Before COVID-19, many countries were making significant gains in human capital, improving 
health and education outcomes for girls and boys and empowering women to reach their potential. Between 2010 and March 2020, the World Bank’s Human Capital Index 2020 Update found an average increase of five percent in the human capital index across countries.
As many of us stay at home and continue to work there during the COVID-19 pandemic, we
are spending a lot more time in our kitchens than ever before. For some of us, this is about cooking in the comfort of a modern cooking environment.
Deadline: 08-Oct-2020 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)
The objective of this contract is to gather evidence on how DGM projects provided meaningful benefits to women in the key gender (in)equality domains of economic opportunities, access to and control over productive assets, voice, and agency. The contract will also collect evidence on how DGM empowered women during the intervention process. A selected firm is expected to conduct a study and produce a report which will be based on the research findings, as described below.
Deadline: 01-Oct-2020 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)
The objectives of the assignment are to:
i. Review women’s role in forest-related livelihoods and economic activities, women’s access to low carbon value chains and constraints to and opportunities around such access including good practices in selected Emission Reductions Program countries.
ii. Recommend specific measures to mitigate risks and empower women to be engaged in low carbon livelihood value chains.
iii. Develop 4 detailed feasibility studies for piloting low-carbon women dominated value chains.
Productivity growth, a force that has contributed to lifting millions of people out of poverty in developing countries, will need substantial support from policymakers if it is to withstand the severe challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic shock. More in our latest study.
On construction sites, it is more common to see men working than women. With the aim 
of improving the gender balance in construction, the World Bank is implementing gender strategies in urban transport projects in Colombia. These have led to the increased participation of women in infrastructure projects.
Gender discrimination not only has a negative impact on women’s income; it also impedes companies and society from making use of the special skills that women contribute to the economy. The implementation of a gender equality strategy in the Bucaramanga Integrated Mass Transport System– Metrolínea – revealed the advantages of including women in this type of project and provided lessons that could be shared with other systems, sectors and projects.
Deadline: 04-Jun-2020 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) 
The World Bank has received financial support from the PROBLUE Multi Donor Trust Fund and intends to use part of the proceeds to integrate gender dimensions into regional government efforts to address plastic production, consumption, and waste management and to mitigate the impact of plastic on marine ecosystems.
The World Bank seeks to contract an experienced consulting firm to conduct a literature review on key gender aspects of marine plastic management within the six participating countries, and to develop practical gender-responsive guidelines that each participating country can integrate in their national marine plastic management strategies and action plans.
By David Malpass, President World Bank Group
March 3, 2020
Girls are attending school in greater numbers than ever before, and women are 
increasingly entering the labor force and leading businesses. Although we should celebrate this progress, much work remains in order for a girl born today to have the same opportunities as a boy.
Research from the World Bank and others shows that Moreover, it is the right thing to do. Fortunately, more countries recognize that economies can reach their full potential only with the full participation of both women and men.
The World Bank Group is supporting countries in achieving this goal in important areas, including the removal of discriminatory laws, investment to close gender gaps, broadening access to finance, and stepping up efforts to prevent gender-based violence.
A number of recent posts on Development Impact have focused on gaps in labor market outcomes for men and women. This includes some posts in the job market series in late 2019 and, in 2020, a look at the ‘dismal statistic’ on female-to-male labor force participation rates in India and Pakistan, changing the way women think about themselves and what they can do as a means to closing gaps, and a summary of the World Bank’s Research Group recruitment. The latter was underpinned by goal setting in the shortlisting process with respect to between men and women applicants. Fun fact: such quota setting with respect to the composition of candidates to interview is known in the U.S. as the Rooney Rule — established by the U.S. National Football League in 2003 and named after the former owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers (and intended not in regards to women hires but with regards to ethnic-minority candidates in coaching and senior league jobs, though it is now used more generally in the private sector).
