Women, Business and the Law 2026

You are receiving this email because you signed up for our World Bank Live Updates. We want to let you know that we have a new event coming up.  

February 24, 2026 <a href=”https://t.newsletterext.worldbank.org/r/?id=h2b2ee0f5,eee3225,ef2b99c&e=cDE9PGIgc3R5bGU9J2NvbG9yOg&s=zGT66GYPFF33l5dYVLcOjlfn37s7L0niNs2YVRGL9uE#004370;font-size:16px;’>Women, Business and the Law 2026—Benchmarking Laws for Jobs and Inclusive GrowthWomen, Business and the Law 2026—Benchmarking Laws for Jobs and Inclusive Growth Location: Online
Advancing women’s economic participation is a key driver of growth and job creation. Estimates suggest that removing barriers to women’s economic participation could raise global output by 15–20 percent. Yet progress remains uneven, with many countries facing persistent gaps in legislation, implementing policies and institutions, and legal enforcement.

Join us online or in person in the Preston Auditorium at the World Bank Group Headquarters in Washington, DC, for the global launch of Women, Business and the Law 2026,a flagship World Bank Group report that examines the legal and policy factors shaping women’s access to economic opportunities. Drawing on data from 190 economies, the report benchmarks progress across 10 dimensions of women’s economic life, including pay, assets, entrepreneurship, childcare, and workplace protections.
  This event will explore where gaps remain, which reforms have proven effective, and how legal and policy choices can support more inclusive and competitive economies. Policymakers, researchers, business leaders, and development practitioners will discuss the evidence behind women’s economic rights and their implications for growth and jobs.

Welcome and Opening
– Sumi Somaskanda, Chief Anchor, BBC News
– Indermit Gill, Chief Economist and Senior VP of Development Economics, WBG
– Paschal Donohoe, Managing Director and Chief Knowledge Officer, WBG

Key Messages of Women, Business and the Law 2026

– Tea Trumbic, Manager, Women, Business and the Law, WBG Voice of an Entrepreneur
– Lina Maria Useche Jaramillo

Panel — Legal reforms and actions needed to accelerate inclusive growth
– Gargee Ghosh, President of Global Policy and Advocacy, Gates Foundation
– Norman Loayza, Director, Policy Indicators Group, WBG
– H.E. Wafa Bani Mustafa, Minister of Social Development, Jordan
– Moderated by: Sumi Somaskanda Closing Remarks
 
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Foreign Direct Investment in Retreat: Policies to Turn the Tide

Foreign direct investment (FDI)—an important source of external financing for emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs)—has weakened since the global financial crisis, heightening the challenges of filling vast infrastructure gaps, reducing poverty, creating new jobs, and addressing climate change. This study provides a broad perspective on the evolution of FDI inflows to EMDEs since 2000, including patterns across regions and changes in sectoral composition.

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Heads of State Commit to Concrete Plans to Transform Africa’s Energy Sector, with Strong Backing from Global Partners

DAR ES SALAAM, January 28, 2025 — Thirty African Heads of State and governments today committed to concrete reforms and actions to expand access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity to power economic growth, improve quality of life, and drive job creation across the continent.  

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Power for progress: a call from African leaders and partners to electrify Africa

For many of us, the simple act of flipping a switch to light up our homes or power our devices are taken for granted. Electricity fuels modern progress—it powers hospitals and schools, enables businesses, and connects us to the world.


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Event | Business Ready 2024 – New Data for a Dynamic Private Sector | World Bank Live

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Event | Business Ready 2024 – New Data for a Dynamic Private Sector | World Bank Live

In developing economies, the private sector generates 90% of jobs, 75% of investment, and over 70% of output. A well-functioning and well-regulated private sector is essential to accelerating economic growth, boosting productivity, and reducing carbon emissions. Yet, as the world grapples with the slowest growth rate in three decades, this engine of growth struggles to regain its footing. 

The World Bank’s Business Ready 2024 (B-READY) report assesses the business environment across the globe. Improving upon the Doing Business report, B-READY offers more comprehensive data and analysis that can guide policy reforms and foster private sector development that benefit firms, workers, markets, and society as a whole.

Join economists, policymakers, business leaders and journalists to explore barriers to long-term growth, good policy practices, and strategies for fostering a business-ready environment.

Join the conversation with #BusinessReady

Women, Business and the Law 2022

Women, Business and the Law 2022 is the eighth in a series of annual studies measuring9781464818172.pdf the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The project presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they move through their careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. Amid a global pandemic that threatens progress toward gender equality, ‘Women, Business and the Law 2022’ identifies barriers to women’s economic participation and encourages reform of discriminatory laws. This year, the study also includes pilot research related to childcare and implementation of the law. By examining the economic decisions women make throughout their working lives, as well as the pace of reform over the past 50 years, Women, Business and the Law makes an important contribution to research and policy discussions about the state of women’s economic empowerment. The indicators build evidence of the critical relationship between legal gender equality and women’s employment and entrepreneurship. Data in ‘Women, Business and the Law 2022’ are current as of October 1, 2021.

 

 

 

Coming out of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Doing business with the International Financial Institutions (IFI’s) / Multilateral Development Banks (MDB’s)

After a bit of a break we are excited to share this latest Newsletter with you and reintroduce image8326522ourselves!

We hope all of you got through the COVID-19 pandemic safely and well. Although, life is getting back to (the new) normal, travel is still somewhat difficult and many offices are not fully open yet.

The World Bank Group Headquarters is currently at 50% capacity and slowly opening up to visitors again, the recent Spring Meetings were still held in a hybrid format. Nonetheless, business must go on albeit via email/Zoom/Teams etc.

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