Unfolding events in Afghanistan have brought worldwide attention to the severe treatment of women under the Taliban. As the Afghan people prepare to rebuild their country, and as they explore ways to include women in this process, World Bank experts say that countries which promote women's rights and increase their access to resources and schooling enjoy lower poverty rates, faster economic growth and less corruption than countries that do not.
WOMEN KEY TO EFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT
World Bank Issues New Press Backgrounder
WASHINGTON, December 6, 2001--Unfolding events in Afghanistan have
brought worldwide attention to the severe treatment of women under the
Taliban. As the Afghan people prepare to rebuild their country, and as
they explore ways to include women in this process, World Bank experts
say that countries which promote women's rights and increase their
access to resources and schooling enjoy lower poverty rates, faster
economic growth and less corruption than countries that do not.
Gender inequality hurts all members of society, not just girls and
women.
World Bank research--including an in-depth report released earlier this
year called Engendering Development shows that countries with smaller
gaps between women and men in areas such as education, employment, and
property rights not only have lower child malnutrition and mortality they
also have more transparent business and government and faster economic
growth, which in turn helps to
further narrow the gender gap.
"Increasing gender equality is central to the idea of
development as freedom, of expanding the choices and control that
people have over their
lives," says Nicholas Stern, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior
Vice President for Development Economics. "The evidence shows that
education, health,
productivity, credit and governance work better when women are involved."
"Societies that discriminate on the basis of gender pay a significant
price in greater poverty, slower economic growth, weaker governance, and
a lower
quality of life," says Elizabeth King, Lead Economist in the Bank's
Development Research Group and co-author of Engendering Development.
In fact, research shows that countries that reduce gender gaps in
basic rights, access to resources, and economic opportunities achieve more
effective Development, more rapid economic growth, better governance, and
higher levels of well-being. The benefits of promoting equality between
women and men are significant and wide-ranging. Some examples:
Productivity and Economic Growth
In Africa, improving rural women's access to productive resources
including education, land, and fertilizer could increase agricultural
productivity by as much as one-fifth.
In Bangladesh, microcredit provided to women has higher returns in terms
of raising household consumption (income) than the same credit provided to
men.
Cross-country studies suggest that if the Middle East and North Africa,
South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa had been as successful as East Asia in
narrowing the gender gap in education during 1960-1990, GNP per capita in
those regions would have grown by 0.5 and 0.9 percentage points higher per
year, substantial increases over actual rates.
Governance
Cross-country studies show that where women have greater rights and play
a greater role in public life, levels of corruption in government are
lower.
In the republic of Georgia firms owned or managed by women are
significantly less likely to make unofficial payments to government
officials than those owned or managed by men.
Well-Being
Greater equality in education between women and men means healthier
families.
If African women and men had more equal schooling, child mortality would
have been 25% lower than it was in 1990.
A cross-country study of 63 countries finds that gains in women's
education made the single largest contribution to declines in malnutrition
in 1970-95, accounting for 43% of the total.
Smaller gender gaps in literacy translate into lower HIV infection rates,
even after accounting for the effects of per capita income and other factors
known to affect HIV prevalence.
Women's income, not just education matters. In Brazil, income in the
hands of mothers has four times the impact on child nutrition than the same
income in the hands of fathers. Similar patterns are seen in such diverse
countries as Bangladesh and Côte d'Ivoire.
Overall, girls and women have made significant progress in recent
decades.
For example, over the past 25 years girls' primary school enrollment rates
doubled in the Middle East, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. And in the
past
half-century, women's life expectancy has increased by 15-20 years in
developing countries.
Despite this progress, however, women worldwide continue to have fewer
rights and less control over important resources than men. In South Asia,
women
have only about half as many years of education as men, and female secondary
school enrollment rates are only two-thirds of male rates. Control of land
and of other forms of capital is also highly unequal. In much of Sub-Saharan
Africa, women have limited rights to own land, even though they are the
major producers of food crops. And several countries around the
world, women still cannot travel outside the home or transact business
without their husbands' consent.
"Experiences from cross-country analysis and case studies show
that economic development and institutional change are both necessary to
improve the status of women." says Andrew Mason, Senior Economist in the
Bank's Gender and Development Group and co-author of Engendering
Development. "Societies progress
more rapidly if they also adopt specific measures to narrow gender gaps."
Many ongoing World Bank efforts aim to help reduce gender inequality
through the programs and projects it supports in developing countries,
including:
Education. Since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995,
World Bank lending for girls' education has totalled approximately US$5.3
billion. The Bank's girls' education programs give special emphasis to
countries where primary enrolments are low and/or gender disparities in
primary and basic enrolment rates are large.
Health, nutrition and population. To date the World Bank has lent more
than $4 billion to support population and reproductive health activities
throughout the world and is the world's largest external funder of health
programs. In 1999, two thirds of the loans in these areas included actions
aimed at promoting gender equality.
Credit and savings. The Bank is integrating credit and savings programs
that cater to women's needs into its projects in many sectors; and it is
working with partners to strengthen microfinance programs. The Pakistan
Poverty
Alleviation Fund, for example, includes a microfinance component that
targets poor women.
Legal rights. The Bank is increasingly emphasizing the role of legal and
regulatory systems in protecting women from exclusion and discrimination,
especially through initiatives designed to assess the status of women and
promote women's access to justice and legal services.
Post-conflict reconstruction. The Post-Conflict Fund (PCF) supports
planning, analysis of reconstruction activities, and pilot programs by
funding governments and other partners working on post-conflict
reconstruction. The PCF is funding the Afghan Female Teachers In-Service
Training project in Peshawar, Pakistan, for example, to train female
teachers in the Afghan University, attended by the Afghan refugee community.
For more on the World Bank's work on gender issues, including a summary
Engendering Development, click here: http://www.worldbank.org/gender/
Updated December, 2001
WOMEN KEY TO EFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT
World Bank Issues New Press Backgrounder
WASHINGTON, December 6, 2001--Unfolding events in Afghanistan have
brought worldwide attention to the severe treatment of women under the
Taliban. As the Afghan people prepare to rebuild their country, and as
they explore ways to include women in this process, World Bank experts
say that countries which promote women's rights and increase their
access to resources and schooling enjoy lower poverty rates, faster
economic growth and less corruption than countries that do not.
Gender inequality hurts all members of society, not just girls and
women.
World Bank research--including an in-depth report released earlier this
year called Engendering Development shows that countries with smaller
gaps between women and men in areas such as education, employment, and
property rights not only have lower child malnutrition and mortality they
also have more transparent business and government and faster economic
growth, which in turn helps to
further narrow the gender gap.
"Increasing gender equality is central to the idea of
development as freedom, of expanding the choices and control that
people have over their
lives," says Nicholas Stern, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior
Vice President for Development Economics. "The evidence shows that
education, health,
productivity, credit and governance work better when women are involved."
"Societies that discriminate on the basis of gender pay a significant
price in greater poverty, slower economic growth, weaker governance, and
a lower
quality of life," says Elizabeth King, Lead Economist in the Bank's
Development Research Group and co-author of Engendering Development.
In fact, research shows that countries that reduce gender gaps in
basic rights, access to resources, and economic opportunities achieve more
effective Development, more rapid economic growth, better governance, and
higher levels of well-being. The benefits of promoting equality between
women and men are significant and wide-ranging. Some examples:
Productivity and Economic Growth
In Africa, improving rural women's access to productive resources
including education, land, and fertilizer could increase agricultural
productivity by as much as one-fifth.
In Bangladesh, microcredit provided to women has higher returns in terms
of raising household consumption (income) than the same credit provided to
men.
Cross-country studies suggest that if the Middle East and North Africa,
South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa had been as successful as East Asia in
narrowing the gender gap in education during 1960-1990, GNP per capita in
those regions would have grown by 0.5 and 0.9 percentage points higher per
year, substantial increases over actual rates.
Governance
Cross-country studies show that where women have greater rights and play
a greater role in public life, levels of corruption in government are
lower.
In the republic of Georgia firms owned or managed by women are
significantly less likely to make unofficial payments to government
officials than those owned or managed by men.
Well-Being
Greater equality in education between women and men means healthier
families.
If African women and men had more equal schooling, child mortality would
have been 25% lower than it was in 1990.
A cross-country study of 63 countries finds that gains in women's
education made the single largest contribution to declines in malnutrition
in 1970-95, accounting for 43% of the total.
Smaller gender gaps in literacy translate into lower HIV infection rates,
even after accounting for the effects of per capita income and other factors
known to affect HIV prevalence.
Women's income, not just education matters. In Brazil, income in the
hands of mothers has four times the impact on child nutrition than the same
income in the hands of fathers. Similar patterns are seen in such diverse
countries as Bangladesh and Côte d'Ivoire.
Overall, girls and women have made significant progress in recent
decades.
For example, over the past 25 years girls' primary school enrollment rates
doubled in the Middle East, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. And in the
past
half-century, women's life expectancy has increased by 15-20 years in
developing countries.
Despite this progress, however, women worldwide continue to have fewer
rights and less control over important resources than men. In South Asia,
women
have only about half as many years of education as men, and female secondary
school enrollment rates are only two-thirds of male rates. Control of land
and of other forms of capital is also highly unequal. In much of Sub-Saharan
Africa, women have limited rights to own land, even though they are the
major producers of food crops. And several countries around the
world, women still cannot travel outside the home or transact business
without their husbands' consent.
"Experiences from cross-country analysis and case studies show
that economic development and institutional change are both necessary to
improve the status of women." says Andrew Mason, Senior Economist in the
Bank's Gender and Development Group and co-author of Engendering
Development. "Societies progress
more rapidly if they also adopt specific measures to narrow gender gaps."
Many ongoing World Bank efforts aim to help reduce gender inequality
through the programs and projects it supports in developing countries,
including:
Education. Since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995,
World Bank lending for girls' education has totalled approximately US$5.3
billion. The Bank's girls' education programs give special emphasis to
countries where primary enrolments are low and/or gender disparities in
primary and basic enrolment rates are large.
Health, nutrition and population. To date the World Bank has lent more
than $4 billion to support population and reproductive health activities
throughout the world and is the world's largest external funder of health
programs. In 1999, two thirds of the loans in these areas included actions
aimed at promoting gender equality.
Credit and savings. The Bank is integrating credit and savings programs
that cater to women's needs into its projects in many sectors; and it is
working with partners to strengthen microfinance programs. The Pakistan
Poverty
Alleviation Fund, for example, includes a microfinance component that
targets poor women.
Legal rights. The Bank is increasingly emphasizing the role of legal and
regulatory systems in protecting women from exclusion and discrimination,
especially through initiatives designed to assess the status of women and
promote women's access to justice and legal services.
Post-conflict reconstruction. The Post-Conflict Fund (PCF) supports
planning, analysis of reconstruction activities, and pilot programs by
funding governments and other partners working on post-conflict
reconstruction. The PCF is funding the Afghan Female Teachers In-Service
Training project in Peshawar, Pakistan, for example, to train female
teachers in the Afghan University, attended by the Afghan refugee community.
For more on the World Bank's work on gender issues, including a summary
Engendering Development, click here: http://www.worldbank.org/gender/
Updated December, 2001
WOMEN KEY TO EFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT
World Bank Issues New Press Backgrounder
WASHINGTON, December 6, 2001--Unfolding events in Afghanistan have
brought worldwide attention to the severe treatment of women under the
Taliban. As the Afghan people prepare to rebuild their country, and as
they explore ways to include women in this process, World Bank experts
say that countries which promote women's rights and increase their
access to resources and schooling enjoy lower poverty rates, faster
economic growth and less corruption than countries that do not.
Gender inequality hurts all members of society, not just girls and
women.
World Bank research--including an in-depth report released earlier this
year called Engendering Development shows that countries with smaller
gaps between women and men in areas such as education, employment, and
property rights not only have lower child malnutrition and mortality they
also have more transparent business and government and faster economic
growth, which in turn helps to
further narrow the gender gap.
"Increasing gender equality is central to the idea of
development as freedom, of expanding the choices and control that
people have over their
lives," says Nicholas Stern, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior
Vice President for Development Economics. "The evidence shows that
education, health,
productivity, credit and governance work better when women are involved."
"Societies that discriminate on the basis of gender pay a significant
price in greater poverty, slower economic growth, weaker governance, and
a lower
quality of life," says Elizabeth King, Lead Economist in the Bank's
Development Research Group and co-author of Engendering Development.
In fact, research shows that countries that reduce gender gaps in
basic rights, access to resources, and economic opportunities achieve more
effective Development, more rapid economic growth, better governance, and
higher levels of well-being. The benefits of promoting equality between
women and men are significant and wide-ranging. Some examples:
Productivity and Economic Growth
In Africa, improving rural women's access to productive resources
including education, land, and fertilizer could increase agricultural
productivity by as much as one-fifth.
In Bangladesh, microcredit provided to women has higher returns in terms
of raising household consumption (income) than the same credit provided to
men.
Cross-country studies suggest that if the Middle East and North Africa,
South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa had been as successful as East Asia in
narrowing the gender gap in education during 1960-1990, GNP per capita in
those regions would have grown by 0.5 and 0.9 percentage points higher per
year, substantial increases over actual rates.
Governance
Cross-country studies show that where women have greater rights and play
a greater role in public life, levels of corruption in government are
lower.
In the republic of Georgia firms owned or managed by women are
significantly less likely to make unofficial payments to government
officials than those owned or managed by men.
Well-Being
Greater equality in education between women and men means healthier
families.
If African women and men had more equal schooling, child mortality would
have been 25% lower than it was in 1990.
A cross-country study of 63 countries finds that gains in women's
education made the single largest contribution to declines in malnutrition
in 1970-95, accounting for 43% of the total.
Smaller gender gaps in literacy translate into lower HIV infection rates,
even after accounting for the effects of per capita income and other factors
known to affect HIV prevalence.
Women's income, not just education matters. In Brazil, income in the
hands of mothers has four times the impact on child nutrition than the same
income in the hands of fathers. Similar patterns are seen in such diverse
countries as Bangladesh and Côte d'Ivoire.
Overall, girls and women have made significant progress in recent
decades.
For example, over the past 25 years girls' primary school enrollment rates
doubled in the Middle East, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. And in the
past
half-century, women's life expectancy has increased by 15-20 years in
developing countries.
Despite this progress, however, women worldwide continue to have fewer
rights and less control over important resources than men. In South Asia,
women
have only about half as many years of education as men, and female secondary
school enrollment rates are only two-thirds of male rates. Control of land
and of other forms of capital is also highly unequal. In much of Sub-Saharan
Africa, women have limited rights to own land, even though they are the
major producers of food crops. And several countries around the
world, women still cannot travel outside the home or transact business
without their husbands' consent.
"Experiences from cross-country analysis and case studies show
that economic development and institutional change are both necessary to
improve the status of women." says Andrew Mason, Senior Economist in the
Bank's Gender and Development Group and co-author of Engendering
Development. "Societies progress
more rapidly if they also adopt specific measures to narrow gender gaps."
Many ongoing World Bank efforts aim to help reduce gender inequality
through the programs and projects it supports in developing countries,
including:
Education. Since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995,
World Bank lending for girls' education has totalled approximately US$5.3
billion. The Bank's girls' education programs give special emphasis to
countries where primary enrolments are low and/or gender disparities in
primary and basic enrolment rates are large.
Health, nutrition and population. To date the World Bank has lent more
than $4 billion to support population and reproductive health activities
throughout the world and is the world's largest external funder of health
programs. In 1999, two thirds of the loans in these areas included actions
aimed at promoting gender equality.
Credit and savings. The Bank is integrating credit and savings programs
that cater to women's needs into its projects in many sectors; and it is
working with partners to strengthen microfinance programs. The Pakistan
Poverty
Alleviation Fund, for example, includes a microfinance component that
targets poor women.
Legal rights. The Bank is increasingly emphasizing the role of legal and
regulatory systems in protecting women from exclusion and discrimination,
especially through initiatives designed to assess the status of women and
promote women's access to justice and legal services.
Post-conflict reconstruction. The Post-Conflict Fund (PCF) supports
planning, analysis of reconstruction activities, and pilot programs by
funding governments and other partners working on post-conflict
reconstruction. The PCF is funding the Afghan Female Teachers In-Service
Training project in Peshawar, Pakistan, for example, to train female
teachers in the Afghan University, attended by the Afghan refugee community.
For more on the World Bank's work on gender issues, including a summary
Engendering Development, click here: http://www.worldbank.org/gender/
Updated December, 2001
Submitted by
Tim Symonds
Executive Director
Project Parity
United Kingdom
Tel. +44 (0) 1892 891 106
Mobile +44 (0) 7773 776314
Fax +44 (0) 7031 15 1818
Author
Anonymous (not verified)
