Accelerate Equality and Empowerment: How Women’s Leadership and Collective Action Can Make a Difference

Each region needs effective policy options backed by evidence. The mix of policy options that should be adopted needs to reflect unique challenges of each region/country - adopted interventions need to align with the most pressing constraints alongside addressing economy-wide gender discriminatory laws that impede women's economic participation. The World Bank Group is actively supporting countries to achieve gender equality through development policy lending, advisory and analytical work, and supporting reforms to address constraining contextual factors, including legal barriers, social norms, and gender-based violence. To learn more about the World Bank’s work on gender see www.worldbank.org/gender

Expert: Uche Ekhator-Mobayode
 

The World Bank Group has been actively engaged in promoting women in leadership positions across sectors. In 2022, the WBG launched its Women in Leadership series as a part of its outreach and engagement on its Gender Equality for Growth program.  www.worldbank.org/...

To promote women in leadership, it is pertinent to navigate biases, garner political will and agency, and break the glass ceiling. Reflection on these accounts have been encapsulated in a blog by one of WBG’s inspiring female leaders:  blogs.worldbank.org/...

Please see here for additional global examples and helpful resources to learn more:  www.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay
 

Yes, there are studies on the equity and efficiency impacts of gender quotas for political positions and corporate board membership. See this study here openknowledge.worldbank.org/... providing suggestive evidence that the design of the quota and selection systems matter for increasing female leadership. See another study openknowledge.worldbank.org/... reviewing existing body of research linking a higher proportion of women in business leadership—including on boards of directors and in senior management—to improve overall company performance.

Expert: Uche Ekhator-Mobayode
 

Networks and women support groups can help with support, information and knowledge sharing on a wide range of topics. When women and girls engage with professional networks, it can improve their participation and subsequently build women leadership. See for example South Asis WePOWER Network collaboration.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay
 

The World Bank Group (WBG) is actively investing in job creation for women, including women from vulnerable communities, through development policy lending, advisory and analytical work, and supporting reforms to address constraining contextual factors, including legal barriers, social norms, and gender-based violence. To learn more about the World Bank’s work on gender see  www.worldbank.org/gender. Scholarly evidence suggests that providing childcare services, disseminating information on work opportunities and returns to employment, training in socio-emotional skills, addressing norms by engaging partners and family members, and targeting women via social protection, safety net, and public-works programs are effective in increasing female workforce participation and facilitating women’s economic empowerment. To learn more about such evidence and examples of WBG projects, see  openknowledge.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay
 

Across the world, women tend to be expected to take on caregiving roles (children, elderly, sick, disabled), which in combination with a lack of accessible, affordable care services of quality makes women drop out of the labor force when having children (or sometimes even as soon as getting married, in anticipation of having children and taking care of the household: see this Mashreq report for example  www.worldbank.org/...). But the workplace, especially the private sector, also has a role to play in creating a workplace environment that is compatible with family responsibilities of both men and women, something that has proven to increase overall firm productivity, retention, and satisfaction rates. The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private sector arm, explores and supports this further in their Tackling Childcare initiative:  www.ifc.org/...

Expert: Uche Ekhator-Mobayode
 

The World Bank Group is actively supporting countries to be achieve gender equality through development policy lending, advisory and analytical work, and supporting reforms to empower women across all levels. To learn more about the World Bank’s work on gender see  www.worldbank.org/gender

Specifically, to empower women engaged at the grassroot level, self-help groups - a community voluntarily convening with a common purpose- have shown promise. For instance, please see the link below for evidence and examples from South Asia:
thedocs.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay
 

Ensuring that all girls and young women receive a quality education is their human right, a global development priority, and a strategic priority for the World Bank. Girls’ education goes beyond getting girls into school. World Bank projects support the education of hundreds of millions of girls and young women across the world. Working through interventions in education, health, social protection, water, infrastructure, and other sectors, the World Bank makes a strong commitment to supporting countries in ensuring that every girl receives the quality education she deserves. World Bank’s 180 projects are impacting more than 150 million girls and young women worldwide. Hundreds of millions more have been impacted over the past few decades. See more on World Bank’s work on Girls' education  www.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Uche Ekhator-Mobayode
 

Women and girls can engage in collective action when they come together in one voice to transform institutions and power relations within their communities. Collective action combined with effective leadership can be powerful for social transformation and is beneficial to women's and girls’ empowerment.

Expert: Uche Ekhator-Mobayode
 

While women with disabilities experience the same obstacles as nondisabled women, they may face additional types of discrimination and environmental barriers that prevent their socio-economic participation. Women with disabilities are more likely to have unmet health care needs and be excluded from education opportunities. The World Bank Group (WBG) supports programs that are inclusive and caters to the specific needs of its targeted beneficiaries. Specifically, on today’s occasion, the WBG among its various efforts, is also launching a toolkit on Including Women with Disabilities in World Bank Operations. The document lists World Bank Group commitments to women with disabilities, examples of law and policy reform, key barriers and solutions across sectors. The toolkit aims to support World Bank task teams to design disability- and gender-inclusive operations. It also provides many useful examples and guidelines for other stakeholders, such as international development organizations and human rights advocates. Please see event details here: www.worldbank.org/... For additional information on Bank-wide disability inclusion please see:  www.worldbank.org/disability

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay
 

Notably, restrictive social and cultural norms can be one of the factors that drive and perpetuate gender equalities. Yet, these norms are malleable, and evidence shows that perception of gender roles can be changed over time. Therefore, it is pertinent to account for these norms while designing and implementing projects and taking into consideration how they may impact the effectiveness of development programs and policies across sectors. Please see a few resources below that encapsulate global evidence and examples:
www.worldbank.org/...
openknowledge.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay
 

Reducing adolescent pregnancy and early childbearing is an important priority for the World Bank Group. The complexity of teenage fertility decisions suggests that a multi-sectoral approach might be more effective than single interventions in reducing the adolescent fertility rate and helping mitigate the adverse consequences of teenage pregnancy. Facilitating school-completion and access to training for employment, alongside provision of social protection, is pivotal to ensure teenage mothers can support themselves and their families. For example, please see additional evidence and examples from Latin America and Carribean on preventing early childbearing and supporting teenage mothers:
documents1.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay
 

Self-help groups and lending groups have shown promise in facilitating women’s economic empowerment across regions. For instance, please see the link below for evidence and examples from South Asia:
thedocs.worldbank.org/...

These communities have also helped in alleviating the adverse impact of COVID-19 and building resilience.
www.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay
 

An array of barriers and contextual factors can constrain women’s empowerment. It is thus pertinent to diagnose the primary barriers – specific to the targeted beneficiaries- and accordingly design solutions. For example, research evidence suggests that provision of childcare services, addressing norms around women’s work by engaging husbands and family members, imparting training in socio-emotional skills, and providing credible signals to hiring firms show promise in facilitating women’s entry and re-entry into the workforce. To learn more about such evidence and examples of WBG projects, see  openknowledge.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay
 

Globally, one in three women worldwide reports experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime. There is evidence of various interventions that help with behaviors related to the perpetration of IPV. One such intervention is Engaging Men through Accountable Practice (EMAP), a group-based discussion series in the DRC that was found to lead to changes in gender attitudes and behaviors related to the perpetration of IPV. See  openknowledge.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Uche Ekhator-Mobayode
 

To accelerate gender equality and women empowerment for strategic outcomes, investments, reforms, and interventions are needed to: a) boost earnings and productivity of women farmers, entrepreneurs, and businesses; b) expand female labor force participation and employment; and c) promote women’s engagement and participation in decision making in communities, businesses, and the public sector. The WBG’s work on gender is an ambitious and shared commitment across the institution. In 2022, the Bank launched the year-long #AccelerateEquality initiative, which explores the progress made and lessons learned over the last 10 years in closing gender gaps and promoting girls’ and women's empowerment. The WBG is leveraging the lessons learned from this year-long initiative to inform the update to the WBG Gender Strategy, which will be launched in 2024. See more  www.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Uche Ekhator-Mobayode
 

In the face of limited resources and weak political will, citizens, policymakers and leaders in both the private and public sectors as well as civil society and academia can play a significant role in holding leaders accountable by having knowledge of what works (and doesn’t) and facilitating knowledge exchange. To do this, it is important to leverage existing evidence on how to close gender gaps (or generate new evidence if possible). The World Bank contributes to this effort across regions via impact evaluations and research through its regional Gender Innovation Labs. To learn more visit the web pages of the World Banks regional Gender Innovation Labs (GIL)
WB Africa GIL:  www.worldbank.org/...
WB South Asia GIL:  www.worldbank.org/...
WB East Asia and Pacific GIL:  www.worldbank.org...
WB Middle East and North Africa GIL:  www.worldbank.org/...
Latin America and the Caribbean GIL:  www.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Uche Ekhator-Mobayode
 

Women’s participation and leadership in collective action play an important role in closing gender gaps in human endowment (e.g., higher aspirations and parental investment in girls’ education) and increasing women’s voice and agency (e.g., greater bargaining power and less domestic violence). Although there has been a steady increase in the proportion of seats that women hold in national parliaments, the gender gap persists. On average, only one woman holds a seat for every three men. Creating the case for women’s leadership in Governments to achieve green, resilient, and inclusive development is pivotal. In many countries, policymakers have responded by introducing gender quotas in politics, which has shown promise in reducing gender discrimination in the long-term across multiple domains. For additional information on evidence on the equity and efficiency impacts of gender quotas for political positions, please see:  openknowledge.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay
 

In Nigeria and other parts of Africa where religion is prominent, educating religious leaders is very crucial because they have the power to enact positive behavior change. For example, see this blog about religious leaders and their influence on child marriage in Niger  blogs.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Uche Ekhator-Mobayode
 

The World Bank group is a leading financier of agriculture. This includes engaging women and girls who are key in agriculture and account for 43 percent of the agricultural labor force globally. The World Bank group supports women in agriculture in several countries. For example, see more on IFC’s training for women in Agriculture in Rwanda  www.ifc.org/...

Expert: Uche Ekhator-Mobayode
 

There is a growing recognition of agriculture’s potential to spur growth and reduce poverty. Investing in women farmers and instituting policies that close the gender gap in agriculture could yield enormous benefits for women and their families, communities and countries and help increase food security and improve livelihoods. A few policy solutions that can help women farmers reach their full potential include, but not limited to, delivering gender-sensitive extension services to improve women farmer’s access to physical inputs and knowledge, integrating women into market-oriented agriculture and cash-crops, and addressing time constraints within the household. For instance, these policy briefs provide evidence and examples from Africa on " Levelling the field: Improving Opportunities for Women Farmers in Africa” and offer “Top Policy Lessons in Agriculture”:
documents1.worldbank.org/...
openknowledge.worldbank.org/...

Expert: Abhilasha Sahay