Publication:
What do We Know About Interventions to Increase Women’s Economic Participation and Empowerment in South Asia?: Financial Products

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (2.34 MB)
435 downloads
English Text (100.11 KB)
37 downloads
Published
2023-04-07
ISSN
Date
2023-04-07
Editor(s)
Abstract
The World Bank’s South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab (SARGIL) is conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions with direct or indirect effects on measures of women’s economic empowerment. The review focuses on changes in labor market outcomes, income, and other empowerment indicators. The goal is to document what has and has not worked for women in the region (covering all countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), understand the types of interventions implemented, and identify gaps in knowledge and action. Interventions are organized into five categories: Skills, Assets, Financial Products, Care, and Empowerment. This brief summarizes the main findings from the financial products category.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Javed, Amna; Zahra, Najaf; Boudet, Ana Maria Munoz. 2023. What do We Know About Interventions to Increase Women’s Economic Participation and Empowerment in South Asia?: Financial Products. Systematic Review on Women's Economic Empowerment; March 2023. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39646 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    What do We Know About Interventions to Increase Women’s Economic Participation and Empowerment in South Asia?
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-09) Zahra, Najaf; Javed, Amna; Munoz Boudet, Ana Maria
    The World Bank’s South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab (SAR GIL) is conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions with direct or indirect effects on measures of women’s economic empowerment. The review focuses on changes in labor force participation, employment, income, and empowerment outcomes. The goal is to document what has worked and what has not for women in the region (covering all countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), the types of interventions implemented, and identifiable gaps in knowledge and action. The review organizes interventions in six broad categories: skills, assets, credit, labor market, entrepreneurship, and empowerment. This note summarizes the main findings from asset transfer interventions and changes in inheritance and property right policies.
  • Publication
    What Do We Know About Interventions to Increase Women’s Economic Participation and Empowerment in South Asia
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-25) Zahra, Najaf; Javed, Amna; Munoz Boudet, Ana Maria
    The Care category covers interventions and mandates that reduce the care burden on women and, consequently, enable them to participate as active economic agents. For the review, care responsibilities are defined as activities that keep women engaged in looking after members of their household. Particularly, the review explores care activities that prevent women of working age from entering the labor force, both at the extensive and intensive margins. Household care activities include childcare, elder care, and care for the sick and disabled. The research for this review accounts for interventions that reduce this burden of care on women and enable them to enter or re-enter the work force. First, this includes childcare services—those provided by the government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private and employer-provided, or supported onsite childcare. Second, it accounts for policies or mandates that provide women with care services and childcare mandates. It also includes additional mandates that provide families with tax breaks, vouchers, and subsidy benefits to help with care responsibilities, and it accounts for labor market regulations, such as leave, family-friendly policies, and arrangements. Lastly, the review excludes policies or programs that provide education to school-age children beyond the pre-school level.
  • Publication
    What Do We Know About Interventions to Increase Women’s Economic Participation and Empowerment in South Asia?
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06) World Bank
    The World Bank’s South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab is conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions with direct or indirect effects on measures of women’s economic empowerment. The review focuses on changes in labor force participation, employment, income, and empowerment outcomes. The goal is to document what has worked and has not for women in the region (covering all countries; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), the types of interventions implemented, and identifiable gaps in knowledge and action. The review organizes interventions in six broad categories: skills, assets, credit, labor market, entrepreneurship, and empowerment. This note summarizes the main findings from skill-building interventions.
  • Publication
    Social Norms and Gender Disparities with a Focus on Female Labor Force Participation in South Asia
    (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-09-23) Bussolo, Maurizio; Ezebuihe, Jessy Amarachi; Muñoz Boudet, Ana Maria; Poupakis, Stavros; Rahman, Tasmia; Sarma, Nayantara
    Despite decades of economic growth, gender disparities in South Asia remain remarkably high. Although not the only one, social norms are a crucial driver of various gender outcomes, including differential economic participation. Using repeated cross-sectional data from nationally representative surveys, this study explores long-term trends across gender outcomes and social norms(contrasting attitudes and social normative expectations towards gender roles) in South Asia. The results corroborate the evidence that there has been almost no progress in gender disparities in South Asia over the past half-century. There has been little progress in female labor force participation, age at first birth, agency, and intimate partner violence, while (basic) education is an important exception. The lack of progress is apparent among all layers of society, including women who live in urban areas, are educated, and have higher incomes. Gender attitudes also remain unchanged, while for some issues, they have become more conservative and have a negative relationship with gender outcomes. This negative relationship is even stronger when social normative expectations are considered. More data on social norms and a better understanding of their constraining role may be critical for achieving gender equality in the region.
  • Publication
    Women’s Labor Force Participation in Nepal
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-20) Alaref, Jumana; Patil, Aishwarya; Rahman, Tasmia; Munoz Boudet, Ana Maria; Rajbhandary , Jasmine
    Whether and the extent to which social norms matter for women’s labor force participation has been shown to vary by context. This paper presents rigorous evidence on how these relationships hold in the case of Nepal, where female labor force participation remains among the lowest in the world. Using a representative survey covering four provinces in Nepal, data were collected from 2,000 married Nepali women and men on their own beliefs about norms-related behaviors, their expectations of how common it is for others in their social group to engage in those behaviors, and the expected social consequences surrounding those behaviors. Overall, the study finds that personal beliefs and social expectations are generally not very restrictive among respondents, and that there are limited linkages between social norms and women’s work outcomes. However, the study also shows that norms matter for selected subgroups and under certain circumstances that are related to the woman’s role as a mother and in the household as well as to her job characteristics. The findings indicate that relaxing norms in those specific circumstances can help to promote women’s labor force participation in Nepal.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Argentina Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.
  • Publication
    World Bank Annual Report 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-25) World Bank
    This annual report, which covers the period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, has been prepared by the Executive Directors of both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)—collectively known as the World Bank—in accordance with the respective bylaws of the two institutions. Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, has submitted this report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.
  • Publication
    Commodity Markets Outlook, April 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-29) World Bank
    Commodity prices are set to fall sharply this year, by about 12 percent overall, as weakening global economic growth weighs on demand. In 2026, commodity prices are projected to reach a six-year low. Oil prices are expected to exert substantial downward pressure on the aggregate commodity index in 2025, as a marked slowdown in global oil consumption coincides with expanding supply. The anticipated commodity price softening is broad-based, however, with more than half of the commodities in the forecast set to decrease this year, many by more than 10 percent. The latest shocks to hit commodity markets extend a so far tumultuous decade, marked by the highest level of commodity price volatility in at least half a century. Between 2020 and 2024, commodity price swings were frequent and sharp, with knock-on consequences for economic activity and inflation. In the next two years, commodity prices are expected to put downward pressure on global inflation. Risks to the commodity price projections are tilted to the downside. A sharper-than-expected slowdown in global growth—driven by worsening trade relations or a prolonged tightening of financial conditions—could further depress commodity demand, especially for industrial products. In addition, if OPEC+ fully unwinds its voluntary supply cuts, oil production will far exceed projected consumption. There are also important upside risks to commodity prices—for instance, if geopolitical tensions worsen, threatening oil and gas supplies, or if extreme weather events lead to agricultural and energy price spikes.
  • Publication
    Digital-in-Health
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-08-18) World Bank
    Technology and data are integral to daily life. As health systems face increasing demands to deliver new, more, better, and seamless services affordable to all people, data and technology are essential. With the potential and perils of innovations like artificial intelligence the future of health care is expected to be technology-embedded and data-linked. This shift involves expanding the focus from digitization of health data to integrating digital and health as one: Digital-in-Health. The World Bank’s report, Digital-in-Health: Unlocking the Value for Everyone, calls for a new digital-in-health approach where digital technology and data are infused into every aspect of health systems management and health service delivery for better health outcomes. The report proposes ten recommendations across three priority areas for governments to invest in: prioritize, connect and scale.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.