Gender

02.01.2012

WDR 2012: Supporting women means strengthening growth

Countries that provide better conditions for women and girls will increase productivity, give children a better start in life and ultimately promote development, to the benefit of all their citizens.

This is the conclusion of the “World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development”, which the World Bank presented in Washington in mid-September 2011. According to the report, there is still much work to be done in terms of gender equality, despite the progress already made. For example, an estimated 3.9 million women are “missing” in developing countries each year, because some girls are never born due to a preference for boys, because girls have a higher mortality rate, and because they die in their reproductive years. In sub-Saharan Africa, especially in countries with high levels of HIV/Aids, female mortality is even rising. It is true that the gap between boys and girls in primary education has closed in almost every country. Even in secondary education, girls have caught up rapidly. But women’s access to work remains unsatisfactory. Women continue to be paid less and they have less influence, both at home and in society and the economy.

The report uses firm examples to illustrate the benefits gender equality can bring to rural areas:

  • In Malawi, the maize harvest would increase by 11 percent and in Ghana by 17 percent if female farmers enjoyed the same opportunities and conditions as male farmers.
  • In Burkina Faso, agricultural production would grow by 6 percent if women had the same access to fertilisers and labour as men.

The World Development Report 2012 calls for action in four priority areas. The first is promoting women’s “human capital” by reducing their mortality and closing education gaps. The second is shrinking gender gaps in earnings and productivity. Third comes increasing women’s voice and agency in the household and in society, and fourth is ensuring gender inequality is not reproduced from one generation to the next.                  

(epo/sri)
More information is available at:
www.worldbank.org/wdr2012

   
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