Paving the way for women’s economic inclusion

The World Bank Group’s recently launched Gender Strategy 2024-2030 calls for greater ambition to advance gender equality and create a poverty-free world on a livable planet.

To achieve this goal, it is essential that we support our clients to generate and strengthen the data and evidence needed to fully understand the challenges and constraints women face in human capital, economic participation, gender-based violence and women’s participation in decision-making, and how to overcome them. Yet, on average, only one-third of the data needed to monitor gender-related indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is available (Beegle et al. 2023). Based on historical rates of improvement, UN Women estimates that it will take countries at least 22 years to close these gender data gaps on the SDGs.

To build capacity to improve gender data in client countries, a group of 23 survey experts from 15 national statistical offices and training institutes from 12 low- and middle-income countries met earlier this month to learn and share insights on how to close critical gender data gaps to improve women’s economic opportunities.

This was the first training course under the World Bank Group Academy’s data program. Developed in collaboration with the World Bank Institute for Economic Development, the Center for Development Data (C4D2) and with the support of the Italian government, it sets a high standard for future educational efforts with its comprehensive curriculum.

Utilizing the expertise of the entire World Bank Group

Our three divisions – the Development Data Group, the Poverty and Equity Global Practice and the Gender Group – worked closely together to deliver this important course entitled “Using household surveys to close gender data gaps”. The course was based on our shared experience working with client countries to strengthen national statistical capacity and improve the quality of gender-disaggregated data that inform development policies.

Across our teams, we have worked to fill gaps in actionable gender data across the data lifecycle, whether they arise from incomplete data collection, limitations in analysis, or dissemination approaches that fail to include key data users. We conduct methodological and policy-relevant research to understand the different economic experiences of women and men within households and how our understanding of these experiences depends on who is surveyed.

We support the implementation of global standards in large-scale data production and dissemination through statistical capacity building projects that Study to measure living standardsand that Strengthening gender statistics project and support innovations that combine household survey data with other data sources to maximize their value. Gender data portalwe are working to make existing gender data more accessible.