The World Bank has addressed gender issues since the 1970s, but the
Banks emphasis in this area increased following the 1995 Beijing
Conference. Today, gender equality is explicitly recognized as essential
to achieving the World Banks poverty reduction mission.
This report is the World Banks contribution to the 49th Session
of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, which will
review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and Declaration
and the outcome document of the 23rd Special Session of the General
Assembly (Beijing + 5).
The report describes the role of the World Bank as a partner in international
efforts to promote gender equality and empower women. The World Banks
own strategy is to mainstream gender issues into its work. This report
links the World Banks work directly to the Beijing Platform for
Action by illustrating how, by assisting countries own efforts
to advance gender equality and improve womens and girls
lives, the World Bank supports the goals outlined in the Platform for
Action and helps countries secure a better economic future.
Overview of the report
The main section of this report describes World Bank activities that
have furthered the Beijing Platform for Actions goals. The next
section outlines global trends in improving girls and womens
lives, and highlights some areas in need of further action. Subsequent
sections describe World Bank projects that have helped to improve the
lives of women and girls, the Banks analytical work on gender
issues, and enabling institutional changes that have helped the Bank
to increase attention to gender issues in its work. The final section
discusses the way forward.
Index
Introduction
(PDF 140KB)
Improving
Womens Lives: Progress and Obstacles (PDF 140KB)
The
World Bank and the Beijing Platform for Action (PDF 600KB)
Creating
and Sharing Knowledge on Gender Equality (PDF 82KB)
Enabling
Institutional Changes (PDF 168KB)
The
Way Forward (PDF 175KB)
Complete documento: Improving
Womens Lives: World Bank Actions Since Beijing (PDF 1064KB)