Catalog

	Table of Contents
p. 6 of 20 BACK | NEXT Executive summary Introduction Gender and development issues in the Asian and Pacific region Overview of Bank policy and operations on WID (1985-1996) Gender considerations in the Bank’s macroeconomic work Gender considerations in project work Gender considerations in recruitment and staffing The need for a revised policy on gender and development The Bank’s revised policy on gender and development

Policy on Gender and Development : Overview of Bank policy and operations on WID (1985-1996)

---

Gender considerations in project work

Technical assistance for WID

29. ADB’s policy on WID and the related OM section require gender issues to be addressed in all ADB operations. In keeping with ADB’s goal for a 50:50 mix between traditional growth projects and those addressing social and environmental concerns, a number of ADB projects have placed primary emphasis on improving the status of women. Between 1992 and 1996, ADB approved 22 advisory technical assistance (ADTA) grants and 10 RETA grants focused exclusively on women, and 33 project preparatory technical assistance (PPTA) grants for projects that substantially addressed women’s concerns.

30. During the last 3 years, greater efforts have been made to address the concerns of women, with virtually all PPTAs in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, health, education, and microcredit sectors conducting gender analysis and integrating gender concerns. Many other ADTAs, PPTAs, and RETAs have addressed the concerns and needs of women by utilizing a mainstreaming approach.

30. During the last 3 years, greater efforts have been made to address the concerns of women, with virtually all PPTAs in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, health, education, and microcredit sectors conducting gender analysis and integrating gender concerns. Many other ADTAs, PPTAs, and RETAs have addressed the concerns and needs of women by utilizing a mainstreaming approach.

31. Since 1992, a number of TAs have been directed toward policy development, databases, institution building, credit, health, and education to address the specific needs of women¹³. For example, a TA grant to Cambodia (Box 1) assisted the Government to develop a national policy on women and to establish a Ministry of Women’s Affairs. Similar capacity-building TA grants to Indonesia, Marshall Islands, and Papua New Guinea provided assistance with institution building of the national machineries for women’s affairs¹⁴. Aside from capacity-building assistance, ADB has provided TAs to the Fiji Islands, Pakistan, and Philippines to develop and strengthen databases to enable the collection and collation of gender-disaggregated data¹⁵. Accurate data on women are necessary for the formulation and development of policies and programs on women. In the case of the Philippines, ADB’s TA to the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women resulted in a series of gender-disaggregated data publications¹⁶.

32. Likewise, ADB’s RETA facility has been utilized to conduct studies and develop regional and national strategies to address the concerns and needs of women. For example, a RETA¹⁷ cofinanced with the Economic and Social Commission on Asia and the Pacific assisted the region in preparing for the UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 through financing the Regional Meeting of NGOs and the Regional Meeting of Ministers and Senior Government Officials. A regional strategy and overview papers on issues of concern to women of the region were also prepared under the RETA. ADB is implementing a RETA¹⁸ to assess the sociolegal status of women in selected DMCs with a view to developing legal frameworks and strategies, promoting legal reform, and building legal institutional capacity to address gender issues. Another RETA¹⁹ currently under implementation is helping build the capacity and expand the outreach of women’s NGOs delivering financial services, including microcredit, to low-income women entrepreneurs.

Loan projects with specific WID objectives

33. Similarly, a number of loan projects since 1992 have included the improvement of women’s health, education, and economic status as their principal objectives²⁰ (Boxes 2, 3, 4, and 5). For example, the Microcredit for Women Project in Nepal will provide women with access to microcredit to enhance their economic status, while the Urban Primary Health Care Project in Bangladesh is directed primarily toward improvement in women’s health. The latter project also addresses the issue of violence against women through the inclusion of a component on public awareness campaigns against violence, and health and referral services for women victims. The Pakistan Social Action Program is directly supporting the Government’s efforts to tackle the low educational and health status of women, while the Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood Project in the Philippines focuses on strengthening referral systems in the poorest provinces in support of the national safe motherhood program. ADB’s current pipeline includes several projects in the areas of health, education, and employment promotion that can significantly address gender disparities and women’s concerns²¹.

34. In spite of these achievements, ADB’s overall lending operations directed at improving the status of women seem modest when seen in the context of ADB’s project classification system. For example, in 1993, 1994, and 1996, only one project per year was classified with WID as a primary objective, although more encouraging results with a total of 18 projects (5.9%) between 1992 and 1996 were classified with WID as a secondary objective. The adoption of the mainstreaming approach within ADB in recent years is the primary reason for the limited number of ADB projects carrying WID classification. As gender concerns are now mainstreamed, few ADB projects are classified with the primary or secondary objective of WID. Also, there are a number of ADB projects substantially targeted to improve women’s health or educational opportunities that do not carry WID classification, but instead are classified as human development projects²².

35. Hence, the project classification system does not fully reflect the efforts and resources directed to addressing and mainstreaming gender concerns in ADB activities. For example, the work of the Programs Departments in addressing gender issues in ADB’s macroeconomic work, such as the COSS, is not reflected. Likewise, the gender mainstreaming approach adopted by the Projects Departments to address and integrate gender concerns in projects cannot be measured through the project classification system. There are a number of projects not classified as WID that have either substantial components to specifically facilitate the inclusion of women or that mainstream gender considerations²³. Similarly, ADB’s TA activities in the areas of gender awareness, capacity building, policy support, and regional cooperation are not reflected in the project classification system.

Review of WID in Bank projects

36. In 1995, a review of ADB efforts on WID and poverty reduction was undertaken under ADB’s RETA facility²⁴. The WID study reviewed 45 projects in agriculture, education, population, health and sanitation, and industry, examining the extent to which the ADB policy for WID was applied to the processes of project formulation, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. The key finding of the study was that the operationalization of the ADB policy and its SDO for WID in ADB projects needs substantial improvement. The principal recommendations were the following.

1. ADB staff, including directors and managers, need further gender sensitization to strengthen their commitment to operationalizing ADB policies and procedures for WID.

2. Gender planning and analysis need to be addressed more rigorously during project preparation and formulation to ensure that project designs incorporate specific measures to address gender concerns.

3. For projects with WID as a primary or secondary objective, more careful analysis is needed to ensure that they accurately identify and respond to women’s specific needs.

4. Monitoring and evaluation processes should more systematically incorporate attention to gender in all activities.

5. Substantial efforts are needed to build and improve the technical capacity of executing and implementing agencies to implement projects that mainstream gender concerns or include specific components to facilitate the inclusion of women.

6. Gender technical capacity within ADB should be augmented to facilitate increasing the number of projects with WID as a primary or secondary objective or projects directly aiming at the mainstreaming of women.

7. Project implementation and the administration capacity in the area of GAD need substantial improvement both at headquarters and in resident missions.

37. The study pointed out that a significant constraint to success is the lack of commitment and capacity in the DMCs to identify, design, and implement projects or project components targeting women. The design of many projects assumed institutional capacity that did not exist. For example, it was often overlooked that there were insufficient female staff to implement the women’s projects or project components directed at women in rural areas. Likewise, the absence of women-friendly infrastructure (housing, travel facilities, security, and protection) contributed to the problems in recruitment and retention of women staff in rural areas. This indicates a need for project design that addresses difficulties in recruitment and retention of female staff by incorporating specific measures to resolve the problem. It suggested that efforts are required to increase the gender technical capacity of executing and implementing agencies, as well as more stringent reviews by ADB regarding implementation of components designed to encourage and facilitate the inclusion of women. Improved gender technical capacity in ADB’s resident missions would also address this constraint.

____________________

Back Gender considerations in the Bank’s macroeconomic work	Next Gender considerations in recruitment and staffing