Women in Development and Gender Study

124 items available

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2190

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Towards a More Equitable Development: Constraints and Opportunities for Women in Djibouti

(Washington, DC, 2023-03-17) World Bank

Djibouti has experienced a record of strong economic growth and has made considerable progress in various developmental indicators in recent years. Despite this important progress, major challenges remain as Djibouti’s development has not been equitable nor inclusive, including from a gender perspective. Djibouti has experienced dynamic social change reflected in the considerable improvement over the years in women’s rights and responsibilities as well as their access to opportunities, but the patriarchal societal structure and the disconnect between constitutional and legal frameworks continue to impede women. This gender assessment provides a comprehensive view of the status of women in Djibouti along three dimensions: endowments in human capital, economic opportunities, as well as voice and agency, which encompasses issues such as gender based violence, decision making, and political participation, among others.
South Asia Second Regional Gender Action Plan (RGAP) II, 2023–2028

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-03-16) World Bank Group

The focus and approach of South Asia Second Regional Gender Action Plan (SAR RGAP) are based on an analysis of regional trends in key gender outcomes in South Asia, an assessment of SAR RGAP, and an extensive set of consultations, including country-level consultations conducted across the WBG. Implementation of SAR RGAP will take place in the context of the WBG’s broader strategy for gender and the latest International Development Association (IDA) commitments. The World Bank Group Gender Strategy prioritizes four domains of gender equality: (a) improving human endowments, (b) more and better jobs for men and women, (c) women’s access to productive assets, and (d) improving women’s voice and agency and engaging men and boys (WBG 2015). An update of the Gender Strategy is currently under preparation, with completion expected in 2024. SAR RGAP aligns with this broader strategy but is also selective and therefore focuses on the most pressing gender gaps in the region. SAR RGAP also follows the December 2021 IDA replenishment, aligning with all eight of its policy commitments for gender: (i) investing in women’s empowerment, (ii) scaling up productive economic inclusion, (iii) expanding childcare, (iv) supporting medium, and high-skilled employment opportunities for women, (v) closing the gap in digital technology, (vi) strengthening women’s land rights, (vii) increasing support for prevention of and response to GBV, and (viii) implementing fiscal policy and budget systems to close gender gaps.
Gender in Preparedness and Response Toolkit (GENPAR)

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-10-14) Pande, Rohini P. ; Mollard, Ingrid Marie Pierre ; Lnu, Nilofer Khan Habibullah

Both biological sex differences and social gender differences can result in gender-differentiated risks, exposure, infection and outcomes of infectious diseases, including epidemics. If these differences are not integrated into measurement and reporting of symptoms and alerts to track infectious diseases, they will not be incorporated into planning for prevention, preparedness and response (PPR). This lacuna, in turn, results in incomplete planning, programming and targeting of PPR actions, and thus ineffective and inefficient control of outbreaks such that persons of the disadvantaged gender have inadequate access to health and other services. PPR then does not reach the entire population at risk. Effective PPR also necessitates addressing gender gaps in human resources. Across gender, people are resources. For example, in their role as frontline health workers, household carers of the sick, livestock managers, and those responsible for water and food preparation, women can be enormous resources for PPR in communities. If women are not engaged in PPR, these experiences and knowledge are not fully exploited for effective PPR.
Enterprising Women: Toward Equal Business Opportunity in Southeast Asia

(Washington, DC, 2022-08-30) World Bank

This report explores gender differences in entrepreneurship for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) in Southeast Asia. It analyzes data from five Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Timor-Leste, and Vietnam, and reviews existing evidence from across the region. Using data from household and firm-level surveys, the report establishes stylized facts about gender gaps in participation in entrepreneurship and in business performance for two types of businesses: microbusinesses and small and medium enterprises (SME). Microbusinesses include businesses with less than 5 employees, and SMEs include businesses with between 5 and 100 employees. This study focuses on MSMEs because they account for 97 percent of all enterprises in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries and because the owner’s gender may have a greater influence on the outcomes of MSMEs than large businesses, which are more likely to have multiple owners or be part of a larger corporation. After establishing stylized facts about gender gaps in entrepreneurship, the report employs various econometric. techniques to understand better the factors that are associated with these gaps. Finally, the report makes a case for policy action and presents a review of global evidence on how these factors are best addressed.
The Business Case for Gender-Responsive Climate-Smart Mining

(Washington, DC, 2022-08-08) International Finance Corporation

Transitioning to a low-carbon economy is critical to the sustainability of the planet. A recent World Bank report found that increasing demand for clean energy technologies can increase demand for minerals such as graphite, lithium, and cobalt by nearly 500 percent by 2050. Even though the authors expect recycling rates to go up in the future, mining will still be required to supply critical minerals: the shift to a low-carbon future will be mineral-intensive, and mining will remain a critical industry. It is in this context that the World Bank Group established the climate-smart mining initiative (CSM), which is sustained by a partnership between industry and country governments. The initiative supports the sustainable extraction, processing, and recycling of the minerals and metals that are needed for low-carbon technologies. The concept is built upon four pillars: (i) climate mitigation; (ii) climate adaptation; (iii) reducing material impacts; and (iv) creating market opportunities.
Behavioral Sciences Approach to Empowering Women in Forest Landscape: Diagnostics Toolkit

(Washington, DC, 2022-07) World Bank

Forests and terrestrial ecosystems play a primary environmental role in climate-change mitigation and adaptation. In many developing countries, forests provide ecosystem services and support the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people, mainly the poorest and most vulnerable in rural areas. The sustainable management of natural resources can reduce poverty and enhance shared prosperity at the local level. As countries develop Natural Resource Management (NRM) and forest management, it is crucial to ensure that these processes include women in productive, income-generating activities. Men and women access, use, and manage forests differently, as seen in the gendered nature of activities such as gathering forest products, hunting, wood harvesting, and mineral collection. Furthermore, there are persistent gender gaps in access to services, inputs (including credit and financing), markets, value-addition activities, land tenure, representation, and agency. The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and the World Bank (WB) have outlined a program aimed at promoting gender equality in REDD+ and foresty strategies and implementation. The FCPF is a global partnership of governments, businesses, civil society, and Indigenous Peoples (IPs) focused on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, forest carbon stock conservation, sustainable forest management, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries, activities commonly referred to as REDD+. This document aims to help task teams and practitioners identify and diagnose factors contributing to gender gaps in sustainable forest projects in FCPF countries by providing nine people-centered research tools based in the behavioral sciences. Such gaps can be rooted in gender norms, roles, and beliefs, attentional limitations, and procedural hassles, among others.
DIGITAGRO - Investing in Digital Technology to Increase Market Access for Women Agri-preneurs in Guatemala

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-03-31) Perego, Viviana M.E. ; Romero, Javier ; Freeman, Katie ; Lopez, Angela ; Ortiz, Glenn ; Salas, Hugo ; Ramirez, Rudy ; Locatelli, Arianna ; Orihuela, Danielle ; de Ferrari, Camila

Despite the strong role played by the agri-food sector in Guatemala’s economic performance and employment, reflected in high exports and strong results by larger commercial agri-businesses, small producers face daunting levels of market access, revenue generation capacity, and resilience. Schools in remote areas, however, often lack information on which producer to buy their food from, as well as basic knowledge on safe and hygienic cooking practices. These challenges are further exacerbated for women producers, who face higher information gaps, lower market access, and higher informality than their male counterparts, compounded by restrictive social norms and disempowerment. Yet, women who are engaged in agriculture have ample potential to be engaged in the school feeding business, as they tend to specialize in the production of foods that are in high demand by school. The School Feeding Program (SFP) thus represents a crucial window of opportunity for rural women in Guatemala, and a vehicle for their evolution from invisible farmers to proper agri-preneurs – economic agents in their own right in the agribusiness space. Information diffusion through digital technologies can increase market participation in rural areas and holds promise to enhance the status of women in the business sphere. The World Bank’s DIGITAGRO project, piloted digital technologies to improve market access for women agripreneurs, so they could supply the School Feeding Program in a fair, safe, sustainable, and profitable way while helping schools improve children’s nutrition. The purpose of this report is to describe the DIGITAGRO project and to present the findings of the impact evaluation study on the information campaign, in order to derive lessons on the use of digital technologies to promote market access for rural women, with a specific focus on their inclusion in Guatemala’s School Feeding Program The rest of the report is organized as follows. Chapter 2 provides an overview of family farming in Guatemala, including an assessment of the gaps encountered by rural women, and highlights child nutrition issues in the country. Chapter 3 describes the School Feeding Program, highlighting its functioning, the main actors involved, its expected benefits and the challenges it faces. Chapter 4 presents the DIGITAGRO project, providing a rationale for the use of digital technologies in agriculture, describing the main activities of the project, and providing details on the set-up of the impact evaluation study. Chapter 5 presents the experimental setting and main findings of the impact evaluation, whereas the potential mechanisms that could be driving the results are explored in Chapter 6, together with recommendations for promoting participation in the School Feeding Program. Chapter 7 discusses lessons learned and concludes.
Fostering Gender-Transformative Change in Sustainable Forest Management: The Case of the Dedicated Grant Mechanism (DGM)

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-03-10) Canpolat, Ezgi ; Shakirova, Meerim ; McElhinny, Vince ; Westerman, Kame ; Cruz, Alli ; Buppert, Theresa

Since 2015, the Dedicated Grant Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (DGM) has provided a unique model for inclusive and bottom-up approaches to delivering climate finance for sustainable forest management. Through 12 country-level programs designed and implemented by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), the DGM is guiding investment of around $80 million and impacting the livelihoods of over 200,000 people. DGM supported activities are intended to be designed and implemented in a gender-responsive and socially inclusive manner and aim to improve key gender equality outcomes based on the particular and varied contexts of DGM countries.
Closing Gaps, Increasing Opportunities: A Diagnostic on Women’s Economic Empowerment in Nigeria

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-03-03) World Bank

As Nigeria faces the immediate challenge of stimulating economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and corresponding economic shocks, it also can address the sizable gender gaps that undermine women’s economic empowerment and hinder inclusive economic growth. Gender disparities in earnings not only hold back the Nigerian economy, they also represent an opportunity: closing the gender gaps in key economic sectors could yield additional gains of US9.3 billion dollars or up to US22.9 billion dollars. Women’s economic empowerment will also be key to accelerating a demographic transition and reaping the gains of a demographic dividend. Drawing on data from the most recent Nigeria General Household Survey (2018-2019), this report makes five critical contributions: (1) highlighting the gender gaps in labor force participation; (2) documenting the magnitude and drivers of the gender gaps in key economic sectors; (3) diving deep into three contextual constraints: land, livestock, and occupational segregation; (4) measuring the costs of the gender gaps; and (5) offering policy and programming recommendations of innovative options to close the gender gaps.
Realizing Sustainability Through Diversity: The Case for Gender Diversity Among Sri Lanka’s Business Leadership

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-03) International Finance Corporation

This report makes the case for greater gender diversity on Sri Lanka’s corporate boards and in senior management by highlighting the value propositions of such diversity for companies, communities, and ultimately the country. Diversity is about more than just gender, ethnicity, or religion. However, this report focuses primarily on promoting gender diversity in the workplace, particularly in the corporate boardroom and among senior management. Empirical evidence from around the world shows the importance and value of gender diversity in improving firms’ overall performance, including but not limited to financial performance. Gender diversity among business leaders typically leads to better decision-making processes and better monitoring and strategy involvement. The business case for gender balance at the top goes beyond financial performance. Extensive research shows that having more women in business leadership positions leads to higher environmental, social, and governance standards, with a particularly clear connection when women achieve a critical mass of about 30 percent on company boards. Companies with enhanced environmental, social, and governance standards also perform better on critical metrics: stronger internal controls and management oversight, reduced risk of fraud or other ethical violations, positive workplace environment, greater stakeholder engagement, and improved reputation and brand. Therefore, having a more gender-balanced board and leadership team contributes to stronger environmental, social, and governance performance, which, in turn, leads to better business performance. Ultimately, diversity is about ensuring companies’ competitiveness, performance, and long-term sustainability.