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1. Gender Integration in Multilateral Development Banks’ COVID-19 Response Efforts

Author:
Shelby Bourgault, Megan O'Donnell, and Mia Griffin
Publication Date:
05-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
Research demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic has had differential effects by gender, with women experiencing higher job and income loss, increased rates of domestic violence, and mounting care burdens globally. While governments and civil society organizations were pivotal to mitigating the impacts of the pandemic, international institutions, and multilateral development banks (MDBs) in particular, also played a role in financing and informing the design and implementation of COVID-19 response programs. MDBs are institutions with significant financial resources and policy leverage, but relatively little is known about their impact on narrowing gender gaps in their partner countries, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. This paper examines the extent to which MDB COVID response projects incorporated gender elements. Using project data from the World Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank, this paper presents descriptive statistics on the presence of gender-related indicators and gender-dedicated projects across MDBs in projects focused on health, social protection, and other areas of COVID response and recovery. We analyze data across institutions, geographies, and project sectors—and highlight the main gaps in MDB response efforts.
Topic:
Development, COVID-19, Gender, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), and Gender Integration
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. IDB COVID-19 Response Projects and Gender Integration

Author:
Shelby Bourgault, Kelsey Ross, and Megan O'Donnell
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
This paper aims to determine the extent to which gender was considered in the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) operations aimed at responding to the COVID pandemic and associated economic crisis. Using keywords to identify COVID response projects, we found 264 projects approved between March 1, 2020, and July 31, 2021 for our analysis. We found that 135 projects (51 percent) had publicly available project documents for analysis, and of these, 32 projects (24 percent) included gender-focused indicators in their results frameworks. Most gender indicators focus on women as participants of social protection programs or as owners of small- and medium-sized enterprises. Our recommendations to the IDB include increasing transparency by publishing more project documents and ensuring gender indicators are included in projects’ results frameworks across sectors. This project builds on previous analysis of gender integration in COVID response projects at the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and African Development Bank.
Topic:
Pandemic, COVID-19, Social Groups, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Prioritizing Public Spending on Health in Lower-Income Countries: The Role of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents

Author:
Janeen Madan Keller, Rachel Silverman, Julia Kaufman, and Amanda Glassman
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
The Global Financing Facility (GFF), launched in 2015, is a partnership backed by a multi-donor World Bank trust fund that aims to “prioritize and scale-up evidence-driven investments to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH-N) interventions” in low- and lower middle-income countries. A major component of the GFF’s operational model is centered around the investment case, described by the GFF as “a description of the changes that a country wants to see with regard to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) and a prioritized set of investments required to achieve these results.” Looking retrospectively at investment cases and associated ongoing World Bank operations, this paper aims to shed light on specific aspects of the GFF’s operating model, approach, theory of change, and results to date related to the “development of a costed and prioritized investment case,” and whether the investment case helps to prioritize public spending on health in the real world. The portfolio-wide findings suggest that the GFF delivers a clear value-add within the global health architecture by directing more funding to flow directly through governments via increased World Bank lending for RMNCAH-N (especially in the context of COVID-19-related service disruptions and fiscal contractions). The role of the investment case in aligning and prioritizing resources behind a consensus set of highest-value RMNCAH-N interventions within a specific funding envelope is less well documented in the public domain; GFF efforts to directly influence government RMNCAH-N spending decisions and their efficiency seem to occur primarily through follow-on resource mapping and expenditure tracking. The paper concludes with three recommendations for the GFF and its donors: (1) pursue a deliberate strategy for prioritization of RMNCAH-N services and products within the realistic budget constraint to advance evidence-based decisions on certain trade-offs; (2) increase transparency and public visibility into GFF-supported activities and funding, especially related to RMNCAH-N product procurement and overall resource tracking; and (3) explore incentives for increased donor co-financing within the framework of World Bank projects as a strategy to pool and channel more resources through government coffers.
Topic:
Health, Children, Women, Public Spending, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. A Review of the 2X Women’s Initiative: Recommendations for the Biden-Harris Administration

Author:
Megan O'Donnell and Jocilyn Estes
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
Amidst an economic crisis disproportionately impacting women in low- and middle income countries, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is well positioned to prioritize the promotion of gender equality through its investment portfolio and in turn contribute to an inclusive recovery. This policy paper reviews the extent to which DFC (and its predecessor, OPIC) have focused on the promotion of women’s economic empowerment and broader gender equality to date, particularly through the 2X Women’s Initiative. Using project data from the DFC project database and mobile application, as well as consultations with the DFC 2X team, we compile all 2X projects and analyze key trends across sector, geography, financial tool and intermediary. The paper also reviews the initiative’s contributions to accelerated momentum in gender lens investing across development finance institutions through the 2X Challenge. After highlighting strengths of DFC’s gender lens investing approach, as well as gaps and areas of opportunity, we make recommendations for how DFC under the Biden-Harris administration can both build on DFC’s early progress to improve gender integration in external lending, technical assistance, advisory services, and its internal policies and practices – as well as increase the ambition of its gender targets and its focus on transparency and results.
Topic:
Governance, Women, Leadership, and Gender
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

5. Unpacking Gender Gaps and Data Gaps in Public Sector Employment and Pay

Author:
Ugonma Nwankwo, Megan O'Donnell, and Charles Kenny
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
We look at available sources to ask (i) Where is data available on employment and wages allowing for comparisons between women and men, and the public and private sectors? (ii) How do women’s employment, compensation, and seniority compare with men’s in the public and private sectors? (iii) How do gender gaps vary by countries’ income level, education levels, and other factors? What are the policy implications of the data we analyze? (iv) Which countries’ efforts can be modeled by others, and how else can global gender gaps in employment and compensation be narrowed? We suggest the Open Government Partnership as a promising platform through which governments can commit to increased transparency around disaggregated employment and wage data, in turn improving policy decision-making aimed at closing gender gaps (or those rooted in other forms of inequality and discrimination).
Topic:
Labor Issues, Women, Inequality, Feminism, Data, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

6. Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment in the COVID-19 Context

Author:
Megan O'Donnell, Mayra Buvinic, Charles Kenny, Shelby Bourgault, and George Yang
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
As donor institutions and governments seek to provide relief and support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession, CGD’s COVID-19 Gender and Development Initiative aims to ensure that their policy and investment decisions equitably benefit women and girls. We seek to support decision-makers in understanding the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; assess health, economic, and social policy response measures with a gender lens; and propose evidence-based solutions for an inclusive recovery. Recognizing that the dialogue to date has largely emphasized challenges facing women and girls in high-income settings, our analysis centers on women and girls in low- and middle-income countries. In this policy brief, we summarize the findings of a CGD working paper, Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment in the COVID-19 Context. We explore the impacts of the crisis on women’s economic opportunities and outcomes, document the extent to which governments and donors are taking action to respond to these impacts, and make recommendations for how decision-makers can elevate women’s economic empowerment as a priority in response and recovery efforts. Specifically, we examine the impact of the COVID-19 global recession on women’s work and employment in low- and middle-income countries, including entrepreneurship, wage and salaried work, work in subsistence and commercial agriculture, and unpaid housework and care work.
Topic:
Economics, Women, Inequality, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. The Gendered Dimensions of Social Protection in the COVID-19 Context

Author:
Megan O'Donnell, Mayra Buvinic, Shelby Bourgault, and Brian Webster
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
As donor institutions and governments seek to provide relief and support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession, CGD’s COVID-19 Gender and Development Initiative aims to ensure that their policy and investment decisions equitably benefit women and girls. We seek to support decision-makers in understanding the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; assess health, economic, and social policy response measures with a gender lens; and propose evidence-based solutions for an inclusive recovery. Recognizing that the dialogue to date has largely emphasized challenges facing women and girls in high-income settings, our analysis centers on women and girls in low- and middle-income countries. In this policy brief, we summarize the findings of a CGD working paper, The Gendered Dimensions of Social Protection in the COVID-19 Context. We explore the role of social protection, with an emphasis on social assistance policies and programs, in addressing increasing poverty, food insecurity, unpaid care work, and gender-based violence—all exacerbated by the onset of the crisis and associated containment measures. We document these trends and how they disproportionately impact women and girls, as well as the extent to which governments and donors are integrating a gender lens into their social protection efforts and make recommendations to ensure that future efforts effectively reach and benefit women and girls.
Topic:
Women, Inequality, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus