An Evaluation of World Bank and International Finance Corporation Engagement of Gender Equality over the Past 10 Years

Gender equality has been a high-level commitment of the World Bank Group for at least two decades. In its gender strategy for fiscal years 2016-23, the Bank Group committed to maximizing the impact of its efforts to close gender gaps in key development outcomes, while steering activities and their monitoring toward measurable results. Moreover, gender has been an International Development Association (IDA) special theme since the 16th Replenishment that channeled financial resources to address gender inequalities in IDA countries. This evaluation assesses World Bank Group support to countries to address gender inequalities between fiscal years 2012 and 2023. It analyzes the factors that enabled and constrained success, includes three recommendations and provides lessons that are relevant for implementation of the recently approved Gender Strategy 2024-2030. The evaluation’s findings underpin three recommendations for the Bank Group to improve its country-driven engagement for gender equality and the achievement of results. (i) Strengthen the country-driven engagement model for gender equality, with greater selectivity, prioritization, and coordination of the country portfolio activities supporting gender equality objectives and an increased focus on implementation. (ii) Develop the capacity of World Bank and IFC monitoring and evaluation systems to track and account for complex gender results; incentivize the achievement of outcomes at the operational, country, and corporate levels; and regularly report on progress. (iii) Redefine the current Bank Group gender architecture to specify roles and responsibilities; avoid overlaps and replication of functions; strengthen under resourced tasks, especially implementation of gender-related activities and support to country engagement; improve capacities; and enforce accountability.