Lending in developing countries:
WB increases gender support
* Gender issues informed the design of
nearly half of Bank lending in 2008
* Gender coverage for economic sectors rose
to 34 percent, reflecting the Bank's Gender Action Plan commitment to
improve gender coverage in those areas
* More is needed to increase women's
economic well-being as their access to earnings will speed up the
economic recovery and fight against poverty
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More is needed to increase women’s
economic well-being as their access to earnings will speed
up the economic recovery and fight against poverty |
Just eight percent of households in Lao PDR are headed by women, but
these families account for 43 percent of the country's poor.
So a pilot initiative last year to bring electric power to Lao's poor
by subsidizing household connections to the electrical grid provided a
welcome boost for women in 20 rural villages. While overall connection
rates in the pilot rose from 78 to 95 percent, rates for female-headed
households increased from 63 to 90 percent.
This innovative pilot, implemented by Electricity, du Laos and funded
by the World Bank (WB) Group's Gender Action Plan and Australia's
overseas aid program, is an example of the overall increase in World
Bank support and lending in fiscal 2008 for gender-related issues in
developing countries to improve women's social and economic conditions.
A new World Bank report, Implementing the Bank's Gender Mainstreaming
Strategy: FY08 Annual Monitoring Report , reveals gender issues informed
the design of 45 percent of all lending operations in fiscal year 2008
-from July 2007 to June 2008 compared to 35 percent in fiscal 2006.
Projects increasingly responsive to gender issues
Gender coverage increased for economic sectors such as agriculture
and rural development, economic policy, private sector development and
infrastructure from 25 percent to 34 percent. Coverage in social and
related sectors such as education, health and social protection jumped
from 59 to 79 percent of all lending operations.
Although gender coverage is still higher in the social sectors, the
Annual Monitoring Report shows faster growth in the economic sectors
(36.1 percent compared to 28.6 percent between FY06 and FY08). That
growth comes on the heels of the Bank's launch of a four-year $60
million Gender Action Plan, which began implementation in January 2007
to improve gender coverage in the economic arena.
"Women in developing countries are increasingly benefiting from World
Bank support but we have to do much more to increase their economic
well-being, especially at a time of crisis," said World Bank Managing
Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. "In the long run, ensuring women's access
to earnings will speed up both the economic recovery and the fight
against poverty."
World Bank Vice-President for Poverty Reduction and Economic
Management Otaviano Canuto adds that "in many countries, women have
caught up or even overtaken men in educational attainment, and yet women
continue to trail men consistently in jobs, access to credit, and the
economic sphere in general.
"This is inefficient. We will continue to make every effort to help
women improve and increase their role in the economy because it is good
for women and for development. It is smart economics."
Gender action plan begins to show results
The Annual Monitoring Report said the Gender Action Plan is beginning
to show results in terms of reaching women on the ground and influencing
Bank operations more widely.
As of January 2009, the plan had allocated $29.3 million to
initiatives in four main areas: operations; results-based initiatives;
research, impact evaluation and statistics; and communications. The
report adds that Gender Action Plan grants have been successful in
leveraging additional financial resources for work on women's economic
empowerment.
Recent results include:
* An increase in the percentage or rural projects designed to be
responsive to gender issues from 43 percent in 2005 to 59 percent in
2008
* A rise in the percentage of rural projects including
gender-informed monitoring and evaluation from 17 percent in 2005 to 31
percent in 2008
* An increase of $48 million (through IFC) to credit lines for women
entrepreneurs through five commercial banks in 12 countries.
The program is also supporting the Adolescent Girls Initiative,
launched in October 2008, that will help adolescent girls and young
women aged 16 to 24 in five countries to complete their education, build
skills that match market demand, find mentors and jobs.
In January 2009, the World Bank Group launched the Private Sector
Leaders' Forum, a council of CEOs and presidents of major international
companies committed to creating economic opportunities for women.
Challenges ahead
In the future, the reports says that to fully implement the gender
mainstreaming strategy, the World Bank should increase gender analysis
in its Economic Sector Work and Country Economic Memoranda, consolidate
the gains in the economic sectors, and better address gender issues
during project supervision, monitoring and evaluation.
The continuation of the Gender Action Plan, which addresses these
challenges, should increase the effectiveness of the Bank's assistance
to client countries to speed up progress in poverty reduction and the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, the report said.
- World Bank
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