implementation unit on project design in a way that is sensitive to basic qualitative data collection methods and the local context and that builds on sources of data analysis skills, and, in the end, the project strength and resilience. had to hire additional consultants to support • Invest in replicable models that can be taken data collection and analysis. to scale; do not skip the adaptation process and formative research needed to inform the adaptation.11 10 See SNET (Social Norms Exploration Tool) (dashboard), Institute for Reproductive Health, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, https:// www.irh.org/social-norms-exploration/. 11 For a deeper look at the fundamental elements of effective GBV programming in development contexts, see “Collective Action to Reduce Gender-Based Violence (CARE-GBV),” Making Cents International, Washington, DC, https://makingcents.com/project/ collective-action-to-reduce-gbv/#FE. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 42 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement We have to ensure that there’s as much focus of the World Bank Uganda Inspection Panel case on quality and rigor as there would be in allowed teams in other sectors and regions to building an airport.If you were doing that, you’d understand gaps in the operating environment insist on the quality of the materials to build the and identify sectoral entry points where World tarmac and everything you need to have that in Bank operations can play a supporting role. place. We’re not at a stage where people respect Across the board, SSI GBV focal points and teams the kind of technical quality that has to go into that led the engagement on SEA/SH risk miti- this kind of work, but I think we can get there. gation and the retrofitting process for high-risk —Michael C. Mahrt, senior social projects invested in mapping of service providers development specialist at the country and, in some cases, regional levels. For example, the South Asia SSI team conducted a service provider mapping across its gender plat- forms, creating a database that could inform the When these conditions cannot be met, teams portfolio across all countries. Gender and GBV may need to rethink the project design. Teams assessments have now become standard prac- can consider refocusing efforts on addressing tice in most regions, drawing on improved data GBV indirectly, by shifting drivers of GBV or availability. promoting resilience factors. This may require limiting the ambition of the intervention and While these assessments offer a comprehen- working on drivers of GBV to address violence sive view of the state of gender equality, the with a do-no-harm approach. Alternately, teams prevalence and drivers of GBV, and the state may also take a phased approach to addressing response, all interviewees emphasized the need GBV, building a dialogue with counterparts over to complement these with deep-dive work. time, particularly to generate a more in-depth These pieces often focus on the relationship understanding by counterparts of what works, between GBV and broader development issues technical standards, and protocols and gener- such as female labor force participation or school ating awareness of what can go wrong if key dropout, and assessments of service delivery design principles aren’t followed—including in provide a solid foundation for operational con- terms of backlash. versations about how to allocate resources. For example, in the Pacific region, there have been Increasing quality assurance mechanisms studies on the loss of productivity associated within operations for systems strengthening with experiences of GBV, such as work absen- enhances impact. Insisting on stronger techni- teeism and turnover; assessments of the quality cal reviews of GBV components and increasing of GBV responses; and studies on the benefits of uptake of tools for quality assurance through- primary prevention strategies. This research is out the project lifecycle has been helpful to many contributing to dialogue on women’s economic teams. empowerment and to opportunities to scale up GBV prevention and response by taking advan- tage of community platforms developed within prior or current World Bank operations. Lesson 6: Ground design and implementation in targeted Targeted analytical pieces focusing on specific analytical work operational questions have informed the design of tools for project implementation. For exam- Across the board, teams and managers alike felt ple, a GBV response component within the Kenya that there had been a significant change in the Additional Financing COVID-19 Emergency volume and empirical relevance of data on GBV Response Project started with basic analysis and to inform project design. Portfolio reviews and the mining of Demographic and Health Surveys GBV assessments carried out in the aftermath data to understand the dynamics around What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 43 Box 4.7. Data-Driven Institutional Transformation Project name: Chennai City Partnership: Sustainable Urban Services Program (P175221) Active: FY2021 Global Practice: Urban, Resilience, and Land Total lending: US$150 million Launched in 2021, Chennai City Partnership supports the government of Tamil Nadu, one of India’s most urbanized states, in implementing the Chennai 2030 Vision for turning Chennai into a more green, resilient, and inclusive city. Enhancing the safety of women in public places was embedded into a subcomponent on urban mobility within the Chennai City Partnership, as part of a strategy to ensure that the benefits of urban development, including access to jobs, educa- tion, needed services, and leisure activities, accrue equally to men and women. The government was interested in a multisectoral approach to the redesign of city services and infrastructure to ensure accessibility for all city residents and to embed actions into policies and across institutions so that they would continue to be implemented following changes in leadership. The World Bank mobilized staff across the Urban, Resilience, and Land, Water, HNP, and Transport Global Practices. With support from a mobility and logistics trust fund, the Transport Global Practice team engaged a group of experts in urban mobility, gender mainstreaming, communication, law, and other areas to conduct a gender gap analysis of public mobility infrastructure and transit services, laws, policies, standard manuals, sustainable mobility projects, institutional capacity, grievance redress systems, stakeholder mindsets, and female commuters’ expectations. The gap analysis revealed differential preferences. For example, because of safety concerns, women were avoiding travel after dark and tailoring their commute timing to favor a return home from work earlier than men. In addition, the analysis found gaps in the preparedness of front-line staff to prevent harassment and assault on public transport. Through the project, a safety audit was commissioned that relied on Safetipin applications, which employ mobile phones to map locations and assess the relative safety of locations for women.a The audit concluded that, while overall perceptions of safety were above average, there were important gender disparities in feelings of safety and the use of public spaces after sunset. As a recommendation resulting from the gap analysis, the project team supported the formation of a Gender Lab to foster institutional change and guide the city and transport authorities in efforts to improve safety and gender responsiveness in public spaces and public transport. The Gender Lab currently consists of a gender and monitoring and evaluation lead, a policy special- ist, and a communication specialist. The Gender Lab conducts regular surveys to review project plans, monitors project implementation, informs policy, conducts regular surveys to review proj- ect plans, and promotes citizen engagement by inviting public participation in safety audits, social media competitions, public consultations, and awareness-building programs. It works with government stakeholders to determine the demand for analysis and training and to mobilize funds among government agencies to enhance gender inclusion in urban mobility systems. Tools and analyses produced by the Gender Lab are available to all projects in Chennai, regardless of financing entity or government agency. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 44 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 4.7. Data-Driven Institutional Transformation (continued) Building on these assessments and the experience gained through the implementation of gen- der-responsive urban mobility programs, the World Bank team produced a Toolkit for Enabling Gender Responsive Urban Mobility and Public Spaces (World Bank 2022d). The toolkit has been prepared for use primarily in Indian cities and other cities in developing economies to help them design and build gender-responsive and safe mobility systems and public spaces. The World Bank team is widely disseminating the recommendations and frameworks in the toolkit and using them in the design of upcoming urban mobility projects in India. A. See Safetipin (website), Gurgaon, India, https://safetipin.com/. incidence and the perceptions of acceptability of terms of response only, rather than prevention. violence. Other preliminary analytical work at the Today teams are discussing GBV with ministries county level aimed to identify gaps in services of finance, transport, trade, and internal affairs and assess quality of service delivery. These exer- and other entities that had largely been outside cises produced a more comprehensive picture of this conversation previously. the landscape of GBV prevalence and response, an action plan to guide emergency response, and Interviewees emphasized that the corporate contributed to tools taken up by the Ministry of requirements have encouraged identification Health at scale. of sectoral entry points beyond risk mitigation and theories of change linked to address- Some projects have designed mechanisms ing GBV. Using these entry points has allowed for continued data collection and analysis to teams to see the low-hanging fruit in areas of inform implementation. In Chennai, a World intervention that are becoming staples in many Bank–financed initiative aimed at citywide trans- operations. For example, improving the response formation included the establishment of a Gender to survivors is now part and parcel of many Lab with dedicated staff in research, analysis, and health sector operations that focus on systems stakeholder mobilization (box 4.6). strengthening. Designing safe and inclusive schools is also supported across several educa- tion projects. Transport projects that consider environmental design and structured approaches Lesson 7: Take advantage of to keep women safe while using public transport the structure and flexibility of are also recurrent. corporate requirements However, the full potential of corporate Most of the interviewees felt the SEA/SH requirements as entry points for prevention corporate requirements had contributed to has yet to be realized. Several task teams internal capacity building, provided impetus expressed concern that corporate requirements and structure for client dialogue, and intro- were often seen as an end in themselves, rather duced SEA/SH risk analysis into project than as requirements that hold importance for design. The ability to discuss GBV from sectoral the achievement of PDOs. This can have the entry points is a marked change from 10 years effect of narrowing client dialogue to risk mit- ago, when dialogue on GBV was limited almost igation and generating less ownership among exclusively to public health and seen primarily in clients. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 45 The gender tag12 requirement has increased the gender tag based on their GBV results chain. the focus on gender but is rarely used as an The full list of operations is available on the Gender entry point for incorporating activities related Tag GBV Dashboard,13 including the recognized to GBV. None of the interviewees said the gen- indicators associated with taggable activities. der tag was a driving factor behind the decision to incorporate GBV activities into their opera- Some interviewees highlighted that it will tions. Instead, they pursued GBV prevention and be important to continue to maintain the response for other reasons. Overall, relatively few momentum on the GBV agenda as SEA/SH operations pursue the gender tag in activities on risk mitigation systems are sustainably set in GBV, leading to concerns about whether GBV pre- place. The reporting period to the World Bank vention and response are fully understood as part Board of Directors on the implementation of the of the gender equality agenda and a significant GBV Task Force recommendations has ended, part of the World Bank Group Gender Strategy. which may also reduce the visibility of and atten- tion to the issue of GBV more broadly. Continuing In contrast to the ESF corporate requirements, to invest in high-level policy dialogue through IDA staff said the gender tag was more useful commitments, regional GBV action plans, the internally than in facilitating dialogue with World Bank Group Gender Strategy, and DPOs clients. The tagging process encourages conver- is crucial to maintaining the focus on the issue. sations about gender gaps and pushes teams to apply project activities to close gaps. This has There was also concern that task teams have helped build internal capacity in addressing spe- to deal with multiple corporate commitments cific gender inequalities through operations. (including climate co-benefits) making it poten- tially more challenging to use the SEA/SH risk assessment process to deepen discussions on The tag was very much internal to our systems GBV during project dialogues. to actually recognize that there has been effort on gender in this operation,but it wasn’t a critical factor for the client. What the client needed was One difficulty that we’ve been facing is that,right to make sure that the policy reform was complete, now, we’ve been able to push the infrastructure whether the actual guidebook was good enough, agenda with TTLs because it brings a lot of cli- and [to see] how the reform can be implemented. mate co-benefits, but it seems that there was an They were more interested in the basics and the instruction from senior management that every fundamentals of the reform. And tagging was very single CMU had to reach a certain level of climate useful, but predominantly for internal purposes. co-benefits. All the CMUs are trying to find a way —Project team member to do that and, at some point, the problem is that there was some competition for policy triggers and there was a risk at some point that the GBV There was also some sense that it is more dif- triggers—because they won’t bring climate bene- ficult to meet gender tag requirements in GBV fits—would be left aside. So, I had to start pushing activities than in other gender gap initiatives. In harder because people were saying that GBV and particular, the requirements on indicators to mea- inclusive transport were super interesting, but sure the closing of gaps related to GBV was cited that they didn’t bring climate co-benefits. as a deterring factor. The Gender Group team has —Nicolas Peltier-Thiberge, global director identified 76 operations since 2017 that qualify for 12 The gender tag is a corporate mechanism of the World Bank, introduced in fiscal year 2017, to support the implementation of the WBG Gender Strategy. The tag aims to intentionally close gender gaps in operations by identifying project-relevant gender gaps along with corresponding interventions to close the identified gaps and monitoring the progress. 13 The dashboard is an internal resource for World Bank Group staff and is not accessible externally. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 46 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Lesson 8: Consolidate SEA/SH as sectorwide codes of conduct, may be better risk-mitigation, response, and done at the national level and drawn on by oper- accountability systems to generate ations across the country portfolio. In contrast, economies of scale individual projects will still need to conduct risk analyses and verifications of quality and avail- As corporate SEA/SH risk-mitigation mech- ability of local and regional service providers. anisms have become embedded in individual World Bank operations across sectors, proj- One response to this challenge, currently in ect teams and CMUs are beginning to look at the design phase, aims to establish one GM building economies of scale. Some expressed frus- and response system across the portfolio tration with the time-consuming and cumbersome for Mozambique. At present, each operation is nature of complying with a standardized set of required to assess the risk of SEA/SH posed by risk-mitigation recommendations for each individ- the project activities, set up a GM, and conduct ual project. Instead, teams and managers alike felt a mapping exercise to establish a referral path- that country offices needed to invest in a certain way for survivors. Because of backlogs in the amount of infrastructure to create economies of response systems, survivors were experiencing scale at the CMU or Global Practice level on gen- delays in accessing needed services, and several der and GBV that can serve operations across the had withdrawn their complaints. Harmonizing portfolio, including compliance with ESF standards. these efforts across the five largest operations in the portfolio into one centralized GM would focus resources more accurately and strengthen the We can’t expect each project to conduct a overall response. This innovative approach is in mapping of services.It is a lot of the work and its initial stages and will have to be monitored for shouldn’t be the responsibility of [individual] effectiveness and savings on costs and capacity projects. A water adduction project should not building. be concerned about mapping GBV services. GBV services mapping is a public good, as has been The design of a unified system in Mozambique put forward by the South Asia team. In some is based on consultations with actors as well countries in Africa, they have it as well, but, as various departments and Global Practices in other countries, that initial investment has within the World Bank. The team began by not necessarily been made in a way that was working closely with local actors to understand thought of as a public good. Maybe it was done context specifics. This was followed by a mar- in a specific region or a specific department, ket assessment of the availability and quality as needed by a specific project. But I think that of service providers. Collaboration with legal that early investment is really quite critical. and procurement departments revealed several —Aline Coudouel, lead economist potential challenges that would need to be con- sidered. For example, few service providers have the required expertise in Mozambique, adding to cost implications and leading to the decision Consolidation of ESF-related mitigation and to contract a consortium of UN agencies as an response measures need to be informed by implementing partner in collaboration with local decisions about which activities are best organizations. In addition, coordinating the sys- scaled up to the national level and which are tem across five project implementation units better kept project-specific. For example, ser- created a separate set of challenges by requiring vice mappings and referral pathways, as well clear lines of accountability across the units. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 47 Lesson 9: Partnerships at the Development Marketplace: Innovations to various levels are central to a Address Gender-Based Violence.15 Subsequently, comprehensive approach the World Bank participated in implementing the INSPIRE strategies led by WHO to end vio- As an institution, the World Bank entered the lence against children as well as the RESPECT international development conversation on framework (WHO 2016c, 2019). These fruitful GBV prevention relatively late and has learned strategic partnerships have allowed the World much from partners in the last 10 years. At Bank to participate fully in the dialogue on ways least since the mid-1990s, there had been an to achieve progress efficiently in preventing GBV active invitation from the World Bank’s devel- and violence against children, create space for opment partners to engage more directly in investment in evidence generation, and translate GBV prevention and response. Without excep- the evidence into tools for World Bank staff. tion, task teams said they had been invited into ongoing dialogues on GBV led by other develop- At the national level, partnerships with UN ment partners. These tended to be specialized agencies and national institutions working on agencies, especially UN Women, UNFPA, and oth- the development of policies and strategies for ers with long-standing work on GBV, as well as GBV prevention have identified opportunities national and local civil society groups engaged in for financing investments in priority areas. policy advocacy or service provision among sur- National action plans, now available in 136 coun- vivors. In the 24 interviews with project teams, tries, anchor discussions about needed reforms. 20 teams reported that they had worked with In Jordan, the World Bank is supporting GBV civil society organizations or foundations, and 16 prevention through a series of DPFs to assist in had worked with a UN agency, most frequently the implementation of the government’s reform UNFPA. agenda, which prioritizes a series of multisectoral interventions to address different manifestations Today, the World Bank’s work on prevention is of GBV (box 5.2). strengthened through partnerships at various levels. At the international level, partnerships Partnerships with nongovernmental entities with leading global organizations like the Sexual have been critical in understanding the drivers Violence Research Initiative and the Global of violence and mobilizing services to respond Women’s Institute out of George Washington to survivors. In Ecuador, a partnership with University have contributed to a shared research several Indigenous organizations has been cen- agenda to inform interventions. The World Bank tral to identifying how GBV interacts with other has worked with key partners leading the dia- forms of exclusion and to taking an intersectional logue and research agenda in the GBV space approach as part of a livelihoods project (box 4.8). and on violence against children prevention and response. The Violence against Women Several teams spoke about the difficulties of and Girls Resource Guide was produced in part- establishing the World Bank as a credible actor nership with the Inter-American Development in the GBV prevention and response space as Bank and the Global Women’s Institute. 14 In the World Bank has historically been absent 2015, the International Center for Research from the conversation. Teams and CMUs on Women was added to the resource guide needed to spend time and resources under- series. In the same year, the World Bank and standing the landscape of GBV prevention and the Sexual Violence Research Initiative created response in many countries to determine where 14 See VAWG (Violence against Women and Girls) Resource Guide (dashboard), World Bank, Washington, DC, https://www.worldbank.org/en/ programs/violence-against-women-and-girls/resources. 15 See Development Marketplace: Innovations to Address Gender-Based Violence (dashboard), World Bank, Washington, DC, https://www. worldbank.org/en/programs/development-marketplace-innovations-to-address-gender-based-violence. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 48 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 4.8. Ecuador: Partnering with Civil Society to Design and Implement Projects Project name: Territorial Economic Empowerment for the Indigenous, Afro- Ecuadorians, and Montubian Peoples and Nationalities Project IPF lending: US$40 million, including US$400,000 for GBV prevention Active: FY2020–26 Global Practice: Social Sustainability and Inclusion Contributing practice areas: Agriculture and Food; Education; Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Implementing partners: Secretary of Management and Development of Peoples and Nationalities (Secretaría de Gestión y Desarrollo de Pueblos y Nacionalidades) the National Institute of Popular and Solidarity Economy (Instituto de Economía Popular y Solidaria) and the Secretary of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (Secretaria Nacional de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación) In Ecuador, through the project, which seeks to improve livelihoods and support COVID-19 relief among targeted Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities, Afro-Ecuadorians, and Montubians accord- ing to their vision for development, the World Bank supports government efforts to address long-standing challenges because of economic and social exclusion that Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities, Afro-Ecuadorians, and Montubians are facing, while also incorporating measures to prevent GBV against Indigenous women and girls. The design of the GBV prevention program was possible thanks to the local organizations and key community leaders that have partnered with the government and the World Bank since the initial stages of the project. Two Indigenous female representatives of powerful Indigenous orga- nizations and the Women’s Central Committee (Comité Central de Mujeres) have stood out as key partners by advocating for the inclusion of GBV prevention within the project. “GBV was first raised as a priority by one of the Indigenous representative women arguing that we could not discuss improving livelihoods without addressing this issue,” says Mariana Felicio, senior social development specialist. Moreover, the project team was able to adopt an iterative and intercultural approach that con- sisted of two phases: research and validation. Advocacy by local communities on the need to address GBV, coupled with the support from the CMU, enabled the project team to secure the funds to conduct extensive qualitative and participatory research to understand GBV in the Indigenous communities of Cotacachi, Ecuador, through an Advisory Services and Analytics proj- ect, What Works to Prevent GBV in Vulnerable Communities in Ecuador (P175323). This process was strongly supported logistically by the Women’s Central Committee and technically by a con- sultant from the Indigenous community. Once again, the project team highlighted the centrality of partnering with key local actors and organizations for success. the World Bank had a comparative advantage. they could add the most value in addressing the In Fij i, teams relied on detailed consultations alarming rise in GBV related to the COVID-19 with donors and counterparts to identify where pandemic and to a tropical cyclone (box 4.9). What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 49 Box 4.8. Ecuador: Partnering with Civil Society to Design and Implement Projects (continued) It was a very good combination to work with;it was very important to have the Indigenous woman consultant, and the local community committee... from simple things like just logistics... to be able to organize certain meetings with the right stakeholders to... know what terminology to use. —Mariana Felicio, senior social development specialist As a result of this formative research, the team identified a set of solutions that were then prioritized and validated through participatory workshops with the Indigenous communities and the Indigenous authorities. The result of this process is the Territorial Economic Empowerment for the Indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorians, and Montubian Peoples and Nationalities Project–GBV Prevention Program, which comprises four levels of GBV components, as follows: (a) institutional, (b) community, (c) the household, and (d) Indigenous authorities and leaders. Implementation is set to begin in 2023. Monitoring and evaluation are also key parts of the project. An outcome evaluation will be conducted to measure project results. Lesson 10: Apply different greater risk of violence against women and girls modalities in FCV contexts in these settings. World Bank engagement in the GBV space An important lesson has centered on the need began with trust-funded operations in FCV to focus on strengthening the GBV response with a strong focus on service delivery among across all duty-bearing sectors, an objective survivors of nonpartner sexual violence in the that can be achieved through relevant compo- context of armed conflict. Over the last 10 nents in sectoral projects as well as stand-alone years, the World Bank GBV interventions in FCV GBV projects. Service delivery systems in FCV settings have expanded to cover GBV prevention contexts are often strained by conflict or have lit- and the mental health consequences of experi- tle capacity to deliver overall. This constitutes an encing or witnessing GBV to incorporate a focus important challenge in World Bank projects that on livelihoods and economic empowerment activ- aim at system strengthening. There are often ities and tackle IPV more explicitly. trade-offs involved in building the capacity of service providers, particularly at the subnational Discussions, particularly with CMUs, have high- level, versus ensuring the delivery of quality ser- lighted that there is often an acknowledgment vices. A number of World Bank–supported GBV by client governments that GBV is a national interventions in FCV settings balance these two emergency in the context of armed conflict aspects of implementation and ensure a sizable or massive displacement and a consequent allocation of resources for implementation by willingness to invest significant resources in international NGOs, UN agencies, and local civil response services. This recognition has opened society organizations. up opportunities for high-level dialogue on GBV prevention and service provision in a systematic Oftentimes, it is necessary to create parallel manner, especially in Africa and South Asia. The service delivery systems to ensure quality of World Bank FCV strategy (2016–23) includes an care while building state capacity. Especially explicit focus on policy commitments to tackle where systems either have not been built yet GBV and an acknowledgment that there is a or have been strained by conflict and fragility, What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 50 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 4.9. Adding Value in a Crowded Donor Space in Fiji Project name: Fiji Social Protection COVID-19 Response and System Development Project–Additional Financing (P177674) Active: FY2021–July 31, 2025 Global Practice: Social Protection Implementing partner: Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Women, Children, and Poverty Alleviation (for GBV activities) Total lending: US$48.9 million PDO: To mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the incomes of the unemployed and underemployed and to increase the efficiency and adaptability of the social protection system. The project team strove to understand how a World Bank–funded social protection project could integrate the GBV interventions that would be the most useful for the client. The impacts of a tropical cyclone, together with the COVID-19 pandemic, had revealed the extent to which help- lines and crisis centers for survivors could be overwhelmed. In this context, the team sought to understand the GBV programming landscape in the country and how the World Bank could add value. At the beginning of the dialogue, the Ministry of Women, Children,and Poverty Alleviation pointed out the need for close coordination with development partners and for the value added of the Bank. That’s been our organizing principle. In a space with many active organizations, we try to enter with something that’s missing. We started outreach to partners, including UN Women and UNFPA, to start collecting information about where our contributions could be most useful. —Sandor Karacsony, senior economist The government had a long-standing relationship with UNFPA and UN Women on GBV preven- tion and response. These agencies were also supporting the government in developing standard operating procedures to respond to cases of GBV. However, there was a gap in the information management system organized around the business processes laid out in these procedures. The project therefore involves investment in the development of a comprehensive information management system coordinated by the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Women, Children, and Poverty Alleviation to track reporting on GBV, including referral pathways to other service providers. This nationwide information management system would provide different modules for various service providers, including the police and phone helplines, to document reported incidents of GBV in a standardized way. It is envisioned that this type of system will be adaptable to the changing landscape of GBV services in the country as they evolve. We are grateful to the ministry for guiding us in identifying the gap in support for the gov- ernment’s program.Additionally, I think what it took from us is... operational humility, the fact that we will strive to be helpful in this incredibly important agenda. —Sandor Karacsony, senior economist What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 51 Box 4.10. Cox’s Bazaar: Survivor-Centered, Cross–Global Practice Collaboration in a Situation of Forced Displacement Project name: Health and Gender Support Project for Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh IPF lending: US$208 million on integrated HNP and GBV response services Active: 2020–23 Implementing partner: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh PDO: To improve the access to and utilization of HNP and GBV response services among the host and the displaced Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar District. This project responds to the high levels of GBV in Bangladesh’s Cox District through a joint inter- vention led by the HNP and the SSI Global Practices of the World Bank. This project also builds on the Disaster Risk Management and Social Protection and Jobs–led Emergency Multisector Rohingya Crisis Management Response Project that included an US$8 million component on GBV response for refugees. Given the high prevalence of GBV among refugees and in the host com- munity, the project involves a territorial approach to address needs in Cox’s Bazaar as a whole. The project is housed with the Ministry of Health, which has the mandate to provide GBV response services within the national health strategy. The government was overwhelmed with providing services to the large refugee population and relied on the World Bank to provide dedicated investments and technical assistance to include the GBV focus in health service strengthening. [GBV] was so severe that we immediately recognized t  hat you couldn’t tackle this by gender tagging the project or by just doing a few activities here and there. —Sabah Moyeen, senior social development specialist The project builds on the government’s existing health structures, working directly with health clinics, many of which operate in partnership between communities and local governments. Clinic workers have a strong presence in the community already and provide the main entry point for GBV services. More complex cases are referred to higher-level tiers of response within the health delivery system. The project also adapted SASA! to promote community-centered GBV prevention and engage men and boys. The project firmly believes in centering the response based on survivor needs. The TTL explained as follows: The project’s woman-friendly space gives them a safe space, w  here they go in, talk to each other, and share issues in their own languages. They also get first aid for GBV response, psy- chosocial and mental health support. Midwives present there provide them with pregnancy care and offer contraception. They also get some skills in sewing, drawing, or other life skills. Because it’s only women and girls there, they feel at ease. —Bushra Binte Alam, senior health specialist The big lesson from this project is that “you have to recognize what works for the survivor first and foremost, beyond what may or may not fit within given the guidelines and sector or unit mandates,” says Sabah Moyeen, senior social development specialist. What Have We Learned? Key Lessons from 2013–22 52 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement project teams need to identify partners who can nongovernmental actors and the state plays into work to build capacity at the same time they are this, particularly if the state is seen as an active delivering innovations in service delivery. Many participant or complicit in the GBV in conflict times, this means working with nongovernmental settings. implementing partners. Where such frameworks for collaboration have been successful, they have often included sig- The Bank and MFIs are at times viewed as chal- nificant capacity building among government lenging partners because large investments (  in front-line workers by specialized service pro- particular infrastructure) generate additional viders. High staff turnover and staff shortages burdens on already stretched local service that hinder staff from attending training ses- providers. sions (frequently the case in health facilities) —Country director, Pacific may require that training and capacity building be adapted and carried out through coaching by NGOs working with core government staff over longer periods. Due to security concerns, poor infrastructure, and connectivity, mobile service provision has FCV contexts can be quite dynamic, with vio- been taken up as an important feature of lence shifting between geographic areas and/ operations in FCV. Providing specialized services or morphing into different forms. This means sufficiently close to end users in FCV con- the risks of GBV may change, sometimes over texts often entails drawing on and building the very short time periods and to a dramatic capacity of networks of community-based orga- degree, and will not be adequately captured nizations to deliver “last mile” interventions. This in one-time surveys or analyses. In these con- may include the establishment of safe spaces texts, ongoing analysis is needed in real time, linked to local community-based organizations informed by regular conversations with part- and the training of community volunteers to pro- ners. Some World Bank projects in FCV settings vide specialized mental health support (boxes 4.3 have started to incorporate process evaluations and 4.10). (in DRC and Ethiopia, for example) to generate just-in-time information and guide adjustments. Projects in FCV settings are paying increas- Stand-alone interventions or projects with large ing attention to incorporating specialized GBV components in FCV settings tend to adopt support in mental health care. There is a grow- a flexible approach to design and implemen- ing acknowledgment in project design of the tation, acknowledging that both the content high levels of trauma linked to GBV (and other of interventions and target areas may require forms of violence) and of the importance of a number of changes and adaptations to the both psychosocial first aid and more special- changing context during the project’s lifetime. ized long-term interventions, such as narrative exposure therapy or cognitive behavioral ther- Security concerns and following a do-no-harm apy. Investments in assessing the feasibility of approach is of paramount importance in FCV delivery and the impacts of these interventions settings. This requires projects to develop and are expected to generate relevant information roll out security protocols to guide implementa- for the next generation of projects in FCV and tion by government counterparts and specialized non-FCV settings. organizations. Issues of confidentiality (in terms of service provider data) and safety of survivors A frequent challenge in FCV settings is the take on additional importance and often require reluctance of client countries to allocate innovative approaches and careful review of grant or loan resources to civil society part- data-sharing protocols—including with national ners. A degree of mutual distrust between government databases. Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 53 5. Overview of the Expansion of World Bank Work on GBV, 2012–22 Overview of the Expansion of World Bank Work on GBV, 2012–22 54 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Figure 5.1. Number of Projects with GBV Figure 5.2. Percent of Project Operations Prevention or Response, 2017–22 with GBV Prevention or Response, 2017–22 160 35 33% 141 140 30 120 25 100 # of proj cts 20 # of proj cts 19% 80 78 14% 15 13% 13% 60 52 43 41 35 10 9% 40 20 5 0 0 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Y r Fisc l r specific trust funds targeted on FCV settings, One-third of World Bank operations such as the State and Peacebuilding Fund, which now integrate GBV prevention and had been increasing the allocation of financing to response GBV-related work since the early 2000s and pio- neering investments in stand-alone multisectoral In 10 years, the number of operations including operations and in the health sector. activities in GBV prevention and/or response has increased more than 10-fold, from only 38 The World Bank’s first operations involving operations identified in 2012 to 390 in FY2022. GBV prevention and response as a PDO were Between FY2021 and FY2022 alone, the num- designed to address non-partner sexual vio- ber of operations including GBV prevention and lence occurring in humanitarian settings. The response activities rose by 80 percent (figure 5.1). first stand-alone operation with a PDO focused One-third of all World Bank operations now incor- on GBV, the Great Lakes Emergency Sexual and porate such activities, up from only 9 percent in Gender-Based Violence and Women’s Health 2017 (figure 5.2). Project (US$170 million, of which US$50 million was allocated to GBV service provision), became active in 2014. Since then, two more stand- alone GBV operations have been implemented Operations now reach countries at in humanitarian contexts, one in Cox’s Bazar, all income levels and in all regions Bangladesh, and one in the DRC. The World Bank’s operational work on GBV Operations in FCV settings that include GBV originated in FCV settings, with heavy support prevention and response activities continue to from trust funds. These operations were able to be driven by urgent humanitarian interventions. benefit from ongoing client dialogue on GBV and Many operations today focus on strengthening Overview of the Expansion of World Bank Work on GBV, 2012–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 55 Map 5.1. Projects in Every Region Including GBV Prevention and Response N = 390 Europ & C ntr l Asi 10 Middl E st & North Afric 23 South Asi 50 E st Asi & P cific Afric E st L tin Am ric 53 & th C ribb n 110 52 Afric W st 92 service delivery, especially in locations where the non-FCV operations doubled between 2021 and reach of government services is limited, and on 2022. Since 2017, the World Bank has demon- working with partners, including NGOs and UN strated that GBV can and should be part of agencies. There is also a greater focus on the operations in both FCV and non-FCV settings. provision of mental health care and psychoso- Violence against women and girls is endemic in cial support. In the Health and Gender Support every country in which the World Bank oper- Project in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, a US$8 mil- ates and can be addressed through unique entry lion component on GBV was added in response points in every sector. to a dramatic increase in GBV associated with the influx of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in 2017. Similarly, in Ethiopia, the escala- tion of violence in the north prompted the World Operations integrating GBV Bank Board of Directors to issue a directive indi- prevention and response are now cating no new projects would be approved unless present in 97 countries, across all they addressed the conflict, thereby creating regions space for the Response-Recovery-Resilience for Conflict-Affected Communities in 2022, a com- In 2012, the World Bank financed operations prehensive operation that included GBV response with GBV-related activities in only 21 coun- as part of its PDO. tries, of which 8 were in Africa. Today, the portfolio is much more diverse and is spread Since 2017, the GBV agenda has greatly across all regions (map 5.1). expanded across non-FCV settings and to a much wider range of operations. Over half (63 Figure 5.4 illustrates the share of projects that percent) of the World Bank operations with include GBV prevention or response activities GBV-related activities in FY2017 or later are in beyond risk mitigation in the total number of non-FCV contexts (figure 5.3). The number of operations approved in FY2022 by region. Overview of the Expansion of World Bank Work on GBV, 2012–22 56 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Figure 5.4. GBV Prevention and Response in World Bank Projects, by Region, FY2022 %, N = 141 30% 28% 26% 25% 20% 17% 15% 11% 10% 10% 6% 5% 2% 0% AFE AFW EAP ECA LCR MNA SAR R ion Note: AFE = Eastern and Southern Africa; AFW = Western and Central Africa; EAP = East Asia and Pacific; ECA = Eastern Europe and Central Asia; LCR = Latin America and the Caribbean; MNA = Middle East and North Africa; SAR = South Asia. In most regions, at least one-third of opera- The World Bank has financed only three stand- tions include some activities in GBV prevention alone projects on GBV prevention and 11 projects and response. In Africa, where much of the World with GBV prevention as part of PDOs (annex F). Bank’s work on GBV originated, about 27 percent of All three stand-alone operations are in FCV con- the projects include a focus on GBV prevention and texts; one project was closed before effectiveness. response. The share of the projects involving GBV The 11 projects with PDO-level support for GBV prevention and response has increased in every activities are also concentrated in FCV settings. region. The shares are higher in Africa because of Together, these operations with GBV activities at long-standing World Bank engagement there. the project or component level represent only 4 percent of the total number of operations (390) incorporating GBV prevention or response. GBV prevention and response is integrated into sectoral operations, with few stand-alone projects Key areas of investment in GBV prevention and response The vast majority (96 percent) of the 390 operations identified by this review include The areas of World Bank operational invest- activities on GBV prevention and response ment align with global strategies to prevent within broader, sectoral projects. These typi- and respond to GBV. To assess the correspon- cally consist of project subcomponents focusing dence of projects with global evidence, the on GBV as a means of achieving a larger devel- portfolio reviewers aligned their analysis of proj- opment objective, for example, training health ect documents and project appraisal documents workers in high-quality gender-sensitive GBV with the RESPECT framework for action to pre- responses as part of a health sector operation or vent violence against women and girls (box 5.1).16 subcomponents to improve the prevention and detection of sexual abuse experienced by chil- All operations selected for the review aligned dren as part of a larger education project. with at least one of the seven RESPECT 16 The portfolio reviewers conducted the analysis using the RESPECT implementation guide and strategy summaries as reference points. Overview of the Expansion of World Bank Work on GBV, 2012–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 57 Box 5.1. The RESPECT Framework for Preventing Violence against Women Developed in 2019 through a collaboration led by WHO and UN Women and including the World Bank and other UN, bilateral, and multilateral agencies, RESPECT is widely accepted as the most comprehensive, evidence-based guideline for policy and programming on GBV prevention and response. The framework was developed through a review of the existing evidence base, prac- titioner consensus, and expert guidance. The accompanying implementation package distilled global evidence into a series of programming options and tools for policy makers and imple- menters (WHO 2019). The framework consists of seven strategies, with the first letter of each together spelling the word respect (table B5.1.1). Table B5.1.1. The Seven Strategies of the RESPECT Framework Relationship skills Refers to strategies aimed at individuals or groups of women, men, or couples to strengthened improve skills in interpersonal communication, conflict management, and shared decision-making. Empowerment of Refers to both economic and social empowerment, including inheritance and asset women ownership, microfinance, plus gender and empowerment training interventions, collective action, creating safe spaces, and mentoring to build skills in self-efficacy, assertiveness, negotiation, and self-confidence. Services ensured Refers to a range of services, including police, legal, health, and social services provided to survivors. Poverty reduced Refers to strategies targeted on women or the household with the primary aim of alleviating poverty, ranging from cash transfers to savings, microfinance loans, and labor force interventions. Environments made Refers to efforts to create safe schools, public spaces, and work environments, safe among others. Child and adolescent Refers to establishing nurturing family relationships, prohibiting corporal abuse prevented punishment, and implementing parenting programs. Transformed Refers to strategies that challenge harmful gender attitudes, beliefs, norms, and attitudes, beliefs, stereotypes that uphold male privilege and female subordination, that justify and norms violence against women, and that stigmatize survivors. These may range from public campaigns and group education to community mobilization efforts. Source: WHO 2019. strategies. Most operations include activities that violence and vwreceive the care they need if cover one or two RESPECT strategies (mean 1.65), they do experience violence. These activities with 232 operations (60 percent) covering one and align with the RESPECT “services ensured” strat- 90 (23 percent) covering two. Two operations meet egy (figure 5.6). Country directors and managers all seven strategies of the framework, and one ful- interviewed for this report felt the increased fills six. scrutiny of operations following the Inspection Panel cases in the DRC and Uganda, and new More than half of the 390 operations (182) corporate risk mitigation requirements had include activities to strengthen systems offered an opportunity to the World Bank to to help women and girls to live lives free of engage more comprehensively in this area. Overview of the Expansion of World Bank Work on GBV, 2012–22 58 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Figure 5.5. Distribution of RESPECT Framework Strategies among Practice Groups 150 RESPECT 1 RESPECT 4 RESPECT 7 121 RESPECT 2 RESPECT 5 120 RESPECT 3 RESPECT 6 90 72 63 60 49 43 32 32 31 25 27 30 18 19 21 19 13 12 7 3 4 3 9 6 1 0 2 1 2 3 0 Equit bl Growth, Hum n D v lopm nt Infr structur Sust in bl D v lopm nt Fin nc & Institutions Projects focusing on infrastructure improve- Figure 5.6. RESPECT Framework Categories ments increasingly incorporate GBV prevention and response activities beyond the minimum R R l tionship skills str n th n d requirements of SEA/SH risk mitigation. These projects fall under the RESPECT “environments E Empow rm nt of wom n made safe” strategy (figure 5.6). They are typi- S S rvic s nsur d cally centered on creating physical infrastructure that is safe for women to use. Along with envi- P Pov rt r duc d ronmental design adjustments, infrastructure E Environm nts m d s f projects involve investment in design; train- C Child nd dol sc nt bus pr v nt d ing on codes of conduct and on the protocols of response if cases of GBV are reported; data T Tr nsform d ttitud s, b li fs nd norms collection; and training among staff at key insti- Source: WHO (2019) tutions (transport workers or school directors, for instance) on how to recognize and respond to GBV and refer survivors to appropriate services, sometimes coupled with communication cam- paigns in support of prevention. community mobilization programs for reductions in GBV (Ellsberg et al. 2015; Jewkes et al. 2020). About 12 percent of operations with GBV Some of the more successful awareness-raising prevention or response activities include programs have focused on disseminating con- awareness-raising interventions. This review sistent messages through various media outlets was not able to examine whether these inter- (newspapers, television, radio, billboards) to ventions constituted stand-alone activities or amplify their exposure (Paluck and Ball 2010). were incorporated into a broader package of activities. Systematic reviews of GBV prevention In the interviews, while TTLs and managers saw have shown that stand-alone awareness-raising an important comparative advantage in pre- activities, typically consisting of one-off social venting GBV through livelihoods support, only 32 media or edutainment campaigns, are ineffective operations took this approach. This represents at reducing GBV in both high- and low-income an important potential area of growth given that countries, despite their popularity for the scale the links between economic stress and GBV are and reach they offer. However, there is evidence well established. Thus, women in poor households they can complement broader group-based or face disproportionately high risks of violence. Overview of the Expansion of World Bank Work on GBV, 2012–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 59 Women and girls living in poverty are more likely Figure 5.7. Projects by Lending Instrument to live in locations with more conflict, fewer sup- (N=390) port services, and weaker legal systems. Poverty also increases well-documented risk factors for IPV, including ill health, reduced educational opportunities, and household stress. At the same 39 time, violence increases women’s risk of poverty because of both the direct costs of violence, such 44 as out-of-pocket health expenditures, and the indirect costs, such as reduced earnings produc- tivity. Therefore, the relationship between IPV and poverty can be seen as mutual and reinforcing, creating either a virtuous or detrimental cycle. 307 Teams are deploying various lending instruments to foster GBV prevention IPF DPF The bulk of operations (307, or 79 percent) PfoR focusing on GBV prevention and response since 2017 have been IPFs (figure 5.8.). These take the form of more traditional sectoral oper- ations that strengthen critical systems and 2013a, 2017a) identified barriers to women’s infrastructure. agency and economic empowerment, noting the high prevalence of GBV as a barrier. Sexual PforR financing has been applied to incentivize harassment on public transport and in the institutional changes that create an enabling workplace was a key concern, exacerbated by environment for prevention. The review found the general lack of legislation and protocols to 39 operations designed as a PforR. While this sanction these behaviors. This work, together represents only 10 percent of the 390 oper- with a study on women’s economic empower- ations, there appears to be greater take-up of ment (World Bank 2018b) and a study on the GBV activities because the use of PforR has been economic costs of GBV (CAPMAs, UNFPA, and increasing generally. NCW 2016), influenced the design of the Egypt Inclusive Growth for Sustainable Recovery DPO The World Bank is stepping more firmly into (active October 2021), which incorporates pol- the policy space via DPF. The 2013 review iden- icy reforms to remove restrictions on women’s tified only six DPOs, all of which were in the employment in specific sectors and on their Latin American and Caribbean (LCR) region, and working hours and supports the national adop- five of which were in Brazil (Willman and Corman tion of a code of conduct to address harassment 2013). Today, there are 44 active DPOs with prior on public transport. Likewise, core analytical actions related to GBV spread across all regions. work in Jordan provided the foundation for a DPO (box 5.2.) focused on improving labor mar- Upstream analytical work has been a critical kets and fiscal sustainability. entry point for increases in DPOs addressing GBV to bolster women’s labor force participa- In the Pacific, DPOs are planned in the Marshall tion. In the Middle East and North Africa region, Islands, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon the Regional Gender Action Plan (World Bank Islands to address gaps in the legislation on Overview of the Expansion of World Bank Work on GBV, 2012–22 60 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box 5.2. GBV as Part of Macrolevel Reforms Promoting Gender Equality Project: Jordan Second Equitable Growth and Job Creation Programmatic DPF (P168130) DPF committed: US$1,450 million Active implementing partner: Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation PDO: To support Jordan in establishing the foundations for (a) reducing business costs and improving market accessibility, (b) creating more flexible and integrated labor markets and providing better and more efficient social assistance, and (c) improving fiscal sustainability and taking more informed decisions regarding risk. This DPF set out to improve female labor force participation in Jordan, which, at 14 percent, is among the lowest in the world and in the Middle East and North Africa region. A 2018 study esti- mated that 47 percent of nonworking women in Jordan turned down job opportunities or did not seek work because of concerns about harassment in the transport sector (World Bank 2018a). Analytical work had already examined constraints to women’s labor force participation, finding that laws restricting women from working in certain occupations or at particular times of the day were important barriers. One of the biggest factors was safe transportation, a  safe workplace environment, and this is where we realized that there was a lot to do. There was segmentation in terms of . . . the times and sectors that women are not allowed to work. And some people would say this is to protect them. But there are other measures to protect females rather than just preventing them from working in certain sectors or certain times. —Project team member The DPF worked on this issue through two phases. The first DPF phase worked on enacting laws that allowed flexible work arrangements for women. The second DPF phase focuses on improving women’s safety in the workplace and in transportation as well as amending labor regulations to reduce gendered labor segmentation. Through this DPF, the Ministry of Transport adopted a Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to be introduced in the service agreements with transport operators with the aim of regulating the behavior of passengers and drivers and the conduct of operators on public transport. This code of conduct was also publicly disclosed by the government to ensure that service users understood the laws and the pathways to report harassment. They also adopted a mobile application that would allow women to report any violence they experi- enced in public transportation. Amending regulations that prevent women from working at certain timesand sectors as well as issuing publicly disclosed codes of conduct to promote a safer environment for women in public transportation and the workplace helps increase awareness. For people to start to accept that if you do this, or that this is considered harassment and a female in the public transportation or workplace can go and file a complaint, at least this is progress.... The issue was that the women were not complaining... Giving women the right and the tools to complain is an important first step to tackle the problem. —Project team member Overview of the Expansion of World Bank Work on GBV, 2012–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 61 sexual harassment in the workplace, domestic SH in schools. The first DPF, São Tomé and violence, and child marriage by building on prior Príncipe COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience DPF work in Tonga and on analytical work. Development Policy Operation, involved the revision of school regulations to allow girls In some cases, DPOs have been designed to remain in school if they became pregnant. to complement the activities of partners However, there was no comprehensive policy to and build momentum on key reforms. TTLs detect and protect against sexual exploitation emphasized the importance of understanding and harassment in schools, and existing cur- the political economy to identify both high-level ricula did not equip girls with skills to manage champions and the technical capacity within cli- their sexual and reproductive health. A second ent governments and to mobilize these resources DPL enacted protective regulations to establish a to make progress in reform. For example, a DPF system for reporting and referral of cases with a loan in Uzbekistan was prepared in collaboration survivor-centered, case-management approach. with UNFPA to support the approval of legis- This DPL also allows the acceleration of cases lation protecting GBV survivors (box 4.1). The requiring criminal prosecution to the Ministry World Bank leveraged the political influence of of Justice, institutes a code of conduct for all the Ministry of Finance with the policy exper- public-school staff, and revises the curriculum tise of the Women’s Committee and UNFPA to on sexual and reproductive health. These activ- accomplish this and later expanded the use of ities are expected to contribute to a reduction in the approach to other critical reforms. dropout rates and improved learning outcomes for both boys and girls. The two DPFs were followed by an IPF (Girls’ DPFs used in combination with IPFs Empowerment and Quality Education for All) support the passage of key reforms aimed at implementing the new regulations. and enable their implementation Activities include revision and rollout of curric- ula on sexual and reproductive health and GBV Teams are making use of the strengths of var- prevention, a revised code of conduct, specialized ious financing instruments to promote reform training for school leadership and teachers in and implementation. In several countries, DPOs recognizing and reporting on GBV, and strength- and IPFs have been sequenced to work on policy ening reporting systems by hiring and training and regulatory change, followed by support for female and male guidance counselors to serve implementation. as entry points for complaints and help in com- munity awareness raising. The activities also For example, in São Tomé and Príncipe, the included coaching among teachers, school direc- sequencing of two DPFs followed by an IPF tors, and inspectors on the implementation of helped set up a regulatory environment and sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harass- implementation mechanisms to prevent SEA/ ment prevention modules. 62 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 6. Impacts and Multiplier Effects Impacts and Multiplier Effects Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 63 Investments in GBV prevention and The experience of the State and Peacebuilding response generate multiplier effects Fund illustrates the potential for trust funds to catalyze larger investments in GBV prevention Because most activities related to GBV pre- and response. As part of the IDA18 replenish- vention or response are rolled into project ment, US$1 million was allocated from the State subcomponents, this report could not arrive at and Peacebuilding Fund to supply small grants a full estimate of financing. Most (79 percent) of to country teams. Totaling US$50,000 each, 20 the 390 operations focusing on GBV are IPFs; of grants were awarded to support GBV activities these, over half (76 percent) include GBV-related within the design of the components of invest- activities within subcomponents without speci- ment projects in transport, mining, energy, health, fied budgets in project documents. Only about 4 urban development, trade facilitation, and social percent of the IPFs have full components on GBV; protection. These activities directly informed the together, these budgets total US$390 million. design of 15 lending operations, leveraging US$70 Another 1 percent (3 IPFs) are stand-alone GBV million in investments. operations with project-level budgets amounting to US$290 million. Together, these estimates add up to US$680 million, representing only 4 percent of the 390 operations since FY2017. The The World Bank’s internal capacity remaining 11 percent of the 390 operations repre- to monitor results and evaluate sent DPF loans; as fungible instruments, these do impact lags behind the uptick in not allow for analysis of how much of the loan is operations on GBV channeled toward GBV-related actions. With the increase in the number of operations The fact that the bulk of investments in GBV incorporating GBV prevention and response, prevention and response are now financed by there has been marked improvement in the client countries represents a significant depar- monitoring of project results relative to 10 years ture from the investments made 10 years ago. Many projects with GBV-related activities ago, when investment in GBV prevention and include results indicators for monitoring. Projects response was financed primarily by trust funds. that receive the gender tag for GBV activities are The 2013 stocktaking estimated that the typical required to include such indicators. These may be trust fund investment ranged from US$10,000 found on the GBV Gender Tag Dashboard. to US$2 million, with an average amount of US$450,000 per trust fund, and supported activ- Few operations make use of implementation ities from analytical work to pilot interventions monitoring tools to promote ongoing learning. (Willman and Corman 2013). Rapid assessments, process evaluations, and other ways of measuring progress and generating Trust funds continue to play a catalytic role feedback to improve project implementation are in fostering innovation and in leveraging larger underutilized. Monitoring is mostly limited to surveys investments by client countries. Many teams undertaken at midterm and at project comple- said they seek trust funds to finance targeted tion. In cases where activities on GBV face serious analytical work on specific operational challenges constraints to implementation, there is little doc- to inform project design and to pilot intervention umentation that would help teams glean lessons models. Teams working in FCV contexts relied on to inform future projects with similar obstacles. trust funds to test service delivery models (such as mobile services and partnerships with local Some teams have built regular monitoring into NGOs) and prevention interventions when adapt- stakeholder engagement plans to extract les- ing standard approaches to FCV contexts. This sons during the implementation process. The has been a significant contribution to the knowl- Nagaland: Enhancing Classroom Teaching and edge base on implementation. Resources Project team took advantage of the Impacts and Multiplier Effects 64 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement substantial community participation to develop impact evaluations of programs across various a regular dialogue to integrate community feed- Global Practices. These studies, designed and back. Plans were developed to realize a process conducted in close partnership with task teams, evaluation drawing on these data. give insight into the impact of cash transfers, public works programs, skills training, livelihood support, and other economic programs on GBV, There was a range of stakeholders starting as well as on programs to accompany economic from the SEP [stakeholder engagement plan], interventions, such as gender dialogue groups  and the participation rate was also very high. and change in social norms. A summary is avail- Some of these discussions were done virtually, able in annex I. and, despite that, we had participants from areas where perhaps internet connectivity was not so great, but there were people, you know, congregating at a point and attending and Collecting data on GBV prevalence speaking to us.... The project reports to us on a has budget implications monthly basis on each of the activities that they do so we get a two- or three-page document Collecting data on GBV requires special meth- every month; there’s a table with three columns: odological considerations in order to do no who they met, what was discussed, and the way harm; these add a layer of complexity and cost forward.... At some point, when the medium is to monitoring and evaluation. Global best prac- fully functional, I think we would like to probably tice established by the WHO (2016a) sets out do a process evaluation. a range of considerations to ensure safety and —Meghna Sharma, education specialist ethics in research on GBV. These include special considerations in recruitment, training, and sup- port so enumerators demonstrate appropriate sensitivity and can ensure the safety and privacy The World Bank is not systematically gathering of respondents, as well as ethical considerations data on the impact of operations that might for randomization and minimum standards of have direct and indirect effects on GBV. This care for those in study comparison arms. In is particularly the case for operations support- many cases, this implies an additional week of ing economic empowerment, contributing to a training for enumerators. Including appropriate large knowledge gap in understanding how these sensitivity to GBV also adds length to the survey. bread-and-butter World Bank interventions affect The Demographic and Health Surveys module on GBV. Other knowledge gaps center on the links domestic violence thus requires an additional 17 between GBV and core economic outcomes, for questions (Measure DHS 2014). example, labor force participation or income, that could help elucidate appropriate policy options. International best practices stipulate that teams implementing surveys with questions There is a particularly large knowledge gap regarding GBV must provide a referral or, if around the effectiveness of behavior or atti- services are not available locally, a trained tudinal change activities on GBV. Given the counselor in the event a respondent experiences increasing number of World Bank operations distress or identifies as a GBV survivor. In more that are incorporating these kinds of activities remote areas or emergency settings, it may not across all Global Practices and regions, and the be possible to refer participants who disclose fact that few are monitoring impact, there is experiences of violence to service providers, and ample room for improvement. teams may need to make arrangements to hire psychosocial support specialists to accompany The regional Gender Innovation Labs (GILs) enumerators or request that the client govern- increasingly work to fill these gaps through ment do so. Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 65 7. Conclusion The expansion and diversification of World Bank investments in GBV prevention and response over the last decade indicate that governments are willing to put resources toward addressing this essential component of reducing gender inequality. In 10 years, GBV transitioned from a peripheral issue to a source of risk to be mitigated and then to a key development constraint considered squarely within the World Bank’s institutional mandate. Today, with operations across 97 countries that cover all regions and Global Practices and utilize the full range of lending instruments, the World Bank has a growing knowledge base of what works in GBV prevention and response within World Bank systems. Conclusion 66 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement I t is too early to assess the full impact of this more intentionally into the international dia- uptick in investment. Many operations are logue on GBV, the next 10 years could see it in the early implementation phase. The GBV- take on a greater role in areas within its com- related activities involved either have not yet parative advantage, including a shared, global been undertaken or only recently launched, and research agenda; support for national plans monitoring and evaluation data are still limited. and strategies; and the strengthening of criti- While the number of impact evaluations asso- cal systems in health, education, employment, ciated with World Bank–financed operations is and infrastructure. increasing, important knowledge gaps remain in • Deeper and more accessible technical expertise. understanding the impact, as well as the cost Efforts to train World Bank staff across the implications, of some of the largest and most institution and to build a stronger pool of local common investments, such as in strengthen- experts in client countries can be expected to ing health care, education, and social protection pay off in the coming years through continued systems; increasing women’s economic empow- investment. This will make it easier to meet erment; improving infrastructure; and supporting the enabling conditions for ensuring technical macro-level reform through legislation and policy. rigor in GBV-related activities in World Bank operations. In the next decade, it will be important for the • Consistent tracking of World Bank investments in World Bank to turn its focus toward system- GBV across the portfolio. It is difficult to assess atizing prevention and response across the the magnitude of the uptake of GBV-related portfolio and ensuring that investments follow activities in World Bank operations, given the evidence. As detailed in the guiding vision at that most are integrated into subcomponents the beginning of this report, meeting the World without dedicated budget allocations. More Bank’s full potential will entail strengthening the systematic tracking of what operations are enabling conditions, incentives, and funding to doing, including how much they are investing bring on board specialized staff to go beyond risk in staff and financial resources, and monitor- mitigation and to approach GBV more holistically ing implementation challenges and lessons will within operations. strengthen the knowledge base for the future. How can progress toward the guiding vision be The World Bank stands to make more sig- measured over the next 10 years? The journey nificant gains toward reducing GBV by to date suggests areas where forward movement encouraging all teams to work through sectoral could be maintained in the effort to end GBV. entry points and consistently think beyond Over the next 10 years, one would hope to see risk mitigation and more toward preventing the following: violence before it occurs. 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The “What-To-Do” Note for Wor ld Bank. 2017c. “Working Together to Policymakers. Vol. 1 of Toolkit for Enabling Gender Prevent Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Responsive Urban Mobility and Public Spaces: Recommendations for World Bank Investment India. Washington, DC: World Bank. Projects.” Report of the Global Gender-Based Violence Task Force (July 31), World Bank, Washington, DC. Annex A. Methodology Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 71 Annex A. Methodology T he report methodology replicates and This report does not include a comprehensive builds on that used for the 2013 report review of the literature on GBV prevalence, (Willman and Corman 2013). It triangu- drivers, and protective factors or of the evi- lates data from the Operations Portal, project dence base for prevention programs. These documents, and interviews but has added inter- aspects have been reviewed extensively else- views with country directors and managers, where, and a summary is offered in annex E. practice managers, GIL colleagues, specialists in GBV, and regional GBV focal points, the last two of which are new additions to World Bank staff- ing. It was not feasible to interview TTLs for all Portfolio Review 390 operations identified for this review; therefore, the team requested recommendations from focal The portfolio review is based on the identifica- points to derive a purposive sample of projects for tion of 390 lending projects approved between deeper analysis through interviews and in-depth FY2017 and FY2022 that included GBV pre- review of project documents, as described in more vention and response activities. Operations detail below and in annexes B–C. including only SEA/SH risk mitigation mech- anisms were excluded. The review covers only The review methodology excludes material out- lending operations; analytical work is considered side the report objectives to review progress within the lending operations it informs, not as a on GBV prevention and response within World separate product. Bank lending operations and to inform future operations. Lending operations with activities The 390 operations were identified through a limited to sexual exploitation and abuse and systematic review of operations against the sexual harassment risk mitigation are excluded. corporate scorecard Tier 3 indicator: number Analytical pieces on GBV produced by the World of IDA-supported operations that address Bank are also excluded, except where they have and respond to GBV. This indicator was initi- directly informed lending operations. Investment ated with the IDA18 cycle (July 1, 2017–June 30, in GBV prevention and response made by the 2020) with the Gender Group responsible for the World Bank not directly linked to an operation review of operations for reporting. The review are excluded; for example, the Development looks at all board-approved operations, including Marketplace: Innovations to Address Gender- World Bank–funded projects, both those gender Based Violence, which invested US$5 million with tagged and not gender tagged. Because proj- a partner, the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, ects were not screened for GBV activities prior to contribute to the evidence base on effective to FY2017, it was not feasible to include opera- programming in GBV was excluded.17 tions active between 2012 and 2017 for deeper 17 See Development Marketplace: Innovations to Address Gender-Based Violence (dashboard), World Bank, Washington, DC, https://www. worldbank.org/en/programs/development-marketplace-innovations-to-address-gender-based-violence. Annex A. Methodology 72 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Box A.1. Rapid Review of Operations FY2013–FY2016 The bulk of this report has focused on the years since FY2017, when all operations were screened for GBV prevention and response through the corporate scorecard. The team also took a look at earlier years, that is, between FY2013 and FY2016. Methodology: Leveraging the text and data analytics service from the Data and Information Management unit, the team was able to identify a universe of 51 operations approved between FY13 and FY16 that each included at least one of the following keywords: domestic violence, early marriage, female genital cutting, female genital mutilation, FGC, FGM, forced marriage, forced prostitution, GBV, gender-based violence, harmful traditional practice, honor killing, inti- mate partner violence, IPV, marriage, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, sexual violence, trafficking, VAW, VAWG, violence against women, and violence against women and girls. Reviewers screened project appraisal documents and/or project documents (a) to understand whether each operation includes activities to prevent and respond to GBV that go beyond sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment mitigation and (b) to determine alignment with RESPECT strategies to prevent and respond to GBV. Results: Half the operations identified GBV as social risks that project countries were facing (26 projects). A small number of projects incorporated only sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment measures (3 projects), though this is still notable because these projects were pre- pared before the World Bank formalized the SEA/SH mitigation guidance. Meanwhile, 22 projects sought to prevent and respond to GBV beyond SEA/SH risk mitigation. These operations represent most regions and eight sectors (Education; Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation; HNP; Social Protection and Jobs; SSI; Transport; Urban, Resilience, and Land; and Water). The largest number of operations is led by Social Protection and Jobs and HNP. Similar to the FY2017–FY2022 portfolio, operations are mostly focused on ensuring service delivery (41 percent), creating safe spaces (18 percent), and the empowerment of women (18 percent). analysis, though a brief analysis of pre-FY2017 and sexual harassment or go further to focus on operations is included in box A.1. GBV prevention and/or response. The Gender Group’s gender tag reviewers review The Gender Group GBV team considers that a all board-approved projects in a fiscal year. project meets the corporate scorecard indicator During their review, they mark those projects if it includes a clear description of actions that that include a reference to GBV in any form in the seek to prevent or respond to GBV. Projects that project appraisal document or project document, undertake only risk mitigation measures for SEA/ and compile project details in a bespoke database. SH (for example, ensuring codes of conduct are The Gender Group’s GBV team then reviews this signed by contractors, establishing grievance mech- information compiled separately by gender tag anisms for reporting on sexual exploitation and reviewers on projects with any reference to GBV abuse and sexual harassment, mapping service to assess whether project activities are limited to providers for case referral, and so on) are not con- risk mitigation of sexual exploitation and abuse sidered to satisfy the corporate scorecard criteria. Annex A. Methodology Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 73 Projects that may potentially have an impact on • Edutainment plus group education GBV, but do not articulate project activities to be • Awareness-raising campaigns geared toward addressing GBV are not included as • Livelihood programs meeting the corporate scorecard criteria. • Systemwide approaches (strengthening deliv- ery of service, such as health worker outreach, To ensure consistency of methodology with justice and law enforcement, provision of corporate reporting, the portfolio review team services etc.) did not exclude projects that were closed or • Women-centered programs (counselling, PEP, cancelled before becoming effective or disburs- EC, safety planning) ing funds. Less than 3 percent of projects had • Perpetrators programs this issue. • One-stop crisis centers • Shelters The portfolio review is solely based on the • Women’s police stations review of project documents as noted above. • Victim advocacy Activities designed or modified (including through • Information and communication technology project restructuring) after project approval have services (hotlines, mobile apps) not been covered by the review. The team was • Stronger data generation and evaluation able to collect information on project implemen- capacity tation and adjustments to the original design • Investment in and improvement of only for those 24 projects selected for structured infrastructure interviews (see below and annex A). • Legal and policy reform • Gap analysis and research/studies for actions The team manually screened project appraisal • Positive organizational cultures and struc- documents and project documents as well as tures for organizations and institutions other relevant project documents to answer the following questions: RQ4 Budget: Is there resource commitment for activities to prevent and respond to GBV? Are RQ1 PDO: Is addressing GBV spelled out as these activities at the project, component, or part of the PDO? activity level? How much is allocated? RQ2 Intervention Focus: With which RESPECT RQ5 Counterpart: Who is (are) implementing strategy (strategies) do activities to prevent agency (agencies)? and respond to GBV align? (see box 5.1) RQ6 Cross-sector collaboration: Is there RQ3 Type of Intervention: What form(s) do cross-sector collaboration for implementing the activities to prevent and respond to GBV take? project? To explore this research question, a typology was developed based on the intervention cat- egories put forth by Ellsberg et al. (2015) and Structured Interviews and adapted as appropriate by the portfolio review Consultations team, as follows: The team selected a purposive sample of 24 • Group training for women and girls projects from the total population of 390 • Group training for women and men operations to determine a sample of TTLs • Group training for men for structured interviews and case studies. • Group training and community mobilization Purposive sampling has gained ground in imple- programs mentation research because it allows researchers • Community mobilization for all to select cases that enable an understanding of Annex A. Methodology 74 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement the factors affecting the outcomes and impacts data-rich cases, the team focused on sectors of interventions. A purposive sample is appropri- where the World Bank has more operations ate in this case given the amount of information integrating GBV prevention and response. The available about World Bank operations to inform selection considered regional investments in case selection. While the sample is not statis- GBV with a larger number of projects selected in tically representative of the universe of 390 Africa and South Asia given the level of financing operations, the data are qualitatively generaliz- and significant number of operations addressing able in drawing lessons for the implementation GBV in these two regions. These were reviewed of GBV prevention and response activities. according to the selection criteria, and 24 proj- ects were chosen for interviews. The following criteria informed selection of projects for interviews and case studies: Prior to the interviews of task teams, the team conducted an in-depth review of project docu- • representative of the scope of the World ments to analyze GBV actions in project design Bank’s work on GBV; including components as well as gender and • includes models that are replicable and GBV inclusion strategies outlined by the proj- scalable; ects to guide the discussion with task teams. • offers balance by sector, region, lending instru- The questionnaire used for these interviews is ment, FCV status, and country income level. included in annex B. The focus of the discussion was less on project design—as this information The team began by asking GBV focal points in was to a large extent available from project doc- the Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global uments— – but rather on the key factors that Practice to recommend the five GBV-focused influenced client demand, the expertise available operations most aligned with good practice in to ensure quality at entry and in project design, their region, regardless of whether the projects and the role of partnerships and strategies to had been gender tagged. To identify the most monitor implementation and evaluate impact. Table A.1. Regional and Sectoral Distribution of Projects Selected for Task Team Interviews Global Practice AFE AFW EAP ECA LCR MNA SAR Total Digital Development 1 1 Education 1 1 1 3 Health, Nutrition, and Population 1 2 1 4 Macroeconomics, Trade, and 1 1 2 4 Investment Social Protection and Jobs 1 1 1 1 4 Social Sustainability and Inclusion 1 1 2 Social, Urban, Rural, and Resilience 1 1 1 3 Transport 1 1 1 4 Total 5 5 3 1 3 2 4 24 Note: AFE = Eastern and Southern Africa; AFW = Western and Central Africa; EAP = East Asia and Pacific; ECA = Eastern Europe and Central Asia; LCR = Latin America and the Caribbean; MNA = Middle East and North Africa; SAR = South Asia. Annex A. Methodology Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 75 Altogether, 54 World Bank staff were inter- Because the intent of the interviews was to viewed. These included 35 task team staff covering examine the experience of various project teams the 24 projects. Managers from five CMUs were and garner lessons, the researchers adopted an selected for interviews to generate insights on client iterative approach to content analysis of the dialogue in both middle- and low-income countries data, allowing themes to be added and modified as well as FCV and non-FCV contexts and to take as the analysis proceeded. This also provided into account regional variations in the update of flexibility in the ways particular concepts might GBV response. Finally, the team held focus groups emerge in the interviews. This allowed the with GBV SSI focal points from four regions and team, for example, to note the different ways with colleagues from the Gender Innovation Lab interviewees discussed the topic of corporate Federation. All interviewees are listed in table A.3. requirements, whether by explicitly using acro- nyms (ESF, SEA/SH, gender tag) or in broader Each interview lasted 60–90 minutes and fol- terms of risk mitigation. lowed a structured guide provided in advance to interviewees (see annex B). With the consent The team then employed automated analysis of the interviewees, each interview was recorded using Atlas software to validate the findings and transcribed using Otter.ai software. based on keywords developed in the raw cod- ing. A list of the codes is contained in annex C. The team also conducted two consultations with development partners in December 2022. The objectives for these consultations were to gather feedback on the proposed lessons and Case study analysis of projects recommendations gained from the analysis and invite guidance on how the World Bank’s work The team selected 10 projects from the pur- on GBV prevention and response might be better posive sample (24) of projects to draw out aligned with the efforts of development partners richer analysis on specific operational lessons going forward. A list of organizations that partici- highlighted in the interviews. Case studies were pated in the consultations is included as annex D. chosen with a view to obtaining regional and sec- toral balance, as well as reflecting the application of different financing instruments. The team reviewed interview data and project documents Qualitative data analysis in depth and reached back out to interviewees for additional information as needed. The case The 24 interview transcripts were manually studies are integrated throughout the report cleaned and coded separately by two research- to complement the discussion of strategic and ers, who then compared emerging themes. 18 operational lessons. 18 A total of 54 staff members participated in 24 interviews for the qualitative analysis portion of the report. Annex A. Methodology 76 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Table A.2. Summary of Case Studies and Operational Lessons Country Name Global Practice Instrument Operational lesson Nigeria Nigeria for Women Social Sustainability and IPF Building national capacity Inclusion for coordination and implementation Uzbekistan Supporting Transparent and Macroeconomics, DPF Importance of political Inclusive Market Transition Trade, and Investment economy in finding ways to (cross–Global Practice bring together policy leadership, collaboration with high-level championship, Agriculture and Food; and budgetary financial Energy and Extractives; commitments Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation; Poverty and Equity) Kenya Second Africa COVID-19 Health, Nutrition IPF Cross–Global Practice Emergency Response and Population collaboration for GBV (component led by prevention within health Social Sustainability and systems strengthening Inclusion) Democratic Gender-Based Violence Social Sustainability and IPF Complementing government- Republic of Prevention and Response Inclusion led services with the support Congo of dedicated and specialized nongovernmental organizations to ensure accessible services for survivors Bangladesh Health and Gender Support Health, Nutrition, and IPF Building on national systems Project for Cox’s Bazar Population (cross–Global for multisectoral, survivor- District Practice collaboration centered response with Gender) Jordan Second Equitable Growth Macroeconomics, Trade, DPF Promoting macro-level reforms and Job Creation and Investment to prevent GBV as part of gender equality Tanzania Citizen-Centric Judicial Governance IPF Mobilizing sectoral entry points Modernization and Justice for GBV prevention Services Delivery Fiji Fiji Social Protection Social Protection and IPF Adding value in a crowded COVID-19 Response and Jobs donor space System Development Project, Additional Financing Ecuador Territorial Economic Social Sustainability and IPF Added value for partnering Empowerment for the Inclusion with civil organizations and Indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorians, community leaders to design and Montubian Peoples and and implement projects Nationalities Project India Chennai City Partnership: Urban, Resilience, and Program-for- Supports mechanisms for Sustainable Urban Services Land results continued data collection Program and analysis to inform implementation Annex A. Methodology Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 77 Full list of interviewees Table A.3. The Interviewees No P-number Project Interviewees Date 1 P171648 Health and Gender Support Project Sabah Moyeen and Bushra Binte 2022-06-29 Alam 2 P166763 Democratic Republic of Congo–GBV Verena Phipps 2022-06-29 Prevention and Response Project 3 P173283 Territorial Economic Empowerment for the Mariana Felicio 2022-07-11 Indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorians and Montubian Peoples and Nationalities 4 P170658 Centralized emergency response system Axel Rifon Perez, Mariana Felicio 2022-09-08 project and Maria Jose Vidal Roman 5 P172213 Nagaland: Enhancing Classroom Teaching Meghna Sharma 2022-08-10 and Resources 6 P171125 Mauritania Social Safety Net Julia Vaillant 2022-09-02 7 P172742 Tonga Second Resilience DPO with a Andrew Blackman and Kim Alan 2022-07-22 Catastrophe-Deferred Drawdown Option Edwards 8 P161320 Solomon—Community Access and Urban Sonya Woo 2022-08-09 Services Enhancement 9 P161364 Nigeria For Women Project Victoria Esquivel-Korsiak, Michael 2022-07-20 Gboyega Ilesanmi and Yetunde Fatogun 10 P158231 Integrated Feeder Road Development Project Nargis Ryskulova and Monica 2022-09-15 (IFRDP) Augustina Cristin Moldovan 11 P171311 Egypt Inclusive Growth for Sustainable Amal Faltas and Niyati Shah 2022-08-02 Recovery 12 P168130 Jordan Second Equitable Growth and Job Khalid Ahmed Ali Moheyddeen 2022-09-12 Creation Programmatic DPF 13 P172605 Salvador Social Multi-Sector Service Delivery Rovane Battaglin Schwengber 2022-08-08 Project II 14 P166732 Karachi Mobility Project in Pakistan Lincoln Flor and Hasan Afzal Zaidi 2022-08-11 15 P168725 Bangladesh Third Programmatic Jobs DPC Aline Coudouel 2022-08-17 16 P171751 Uzbekistan: Supporting a Transparent and Vinayakraj Nagaraj 2022-09-09 Inclusive Market Transition 17 P164953 Health System Support and Strengthening Mahoko Kamatsuchi 2022-09-06 Project (SENI) 18 P168699 Girls Empowerment and Learning for All Peter Holland 2022-07-20 Project Annex A. Methodology 78 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement No P-number Project Interviewees Date 19 P164932 Improving Results in Secondary Education Alonso Sanchez and Oni 2022-08-22 (IRISE) Lusk-Stover 20 P176407 Second Additional Financing for Kenya COVID- Lisa Schmidt and Verena Phipps 2022-08-25 19 Health Emergency Response Project 21 P173711 Connecting Madagascar for Inclusive Growth Ziad Salim EL Nakat, Karla 2022-09-15 Dominguez Gonzalez and Andrianjaka Rado Razafimandimby 22 P177674 Fiji Social Protection COVID-19 Response Sandor Karacsony and Kenia 2022-09-20 and System Development Project—Additional Hatsue Silva Parsons Financing 23 P166813 Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Margareta Norris Harrit 2022-10-18 Demographic Dividend Project 24 P175221 Chennai City Partnership: Sustainable Urban Gerald Paul Ollivier, Henrike Brecht, 2022-11-15 Services Program Sarah Natasha and Mitali Nikore 25 N/A Nepal CD Lada Strelkova 2022-08-17 26 N/A Middle East and North Africa CD Janette Uhlmann (for Marina Wes) 2022-09-28 27 N/A Democratic Republic of Congo CD Jean-Christophe Carret 2022-09-14 28 N/A Bolivia CD Indu John-Abraham 2022-08-30 29 N/A Bangladesh PL Dandan Chen 2022-08-24 30 N/A Practice Manager, Social Sustainability and Robin Mearns 2022-04-19 Inclusion, South Asia 31 N/A Practice Manager, Social Sustainability and Senait Assefa 2022-06-13 Inclusion, Africa 32 N/A Practice Manager, Transport, Africa Maria Marcela Silva 2022-04-28 33 N/A Practice Manager, Poverty and Equity, Latin Ximena Del Carpio 2022-05-12 America and the Caribbean 34 N/A Global Director, Transport Nicolas Peltier 2022-04-26 35 N/A GBV Retrospective Focus Group discussion Jacobus Joost De Hoop, Elizaveta 2022-09-14 with GIL Federation Perova, Rachael Susan Pierotti, Michael B. O’Sullivan and Julia Vaillant 36 N/A GBV focal points in Africa, Latin America and Elizabeth Graybill 2022-06-21 the Caribbean, and EAP Michael Mahrt Manuel Contreras-Urbina Niyati Shah Giorgia DeMarchi Sama Khan 37 N/A Discussion on ESF, sexual exploitation and Alexandra Bezeredi 2022-07-27 abuse and sexual harassment Annex A. Methodology Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 79 Figure A.1. Projects Contributing to GBV Prevention and Response, 2013–16 N = 22 WAT 1 URL 3 TRANS 3 Glob l Pr ctic SSI 2 SPJ 6 HNP 5 FCI 1 EDU 1 0 2 4 6 8 # of Proj cts Figure A.2. Distribution of RESPECT Framework Categories, 2013–16 N = 22 Tr nsform d ttitud s, b li fs, nd norms 3 S rvic s nsur d 9 R l tionship skills str n th n d 1 Pov rt r duc d 1 Environm nts m d s f 4 Empow rm nt of wom n 4 0 2 4 6 8 10 Annex B. Structured Interview Guides for Task Teams 80 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Annex B. Structured Interview Guides for Task Teams Questionnaire for TTLs 1. Tell us about the client dialogue on gender-based violence (GBV) and your project. a. How would you describe client demand initially, and how has it changed? b. What operational angle did the team take in client dialogue? Ex: Economic empowerment, risk mitigation? c. Were there champions within the government, and if so, how did the team work with them? d. Did the COVID-19 crisis provide more impetus or opportunities? 2. What role did the CMU/senior management play in the dialogue on GBV? a. If this was a priority already, why? b. If it was not a priority, did the project influence this, and if so, how? 3. What role did sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment requirements introduced with the new ESF play in project dialogue with the client and CMU, and how did they affect proj- ect design? What about the gender tag requirements? 4. How did the team choose this project design? a. Choice of instrument (DPO, IPF, MPA, and so on)? b. Component or stand-alone project? c. New project or scale-up of existing project? d. Target geographic areas and beneficiaries? e. Choice of government counterpart and whether/how to work through government systems or a third party? f. What kinds of consultations/collaborations informed the design (that is, safety walks/audits, meetings with civil society organizations, the United Nations, working groups)? g. What kind of analytics informed the design? For instance, did you commission specific reports, work with particular experts (internal or external), rely on certain datasets/guidelines (for exam- ple, the VAWG Resource Guide)?19 19 See VAWG (Violence against Women and Girls) Resource Guide, World Bank, Washington, DC, https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/ violence-against-women-and-girls/resources. Annex B. Structured Interview Guides for Task Teams Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 81 i. Did you use the project budget to finance this, or was there another source of funds (TF?) If the latter, which one? h. Tell us about monitoring and evaluation. i. How is the project monitoring results (indicators, framework)? ii. Who is conducting the evaluation (GIL, research institution)? iii. What is the cost of evaluation and source of financing? 5. Where did the team go for support in design and implementation? a. Technical advice/knowledge? i. GIL or other World Bank Global Practices, such as SSI, Gender Group, including the GBV Community of Practice (CoP)? ii. External partners: United Nations agencies, local NGOs, international NGOs b. Implementation support i. Who were the partners and for which activities? Local NGOs? United Nations agencies? 6. What would be most helpful to you that we need to include in this report? Interview guide for country directors and managers and practice managers 1. How have you seen the GBV agenda evolve over the last few years in your particular CMU/set of countries? 2. What are some of the key factors that are driving those changes? How do you see the role of the CMU/Country Leadership team in that process? 3. What are some of the pathways to dialogue with clients that have proven most successful? Why? What have the key entry points for the discussion been? ■ Government champions ■ Role of local constituencies/women’s movements ■ COVID-19 and pressure for services ■ Conflict and acknowledgement of the need for services ■ Women’s Economic Empowerment ■ Demonstration effect of other operational engagements in the region (by World Bank/by other partners)? ■ Risk mitigation and sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment (Democratic Republic of Congo/Uganda inspection panel effect)? Annex B. Structured Interview Guides for Task Teams 82 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 4. Where does/can the dialogue get stuck/where do you see pushback? Why? ■ The dialogue is easy but no willingness to engage on operations/borrowing (GBV usually grant funded by the United Nations, for example) ■ Country environments where discussions of the topic are particularly challenging (social norms) 5. What technical expertise/know-how is available at the sector/country level? What expertise is missing to take the agenda/dialogue to the next level/or to address big-picture bottlenecks? ■ Key sectors and teams that have been able to move forward with the agenda—any sectors that have been better placed ■ Role of GBV experts in the region, expert consultants/outsourcing ■ Role of partners in country (UNFPA, others) ■ Dialogue with local civil society/consultations 6. What role do upstream analytics and impact evaluation play in helping to move the dialogue forward? Relevant/not relevant? Most useful in any specific “format?” ■ Probe for role of the sectors and GIL in building the evidence base ■ Probe for the role of Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD)/gender assessments and inputs into Country Partnership Framework (CPF) and Gender Action Plan ■ Probe for portfolio risk reviews/Women’s Economic Empowerment pieces Focus group discussion questions for GILs 1. Where do you see the World Bank’s work on GBV in 10 years? What is GIL’s role in that? 2. How do you develop the GIL research agenda around GBV? a. Follow-up: How much comes from discussion with operational teams, gaps in the global evidence base, etc.? b. How is the GIL research agenda informed by global evidence, that is, the RESPECT framework? 3. What are the mechanisms/process by which your work on GBV feeds into operations? a. Follow-up: Do operational staff peer review reports? Do they ever co-author papers, etc.? Do you present research to teams? Organize learning events for teams, etc.? b. Do you work more with some sectors/teams than others? Why/why not? c. What does your work with teams usually look like? (Does a GIL staff join the task team? Do you come in at the Project Concept Note (PCN) stage or later?) d. Who funds the study? Do you work with an operational team in developing funding proposals? 4. To what extent have you observed that World Bank operations are applying the lessons learned from GIL in our country portfolios? a. Where are the gaps? Are there areas where the evidence base is solid (that is, cash transfers) but where operations haven’t picked up the lessons? Annex B. Structured Interview Guides for Task Teams Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 83 Focus group discussion questions for GBV specialists 1. Where do you envision the World Bank to be on GBV prevention and response work in 10 years? 2. How has the work over the last few years enabled this vision to be possible? Building on your past years of engagement with clients, could you please share factors that have led to successful engagement on GBV—with clients/task teams? Factors include the following: a. Client demand/interest b. Push from the management c. Analytics and trainings that recommend GBV prevention/response as a way to achieve other development outcomes d. Gender tag requirements—how useful have they been/not been in your region? e. ESF requirements—how useful have they been/not been in your region? What is the engagement model in your regions/subregions? Are there any sectors/CMUs that are eas- ier to work with over others, and if so, why is it the case? (i.e. CMU preference, awareness among TTLs, and so on)? 3. What is missing for the 10-year vision to be realized (institutionally, technically, etc.)? Annex C. Coding Keywords for Atlas 84 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Annex C. Coding Keywords for Atlas Table C.1.: Summary of Codes Used to Conduct Interview Qualitative Analysis Group code Code Definitions Keywords Client dialogue Initiating Client Intervention developed because of clients’ Agenda conversation demand Client Dialogue World Bank Intervention developed because of management management’s request Analytical underpinnings Intervention recommended by analytics/ data Champions Champions Role of champions in government Champions Entry points Econ. Empowerment GBV as an impediment to women’s Economic economic empowerment empowerment Safety Women’s safety GBV as a major issue for ensuring Safeguard women’s safety in public spaces COVID Corporate Need for service delivery Lack of systems/capacity to deliver GBV requirement services COVID Impact of COVID-19 as a channel to draw clients’ attention to GBV Corporate requirement Corporate requirements to introduce the topic of GBV Corporate requirements Sexual exploitation SEA/SH requirement: SEA/SH requirement provided an Mitigation and abuse and helpful opportunity to discuss intervention ESF sexual harassment beyond mitigation Corporate (SEA/SH) requirement requirement SEA/SH requirement: SEA/SH requirement did not help Gender tag not helpful prompt clients’ interest in addressing GBV Gender tag Gender tag requirement: Gender tag requirement provided an requirement helpful opportunity to discuss interventions to address GBV Gender tag requirement: Gender tag requirement did not help not helpful bring the GBV discussion to the table Annex C. Coding Keywords for Atlas Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 85 Group code Code Definitions Keywords Project implementation Partnership, United Nations agencies Partners with United Nations agencies to Counterparts collaboration design and implement GBV activities Partners United Nations CSO, foundations Partners with civil society and foundations to design and implement activities Private sector Partners with the private sector to design and implement GBV activities Social norms Social norms Social norms Annex D. Partner Organizations and Donor Communities Consulted 86 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Annex D. Partner Organizations and Donor Communities Consulted • Agence Française de Développement • Collective Action to Reduce Gender-Based Violence • European Commission • Ford Foundation • Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office • Global Affairs Canada • Global Women’s Institute, The George Washington University • Irish Aid • Makerere University • Making Cents International • Office of Research–Innocenti, United Nations Children’s Fund • Sexual Violence Research Initiative • United Nations Population Fund • United States Agency for International Development • United States Department of State • Wellspring Philanthropic Fund • World Health Organization Annex E. IFC GBV and Harassment Interventions 2014–22 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 87 Annex E. IFC GBV and Harassment Interventions 2014–22 Since 2014, IFC has been building the business and monitoring and evaluation tools. IFC has case to address the impacts of gender-based supported over 50 companies to implement violence (GBV) and harassment on work. these approaches through direct client advisory Whether it happens at work, in work-related and peer-learning platforms, predominantly in settings, or in the home or community, GBV and Asia-Pacific. harassment can negatively affect employees and directly influence the financial performance I FC establis hed the Papua New Guinea of companies. Creating respectful workplaces Business Coalition for Women (BCFW) to raise free from all forms of violence and harass- awareness and help businesses to address ment, including customer and client aggression, the impacts of domestic and sexual violence workplace bullying, sexual harassment, domes- on work. This included implementing practical tic and sexual violence, and sexual exploitation solutions for building respectful and supportive and abuse connected to the workplace, has workplaces and led to the establishment of Bel the potential to increase employees’ sense of Isi, an employer-supported safe house and case safety and agency; improve the financial perfor- management service in Port Moresby. Elsewhere mance of businesses; strengthen social cohesion; in the Pacific, IFC has worked with companies and generate positive spillover effects in the from Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu to community. implement policies and practices to address the impacts of GBV and harassment on work. This To help mitigate the negative impacts of GBV work is demonstrating results. For example, at a and harassment, IFC has conducted research security services company in Fiji, staff attrition across multiple markets to demonstrate the fell by 50 percent, leading to savings on the costs cost to business associated with GBV and of recruitment and training. harassment and encourage private sector busi- nesses to take a proactive approach to address IFC is now scaling up its work to support these issues. For example, research on Fiji shows companies to address GBV and harassment, that companies lose almost 10 days of work per including by building the capacity of IFC staff employee each year because of lost staff time and consultants, as well as external train- and reduced productivity (IFC 2019); similar ing partners, to deliver advisory services on costs have been found in Papua New Guinea (IFC this topic. In the framework of the Respectful 2021), Myanmar (IFC 2019), Solomon Islands Workplaces Program, IFC is conducting a com- (IFC 2019), and Sri Lanka (IFC 2022). petency-based training program on workplace responses to GBV and harassment, targeting IFC has also developed workplace tools and at least 50 trainers and 100 entities by 2026. resources to help companies implement proac- Through December 2022, the training was deliv- tive measures, such as model human resources ered to 39 trainers from 21 institutions and policies, training, communications materials, on-delivered to 1,597 individuals. This training is Annex E. IFC GBV and Harassment Interventions 2014–22 88 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement expected to equip participants to on-deliver training and consulting services aimed at addressing GBV and harassment and at building more gender-equal and safer workplaces. In Sri Lanka, IFC has partnered with leading training organizations and industry bodies to deliver company-level training at scale across the private sector. An initial 10 companies have completed the training, with 40 more expected before the end of FY2023. In Vietnam, IFC is supporting an international clothing retailer to pilot the respectful workplaces program across 15 factories, before rolling it out across their 600,000 people supply chain. In FY23 and FY24, IFC plans to deliver targeted interventions to address GBV and harassment in several countries, including Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, and Vietnam, and across the Caribbean. Annex F. PDO: Stand-Alone GBV Prevention Projects and Operations Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 89 Annex F. PDO: Stand-Alone GBV Prevention Projects and Operations Table F.1. Stand-Alone GBV Prevention Projects P-code Project name Global Practice Country Region P171648 Health and Gender Support Health, Nutrition, and Bangladesh SAR Project for Cox’s Bazar Population (co-lead district Social, Urban, Rural, and Resilience) P16044* Uganda (UG)— Social, Urban, Rural, and Uganda AFE Strengthening Social Resilience Risk Management and Gender-Based Violence P166763 Democratic Republic of Social, Urban, Rural, and Democratic Republic of AFE Congo—Gender Based Resilience Congo Violence Prevention and Response Project Note: AFE = Eastern and Southern Africa; SAR = South Asia. * This project was closed before effectiveness.  Table F.2. Operations: GBV Integrated in PDOs P-code Project name Global Practice Country Region P170664 Adolescent Girls Initiative Education Nigeria AFE for Learning and Empowerment P176867 Primary Education Equity Education Kenya AFE in Learning Program P164953 Health System Support Health, Nutrition, and Central African Republic AFW and Strengthening Project Population P171648 Health and Gender Health, Nutrition, and Bangladesh SAR Support Project for Cox’s Population (co-lead Bazar district Social Sustainability and Inclusion) Annex F. PDO: Stand-Alone GBV Prevention Projects and Operations 90 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement P-code Project name Global Practice Country Region P177003 CAR Health Service Health, Nutrition, and Central African Republic AFW Delivery and System Population Strengthening Project (SENI-Plus) P173677 Liberia Women Social Sustainability and Liberia AFW Empowerment Project Inclusion P176900 South Sudan Women’s Social Sustainability and South Sudan AFE Social and Economic Inclusion Empowerment Project P177233 Response-Recovery- Social Sustainability and Ethiopia AFE Resilience for Inclusion Conflict-Affected Communities in Ethiopia Project P143495 Guatemala (GT): Urban Social, Urban, Rural, and Guatemala LCR Infrastructure and Resilience Violence Prevention P160447* Uganda (UG)— Social, Urban, Rural, and Uganda AFE Strengthening Social Resilience Risk Management and Gender-Based Violence P166763 Democratic Republic of Social, Urban, Rural, and Congo, Dem. Rep. AFE Congo—Gender Based Resilience Violence Prevention and Response Project Note: AFE = Eastern and Southern Africa; AFW = Western and Central Africa; LCR = Latin America and the Caribbean; SAR = South Asia. * This project was closed before effectiveness.  Annex G. RESPECT Framework: Common Interventions and Examples Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 91 Annex G. RESPECT Framework: Common Interventions and Examples Table G.1. Summary of Recommended Interventions, by RESPECT Framework Category RESPECT Interventions LMIC HI Example category recommended Relationship Group-based Promising More In the two-year period following the skills workshops with evidence implementation of Stepping Stones strengthened women and men to needed in South Africa with female and male promote egalitarian participants aged 15–26 years, men were attitudes and less likely to perpetrate IPV, rape, and relationships transactional sex in the intervention group compared to the baseline. Couples counselling More Promising and therapy evidence needed Empowerment Empowerment Promising More The IMAGE project (Intervention with of women training for women evidence Microfinance for Aids and Gender Equity) and girls including life needed in South Africa empowers women through skills, safe spaces, microfinance together with training and mentoring on gender and power and community mobilization activities. Studies show it Inheritance and asset Promising No reduced domestic violence by 50 percent ownership policies evidence in the intervention group over a period of and interventions two years. At US$244 per incident case of partner violence averted during a two-year Microfinance or Conflicting No scale-up phase, the intervention is highly savings and loans evidence cost-effective. plus gender and empowerment training components Services Empowerment More Promising The Community Advocacy Project in ensured counselling evidence Michigan and Illinois, United States, is interventions or needed an evidence-based program designed to psychological support help female survivors of intimate partner to support access abuse regain control of their lives. Trained to services (i.e. advocates provide advocacy and individually advocacy) tailored assistance to survivors so that they can access community resources and social support. The intervention was found to lower recurrence of violence and depression and improve quality of life and social support. Two years after the intervention ended, the positive change continued. Annex G. RESPECT Framework: Common Interventions and Examples 92 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement RESPECT Interventions LMIC HI Example category recommended Alcohol misuse More More prevention evidence evidence interventions needed needed Shelters More More evidence evidence needed needed Hotlines More More evidence evidence needed needed One-stop crisis More No centers evidence evidence needed Perpetrator More Conflicting interventions evidence needed Women’s police More No stations/units evidence evidence needed Screening in health No Ineffective services evidence Sensitization Ineffective Ineffective and training of institutional personnel without changing the institutional environment Poverty Economic transfers, Promising More In Northern Ecuador, a cash, vouchers, and reduced including conditional/ evidence food transfer program implemented by unconditional cash needed the World Food Programme (WFP) was transfers plus targeted at women in poor urban areas, vouchers, and in-kind intending to reduce poverty. Participating transfers households received monthly transfers equivalent to US$40 per month for a period of six months. The transfer was conditional on attendance of monthly nutrition trainings. The evaluation showed reductions in women’s experience of controlling behaviors and physical and/or sexual violence by intimate partners by 19 to 30 percent. A plausible mechanism for this was reduced conflict within couples related to poverty-related stresses. Annex G. RESPECT Framework: Common Interventions and Examples Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 93 RESPECT Interventions LMIC HI Example category recommended Labor force More Promising received monthly transfers equivalent interventions evidence to US$40 per month for a period of six including employment needed months. The transfer was conditional on policies, livelihood, and attendance of monthly nutrition trainings. employment training The evaluation showed reductions in women’s experience of controlling behaviors Microfinance Ineffective No and physical and/or sexual violence by or savings evidence intimate partners by 19 to 30 percent. A interventions without plausible mechanism for this was reduced any additional conflict within couples related to poverty- components related stresses. Environments Infrastructure and More More In Hyderabad (Sindh Province), Pakistan, a made safe transport evidence evidence right-to-play intervention reached children needed needed in 40 public schools. Boys and girls were engaged in play-based learning providing Bystander No Conflicting them with an opportunity to develop life interventions evidence skills such as confidence, communication, empathy, coping with negative emotions, Whole-school More No resilience, cooperation, leadership, critical interventions evidence evidence thinking, and conflict resolution, all of needed which help combat conflict, intolerance, gender discrimination, and peer violence. Child and Home visitation Promising More An evaluation showed decreases in peer adolescent and health worker evidence victimization by 33 percent among boys abuse outreach needed and 59 percent among girls at 24 months prevented postintervention; in corporal punishment by Parenting Promising More 45 percent in boys and 66 percent in girls; interventions evidence and in witnessing of domestic violence by needed 65 percent among boys and by 70 percent among girls. Psychological Promising More peer victimization by 33 percent among support interventions evidence boys and 59 percent among girls at 24 for children who needed months postintervention; in corporal experience violence or punishment by 45 percent in boys and witness IPV 66 percent in girls; and in witnessing of domestic violence by 65 percent among Life skills / school- Promising Conflicting boys and by 70 percent among girls. based curriculum, rape and dating violence prevention training Transformed Community No Promising SASA! is a community intervention in attitudes, mobilization evidence Uganda that prevents violence against beliefs, and women by shifting the power balance norms between men and women in relationships. Studies show that in SASA! communities, 76 percent of women and men believe physical violence against a partner is not acceptable while only 26 percent of women and men in control communities believe the same. At the cost of US$460 per incident case of partner violence averted in the trial phase, intervention is cost-effective, and further economies of scale can be achieved during scale-up. Annex G. RESPECT Framework: Common Interventions and Examples 94 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement RESPECT Interventions LMIC HI Example category recommended Group-based Promising More workshops with evidence women and men to needed promote changes in attitudes and norms Social marketing or More More edutainment and evidence evidence group education needed needed Group education with Ineffective More men and boys to evidence change attitudes and needed norms Stand-alone Ineffective Ineffective awareness campaigns/ single-component communications campaigns Source: WHO 2019. Note: HI = high-income countries; LMIC = lower-middle-income countries. Annex H. Resources: GBV Operations and Client Dialogue Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 95 Annex H. Resources: GBV Operations and Client Dialogue Table H.1 lists selected helpful resources for gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response com- piled by the World Bank gender team. In addition to internal resources available to World Bank teams, refer to the GBV page for all resources available for use by task teams. Table H.1. GBV Prevention and Response Resources: Operations and Client Dialogue Resource Purpose Target Designing and implementing GBV interventions 1 Interventions to Prevent or Systematic review of reviews synthesizing evidence TTLs, CMUs, Reduce Violence Against on the effects of prevention interventions on violence GBV specialists Women and Girls: A against women and girls. It examines the diversity of Systematic Review of geographical context, the types of violence addressed, and Reviews the numerous approaches that have been used to combat GBV. 2 Community-Based Paper highlighting examples of effective community TTLs, CMUs, Approaches to Intimate mobilization interventions to prevent IPV including basic GBV specialists, Partner Violence: A Review components that must be considered to adapt successful client of Evidence and Essential interventions to different contexts. Steps to Adaptation 3 Violence against Women Information and sectoral guidance for integrating GBV TTLs, GBV and Girls (VAWG) Resource prevention and response in development programs as well specialists Guide as policies and legislation. 4 Compendia of International Set of practical tools that not only inform about existing TTLs, CMUs, and National Legal laws, but also provide a baseline to help countries identify GBV specialists, Frameworks opportunities to intensify their fight across these areas sector specialists of focus. 5 What Works to Prevent Online resource hub that provides findings and lessons TTLs, CMUs, Violence Against Women from rigorous evaluations across 15 countries on what GBV specialists, and Girls Global Programme works and does not work to prevent violence. sector specialists – online resource 6 RESPECT Women: A series of practical resources and tools that support TTLs, CMUs, Preventing Violence against the implementation of the RESPECT Women: Preventing GBV specialists, Women – Implementation Violence against Women Framework that was developed sector specialists Package by WHO with UN Women and other partners. Annex H. Resources: GBV Operations and Client Dialogue 96 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement Resource Purpose Target 7 INSPIRE – Seven Strategies A package of evidence-based strategies to prevent and TTLs, CMUs, for Ending Violence Against respond to violence against children. GBV specialists, Children sector specialists 8 Collective Action to Reduce A set of resources on collective prevention and response TTLs, CMUs, Gender-Based Violence approach against GBV, including sector-specific notes GBV specialists, (CARE-GBV) Resources and how to notes (such as how to identify and advance sector specialists equitable social norms and how to implement a survivor- centered approach to GBV programming). Ethical guidance for GBV research 9 WHO (2016a) Ethical and Guidance building on lessons from the WHO Researcher, Safety Recommendations publication Putting Women First: Ethical and Safety social and GBV for Intervention Research Recommendations for Research on Domestic Violence specialists on Violence against Women against Women. leading consultation on GBV for World Bank 10 WHO (2007) Ethical and Guidance for all staff involved in addressing sexual Researchers, Safety Recommendations violence in humanitarian settings. social and GBV for Researching, specialists Documenting and leading Monitoring Sexual Violence consultation on in Emergencies GBV for World Bank 11 Ellsberg and Heise (2005) Manual designed to help researchers and activists, Researchers, Researching Violence community workers, and service providers understand social and GBV Against Women: A Practical the intersection of violence and health in developing specialists Guide for Researchers and countries, how to adapt traditional research techniques leading Activists to investigate physical and sexual abuse, and the specific consultation on issues that accompany research on violence. GBV for World Bank Guidance note related to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment (SEA/SH) mitigation12 12 World Bank Good Practice A technical note that helps World Bank task teams in TTLs, CMUs, Note on Addressing Sexual identifying and addressing risks of SEA/SH that can GBV specialists, Exploitation and Abuse and emerge or be exacerbated in projects involving major civil client Sexual Harassment works contracts. The Good Practice Note seeks to support (SEA/SH) in Investment the implementation of the environmental and social Project framework in World Bank–financed operations (World Financing involving Major Bank 2022c). Civil Works 13 World Bank Good Practice A technical note that helps World Bank task teams in TTLs, CMUs, Note on Addressing Sexual identifying and addressing risks of SEA/SH that can GBV specialists, Exploitation and Abuse and emerge or be exacerbated in health, education, and social client Sexual Harassment (SEA/ protection operations. The Good Practice Note seeks to SH) in Human Development support the implementation of the environmental and Operations social framework in World Bank–financed operations (World Bank 2022c). 14 Gender-Based Violence A technical guide that lists evidence-based standards for TTLs, CMUs, Quality Assurance Tool: providing high-quality post-GBV care in health facilities. GBV specialists, Facilitation Guide client Annex I. GBV-Related GIL, DEC, and DIME Impact Evaluations Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 97 Annex I. GBV-Related GIL, DEC, and DIME Impact Evaluations Table I.1. Summary of GIL Impact Evaluations Related to GBV IE/research project Region Economy Study type Description Impact evaluations of World Bank–financed operations Rwanda: Preventing AFE Rwanda Impact Evaluation of a couples discussion program and Addressing Sexual evaluation designed to engage new fathers in and Gender-Based promoting reproductive and maternal health Violence (P153911) (subcomponent of the Great Lakes Emergency Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Women’s Health Project (P147489)).  Democratic Republic AFE Congo, Dem. Impact Evaluation of the Narrative Exposure Therapy of Congo: Great Lakes Rep. evaluation for female survivors of violence in the context Sexual and Gender- of the Great Lakes Emergency Sexual and Based Violence Project: Gender-Based Violence and Women’s Health Narrative Exposure Project (Subcomponent of the Great Lakes Therapy (P153911) Emergency Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Women’s Health Project (P147489)). Cameroon Social AFW Cameroon Impact Evaluation of the addition of two different Safety Net Project evaluation interventions to the safety net project’s package of accompanying measures. The new interventions are meant to reduce IPV by encouraging collaborative household resource management and healthy communication within households participating in the Cameroon Safety Net Program (P128534). Ongoing. Mauritania Tekavoul AFW Mauritania Impact Evaluation of the addition of couples-level and Project evaluation community-level interventions to encourage healthy intrahousehold relationships, a reduction in IPV, and a shift in gender norms in households and communities participating in the Mauritania Adaptive Social Protection program (P171125). Ongoing.  Annex I. GBV-Related GIL, DEC, and DIME Impact Evaluations 98 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement IE/research project Region Economy Study type Description Sahel Women’s AFW Africa Impact Multicountry study of the impact of the Empowerment and evaluation Project (P150080). Some of the IEs will Demographic Dividend measure girls’ experience of violence as one of IE the outcomes of interest. This project and the IEs also specifically focus on age of marriage, with a goal of reducing early marriage. Ongoing.  Mozambique: AFE Mozambique Impact Under design: an evaluation of components of Empowering Youth IE evaluation the Mozambique Harnessing the Demographic (design Dividend (P166100) project, which will provide phase) support to adolescent girls and their parents with the goals of empowering youth to make informed reproductive and economic decisions. Nigeria: Adolescent AFW Nigeria Impact Under design: an evaluation associated with Girls Initiative evaluation the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and for Learning and (design Empowerment Project in Nigeria (P170664), Empowerment IE phase) which aims to improve education, SRH, and labor market outcomes for girls in secondary school. The intervention will include 1) safe spaces with life skills and socioemotional skills training and 2) digital literacy training. Zambia: Keeping Girls AFE Zambia Impact Under design: an evaluation of a component in School IE evaluation of the Zambia Keeping Girls in School (design (P151451) Project that will test an phase) intervention aimed at reducing school-related GBV. Lao PDR IE of Public EAP Lao PDR Impact Evaluation of the impacts of a public workfare Workfare Programs evaluation program as supported by the Poverty (P168884) Reduction Fund III Additional Financing (P168620) on women’s experience of GBV. The Philippines IE of a EAP The Impact IE that focuses on GBV and empowerment CCT (P168885) Philippines evaluation and explores some of the channels through which Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) may affect GBV (Philippines Social Welfare Development and Reform Project II (P153744); SWDRP II Project Additional Financing (P169637)).  Impact evaluations of non–World Bank–financed operations and other research GBV Phone Surveys EAP Indonesia, Inferential Phone surveys measuring economic and social Lao PDR, changes felt by respondents since the onset Philippines of the COVID-19 pandemic, including their experiences of GBV and their mental health.  Democratic Republic of AFE Congo, Dem. Impact Evaluation of a GBV prevention program Congo: Prevention and Rep. evaluation implemented by the International Rescue Mitigation of Sexual Committee (IRC) in North and South Kivu, and Gender-Based Democratic Republic of Congo with an Violence in North and accompanying qualitative study.  South Kivu Project (P150651) Annex I. GBV-Related GIL, DEC, and DIME Impact Evaluations Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 99 IE/research project Region Economy Study type Description Uganda IE on AFE Uganda Impact Evaluation of a BRAC program that included Empowering evaluation a safe spaces component for empowering Adolescent Girls adolescent girls. Tanzania Safe Space AFE Tanzania Impact Impact evaluation of two interventions built Clubs for Adolescent evaluation on top of safe space clubs for adolescent Girls and Soccer girls: (a) a goal-setting activity for girls; (b) Clubs for Boys Impact soccer clubs plus education on SRH for boys Evaluation to measure the impact on girls’ experience of violence (implemented by BRAC, Marie Stopes, and Grassroot Soccer).  Malawi Graduation AFE Malawi Impact Impact evaluation that measures the impact Program Impact evaluation on gender dynamics within the household and Evaluation rates of IPV, comparing (a) households where women are the recipients of the Concern International graduation program support, (b) men are the recipients of the graduation program support, and (c) female recipients plus the couples participate in structured empowerment training known as ‘family first.’  Improving LCR Peru Randomized Paper examining how to measure IPV Measurement of IPV controlled effectively using experimental evidence. (P169049) trial Exploring if Gender LCR Brazil Inferential Study examining if improving women’s Wage Ratio Influences economic status relative to men’s as IPV Using Evidence measured by the gender wage ratio reduces from Administrative IPV in Brazil (Reynolds 2021; see also Perova, Health Data Reynolds, and Schmutte 2021) A Conditional Cash LCR Brazil Inferential Study exploring how conditional cash transfer Transfer and Women’s may influence IPV. Empowerment: Does Bolsa Familia Influence Intimate Partner Violence? Women’s Police LCR Brazil Inferential Study estimating the effects of women’s Stations and Intimate police stations in Brazil on female homicides Partner Violence: as a measure of the most severe form of IPV. Evidence from Brazil List Randomization SAR India Inferential Study analyzing the incidence and extent to Measure the to which domestic violence and physical Prevalence of GBV in harassment on public/private buses is Kerala underreported in Kerala. For the Sake of Family SAR India, Inferential Study unraveling this understudied and and Tradition: Honor Pakistan underreported form of violence against Killings in India and women and girls with a content analysis of Pakistan media literature. Annex I. GBV-Related GIL, DEC, and DIME Impact Evaluations 100 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement IE/research project Region Economy Study type Description Women’s SAR Bangladesh Inferential Study investigating the relationship between Empowerment and safety perception and women’s labor market Safety Perceptions: outcome in Bangladesh. Evidence from Low- Income Neighborhoods of Dhaka, Bangladesh Bangladesh: SAR Bangladesh Randomized Impact evaluation that tests whether Randomized Controlled controlled providing new job opportunities through a Trial on Digital Labor trial digital platform and training can advance the Platforms and Training economic lives of domestic workers and lead and Conditions of to gains in income and improvements in the Work for Domestic conditions of work, including reductions in the Workers experiences of abuse and violence, conducted in partnership with Oxfam Bangladesh and an app, Hellotask. How Well do Economic SAR Evidence An evidence review of findings from women’s Empowerment Efforts review economic empowerment interventions with Prevent Intimate direct IPV measures. Partner Violence in South Asia? Note: AFE = Eastern and Southern Africa; AFW = Western and Central Africa; EAP = East Asia and Pacific; ECA = Eastern Europe and Central Asia; IE = impact evaluation; LCR = Latin America and the Caribbean; SAR = South Asia. Annex I. GBV-Related GIL, DEC, and DIME Impact Evaluations Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 101 Table I.2. Selection of Development Impact Evaluation (DIME)/Development Economics Group (DEC) Studies Examining and Analyzing GBV-Related Issues IE/research project Region Country Description Safety First: Perceived Risk SAR India A study examining the consequences of unsafe public of Street Harassment and spaces of women found that women choose lower- Educational Choices of quality colleges relative to men because of the fear of Women harassment. Using Social Media to SAR India A paper studying the effectiveness of two short Change Gender Norms: An edutainment campaigns delivered through Facebook Experimental Evaluation Messenger aiming to reshape gender norms and reduce Within Facebook Messenger social acceptability of violence against women found in Urban India that edutainment delivered through social media can be an effective tool for reshaping gender norms and attitudes toward violence against women and girls. Demand for ‘Safe Spaces’: LCR Brazil A study investigating the economic cost of Avoiding Harassment and harassment in public transport found that harassment Stigma is widely common in the public space. Riding in the reserved space reduces the incidents of physical harassment by 50 percent, but the paper argues that such measures might implicitly place the responsibility on women to ensure safety. Gender Violence, Enforcement, LCR Peru A paper examining specialized institutions that and Human Capital: Evidence provide policy, medical, and legal services in Peru from Women’s Justice called women’s justice centers (WJCs) concluded that Centers in Peru opening a center reduced the incidences of GBV. Public Works and Welfare: A AFR Comoros An impact evaluation measuring the effectiveness Randomized Control Trial of of the Comoros Social Safety Net Project (SSNP) the Comoros Social Safety found that the project had increased the probability Net Project—Endline Report of women having an income-generating activity but yielded no evidence on the program’s impact on women’s bargaining power and the perception and exposure to GBV. Understanding and AFR Tanzania A new mobile application was developed to measure Addressing Gender-Based the incidents of violence and harassment during daily Violence in Public Transport commute in the city. A forthcoming study will use the for Highly Vulnerable Groups data collected through the app and female ridership in Dar es Salaam data to assess the impact on GBV in public spaces on women’s physical mobility. A survey of Dar es Salaam female commuters shows that 59 percent of women interviewed experienced some form of GBV while traveling at least once in the past six months. Girl Empower—A Gender AFR Liberia A study examining the impact of the Girl Empower Transformative Mentoring program found that the program did not decline the and Cash Transfer incidence of sexual violence experienced by program Intervention to Promote beneficiaries but did have some effects on gender Adolescent Wellbeing: Impact attitudes, life skills, and sexual and reproductive health Findings from a Cluster- outcomes. Randomized Controlled Trial in Liberia Annex I. GBV-Related GIL, DEC, and DIME Impact Evaluations 102 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement IE/research project Region Country Description Tanzanian Couples’ AFR Tanzania An evaluation of the data from the RESPECT study Perspectives on Gender (a randomized controlled trial that evaluated an Equity, Relationship Power, intervention to prevent sexually transmitted infections and Intimate Partner Violence: amongst young Tanzanian men and women) to Findings from the RESPECT understand couples’ attitudes about IPV, relationship Study power, etc. suggested that inequitable attitudes and couple discordance were associated with higher risk of IPV. Terror as a Bargaining SAR India A study examining how domestic violence may be used Instrument: A Case Study of as a bargaining instrument to extract larger dowries Dowry Violence in Rural India from a spouse’s family found that women whose families pay smaller dowries suffer from increased risk of marital violence. Nutrition, Religion, and AFR Nigeria A study reviewing Muslim and Christian women Widowhood in Nigeria: in Nigeria found that Muslim women have lower Economic Development and nutritional status than Christian women and more Cultural Change Christian widows were subjected to a higher incidence of cruelty and violence at the hands of in-laws and inferior inheritance outcomes than Muslim widows. Entertainment, Education, AFR Nigeria A study that found that the TV series MTV Shuga and Attitudes Toward induced an improvement in men’s attitudes toward Domestic Violence women eight months later. It also found that attitudes toward GBV significantly improve for men and women who report occasionally thinking about the characters and who remember specific facts about them. Hard Skills or Soft Talk: AFR Malawi This paper analyses to what extent a hard skill Unintended Consequences (vocational training) and a soft skill (inspirational of a Vocational Training talk) intervention affected childbearing decisions, HIV and an Inspiration Talk on testing, and transactional sex in young people. It finds Childbearing and Sexual that receiving an offer to attend a vocational training Behavior in Vulnerable Youth program decreased the chances of becoming a mother and increased the chances of being HIV-tested in both women and men. The chances of facing demands for transactional sex decreased for those women receiving the offer to attend the vocational training. Learning How to Choose SAR Bangladesh A study implementing field experiments designed to or Learning How to Lead? understand the importance of the selection of and Experiments on Selecting and training for new female supervisors in Bangladesh’s Training Female Managers garment factories found that formal diagnostic tests in Bangladesh’s Garment lead factories to select better candidates. Diagnostics Industry measuring attitudes and soft skills are particularly relevant for factories and predictive of later outcomes. Supervisory training for the selected candidates leads to higher rates of promotions, but has only marginal effects on performance. Note: AFR = Africa; IE = impact evaluation; LCR = Latin America and the Caribbean; SAR = South Asia. Annex J. Regional Action Plans on GBV Prevention and Response Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 103 Annex J. Regional Action Plans on GBV Prevention and Response In recent years, several regions have worked on and knowledge: support better data, enhance a vision for addressing gender-based violence knowledge, and build evidence through impact (GBV) through World Bank operations. In general, evaluations and advisory services and analyt- the regional plans coalesce around strengthen- ics, and so on; (b) policy dialogue: identify legal ing GBV prevention and response in operations, and policy gaps, support implementation, and providing strong analytical work to help frame strengthen institutional capacity through DPF priorities and interventions at a national and and ESF in technical assistance and advi- regional level, supporting policy development, sory services and analytics, and so on; and (c) and contributing to global evidence through our operational engagement: increase the focus on engagement. This annex summarizes the action prevention; improve service delivery; strengthen plans for the three regions that currently have access to justice through program-for-results developed action plans, the Middle East and financing, IPF, and ESF; and reinforce support North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, through technical assistance and advisory ser- and South Asia. vices and analytics. Based on the plan, a series of actions were undertaken, including internal and external dissemination across stakeholders. The findings of the report have been incorpo- The Middle East and North Africa rated into the regional strategy in the Middle East and North Africa, and analytical and oper- The Regional Action Plan in the Middle East and ational activities have commenced. Continuous North Africa was launched in 2021 and identifies follow-up is planned to identify and support legal and policy gaps, weak institutional capac- country and regional efforts in focus areas ity, inadequate protection, services and access in data and analytics, operations, and pol- to justice, combined with discriminatory social icy dialogue and to deepen the knowledge and norms and practices, as major obstacles to engagement in key areas, such as good-quality effectively address GBV. The action plan report service provision and referral systems. also notes that FCV contexts, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic amplify GBV risks and vulnerabilities. Despite political and legal improvements, progress in practice has been slow. Latin America and the Caribbean Ongoing reform processes and increased atten- tion to GBV present a window of opportunity to In FY20, the SSI Latin America and the strengthen World Bank engagement in the region. Caribbean GBV team launched a four-year GBV Action Plan validated by the Regional The GBV Action Plan identifies key entry Management Team. The Action Plan outlines points for the World Bank in the Middle East the approach and strategy for GBV prevention and North Africa among three pillars: (a) data and response in the region. The Plan includes four Annex J. Regional Action Plans on GBV Prevention and Response 104 Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement pillars that respond strategically to the needs South Asia to address GBV in the region. Pillar 1, mitigating the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse and sex- The South Asia region has recently approved ual harassment in World Bank projects, focuses on a new Regional Gender Action Plan (FY2023– offering assistance for all World Bank projects in FY2027). The new framework for South Asia, the region to implement prevention and mitiga- RGAP II, consists of three focus areas, namely, tion measures, such as codes of conduct, training, human capital, women’s economic empower- GRMs, GBV plans, and so on, to reduce the inci- ment, and GBV. GBV was added as a third pillar dence of sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual in the new framework, acknowledging the high harassment, while projects are being carried out. rates of GBV in the region and the fact that GBV Pillar 2, working to prevent GBV through World Bank is a major barrier to women’s ability to partici- operations, aims to contribute to regional efforts pate in social and economic life. against GBV by introducing and promoting inter- ventions to address GBV in World Bank projects. The South Asia RGAP II identifies entry points It involves fostering innovative approaches to for regional engagement in GBV prevention and prevent GBV, changing pervasive social norms, response through (a) analytics, (b) operations, and improving access to services for GBV survi- and (c) policy dialogue (using DPCs as critical vors. Pillar 3, producing analytical evidence to inform entry points) and will focus on exploring part- interventions, is a cross-cutting pillar that provides nerships with other organizations to help in the useful information regarding GBV in countries in delivery of quality services and GBV prevention Latin America and the Caribbean for the design programs as well as enable joint engagement and implementation of policies and operations on policy dialogue on key issues at the country (supporting pillars 1 and 2) by addressing some of level. The South Asia RGAP II will promote GBV the existing data gaps in the region. The activities prevention and response in health systems and include developing country GBV profiles, providing scale up community prevention interventions. support on GBV research and evaluations about Another objective in the South Asia RGAP is to “what works” in a given context, and providing support critical reforms on GBV to expand wom- technical assistance to the projects that require en’s empowerment. For instance, one of the prior information on GBV by complementing their anal- actions in the Bhutan COVID-19 Crisis Response ysis with existing data or helping the teams to DPC was the approval of the Gender and design and/or carry out data collection processes Child Protection Emergency Preparedness and in Latin America and the Caribbean. Finally, pillar Response Plan. The plan focuses on strength- 4, promoting strategic engagement with stakeholders ening case management services as well as to address GBV, focuses on strengthening the pol- improving referrals and standard operating pro- icy dialogue on GBV by providing short-, medium-, cedures for the provision of remote psychosocial and long-term strategic direction, structure, and services. In addition, in recent years, many South comprehensive guidance for communication and Asian countries have reformed GBV laws, par- engagement on the issue of GBV. This cross-cut- ticularly laws regarding sexual harassment and ting pillar includes activities such as webinars, sexual violence. The South Asia RGAP outlines developing alliances with international and local entry points for further engagement in legisla- organizations, NGOs, academia, and so on. The tive reform through DPCs. Finally, the South Asia GBV Action Plan for Latin America and the RGAP II includes a specific focus on preventing Caribbean includes specific activities, outcomes and responding to child marriage, given its high and indicators to be delivered per year for every social and economic costs—including through Pillar. World Bank–financed operations. Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response in World Bank Operations: Taking Stock After a Decade of Engagement 111