The gender strategy advances the vital role of evidence in closing gender gaps. Copious resources have been focused on evidence production during the first four years of strategy implementation—in impact evaluations, business cases, and specific studies. This evidence has been applied to improve project design, inform development partner perspectives, and generate demand for services. However, operational staff in the Bank Group report that, unless they receive assistance from staff designated to support work on gender, evidence on gender gaps can be difficult to access, overly technical, and of limited operational relevance (see box 1.2). This review shows that staff designated to support work on gender are a critical link between evidence production and implementation, and that it is an area for further development.

Supporting Evidence Generation and Use

The implementation of the strategy has expanded the amount of evidence produced on gender gaps. The strategy outlines a wide variety of products that can be used to grow the evidence base and assist in closing gender gaps, such as diagnostics, sex-disaggregated data, and impact evaluations. Evidence produced includes 20 countries with jobs diagnostics and 16 country gender assessments listed in the World Bank’s internal Gender Library. Further, the gender data portal is a source for the latest sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics covering demography, education, health, access to economic opportunities, public life and decision-making, and agency.

Copious resources have focused on generating evidence on “what works,” mainly from impact evaluations through GILs. The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality, which is managed by the World Bank’s Gender Group, has allocated $74.6 million—58 percent of its total funding—to GILs to support impact evaluations (UFGE 2019). GILs operate across all Regions except Europe and Central Asia. By 2019, 110 impact evaluations, mainly randomized control trials, were in process in the Africa, South Asia, and East Asia and Pacific GILs (UFGE 2019). The Africa GIL undertook the majority (94) of these evaluations. The GILs in Latin America and the Caribbean and Middle East and North Africa launched calls for expressions of interest in 2019 to initiate impact evaluations. The GILs aim to influence project design through evidence on what and how interventions work. The Africa GIL has reported that 74 percent of its impact evaluations or policy research reports have influenced the design of projects (Africa GIL 2018).

World Bank staff reported that GILs have helped advance their understanding of gender issues “hugely, quickly, and cheaply,” implying that GILs have been an effective expert resource. For example, the Africa GIL reports that an innovative psychometric test used in Ethiopia to support women’s access to larger business loans has been scaled up in Madagascar and Zimbabwe, with Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Zambia also interested (Africa GIL 2018). Interviewees also reported that working with GILs when building impact evaluations into projects helped improve the rigor of project design. GILs were also considered accessible and beneficial for operational teams through periodic informal learning sessions. World Bank staff indicated that they would like more assistance from the GILs to better understand certain sector, industry, and country-specific details, as well as data to bridge gender gaps for both ongoing and new operations.

The Gender Group in the World Bank conducts research, supports improving gender data, and focuses on specific themes. The Gender Group supports the improvement of gender data, liaising with operations and other units in the World Bank and undertaking analytical products. It is currently working to improve the usability of World Bank gender data, having identified that these data are scattered across different portals, and collaborating with the Development Economics Vice Presidency and the Poverty Global Practice on household surveys to improve gender data and produce The Little Data Book on Gender (World Bank 2019c). In undertaking thematic support, the Gender Group also liaises with operations and produces research. For example, in providing theme support on innovation and technology, the group produced the report Women Wavemakers: Practical Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Women in Coding Bootcamps (World Bank 2018e).

The IFC’s GBG generates evidence for stand-alone gender products, services they are incubating, and support to regions. Since the introduction of the gender strategy, IFC has produced 109 gender-focused knowledge products that are listed on its externally facing website. The GBG has produced business cases to support the development of stand-alone advisory services and influence the practices of the private sector related to insurance, childcare, and entrepreneurship. For example, Tackling Childcare: The Business Case for Employer-Supported Childcare in Myanmar provides context-specific evidence and recommendations (IFC 2019c). The direct link between knowledge production and stand-alone gender projects at the global level has supported the translation of evidence to practice. For example, the report SheforShield outlines the emerging market opportunity for insurance targeting women and has been further developed into a global program (IFC 2015). In its role of developing new services, the GBG also undertakes region-specific research, which has been well received by operations, such as its report The Impact of Domestic and Sexual Violence on the Workplace in Solomon Islands (IFC 2019a).

Staff across the Bank Group highlighted that they need more knowledge and data on gender gaps at the level of sectors and subsectors within a country and that they have relied on support to use technical products. Investment officers in Africa indicated that they needed knowledge products that would enable them to better understand the role of women in society and how they can access finance and formal business. A task team leader from Egypt noted that contextual nuances to women’s labor force participation in Egypt require further data; women’s labor force participation is high, but their representation among business owners is extremely low. A consistent theme emerged in the interviews and focus groups: Bank Group staff typically do not read gender-related knowledge products if those products are too technical or do not immediately seem applicable to the country or sector context. Instead, they rely on staff designated to support work on gender to help translate applicable information to their context. For example, World Bank staff relied on Global Practice gender experts and focal points to contextualize gender tagging indicators and safeguards. IFC investment officers and project leads reported that though they rarely read reports they had not developed, they were able to work through evidence by engaging with the GBG or focal points.

GBV is another area where operational teams find it difficult to translate evidence into operations. Since GBV was prioritized in the current gender strategy and the Fragility, Conflict, and Violence Strategy, there have been challenges related to the available expertise in these areas within the World Bank and IFC, which can leave operational teams without effective support when issues emerge. For example, task team leaders reported difficulty convincing government clients to identify GBV as an issue that needed to be addressed. Likewise, in IFC, although GBV risk assessment tools and screening were developed, the extent of their implementation was reportedly inconsistent. Interviews highlighted that, although staff across the Bank Group can draw on good practices and guidance documents related to GBV prevention in Bank Group operations (for example, civil works in investment project financing), the overall coverage of GBV support is limited across the Bank Group. Some IFC country managers said that they had limited contact with IFC staff from the Environmental, Social, and Governance team, who work with a compliance and risk perspective to address GBV. These gaps in capacity were confirmed in interviews with IFC staff, who recognized the limitations in their coverage.

Management of Expertise Supporting the Gender Strategy

The strategy does not discuss how expertise to support the use of evidence should be organized. In practice—outside of the gender groups, Global Practice leads, and GILs—the staff in Regions and industry groups are organized as focal points, either as individuals or in teams. In implementing the strategy, IFC and the World Bank have developed different models of organizing and coordinating support.

The organization of support in the World Bank varies by Region and Global Practice in both form and function. This review identified no comprehensive list of staff with time allocated to support the gender strategy for the World Bank. Within the East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia Regions, models have been developed to bring teams together to support the gender strategy. In each of these Regions, 30 to 40 gender focal points have been appointed to work with Country Management Units, across all Global Practices and within Regional management teams (table 4.1).1 These focal points are drawn from all levels of the organization. Far fewer people provide support in the Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa Regions, a point reinforced by interviewees. Among Regions, Global Practices, and IFC, there is no consistency in the functions that focal points are expected to perform, other than contributing to flagging and tagging (table 4.2). According to information provided by the World Bank Gender Group, of the 15 Global Practices, each have appointed two gender experts. The exceptions, where more than two gender leads have been appointed, are Education (four) and Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation (three). Interviewees also consistently recognized that the Social Sustainability and Inclusion practice in the World Bank had a wide range of expertise on gender issues, especially within countries.

The World Bank’s Gender Group takes a less active approach to the coordination of staff who support the gender strategy than the IFC does. The Gender Group has 32 staff, excluding consultants, according to GIA’s advisory review.2 During the first part of the strategy, the Gender Group has produced and shared valuable knowledge, reviewed plans, and supported the continued visibility of the gender strategy both internally and externally. The Gender Group certifies designated staff as Global Practice experts or regional assessors to support the gender tag process upstream and has maintained a community of practice, which was constituted in 2015. The Gender Group convenes monthly meetings for the community of practice to discuss technical and process issues related to corporate commitments, new research, and good examples of projects, among other matters, that help increase the expertise of staff who participate. In executing its role, the Gender Group has not focused on organizing expertise more broadly.

The Gender Group has a limited role in ensuring the adequacy of capacity and time allocation of staff designated to support work on gender. In the current model, the Gender Group meets periodically with the Global Practice gender experts, staff trained as regional assessors, and the community of practice to provide training and share knowledge through informal informational gatherings. There are very few shared expectations for how to implement the gender strategy between Regions and Global Practices. For example, focal points have no standard terms of reference, no harmonized list of functions required to support the implementation of the strategy, and no agreed-on mix of seniority in the support model. This lack of expectations leads to task team leaders not knowing who to draw on to support implementation and reduces the consistency of support for implementing the gender strategy. Many respondents would like to see the Gender Group play a more active stewardship role with Regions and Global Practices by overseeing the coordination of staff designated to support work on gender by providing guidance and managing knowledge of successful implementation.

IFC, for its part, is well organized in its approach to implementing the gender strategy. The GBG works through an implementation model that stewards the implementation of the strategy by actively coordinating staff. The GBG plays a role in the coordination and implementation of the strategy, including by developing and testing new advisory products; co-creating thought leadership in the market with clients and operations; and providing direct technical expertise and advice to operational colleagues on how gender components can be integrated into their projects, diagnostics, and strategies. Investment officers and project leads recognized the importance of these activities in helping them target gender gaps. In conducting these activities, the GBG manages 22 staff across headquarters, regions, and countries. The IFC gender leads and their teams are important in connecting the gender strategy and headquarters-based staff and programs to operations. They do this through proactive outreach, which was consistently appreciated by IFC staff and management.

At the outset of the gender strategy in 2016, IFC decentralized and fully resourced all six Regions (and certain countries) with full-time regional gender leads managed by the GBG. The regional leads aim to help connect with clients, implement gender programs in the field, and provide support to AS and IS operational staff. Although the structure is consistent, the regional directors have different approaches to working with the regional leads. For example, East Asia and Pacific have started to designate “gender anchors,” who support the flagging process, while in Sub-Saharan Africa, teams use project review processes to question the inclusion of gender.

Twenty-seven gender focal points, managed by industries, complement IFC’s GBG. There are no documented minimum requirements to become a focal point. Focal points have been appointed from a variety of grades, from analyst to manager. The IFC group of focal points has both gender and industry expertise; most of the group allocate less than 25 percent of their time to supporting the gender strategy, though at least five devote 35–100 percent of their time and have specialized gender knowledge. The roles of focal points are defined by terms of reference. Across IFC, a network of about 230 professionals meets every two months to be updated on issues related to the implementation of the GSIP II and broader gender-related issues and trends. The IFC approach to the implementation of the strategy was considered helpful across regions and by many country managers and regional directors interviewed. In many interviews with managers, the gender stand-alone products at the global level were recognized as valuable to meet local client demand, although some respondents expressed their opinions that the GBG should always work through industry groups and not directly with clients.

The model pursued by IFC’s GBG does not report the same coordination challenges faced in the World Bank. The GBG works through an implementation model that stewards the implementation process by managing gender leads and their associated teams at the global, regional, and country levels who connect with other focal points. The GBG has expanded its staffing complement that assists with the coordination of IFC activities, which has been supported by expanded IFC core budget and donor funding. Regional gender leads advise IFC colleagues and work with clients to provide a connection between the global and country levels, enabling the expansion of global advisory products, the translation of knowledge into practice, and increased coordination among industry groups. However, given that 55 percent of the GBG’s budget comes from trust funding, the coordinated model would be at risk if the priorities among IFC donors should change. Currently, client fees account for only 4 percent of the GBG’s budget, which would need to expand rapidly should donor funding decrease.3

Function and Constraints of Staff Support

Staff in the Regions, Global Practices, and industry groups provide critical connections in implementing the strategy. For example, Regions, Global Practices, and country teams use focal points to lead diagnostics and to help report to monitoring mechanisms (see table 4.2). World Bank and IFC staff also often rely on the support of gender focal points and other consultants to provide or help with project preparation and supervision. In working with focal points, operational teams highlighted the need for a broad mix of human resources with knowledge of gender, sector, and context to provide support. Good examples of evidence influencing practice occurred when operations staff or managers engaged in developing and communicating evidence with gender leads, experts, and focal points. In other instances, by working with a consultant, staff became more comfortable with identifying and addressing gender issues in their own projects. Working in this way responds to the needs of management, task team leaders, project leads, and investment officers who require specific knowledge and data on gender gaps at the level of sectors and subsectors as well as connections at the country level.

Four main qualities of good staff support for the gender strategy emerged during the review. First, expertise in gender gaps assists staff with undertaking client dialogue and diagnostics. Second, sector and industry knowledge helps provide evidence-based operational solutions, including advice in tagging and flagging processes, supporting supervision, and providing feedback to the gender groups. Third, context-specific knowledge is required to help apply experience from elsewhere. Fourth, support for the gender strategy needs to be mobilized through building internal networks, developing country-based partners, and developing communication products. The following examples demonstrate the value of staff tasked to support closing gender gaps. These qualities were reported to be in action especially in the East Asia and Pacific, South Asia, and Middle East and North Africa Regions.

In FY18, the World Bank’s Transport Global Practice stepped up its efforts to address gender by forming a Gender Task Force with a mandate to enhance the closure of gender gaps in the transport sector. The Global Practice supports the task force with two gender experts, an economist, and a transport specialist, as well as a practice manager. The task force has three aims:

• Design interventions that address gender equality, for example enhancing women’s mobility and employment, and mitigating disproportionate gender impacts of operations, such as GBV.
• Lead global discussions on gender and transport through events and outreach.
• Form or strengthen partnerships internally and externally for more effective gender outcomes.

The task force’s efforts to target operations and build internal capacity for Global Practice staff resulted in improvements in the transport projects that address gender gaps. For example, the task force has produced up to 15 country and regional analytical pieces on gender equality and transport; pursued policy engagement with a number of governments to create an enabling regulatory and policy environment for gender equality in and through the transport sector; and led global events on gender equality in transport.

In Myanmar, staff managed by the GBG and focal points have collaborated to address gender gaps across industries in the generation and distribution of renewable energy. Investments in renewable energy have gender flags, including Deedoke Power and Yoma Micro Power, both of which were members of the Powered by Women initiative that helps renewable energy companies build the business case for gender diversity.4 Meanwhile, the Lighting Myanmar project, which is part of the IFC-supported Lighting Global initiative, has also contributed to closing gender gaps through partnering with women’s groups to extend the benefits of solar power and run a community awareness campaign highlighting the benefits of power generation and distribution for women entrepreneurs. Gender focal points and staff from the Myanmar FIG and Manufacturing, Agribusiness, and Services teams have worked closely with the Lighting Myanmar project to leverage cross-sectoral impact, including through financing. The efforts in these projects in Myanmar arose through in-country partnerships among the GBG gender lead, industry groups, a multidonor trust fund, and leadership support from the country manager.

In addition to the qualities highlighted above, dedicated human and financial resources help the overall effort. In Bangladesh, the Country Management Unit provided $100,000 to support the work of the gender focal point team. In that instance, team members noted that the project design phase is often well resourced, but resource constraints can lead to challenges during implementation. As one interviewee noted, “Resources helped move everyone from mild panic to feeling this was doable.”

Though focal points across the Bank Group and Global Practice gender experts have proven to be important, they are constrained by unclear selection, few professional development opportunities, inadequate time to complete their required functions, and limited recognition within performance management processes. The selection and professional development of gender focal points in the World Bank and IFC is largely ad hoc, partly because a gender specialty is not a recognized career path in the Bank Group. Many staff designated to work on gender in Global Practices, industries, Regions; and countries are filled either by volunteers or through designation by senior staff. Moreover, the professional development pathways for staff are inadequate for those who wish to develop their career into a gender lead or expert, and little formal planning has been done to help retool staff.

Evidence production and use have a vital role in the implementation of the gender strategy and benefit significantly from coordinated staff support. Focal points provide a large pool of expertise that is flexible and enables connection and coordination between gender groups and GILs. The mix of context, sector, and gender expertise supporting the gender strategy opens channels for evidence to affect implementation more consistently, in accordance with the intent of the gender strategy. The management of expertise in the World Bank has not been a focus of attention during the initial strategy implementation period. IFC, in contrast, has developed a coordinated model that offers lessons for the World Bank, recognizing that there are differences in the scale of implementation and the diversity of sectors that need to be considered.