Gender and Development

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This infusion of institutional funds for gender mainstreaming perhaps accounts for the higher levels of gender mainstreaming in 2002–03.7 However, the incentive funding was discontinued between fiscal 2003 and 2007, when the GAP provided additional funds of $36.8 million (including Bank budget of about $11.3 million, of which $3 million was from the Development Grant Fund and $1 million from the Marrakesh Action Plan) for gender activities.8 Thus, the incremental funding for gender activities was more than met in the last two years of the evaluation period, although strictly speaking it did not contribute to implementing the country-level approach of OP 4.20.9 Estimating the amount of incremental funding provided for implementation of the 2001 Gender Strategy between 2003 and 2007 is more challenging. Anecdotal information obtained from RGCs suggests that during the evaluation period, each RGC was able to devote about 50 percent of his or her time to gender issues.10 In addition, the RGCs received on average $50,000–$100,000 for the staff time of country-level gender focal points and for activities to support gender mainstreaming. These are small amounts. In the Middle East and North Africa, for example, staff estimate that about 0.30 percent of the annual Regional administrative budget was spent on gender integration. Furthermore, although in Europe and Central Asia such funds were regularly available, in other Regions funds from the Bank budget varied from year to year, which made planning more difficult. All RGCs note that they relied mostly on Trust Funds for gender work. A rough calculation indicates that this falls short of the additional $3 million estimated for implementation of the gender strategy. Additionally, there proved to be little difference in the availability of such resources before and after the 2001 Strategy.11 About half of the respondents to the IEG survey identified lack of funds as one of five reasons for not addressing gen-

der issues. RGCs confirm that once the incentive funding was terminated in fiscal 2003 and until the GAP started disbursing funds in 2007, funds for gender integration were limited. Incremental budget as envisaged in the Gender Strategy was thus available only for 2001 and then through the GAP for the last two of the eight years (fiscal 2007 and 2008).

Partnerships IEG focused on how partnerships have led to generation of gender-disaggregated or -related data at the global level. GenderStats, a system developed during the evaluation period, provides gender-related information (box 5.2). An important focus of GAP funding is a series of data collection programs to improve the range of available genderdisaggregated data and statistics. The Bank is engaging in partnerships—including the United Nation’s Inter-Agency Expert Group on Gender and Statistics—to promote a global collaboration in producing and using data on women. In partnership with the Luxemburg Income Study, the GAP has launched an initiative on key gender employment indicators, a set of gender-disaggregated indicators on employment in 27 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and middle-income countries, including data on gender earnings ratios, employment status by gender, and percentages of males and females in specific industries. Together these efforts have increased the availability of data during this evaluation period relative to the earlier evaluation period.

Partnerships at the global level supported good outputs; collaboration at the country level was more limited. At a country level, East Asia and Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean lead the way in collaboration. In both

BOX 5.2 GENDERRELATED DATA The GenderStats electronic database was established by the PREM Gender Group to provide a comprehensive gender reference database for Bank staff and development partners. It provides the most recent gender-disaggregated statistics and gender-relevant data on population, health, education, employment, political participation, and programs and policies for most countries in the world—information needed for all major Bank processes and instruments. It also makes baseline and diagnostic information on gender at the country level available to users all over the world. Data sources include national statistics, United Nations databases, and World Bank-conducted or -funded surveys. This has been an important contribution in providing information to task teams within the Bank. Additionally, the 2007 GAP pushed the frontier forward and should be credited for integrating gender into some of the most “ungendered” pieces of Bank work, such as the Global Monitoring Report. Source: World Bank PREM Gender Group.

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Gender and Development


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