Unleashing women’s potential and advancing gender equality in economic development: the World Bank Group Gender Strategy 2024-2030

Our consultations of the World Bank Group Gender Strategy 2024-2030 brought me to 28 countries, starting with Tanzania. There I met with Sandra Ruhizi, Plan International Youth Delegate and Founder of Kijana Factory, a social enterprise supporting women farmers to produce organic spices and herbs through an agriculture value chain platform that also promotes the development of agriculture business skills for youth.

Sandra, along with colleagues from Plan International, introduced me to many of the women farmers she works with and shared that empowering these farmers enables them to produce a higher quality product, connect to markets, and have a more sustainable income. The results were clear: When women farmers are connected to the same resources and opportunities as male farmers, entire families, and communities thrive. 

Sandra Ruhizi, Founder of Kijana Factory explains her work alongside farmer Aziza Mohamed Rashidi. Photo credit: Plan International Tanzania
 

Addressing constraints to achieving gender equality

The constraints facing women, women farmers and entrepreneurs, and women-led businesses are complex, however. Addressing these constraints requires coordinated actions across the public and private sectors, which can propel a virtuous cycle of change towards greater gender equality.

Addressing sexual harassment in transport, public spaces, and workplaces, for example, enables women and sexual and gender minorities to access more and better jobs, develop more profitable businesses, and emerge as leaders in communities, companies, and beyond. These, in turn, can create new aspirations for young women. Women’s participation in decision-making on transportation policies and investments can facilitate low-carbon transportation options and drive reforms as well as societal and normative change to end sexual harassment, which will sustain early advances towards gender equality.

This week, the World Bank Group (WBG) is launching its Gender Strategy 2024-2030: Accelerate Gender Equality to End Poverty on a Livable Planet. The new Strategy expresses bold ambition along three objectives: advance foundational well-being by ending gender-based violence and elevating human capital; expand and enable economic opportunities; and engage women as leaders. The Strategy affirms WBG commitment to do more, together with its partners, in the face of unprecedented crises and slow and reversing progress on gender equality.

A strategy informed by diverse global voices

The strategy was shaped by two years of intensive internal and external consultations. My colleagues – from the World Bank, IFC, and MIGA – and I met with over 1,000 representatives from CSOs, governments, academia, the private sector, philanthropies, and development partners in more than 100 countries, who provided valuable insight and feedback.

Those voices mattered. From dialogues and consultations, the WBG validated its ambition and affirmed the centrality of gender equality to ending poverty on a livable planet. I saw that there is a strong, vibrant community of women’s rights activists and allies, civil society watchdogs, government leaders, and private sector partners who may differ on approaches but share the understanding that advancing gender equality has never been more urgent.

We heard concerns about the structural limitations to gender equality, and the impact of fiscal constraints on public service delivery. Partners highlighted the urgency of addressing climate change, along with the perils of unregulated technology, balanced with the transformative potential of this technology. Inputs emphasized the need to adapt WBG work on gender equality to fragile and conflict affected contexts and to the diverse needs of heterogenous populations, with a focus on adolescents and vulnerable groups.

Through these constructive dialogues, the Strategy improved and the WBG built valuable relationships to strengthen its effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability. Through this Strategy, the WBG will engage differently to make a difference, given the scale and complexity of advancing gender equality. This will entail mobilizing concerted action through data, knowledge, and advocacy with partners, for example, through “WBG Academies” that build on the new WBG Knowledge Compact.

Empowering women and girls to help solve global challenges

To achieve greater impact, the WBG will assist countries in institutional and policy reforms and replicate and implement programs at scale. The WBG will integrate gender analysis in all country analytics, and it will support countries in prioritizing gender equality outcomes and in addressing gender constraints through reforms, such as fiscal and sector policy reforms and strengthening national systems. To replicate and implement programs at scale, the WBG will leverage new “Global Challenge Programs” designed to work more efficiently to address pressing issues to emphasize the centrality of the empowerment of women and girls to solving global crises. Finally, engaging as “One World Bank Group” in a coordinated approach will allow the WBG to facilitate greater government and private investment in ending gender inequalities.

These approaches are already being implemented in countries through multi-sectoral, comprehensive approaches. Mozambique has made great strides through legal reforms and key investments to advance gender equality. It is also one of the first countries to have a gender-specific high-level outcome in its Country Partnership Framework. It also maintains a dedicated country gender platform, which conducts diagnostics and provides technical assistance to ensure WBG’s work is rooted in evidence, data, and innovative approaches to bring impact at scale. Throughout Mozambique, the WBG and its partners also have flagship programs advancing gender equality, including support to adolescent girls.

Jordan also has a gender-specific high-level outcome in its new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for 2024-2029, which aims to support inclusive and green growth and promote job creation, especially for youth and women. The CPF elevates the issue of gender equality as central to the partnership between the WBG and the government. The recently approved Enhancing Women's Economic Opportunities Operation addresses key constraints women face to join and stay in the labor market, including through creating a more enabling workplace environment, financial inclusion, and access to quality childcare and public transportation. The project supports Jordan’s goal of doubling female labor force participation by 2033.

In Nigeria, the WBG is supporting the government of Nigeria’s efforts to promote gender equality through the Supporting Women and Girls multi-sectoral program. Nigeria has a dedicated Gender Innovation Lab, which generates country-specific evidence on what works to empower women, informs the overall country program, and strengthens policy dialogue. The WBG in Nigeria uses a systematic, multi-sectoral approach to integrate gender in key programming: promoting women’s human capital and foundational wellbeing through gender-transformative interventions such as the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment and Nigeria For Women Project.

What is next?  

We are prioritizing gender equality in our core business, and expanding our engagement with clients, partners, and stakeholders – including women’s organizations and women leaders such as Sandra – to unleash women’s potential and advance gender equality in economic development. We are now translating the new WBG Gender Strategy into targets, and we will measure and report on progress toward gender equality outcomes.

Let’s partner with greater ambition and differently to accelerate equality together.

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