Gender and Development

	Loans by Country
Bangladesh Cambodia Indonesia Lao PDR Nepal Pakistan Uzbekistan Viet Nam

Gender and Development Thematic

Bangladesh

1. Urban Governance and Infrastructure Improvement(Sector) Project - Loan 1947, 2002

In support of the Government's sector investment plan for 22 secondary towns, the project will enhance accountability in municipal management and strengthen capabilities in the provision of municipal services. It will likewise promote the active participation of women in municipal management and services under component 2. Under component 3, capacity building and implementation assistance will involve female ward commissioners in project management, accounting management, community mobilization and training programs in line with the implementation of the Urban Governance Implementation Action Plan(UGIAP) and the establishment of Urban Management Support Units (UMSUs). Wage gaps between men and women will be reduced. NGOs will be involved in the microcredit component to support income generating activities for women and youth in low income areas who will also be provided with leadership training for indigenous groups will also be conducted to ensure that they benefit from the project. Loan covenant assures that Gender Action Plan(GAP) will be fully carried out during project implementation.The GAP addresses the need for active participation of women in urban planning and management as both beneficiaries and agents. Loan covenant specifies that the GAP ensures capacity building of female ward commissioners, gender mainstreaming within LGED, increase in recruitment of more female professional and support staff in municipalities.

2. Post-Literacy and Continuing Education Project - Loan 1881, 2001

   Project's gender strategy, which will be refined during implementation, includes 50% targets for women's participation as local trainers, learners, members of local management committees for continuing education centers, and participatory monitors; requirement that NGOs engaged to conduct PLCE courses have experience in encouraging women's participation; awareness-raising in communities, development of courses, selection of training sites and schedules to encourage women's participation; collection of gender-disaggregated data and use of gender-equity indicators to monitor project impacts; consideration of gender impacts in project reviews; and engagement of a social development and gender specialist to refine the gender strategy, provide input to development of a policy framework and curricula for PLCE, and identify training opportunities and ways to increase women's participation. Loan covenants support several aspects of gender strategy.

3. Secondary Education Sector Improvement - Loan 1690, 1999

   Project supports secondary education of girls in underserved areas, through rehabilitation and building of facilities in rural areas and provision of stipends for girls in 53 disadvantaged thanas. Female student participation (46%) is to be maintained; about 4.5 million girls are expected to be primary beneficiaries (with a target of 465,000 person-years of education). Loan covenants cover details of the stipend program, and require recruitment and training of female staff, and involvement of women from local communities in project implementation.

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Cambodia

1. Health Sector Support Project - Loan 1940, 21 Nov 2002

The Gender Mainstreaming Strategy emphasizes significant benefits to women 's health which stresses availability of sufficient resources for MPA(Minimum Package of Activity) and CPA(Complementary Package of Activity)for the health system. Project will improve access to quality health service for 2.5 million women through strengthened safe motherhood services and improved antenatal care and emergency obstetric facilities. Project component to improve delivery of health services will have a major impact on the health status of the poor, women and ethnic minorities in 21 provinces. New and renovated health facilities include separate toilets for men and women.Equal training opportunities wil be given to women health service providers(at least 5,200 females) in the most remote areas to directly benefit ethnic minorities specifically on reproductive and child health. Under the component on health service planning and management capacity strengthening, 123 provincial, district and hospital managers in nine provinces will be trained in health service management, planning, monitoring and evaluation and equal opportunities will be given to competent women and ethnic minority managers. Men and women will also be equally represented in community health center committees. All project subcomponents will target women and girls who comprise more than 50% of project beneficiaries. Loan covenants support several aspects of and ensure implementation of the Gender Mainstreaming Strategy.

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Indonesia

1. Poor Farmers' Income Improvement Through Innovation Project - Loan 1909, 15 Aug 2002

Project beneficiaries are poor farmers with landholdings less than 0.1 hectare who cultivate staples only. Project supports agricultural development and dissemination wherein women will benefit directly through active involvement in the planning of village investments, capacity building, and targeting of village investments especially to women. A gender specialist will be hired as part of the consulting team to ensure that gender issues are adequately incorporated during implementation and to support women's activities especially in the production of high-value crops.Social assessment took into consideration women's and indigenous peoples' needs.Specific assurances have been put in place to ensure the desired impacts of village investments, the adequate participation of women in decision making, and a greater role for women in government administrative structures. Loan covenant ensures that the Gender Action Plan (GAP) to be developed is complied with during project preparation and implementation. Specific provisions include at least one woman facilitator in every project village who will be a member of the project intervillage forum (PIVF)and will be a signatory to the VPIC (Village Project Investment Committee) account in receiving funds for investment.

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Lao PDR

1. Primary Health Care Expansion - Loan 1749, 2000

   Project expands primary health care services in 8 northern provinces where ethnic minorities comprise 60% of population. Reproductive health component includes prenatal care, obstetric care, birth spacing, treatment of obstetric complications and reproductive tract infections. Primary health care facilities must have at least 1 female staff member and person from dominant ethnic minority in area (supported by loan covenant). Efforts will be made to select women as village health care providers and trainees with scholarships available for ethnic minority women. Health centers are designed to provide privacy to women patients. Gender-specific targets include reduction in maternal mortality ratio and increase in contraceptive prevalence rate

2. Second Education Quality Improvement - Loan 1844, 2001

   Project's gender and ethnic minority strategy includes numerous measures to improve access to secondary education for girls and ethnic minorities, including a 50% target for new locally recruited teachers, pedagogical advisors and teacher trainees; development of more gender-sensitive teacher-training curriculum and materials; provision of day care and other facilities for female teachers and students; inclusion of women representatives on local committees for community education development; community awareness-raising on importance of girls' education; collection of gender-disaggregated data and monitoring of project impacts on women and girls; and awareness-raising within executing agency on gender issues. Loan covenant supports gender and ethnic minority strategy.

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Nepal

1. Secondary Education Support Project - Loan 1917, 20 Sept 2002

Project components will provide equitable access to an improved learning environment for educationally disadvantaged groups, girls and ethnic minorities through improved facilties, curriculum, teacher development and management, and institutional capacity improvement. There will be provision of residential accommodation for women and girls in remote areas and scholarships for girls and other students from disadvantaged groups including those with disabilities. There will also be accommodation facilities for about 125 female teachers in remote and rural areas. Criteria for selection of schools in providing block grants in 10 pilot districts will include presence of disadvantaged communities and girls' enrollment. Loan covenants support scholarships for female students and those with disabilities,development of a curriculum sensitive to gender and cultural diversities, and affirmative action in selecting and training female teachers.

2. Crop Diversification - Loan 1778, 2000

   At least 35% of farmer group members (in women's and mixed groups) will be women, and special efforts will be made to encourage women farmer groups to participate in marketing training; field teams must include at least one woman and the project implementation office has a women's development officer; male and female field team members receive equal pay for equal work; buildings renovated or constructed under project must have women's facilities; women field staff receive ladies' bicycles; gender-sensitive training is included; project monitoring includes gender-disaggregated data collection and monitoring of women's participation, capacity development and access to resources; loan covenants support targets on women's participation and staffing, and several other gender-specific design features.

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Pakistan

1. Punjab Community Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project - Loan 1950, 28 Nov 2002

Social analysis of the project showed that provision of potable drinking water in the house will relieve women and children of the burden of fetching water from distant sources and time may be spent on more productive and income generating activities aside from health-related benefits. Project includes a hygiene education program wherein women councilors and lady health workers will play a catalytic role in hygiene education and household latrine promotion. Schools in the project area will also be provided with safe drinking water and latrines.Since women and children are main beneficiaries of the project, women will be involved in subproject planning, design and implementation. Female Community-based Motivators(CBMs) and female union councilors will assist the local women in forming female community-based organizations (CBOs) in all subprojects. To monitor women's effective participation and training opportunities, a female assistant director for CDU(community development unit) will be appointed to work with the women CBOs and CBMs. Also, a microenterprise development specialist will identify effective schemes and loan products for women. Gender strategy is included in Appendix to RRP. Loan covenant assures women's participation in planning.

2. Decentralization Support Program-TA Loan on Gender and Governance Mainstreaming - Loan 1936, 21 Nov 2002

The program will support the Government in addressing two key inequities - gender and local government resource endowment. The program has a two-pronged strategy - (i)support to implement Gender Reform Action Plans (GRAPs) by strengthening policy and institutional mechanisms for gender mainstreaming and (ii) mainstreaming gender concerns in intergovernmental systems and procedures including targeted capacity development for women councilors.The Gender and Governance Sector Analysis and Mainstreaming in Appendix to RRP discussed issues affecting women in the context of poverty, political processes, civil service and access to entitlements, and includes recommendations and strategies to increase women's representation and participation. The technical assistance (TA) loan supports implementation of the four central policy themes in gender and governance-improving women's representation and participation in political and administrative structures, policy shift from social welfare to social development and from women's development to gender equality, restructuring of national institutions and procedures dealing with gender issues , and engendering planning and budgetary processes to narrow the gender gap in public expenditure and service provision. Targeted interventions with support from the Gender Reform Program TA (TA3832) will be consolidated into GRAPs and will be implemented by Ministry of Women's Development, Social Welfare and Special Education(MWD) at the federal level and women's development departments at the provincial level. Gender disparities in public sector employment and women's exclusion from governance structures will be the focus of targeted interventions.

3. Sindh Rural Development Project - Loan 1934, 20 Nov 2002

The project will have a particular focus on women as the most disadvantaged among the target groups.The component on improved governance and legal support specifies that each lead NGO will include male and female paralegals among their staff. A detailed Gender Action Plan(GAP) emphasizes improving women's access to services, and supports the introduction of labor-saving appropriate technologies and the improvement of women's livestock management skills. Each of the five project components have specific targets and approaches to address gender issues and concerns. Project also provides for a full time gender specialist per district and the engagement of NGOs. Fifty percent of beneficiaries of training programs will be women and at least 30% of village groups will be women's groups. Loan covenant supports the implementation of the GAP.

4. Decentralized Elementary Education Project (Sindh) - Loan 1916, 19 Sep 2002

By increasing access to improved public elementary schools and providing more equitable access to education especially for females and the rural poor, the project will reduce inequities between public and private schools in Sindh. About two-thirds of beneficiaries will be female students who will receive stipends, free textbooks and scholarships under the support for girls' education component. A needs-based assessment to be done by school administrators, teachers, and community representatives will be made to improve access and facilties especially for girls in rural areas. This also includes the establishment of model schools (one for boys and one for girls) and 1,000 pre-primary classes in selected elementary schools, 50% of which will be for girls. Each of the training programs will contain gender component. The Gender Strategy Matrix specifically identifies activities that would target female students as beneficiaries.

5. Access to Justice Program- Loan 1898, 2001

   Policy reforms include introduction and implementation of an affirmative opportunity program to remove barriers and encourage women to enter the legal and judicial professions; establishment of a human rights and gender sensitization policy for the police, including appropriate training and introduction of reward-and-sanction performance systems to promote citizen orientation, human rights and gender sensitization within police forces; and establishment of a legal empowerment fund to promote legal literacy through different media and advocate for the rights of the poor and disadvantaged, especially women. A related TA loan will support, among other things, a study on laws adversely affecting the poor, particularly women and children.

   View Report and Recommendation to the President

6. Reproductive Health- Loan 1900, 2001

   The Project primarily addresses women's health and nutrition status through various targeted interventions, including improved in-service training for providers of reproductive health (RH) services; training of 4,400 female and 1,200 male family health workers; construction and upgrading of RH centers; information and education campaigns aimed at local leaders and men on family planning and other RH-related issues; upgrading of midwifery schools and other training facilities for RH services; and support to NGOs, female paramedics and private practitioners to expand and improve quality of RH services. Scholarships will be provided to help village women get additional basic education needed before technical training; health centers will be modified to provide privacy for women during examination and treatment; gender issues will be incorporated in training courses; women's use of health services will be monitored through specific indicators.

7. NWFP Barani Area Development - Phase II - Loan 1787, 2000

   Project goals include improving status of women in traditional conservative areas where access and opportunities are limited. Gender-specific interventions include forming separate women's organizations (40% of total), providing village-based girls' education, training female village teachers, health awareness and family planning, training of traditional birth attendants, gender awareness programs including civil rights and access to justice, skill and entrepreneurship training, support for networking among women's organizations, provision of microfinance loans (30% target for women), gender specialists in project liaison office and district implementation units, provision of separate hostels and office space for women field staff and double cabin vehicles to facilitate women's participation, and efforts by government agencies to recruit and regularize more female staff.

8. Microfinance Sector Development Program - Loan 1805, 2000

   Microfinance policy framework will increase outreach of microfinance institutions to poor women; framework provides for establishment of new Microfinance Bank (MFB) with women directors, 40% women staff and 40% women clients; income from Microfinance Social Development Fund will fund training of women's community organizations in community management, skills development and leadership; Community Investment Fund will fund community-based subprojects (with 50% women beneficiaries).

9. Microfinance Sector Development Project - Loan 1806, 2000

   Project provides $68 million credit line for individual and group microloans for income-generating activities, community organization and skills training for women, and funding through the Community Investment Fund of community organizations for local infrastructure sub-projects. Microfinance Bank's (MFB's) mobile units will employ 40% female staff to disburse loans to women; targets include support for 24,750 community organizations including 225,000 women members (40% of total); additional targets for community management and leadership training of women; project monitoring includes gender-disaggregated data collection and project reviews include impact on gender relations; loan covenants support 40% targets for MFB's women staff and clients, training of women leaders and community organizations, gender-disaggregated data collection and regular monitoring of targets.

10. Women's Health - Loan 1671, 1999

    Project objectives are to expand women's health interventions to underserved populations in rural areas; develop women-friendly district health systems that will benefit 2.4 million women each year; and strengthen institutional capacity to improve women's health. Activities include expanding community-based health care and family planning, safe delivery campaigns, media campaigns on women's health issues, development of women's health services and referrals, provision of safe houses for abuse victims, education on HIV/AIDS, and community-based training and advocacy. Loan covenants require district women's health plans, and targets for training and staffing of district midwives.

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Tajikistan

1. Agriculture Rehabilitation Project - Loan 1980, 1 Dec 2002

Rehabilitation of selected irrigation and drainage facilties will improve living conditions of farming communties. Project will benefit 85,000 ha of land and 471,500 people. About 87,000 people, particularly women and children, will benefit from rehabilitation of potable water systems. Beneficiary organizations will undergo training and organizing for sustainability of the rehabilitated systems. Dialogue with communities on formation of Water Users Associations (WUAs) will encourage participation of women. Gender strategy supports activities to improve women's access to income opportunities. Loan covenant supports implementation of the gender strategy.

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Uzbekistan

1. Small and Microfinance Development Project - Loan 1963, 9 Dec 2002

Economic hardship accompanying transition has had a negative impact on women's participation in the formal political structure and traditional gender ideologies have reemerged. Educated and entrepreneurial women use their experience to lead the women's NGO movement including the ABW(Association of Business Women) who participated in the design of the project. Initial survey indicated major subsector beneficiaries to include smallholder agricultural workers, handicraft makers, microagroprocessors, custom tailors, traders and other service providers. Over one third of beneficiaries would be women and over 20% of total loan cost will accrue to women. Women are expected to play a disproportionately active role in organizing and managing savings and credit unions(SCUs). Sensitivity of loan and savings product design will enhance women's participation. The project mandates the condition that in at least 5 of the 20 SCUs, a minimum of 50% of members would be women. The Government has also taken steps to address gender at the local level particularly the creation of women's councils within mahalla committees. Loan covenant assures that gender issues are addressed during implementation.

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Viet Nam

1. Upper Secondary Education Development Project - Loan 1979, 17 Dec 2002

Poor, ethnic minority and female students from 20 disadvantaged provinces will directly benefit from component 2 (improved access, equity and participation in upper secondary education) of the project. Information, communication and education programs will benefit and encourage ethnic minority girls to attend upper secondary schools. The study support programs including tutorials and vocational orientation will be developed and provided to 5,000 very poor female and ethnic minority students to help them keep up with their studies and be competitive with other students. A gender-inclusive curriculum for upper secondary schools will include modules in career orientation, information technology, health, sex and HIV/AIDS awareness. Provision of about 1,500 classrooms will benefit 120,000 students and about 22,500 poor ethnic minority students. A Gender and Ethnic Minorities Action Plan includes provisions for gender-inclusive curriculum and teaching methods that will be sensitive to gender and ethnic minority issues and cultural diversity. It will ensure equal participation of women in in-service teacher training. A gender specialist will ensure implementation of the Action Plan. Loan covenant supports Gender and Ethnic Minority Action Plan.

2. Second Red River Basin Sector - Loan 1855, 2001

   The Project includes comprehensive gender action plan to ensure gender equity in project benefits; address gender inequalities in project service delivery; pay special attention to ethnic women as the most marginalized group; collect gender-disaggregated data through social assessments, monitoring and evaluation; ensure women's participation in subproject design to meet their specific needs; ensure representation of female staff at all levels of project management and equal opportunities for training; and ensure equal wage labor opportunities for women in the project.

   In the water resources management component, gender-specific measures include incorporation of gender issues in action plans and implementation guidelines; use of ADB's gender checklists in training activities; requirement of female representation in the Red River Basin Organization (RRBO); engagement of international and domestic specialists to assist RRBO in addressing gender issues in integrated water resources management; and engagement of a specialist on gender and public health.

   In the water services investment component, every subproject social assessment will include gender analysis and specific measures to address women's needs, with needs of poor ethnic minority women being given highest priority; all new water user groups and forest user groups formed under the project will include at least 40% women in their management committees, and management committees for participatory irrigation management and rural development support will include at least 40% women; all irrigation and drainage management committees must provide personnel statistics by gender and specialization, and demonstrate that female staff have the same opportunities as male staff; women will have equal work opportunities and equal pay in construction work on subprojects; and domestic specialists will provide gender training to all other consultants and executing agency staff involved in project implementation.

   General loan covenants support gender action plan and women's representation on certain project implementation committees.