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gender equality

Building Accountability in Tanzania: Applying an Evolutionary/Venture Capitalist Theory of Change

Duncan Green's picture

I’ve been catching up on our accountability work in Tanzania recently, and it continues to be really ground-breaking. Rather than churning out the standard logical framework of activities, outputs and predicted outcomes before the project even starts, the programme, known as Chukua Hatua (Swahili for ‘take action’) uses an evolutionary model of change (try out numerous approaches, drop the less successful ones, scale up and develop the winners). It’s more like a venture capitalist backing ten start-up firms knowing that most will fail, but some will win big. This has been possible partly because DFID has been willing to fund such an experimental approach as part of its ‘Accountability in Tanzania’ (AcT) programme (props to them).

18 months into the programme, it’s good to see that Chukua Hatua is, errmm, evolving, according to programme coordinator Jane Lonsdale.

The first phase piloted six approaches:

Women, loud and clear

Swati Mishra's picture

These few words from the ‘The Face of Female Farming’ aptly capture some of the roles and responsibilities of women in our society. Yesterday, the world celebrated the 101th year of International Women’s Day. Today, we continue to celebrate and honor women and girls worldwide by highlighting some interesting work and articles produced by the World Bank in the field of gender over the past year.

One Day on Earth: Thinking Equal in Jamaica

Mehreen Arshad Sheikh's picture



“Anything men can do, we can too.”

Shernette Chin of Jamaica could not imagine how her life would be without her job, which provides food on the table for her kids. To Shernette, men and women are equal. “A woman can do the same thing as a man can do. If men do carpentry, women can do it.”

One Day on Earth: Women work to save lives in Iraq

Mehreen Arshad Sheikh's picture

Women in Iraq are making a difference every single day by serving as emergency room workers.

By treating patients, these women are having a positive impact on people’s lives. 

 

“Receiving a simple ‘Thank you’ makes you feel like you are doing the right thing,” said one woman.  “It gives you a feeling that you have accomplished something.”

 

One Day on Earth: A small business means more security for a woman in Laos

Mehreen Arshad Sheikh's picture

A small business not only provides income, but it provides security and a better life for Khampane Kousonsavath’s family.  In Laos, Khampane’s life is better when she is selling processed food. Owning her own business has been rewarding for her; she is now able to go to school and generate income for her and her family.

A woman holds together a business and a family in Tanzania

Mehreen Arshad Sheikh's picture

"If you incapacitate a woman, you incapacitate the whole world."

Pili Kafue of Tanzania speaks about her challenging role as a wife, mother and business owner.

On Nov. 11, 2011, more than 48 World Bank countries participated in the One Day on Earth campaign and filmed working women across the globe to capture their thoughts on what it means to have a job.The results were extraordinary and all regions around the world were represented.

Fotopedia, World Bank App Showcases Photos of ‘Women of the World’

Olivier Puech's picture



During the 2011 World Bank Annual Meetings, we decided to give the highest visibility to the topic of gender equality in connection with the World Development Report 2012.

The report details the need of the world to close the big gender gaps that exist in order to pursue a path of true development for many countries. There is global progress, for example, in education.

But in other metrics, the data on gender equality is appalling:

Worldwide, women make up the majority of unpaid workers. And violence against women is still widespread.

World Food Day, Global Inequality, and Other Links

Swati Mishra's picture

Rising food prices, famine in the horn of Africa, climate change, seasonal hunger, uncertainty about the future of the global food system. 
 
World Food Day and Blog action Day are on October 16, and one hopes this day will inspire many ideas and innovations to tackle the World’s food security challenges. One such idea is - ‘small is beautiful’. Duncan Green explains why small farmers are actually beneficial when it comes to agriculture. One obvious reason is “it puts food into circulation and at the same time boosts the income of some of the poorest people on the planet”. Read his post to know more. Also, revisit the post "Seasonal Hunger" on this blog to know about the specific policy actions that can end the occurrence of this cycle.

The education of a gender skeptic: what I learnt from the WDR 2012

Ana Revenga's picture

Before I started working on the World Developmnet Report 2012 (WDR), I often thought of gender equality being at the periphery of my work on development.  Like many other World Bank colleagues, I would have told you: “Yes, gender equality matters and it is a good thing.”  But in my mind gender equality was something that happened pretty much automatically with economic development.  If asked about policy priorities, I would say: focus on growth, on creating jobs, on reducing poverty and improving equity in opportunities, and gender equality will come right along.  But I was wrong. Gender equality is not just something that ‘happens’ with development. Gender equality is both fundamental to and a means for development.  And countries need to work hard at achieving it, because it does not come about on its own with economic growth.

Think Equal: Gender, jobs focus of Bank Annual Meetings

Julia Ross's picture



The 2011 World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings get under way next week with a full slate of discussions, webcasts and seminars planned around two issues critical to sustaining economic growth – gender and jobs.

In a world where women make up the majority of unpaid workers, and only 15% of landowners and one in five lawmakers are women, there’s a lot to talk about.

Gender economics and 'Think Equal'

Merrell Tuck-Primdahl's picture

Women in development is becoming a front-burner issue and it's exciting to see the many formats that new research, engagement and campaigning is taking as economists, policymakers, advocacy CSOs, grassroots groups, international organizations and socially responsible corporations are getting on the band wagon.

Oxfam's 'From Poverty to Power' blog has a new 'choose this video' post by Duncan Green that asks readers to vote on three short clips that make the case for empowering girls. One is by Nike and the other by the Commonwealth Countries League Education Fund. There's also a parody video.

Low Female Participation in the Workforce: Solving the Turkish Dilemma

Asli Gurkan's picture

During his July 19-22 visit to Turkey, World Bank president Robert B. Zoellick put his finger on a key issue, female participation in the Turkish workforce. It wasn't a coincidence that Zoellick commended Turkey's remarkable economic performance and spoke of the gender-gap in Turkey concurrently. The Turkish case presents a dilemma. Despite Turkey's successes in macroeconomic stability and poverty-reduction, the participation of women in economic life is abysmal.

Weekly Wire: the Global Forum

Kalliope Kokolis's picture

These are some of the views and reports relevant to our readers that caught our attention this week.

Voices from Eurasia
Social media for anticorruption? Exploring experiences in the former Soviet block

"Spurred by events in the Arab world and high profile examples like the Indian Ipaidabribe.com, the role of social media to fight corruption and, more broadly, improve governance has been in the spotlight recently (see e.g. the Accountability 2.0 blog). Perhaps the most comprehensive reports we have come across in this area are from the Transparency and Accountability Initiative. Their global mapping report on technology for transparency and the latest piece on the state of the art in transparency, accountability and citizen participation are particularly informative. Ditto for the online tracking tool on technologies for civic engagement.

A recent post from Aleem Walji on the World Bank’s CommGap site, “From egov to wegov” provides a good summary of the key issues at stake:

As Tim O’Reilly famously said, the days of ‘vending machine government’ where citizens pay their taxes and governments solve their problems are gone."
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