This evaluation was prepared by an Independent Evaluation Group team led by Elena Bardasi (senior economist) and Maria Elena Pinglo (senior evaluation officer) and was coauthored by Serena Fogaroli (gender expert and consultant for the evaluation) and Shiva Chakravarti Sharma (extended-term consultant). Mariana Branco was a co-task team leader for the preparation of the Approach Paper. The report was prepared under the supervision of Timothy Johnston (manager, Corporate and Human Development) and Theo David Thomas (director, Human Development and Economic Management) and under the overall guidance of Sabine Bernabè (Director-General, Evaluation). During the initial phase of the evaluation, Galina Sotirova supervised as the Corporate and Human Development manager.

The team also included Rima Al-Azar, Susan Caceres, Giulia Ciliotta Bezada, Elizabeth Dodds, Tanya Gandhi, Diana Goldemberg, Breda Griffith, Rima Habasch, Anna Ilone Charlotta Lidstroem, Laura Pasquero, Ursula Quijano Gonzalez, Andrea Mariana Rojas Hosse, Liliana Ruiz Ortega, Sarveshwari Singh, and Marialena Vyzaki. Assistance in countries was provided by Mai Mohey Elsayed Mohamed Aglan, Estelle Djanato, Trung Thanh Duong, Neema Gasper Kalole, Douaa Hussein, Maria Rosa Moran, Sheyla Sofia More Sanchez, Maigul Nugmanova, Nene Soleymane Diouf, and Taviza Usmanova. Harsh Anuj, Santiago Alejandro Tellez Canas, and Virginia Ziulu supported the team with specific methodological applications. Estelle Raimondo provided methodological advice and guidance, and Ariya Hagh did so for the preparation of the Approach Paper. Yezena Yimer provided administrative support. The team is also grateful to colleagues who generously shared insights and supported the team in various ways: Jenny Gold, Azada Hussaini, Gaby Loibl, Stephen Porter, Santiago Ramirez Rodriguez, and Diana-Mariana Stanescu. Sharon Fisher provided editing and design support.

Peer reviewers for this evaluation were Michael Bamberger (independent evaluator with internationally recognized expertise in development program evaluation and gender evaluation), Elizabeth King (nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former World Bank director of education and vice president for human development), Deepa Narayan (author and social scientist and former World Bank poverty reduction and economic management senior adviser), and Linda Scott (professor emeritus, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and founder of Power Shift, the Oxford Forum for Women in the World Economy).

The team gratefully acknowledges the more than 500 World Bank Group staff, project task team members, government partners, national and international stakeholders from academia, religious and traditional institutions, international nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, women’s rights organizations, bilateral and multilateral donors, and beneficiaries who participated in interviews and focus groups in countries and at the World Bank headquarters, as well as the women, men, boys, and girls of the communities visited by the Independent Evaluation Group who warmly welcomed us and generously shared their time and insights with us.

The team is grateful to the country offices of Bangladesh, Benin, the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam that assisted the team during the preparation of the evaluation, located and shared documentation for the desk review, and welcomed and supported the evaluation teams during field missions (in Bangladesh, Benin, Egypt, and Uzbekistan) or local consultants in instances where full-fledged field missions did not occur (Mexico, Peru, Tanzania, and Viet Nam). The team is also grateful for the feedback that Country Management Units provided to the evaluation team during debriefings and presentation of emerging findings.