Accelerating gender equality for sustainable growth and resilience
The world is experiencing an unprecedented set of intertwined crises with particularly negative impacts on women, girls, sexual and gender minorities, and marginalized people. These crises threaten hard-won gains in human capital, economic empowerment, and voice and agency. The negative impacts are further compounded by discriminatory laws and policies, restrictive social norms, gender-based violence, and growing backlash against gender equality.
The ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP Group helps countries work toward progress on gender equality and women's empowerment to achieve sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development. Our work is guided by our for 2016¨C23, which seeks to close gaps between men and women across four key pillars: human endowments (health, education, and social protection), jobs, assets, and voice and agency. In fiscal 2023, 95 percent of ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP-financed operations identified a gender gap, devised an intervention to address the gap, and tracked the results¡ªan increase from 50 percent in fiscal 2017. In June 2023, we published our retrospectives on and , looking at progress made in these areas over the past decade. And through our #AccelerateEquality campaign, we hosted a series of analytics, partnerships, events, and milestones to reflect on progress made over the past decade. We continue to engage with stakeholders to inform the 2024¨C30 World ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP Group Gender Strategy.
Through IDA, we tackle challenges at the forefront of gender equality and girls¡¯ and women¡¯s empowerment, including around sexual and reproductive health, child care, economic inclusion, entry of women into higher-skilled jobs, gender-based violence, and fiscal policy and budget system reforms. IDA resources have supported over in targeted areas and reached more than 700 million women and girls since fiscal 2015.
The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality finances impact evaluations to inform solutions that can be adapted by governments, development partners, and the private sector. We collect and curate data through the , which provides sex-disaggregated data for over 900 indicators covering demography, education, health, economic activities, assets, leadership, gender-based violence, and more to inform policies and programs.
We help women participate in economic activity and promote productive economic inclusion. We support cash-for-work programs, greater child care support, agricultural extension services, and better access to financial and digital services, including credit and liquidity for women-led firms. In Serbia, we are improving scientific research, entrepreneurship, and access to finance, with more than half of the $6.8 million in science grants awarded going to women. In countries like , , and , we help provide safe spaces for girls in schools, improve girls¡¯ sexual and reproductive health, and work with teachers to change norms. Through our support for the , we help unlock financing and support systems for women-led and -owned businesses in developing countries. Since 2018, We-Fi has worked with hundreds of partners in over 60 countries to catalyze billions in funding to provide finance and training and address systemic data and policy gaps.
We also aim to make climate action more effective and inclusive. In Costa Rica, we worked with the government and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility on a gender analysis to support women¡¯s involvement in activities that help reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation as well as conserve and enhance forest carbon stocks.
We work to prevent and respond to gender-based violence by supporting remote counseling services, educating parents on healthy relationships, addressing sexual harassment on public transport, training health workers to identify and refer cases, and strengthening data collection and referral mechanisms. We are helping school management and teachers in Tanzania better prevent and address gender-based violence. We are also addressing gender-based violence through development policy operations, including through stronger legal protections and redress systems.
The ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP Group is committed to non-discrimination, inclusion, and equal opportunity for all, encompassing sexual and gender minorities. Our research and engagement tackles disadvantages facing men and boys, as well as vulnerabilities arising from the intersection of gender with other characteristics, such as poverty, ethnicity, and disability.
Women, Business, and the Law
measures the laws and regulations that affect women¡¯s economic opportunities in 190 economies. This report contributes to research and policy discussions about women¡¯s economic empowerment by examining the economic decisions women make throughout their working lives, as well as the pace of reform over the past five decades. It presents eight indicators about women¡¯s interactions with the law as they move through their lives and careers: mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pension.
The latest edition provides a comprehensive look at global progress toward gender equality in the law. It finds that strong progress has been made since 1970, with the average score improving by nearly 70 percent, from 45.8 to 77.1 points. However, reform fatigue seems to have set in, and in 2022, the global pace of reforms fell to a 20-year low. The report highlights that more needs to be done worldwide to ensure that good intentions are accompanied by tangible results.