20 ANNUAL 21 REPORT PARTNERING FOR GENDER EQUALITY UMBRELLA FACILITY FOR GENDER EQUALITY b a c a b c Copyright © 2021 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development /THE WORLD BANK Washington, D.C. 20433 +1-202-473-1000 www.worldbank.org This work is a product of the sta of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. All dollar amounts are US dollars unless otherwise indicated. Rights and Permissions: The material in this work is subject to copyright. 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TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments 4 Acronyms 5 Foreword 6 Vision 8 The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality at a Glance 10 Financials in Brief 12 From Evidence to Influence: Results from 2013–2021 16 Exploring the Impact of Large Value and Long Duration Grants 18 Promoting Gender Equality in the Western Balkans 19 Women’s Access to Economic Opportunities in Turkey 22 Examples of UFGE Impact Across the Regions: Implementers Drive Results 24 Gender Innovation Labs 24 International Finance Corporation (IFC) 25 Middle East and North Africa’s Mashreq Gender Facility (MGF) 25 Spotlight on Results 27 Evidence from Regional GILs Shows the Pandemic E ect on Women’s Employment 27 Ethiopia’s Women Entrepreneurs Gain Access to Finance 29 Capturing Data on Gender-based Violence through Phone Interviews without Jeopardizing the Safety of Respondents 30 The Colombian Data Observatory for Women 31 Women Online Gig Workers in South Asia Face Particular Challenges 32 Powered by Women Myanmar—Moving Women into Non-traditional Jobs 33 Task Teams Working Toward Better Childcare Policies and Reforms 34 Highlights of Grants Closed in FY21: Encouraging Entrepreneurship and Overcoming Occupational Segregation 36 Key Takeaways from Completed UFGE Grants 36 How can Women Entrepreneurs Cross Over to Male-dominated Sectors? 39 UFGE Communications and Knowledge Sharing 41 Publications 41 UFGE Publication and Impact 42 UFGE Knowledge Sharing: Webinar Miniseries 43 UFGE Lessons Learned and the Way Forward: Bringing Knowledge to Operations for Impact 45 Annexes 47 Annex 1A. Financials: Contributions by Donors 48 Annex 1B. Financials: Allocations and Disbursements 49 Annex 2: Regional Gender Innovation Labs 50 Annex 3: New Grants Initiated in FY21 55 Annex 4: Impact Evaluations 58 Annex 5: Active Grants 76 Annex 6: Closed Grants 82 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The 2021 Annual Report for the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE) was prepared by the Secretariat, led by Fareeba Mahmood, Program Manager, under the leadership of Hana Brixi, Global Director of the Gender Group. Core team members included Jessica Gesund Forero, Maria Lourdes Abundo, and Sandra Jensson. The team is grateful for inputs, edits, and support from Andrea Kucey, and Deepika Davidar, and acknowledges the task teams implementing and reporting on grants financed by the UFGE. The UFGE Secretariat extends its gratitude to the following UFGE development partners for their contributions and collaboration: AUSTRALIA NORWAY Department of Foreign A airs and Trade Ministry of Foreign A airs CANADA REPUBLIC OF LATVIA Department of Foreign A airs, Trade Ministry of Finance and Development DENMARK SPAIN* Ministry of Foreign A airs Ministry of Foreign A airs, European Union and Cooperation FINLAND* SWEDEN Ministry for Foreign A airs Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) GERMANY Bundesministerium für Wirtscha liche SWITZERLAND Zusammenarbeit (BMZ) Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) Deutsche Gesellscha für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) UNITED KINGDOM Department for International Development (DFID) ICELAND Ministry for Foreign A airs UNITED STATES United States Agency for International NETHERLANDS Development (USAID) Ministry for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation *Finland was a contributing donor to the UFGE multidonor trust fundfrom November 26, 2012, to October 31, 2018. Spain was a contributing donor from October 15, 2012 to September 2, 2020. 4 ACRONYMS AFE East Africa Region AFR Africa Region AFRGIL Africa Gender Innovation Lab AFW West Africa Region DPO Development Policy Operation (Policy-based Financing Instrument) EAP East Asia and Pacific Region EAPGIL East Asia and Pacific Gender Innovation Lab ECA Europe and Central Asia Region FCS Fragile and Conflict-A ected Situations IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development IDA International Development Association IDP Internally Displaced Persons IFC International Finance Corporation IFI International Financial Institution IRC Information and Communications Technology FY Fiscal Year of the WBG, running July 1 through June 30 GBV Gender-Based Violence GIL Gender Innovation Lab GP Global Practice in the World Bank Group LAC Latin America and the Caribbean Region LACGIL Latin America and the Caribbean Gender Innovation Lab MDS Male-dominated Sectors MGF Mashreq Gender Facility MNA Middle East and North Africa Region MNAGIL Middle East and North Africa Gender Innovation Lab NGO Nongovernmental Organization PforR Program for Results SAR South Asia Region SARGIL South Asia Gender Innovation Lab SME Small and Medium Enterprise UFGE Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality WB World Bank WBG World Bank Group 5 FOREWORD We are now in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the world has had to reassess what is truly important and ways to build forward with strength and resilience. There is the possibility that decades of gains for women and girls in human capital, economic empowerment, and voice and agency will be reversed. Evidence shows that pandemic- related job losses, lack of childcare and school closures have disproportionately a ected women. Industries which are o en female-dominated, i.e., hospitality, tourism, garments manufacturing, have taken the greatest hit during the recent economic downturn. Di erences between men and women’s responsibilities related to care and domestic work have become chasms. Recent gains in combating gender-based violence have seen reversals. It is clear there is great need for innovative thinking as we continue to work towards gender equality. Amid the challenges of remote work, social distancing, and rolling lockdowns, the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE) continued to deliver research and solutions to help country governments and partners close gender gaps. Two large-value and long-term grants came to a close with rich results and lessons. Gender Innovation Labs capitalized on existing country engagements and strong local partnerships to nimbly gather evidence on the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic on women. Projects and research covered areas as varied as increasing women in leadership, o ering childcare options to women across socioeconomic strata, and encouraging women entrepreneurs by providing easier access to finance and e-commerce training. And as countries look to the World Bank Group (WBG) for rapid assistance, the knowledge enabled by the UFGE is being used to help countries respond to the crisis. Continuing with its four pillars—Regional Gender Innovation Labs, Private Sector Solutions, Data Analytics, and Research for Country Impact—the UFGE hopes to make evidence widely available on a global level to help move gender gap solutions from concept to reality. By sharing knowledge, UFGE can help countries learn what worked, what didn’t and why. This will ensure that gender equality is firmly considered in the design and implementation of core policy reforms, in the strengthening of institutions, and in building green, resilient and inclusive service delivery systems. We look forward to partnering with our donors, World Bank Group colleagues, colleagues at international financial institutions, researchers, and academics across the globe as we continue to produce evidence-based solutions and public goods for global uptake. Together, we can make a greater impact as we build forward stronger. Cordially, Hana Brixi Director, World Bank Gender Group December, 2021 6 7 VISION MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA The UFGE seeks to systematically and deliberately close gaps between males and females to support women’s economic 21 grants | $8,344,775 sum of grants empowerment. It provides World Bank Group teams, international financial institutions, and other development partners $5,189,464 sum of disbursements with evidence-based solutions to demonstrate how to do this better as part of country and sector approaches to reduce $8.3 million allocated | 62% disbursed poverty and boost shared prosperity. By June 30, 2021, the UFGE portfolio included 221 operational grants in 98 countries, of which 57 are International EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Development Association (IDA)-eligible and 26 which are in Fragile and Conflict-A ected Situations (FCS). 32 grants | $9,252,152 sum of grants $8,756,355 sum of disbursements OVERVIEW OF UFGE ACTIVITIES $9.3 million allocated | 95% disbursed COUNTRIES SUPPORTED 221 $157.4 m 98 57 IDA TOTAL GRANTS TOTAL PLEDGES TOTAL 26 FRAGILE SITUATIONS EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC 39 grants | $14,544,877 sum of grants $13,632,440 sum of disbursements $14.5 million allocated | 94% disbursed WORLD 18 grants | $14,851,252 sum of grants $11,333,585 sum of disbursements $14.9 million allocated | 76% disbursed SOUTH ASIA 29 grants | $5,939,716 sum of grants $4,785,381 sum of disbursements LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN $5.9 million allocated | 81% disbursed 28 grants | $5,217,782 sum of grants $5,086,200 sum of disbursements $5.2 million allocated | 97% disbursed AFRICA 54 grants | $46,969,123 sum of grants $32,081,168 sum of disbursements $47 million allocated | 68% disbursed 1 Some of these countries have since graduated. 8 9 THE UMBRELLA FACILITY FOR GENDER EQUALITY AT A GLANCE Structure The UFGE is a multi-donor trust fund that: • Supports the development and implementation of innovative evidence-based solutions for women and girls’ economic empowerment in WB client countries; • Takes a programmatic approach, supporting individual initiatives that clearly align with the objectives of the WBG Gender Strategy and interlink to form a comprehensive approach to gender equality; • Has built-in flexibility to enable adaptation and add new modalities when necessary; and • Is governed by the Gender Leadership Council—a cross-section of WBG management—with guidance from the Donor Partnership Council which includes representatives of the group of development partners that support the facility. 10 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report UFGE RESULTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS AT A GLANCE 2013 2021 FOUR MUTUALLY REINFORCING AREAS OF WORK Country research Impact evaluations Private sector Better gender data and innovation Rigorous evidence solutions Scalable methodological Country-led research, on ‘what works’, led Good practices for innovations in data innovative pilots, and by Regional Gender companies on how collection and analysis. scale-up. Innovation Labs. to close gender gaps. OUTPUTS 98 countries supported 155 impact evaluations funded 79 initiatives to improve gender data 231 studies published 47 private sector case studies published TOWARD RESULTS IN THREE SPHERES Gender-informed policy Improved design of Awareness and demand for making at country level projects and programs gender equality solutions Leveraging ongoing WBG country Creating demonstration e ects Direct engagement with policymakers, dialogue with new data and evidence and working with project teams to south-south exchanges, and company to change policies. promote e ective solutions. peer learning. OUTCOMES New evidence has 217 projects have 48 private sector Evidence has led informed policy applied new evidence companies have to requests for new dialogue in in their design or incorporated new or expanded WBG 96 countries implementation approaches models engagement in 41 countries The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality at a Glance | 11 Funding FINANCIALS IN BRIEF The facility’s funding structure includes support for: The UFGE is to direct trust fund resources strategically • Inferential research for country impact; toward areas where they can be most e ective in delivering results. The facility allocates grants on a • Impact evaluations and pilots through a federation of programmatic basis, ensuring flexibility in responding to Regional Gender Innovation Labs; evolving opportunities while continuously building on • Analytics on cross-cutting issues; previous lessons. This approach has been greatly facilitated • Innovations in gender data collection, curation, and by core contributions2 from the UFGE’s 15 donors, totaling dissemination; and $37.9 million to date. • Evidence for the private sector on the links between The UFGE also incorporated donor contributions that women’s economic equality and business outcomes, are so -preferenced3 toward specific priorities that align and practical solutions for implementation. with the main objectives of the UFGE. Since inception, donor-preferenced funds have steadily increased, as In FY21, UFGE allocated funding to 14 new grants valued at shown in Figure 1. As of June 30, 2021, donors have signed approximately $16.5 million. Four of these are in excess of $1 $157.4 million in pledges, of which $136.5 million has million and relate to an impact evaluation in Mozambique, been received; the remaining pledges are substantially the establishment of a country GIL in Nigeria, empowering preferenced toward specific initiatives designated by girls and women in the Sahel, and Strengthening Gender the donor. Surveys and Statistics. Annex 1 of this report provides additional details on finances from FY21, including allocations, disbursements, and pledged funds. 2 Core contributions refer to funds provided by donors where allocations to target specific needs and priority areas are le to the discretion of the Bank. 3 So -preferencing’ means that the WBG commits to honor the request by the donor to route their funds to specific types of work/geographic areas. 12 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report When reading UFGE financials, note: • ‘Pledges’ include signed contributions but exclude investment income and administrative fee; • ‘Committed to grants’ refers to the total amount of grants that have been set up’; • ‘Preferenced/Promised’--grants to be created is the di erence between allocated to programs and committed to grants; • ‘Disbursement’ is the total amount disbursed from grants; • ‘Unpaid contractual obligations’ is the amount not yet paid out from existing vendor contracts; and • ‘Unspent balance in grants’ is the balance between committed to grants, disbursements, and unpaid contractual obligations. Figure 1. Contributions Signed: Core and Preferenced (by fiscal year) Source: WB Systems-SAP Data The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality at a Glance | 13 Figure 2. Status of UFGE Operational Grants Figure 3. Allocation by Pillars/Areas of Work — (as of June 30, 2021) Operational Grants (as of June 30, 2021) Private Sector, $6.6m Better Gender Data, $5.1m Country-Led Research, Innovation & Multi-Sectoral Solutions, $50.5m Regional Gender Innovation Labs, $84.4m Source: WB Systems-SAP Data Source: WB Systems-SAP Data Figure 4. Breakdown of Pledges (as of June 30, 2021) Source: WB Systems-SAP Data Figure 3 depicts the allocation between the four areas of work of the UFGE, with the largest allocations implemented by the Regional Gender Innovation Labs,4 followed by country-led research and experimentation under regional windows, private sector–focused work, and funding for improving data collection methods. 4 Of the $81.4 million allocated/preferenced to GILs to date, $68.9 million is allocated/preferenced to the AFRGIL and $7.8 million to the EAPGIL. 14 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality at a Glance | 15 FROM EVIDENCE TO INFLUENCE: RESULTS FROM 2013 2021 Since its inception in 2012, the UFGE has contributed a wealth of knowledge to countries across the globe to help them understand where and why detrimental gender di erences cause women to trail men in reaching their economic potential. Bridging this gap can be a matter of a single or several changes at the country government, local authority, or industry level. These suggested changes are based on data and evidence to inform policy, scale e ective approaches, and help companies identify and close gender gaps. The UFGE is among the key contributors to such research and pilots. In addition, it contributes to the global evidence base: data and research financed by the UFGE is made public through papers, policy briefs, reports, and, when possible, published datasets. This report spotlights numerous instances where governments and companies used UFGE evidence to narrow gender gaps. From recently concluded long-term grants to rapid responses to pandemic-related issues, the results showcase the depth and breadth of UFGE’s work and its ability to be flexible, draw on long-term relationships, and produce results for the global good. 16 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report RESULTS FRAMEWORK Development Objective The objective of the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality is to strengthen awareness, knowledge, and capacity for gender-informed policy making and programs. Outcome: Better gender-informed policy making at the country level Alignment with Gender Strategy Output Indicators FY21/ FY20 Number of activities in which new or improved gender data has been produced 79/71 or made available Deepening the Country Driven Approach Number of analytical reports covering frontier issues and persistent gapsa 231/184 More and better data & enhanced Number of case studies on integrating women into business operations 47/30 diagnostics Number of impact evaluations providing new evidence (in progress/complete) 155/131 Outcome Indicators FY21/FY20 Number of countries in which policy dialogue has been informed by UFGE 96/80 supported evidence, data, and/or analytical work. Developing a better understanding Number of Systematic Country Diagnostics in which understanding of gender of what works equality gaps has been deepened by drawing on UFGE supported evidence, 33/27 Regional Gender Innovation Labs data, and/or analytical work Outcome: Improved design of operations and programs Alignment with Gender Strategy Output Indicators FY21/FY20 Number of Country Partnership Frameworks informed by UFGE activities 38/32 Number of dissemination and learning events with task teams ** Number of projects receiving design, implementation and/or M&E support ** based on UFGE evidence and lessons Deepening the Country Driven Approach Aligning country planning Number of client advisory products developed (IFC) 19/9 Number of tools developed (private sector) 28/20 Building on what works Making gender-smart practices the norm Outcome Indicators FY21/FY20 Number of projects which have applied UFGE funded evidence, data, 217/170 analytical work, or approaches Number of private sector companies that incorporate scalable/ 48/34 replicable models Outcome: Heightened awareness and demand for gender equality interventions Alignment with Gender Strategy Output Indicators FY21/FY20 Number of global reports informed by analytical and data work funded 9/9 Number of regional reports informed by analytical and data work funded 14 /10 Building on what works Number of dissemination and learning events with country Better disseminating results ** stakeholder participation Number of South-south learning exchanges 21/16 Outcome Indicators FY21/ FY20 Number of country requests for new or expanded engagement with the WBG 41/32 Leveraging partnerships resulting from UFGE work Increasing capacity Number of client advisory requests (IFC) resulting from UFGE work 35/22 a Includes reports, papers, and policy notes published **Numbers not available due to limited consistent data From Evidence to Influence | 17 EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF LARGE VALUE AND LONG DURATION GRANTS At its inception in 2012, the UFGE allocated funds to two large-value programmatic grants: “Promoting Gender Equality in the Western Balkans” for $2.07 million and “Women’s Access to Economic Opportunities in Turkey” for $3.18 million. In both cases, results were reaped throughout the life of the grants. Both grants closed during this FY and allow an overarching view of the impacts of these larger-value and long-duration programmatic activities. The long-standing nature of the programs was key to the grants’ extensive impact as it allowed teams to engage in long-term agendas and implement innovative initiatives. Ongoing dialogue and engagement ensured the transformation of the analysis into policy reforms. It also enabled the World Bank Group to become a trusted partner and resource to government and non-government stakeholders in discussions around evidence-based policy recommendations to increase women’s participation in the labor force. The leveraging of partnerships was key to these programs’ success. 18 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Promoting Gender Equality in the Western Balkans BACKGROUND (i) Fill the knowledge gaps regarding the causes and costs of women’s lower participation in Despite gender parity in human capital, women have lower economic activity. access to economic opportunities in the Western Balkans. By the end of the 20th century, the Western Balkans had (ii) Fund data collection to generate evidence on how on average a high stock and only minor gender imbalances skills constraints– in particular, so skills—reduce in human capital. However, low female labor force women’s opportunities in the job market, and test participation in these countries indicates that barriers innovative solutions to build so skills for the future. to women’s employment persist. Several factors explain (iii) Raise awareness based on evidence, by building and this gap, including legal restrictions and social norms. For strengthening partnerships, networks, and forums example, labor taxation and regulations a ect incentives of discussion. to hire women across countries in the region and while the civil code protects women’s right to property ownership in all the Western Balkan countries, prevailing discriminatory IMPLEMENTATION traditions and social norms still undermine women’s Over 40 di erent activities were conducted under the property rights, particularly in rural areas. program, including surveys, reports, pilot interventions and dissemination events, with the following products and activities completed: OBJECTIVES • 5 new firm-level surveys covering 3,200 firms, in 4 In 2013, the Swiss Agency for Development and countries in the region. Cooperation worked through the UFGE to provide a $2.07 million preferenced grant for “Promoting Gender Equality • 2 individual-level surveys covering 7,000 individuals in in the Western Balkans”. The grant financed a program to 2 countries in the region. document and understand the causes and the economic • Approximately 23 policy notes, papers, or reports. costs of the low participation of women in the labor • 1 pilot intervention and impact evaluation. market of Western Balkan countries since the start of their transition to market economies. Geared towards an • Over 10 consultations/training /dissemination events. audience of policy makers and key stakeholders, the grant was built around three components: Exploring the Impact of Large Value and Long Duration Grants | 19 KEY RESULTS gender-sensitive intervention to teach students to cultivate “grit,” a trait closely related to positive academic and labor A gender-focused multisectoral reform program outcomes. The results of the pilot ultimately informed the supported by World Bank lending to reinforce gender- national curriculum in the country. sensitive policies and regulations. In Albania, the program generated and systematized evidence on gaps in Engagement with key stakeholders to seek concrete women’s access to property and labor markets, as well as solutions. Based on the evidence generated, the UFGE gender-sensitive monitoring of public policies. Through grant supported active stakeholder dialogue on solutions active collaboration with government counterparts and to tackle the barriers to the labor market. Examples include development partners, a multisectoral reform program workshops in Bosnia and Herzegovina to discuss how to was supported by the first entirely gender-focused World improve financial literacy among women entrepreneurs, Bank Development Policy Loan. The loan also leveraged and a series of workshops in Kosovo with university budget support and a technical assistance package from students and employers centered around school-to-work the French Development Agency. Results from the ongoing transition, a key obstacle for young women. Implementation Completion Report indicate a successful program that increased the government’s capacity to A gender-sensitive lens applied to the legal framework. implement regulations with a gender-sensitive approach The program supported, in partnership with other and adopt multisectoral actions to advance women’s development agencies, data collection and analysis of how opportunities in the labor market. the regulatory framework and its implementation could lead to gender gaps in property rights and labor market Data to inform dialogue and policies. The employment participation. This analysis and the combined e orts gender gap and its associated cost in foregone growth with partners and counterparts led to important policy was quantified in the widely-cited study How Costly Are reforms. In Albania and North Macedonia, analysis of the Labor Gender Gaps? The program also collected data to legal framework on access to land and property (with GIZ) gain a deeper understanding of the barriers for women in produced recommendations to increase women’s access economic activity. For instance, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to property. In Kosovo, the program undertook an analysis a new survey among women entrepreneurs collected of the labor code to assess the potential impact of new data on constraints in access to finance and technology, maternity leave policies at the government’s request. The which has served to inform the activities between the results informed policy discussions about revisions to the World Bank and the government. In Albania and Bosnia Labor Code between the World Bank and the government and Herzegovina, the Employer Survey “Skills Towards to avoid creating disincentives to hire women. In Serbia, Employment and Productivity” measured skills shortages the program examined institutional arrangements for among employers, including for socio-emotional skills. gender equality in a comparative analysis with the EU In Kosovo and North Macedonia, the program supported gender equality framework and regional standards. The technical trainings and seminars on labor market analysis analysis identifies recent changes and provides insights on with a gender lens using micro-simulation analysis to how they will advance gender equality in Serbia. test potential policy changes. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Serbia, qualitative studies shed light on the supply of care services and how it was CONCLUSIONS perceived among women, as well as men and women’s The program was successful in reaching its objectives perceptions of economic mobility, access to labor market and has created new opportunities to continue the and entrepreneurship opportunities. The program also engagement with key stakeholders on long-term supported policy innovation in North Macedonia, where issues, while continuing to strengthen the regional the Ministry of Education tested and evaluated a low-cost, knowledge base. 20 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report The program quantified, for the first time in the region, the economic costs of women’s unequal access to economic opportunity. Putting concrete numbers on the economic losses (15-30 percent of per capita gross national income) strengthened the case for Ministries of Finance to position gender equality as an economic growth. The combination of analytical rigor, inclusive approach to policy dialogue Quantifying the extent and costs of and consistent dissemination proved the right mix to gender gaps was an important first step generate results. to mobilize action. For example, the program shed light on the gap in property The program generated action-oriented knowledge ownership of women… The generation and identified specific policy reforms. New evidence on socio-emotional skills shortages, lack of financial literacy, of hard data and discussions around and negative perceptions about using care services, led this issue led several governments to to the identification of concrete policies and programs to introduce legal corrections and provide tackle such barriers. These studies documented concrete training to notaries to ensure that they drivers of gender gaps and tied them to policy solutions enforce and protect women’s property that could be discussed with the counterparts; they rights. Similarly, the program’s reviews of also tested and evaluated interventions to assess their the legal framework around parental leave causal impact. This chain¬—from knowledge, to action, and other benefits that o en discourage to results—was appreciated and helped to establish employers from hiring women, led to the World Bank as an e ective partner for advancing actionable and tested recommendations gender equality. to reduce legal barriers while providing The best results were achieved in activities that leveraged parental benefits. current dialogue and fostered partnerships. Activities Linda Van Gelder, World Bank Country conducted as part of a wider World Bank Group dialogue were more impactful as they added value to existing Director for the Western Balkans engagement and strengthened relations with clients and other stakeholders. Examples include the activities with the Education Practice Group (PG) in North Macedonia and with Social Protection and Jobs PG in Kosovo. In both cases, an ongoing engagement ensured the operationalization of the analysis. In Albania, the generation of solid evidence accompanied by strong partner engagement, facilitated the dialogue around a comprehensive program with the Ministry of Finance and Economy, leading to the Development Policy Loan. Exploring the Impact of Large Value and Long Duration Grants | 21 Women’s Access to Economic Opportunities in Turkey BACKGROUND Despite being the world’s 16th largest economy, in 2012, only 24 percent of Turkish women were employed outside the house, and many worked in the lowest-paying jobs, like farming and textiles. In 2013, the Government of Sweden and the World Bank began to explore possible support to gender equality in Turkey. This resulted in Sweden funding a preferenced grant of $3.18 million through the UFGE for the ‘Women’s Access to Economic Opportunities in Turkey’ program. OBJECTIVES The objective of the program was to support actions aimed at increasing women’s participation in the labor force and access to economic opportunities in Turkey. Initially, the program encompassed three components: (i) Strengthening Evidence-Based Policy Making; (ii) Knowledge Sharing and Awareness Raising and; (iii) Support to Women Cooperatives; Two further components were added as circumstances evolved: (iv) The Syrian Refugees Survey (v) Understanding Evolving Gender Norms in Turkey Components of the Turkey UFGE Grant and Their Contribution to Evidence Base 22 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report KEY RESULTS tasks to completion. The knowledge generated through these collaborations brought value to WBG engagement in The program generated a large body of knowledge to various areas. For instance, it contributed to a new credit understand the barriers to women’s equality in the labor line focusing on female entrepreneurs. It also provided market in Turkey. Examples include a study to quantify the team with the flexibility to restructure the program employer biases against women candidates, which of activities to respond to emerging requests, such as the provided avenues for tailoring intermediation services to evaluation of wage subsidies or the incorporation of the increase the chances of women getting jobs; an evaluation refugee agenda. In all cases, the team was able to tap into of wage subsidies, which was the first administrative data the existing network of experts that have collaborated analysis with Turkey’s Social Security System (SGK) data throughout the years on various projects to propose and provided a broader picture of the landscape of wage concrete analytical tasks to the counterparts to satisfy tax credits and its e ects on employer incentives; and a the demand. teacher training pilot that uses virtual reality technology to engage with teachers and principals on how to improve Engagement on policies to integrate Syrian refugees social cohesion in classrooms with diverse students. in the country. The evaluation of the Istanbul Women’s Cooperative pilot provided several lessons for the design These research projects o en take a long time to mature of future interventions. The Social Cohesion pilot with the but produce results, as they require intensive dialogue Ministry of National Education (MoNE) should also provide with the counterparts to understand needs and thus tailor significant tools for the ministry to ensure that Syrian projects to respond to policy-relevant questions. They also students are well integrated into the Turkish community require significant investment in capacity building with and are able to contribute positively to their new home government o icials to obtain relevant data and provide country. In cases where the activities did not develop, analytical training. A long-term engagement supported by such as the Syrian Refugees Survey, the preparatory work a multiyear program was ideal to create the conditions for had positive spillovers and laid the foundation for the such research to occur and lead to results. team to provide extensive training and capacity building The program created practical tools to facilitate the to the government and partners; as a result, there was formation of women’s cooperatives. A comprehensive improvement in the knowledge on the evolving situation of report on women’s cooperatives included practical steps refugees in Turkey. to design capacity building from start-up through all stages of co-operative development including cooperative/ CONCLUSIONS associative skills, leadership, business management, women’s empowerment, financial capacity, and This programmatic grant holds key lessons for other partnerships/networking support. It also recommends prospective long-duration knowledge programs, including: reviewing the tax and fee structure that women’s Be flexible. Continuous changes in the government cooperatives face to enable them to reach a critical size increased the time and e ort for the team to complete before having to confront what are o en prohibitive the tasks and maintain a fluid relationship with costs. Based on report recommendations, the team the client. worked with the Ministry of Customs and Trade (MoCT) to develop two educational videos and a booklet on how Manage the risk. The team proceeded on various fronts, to establish a women’s cooperative, which were then engaging with di erent (new) counterparts and adapting used by MoCT in ministerial trainings, conferences, and the activities to the emerging needs. meetings nationwide. Adapt where necessary. Activities had to be adapted to Focus on knowledge generation and capacity building a changing perspective on gender inclusion, resulting in enabled the program to maintain dialogue in various the program refocusing on gender mainstreaming in the areas despite changing circumstances in the country. labor market. The team maintained an active collaboration with NGOs, business associations, think-tanks, and academia, bringing Exploring the Impact of Large Value and Long Duration Grants | 23 EXAMPLES OF UFGE IMPACT ACROSS THE REGIONS: IMPLEMENTERS DRIVE RESULTS UFGE-funded activities are implemented by task teams—comprising extensive cross-sectoral expertise—across the WBG. These teams work in a variety of units, including the Federation of Regional Gender Innovation Labs (GILs), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Mashreq Gender Facility (MGF), presented here as examples of the key innovators and producers of the UFGE’s global goods to advance women’s economic empowerment. GENDER INNOVATION LABS By FY21, GILs had completed a total of 45 impact evaluations, 10 inferential studies5, and several diagnostics intended to inform government policies and programs. Objectives Generate global public goods: The World Bank’s Regional GILs are a key vehicle for supporting the design of innovative scalable interventions to address gender inequality across economic sectors such as agriculture, private sector development, tourism and more, and, with the pandemic, addressing other critical issues including reduced female labor force participation due to the lack of a ordable and quality childcare and elder care. GILs conduct rigorous research to build evidence on what works and what does not; and distil learning for knowledge sharing, replication and scale-up. GIL-supported pilots and evaluations assess how to close gender gaps in earnings, productivity, assets and property, and agency. Work with partners: The UFGE has enabled the creation of GILs across most World Bank regions, which operate as a federation to test various approaches to women’s economic empowerment. With UFGE support, there are now fully operational GILs in Africa (AFRGIL) and East Asia and the Pacific (EAPGIL), with nascent labs in South Asia (SARGIL), Latin America and the Caribbean (LACGIL) and the Middle East and North Africa (MNAGIL). Maintain a global federation with a regional focus: The activities of the GILs are implemented in partnership with other units of the World Bank, as well as donors, researchers, NGOs, and private companies. These partnerships, combined with a distinct mission, dedicated teams, a focus on a specific area of development, and access to critical avenues of policy influence, position the GILs uniquely to a ect change. The established GILs have significant impact on client programs and operations. They o en work with task teams at the start of projects to inform the design, measure progress, and identify scalable, operational solutions that can be replicated. They also promote learning across countries and regions, build capacity of World Bank Group country teams and partner agencies, and make critical contributions to the global knowledge base. For more information, see Annex 2: Regional Gender Innovation Labs 5 AFRGIL does not report on inferential research. 24 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report How the Gender Innovation Lab Works INTERNATIONAL FINANCE access to economic opportunities. The facility comprises both IFC and WB teams with expertise in a variety of CORPORATION (IFC) areas that support women’s economic empowerment. IFC deploys investment, advice, innovative research, and Together, they bring various expertise to the fore for a peer learning platforms at the country and regional level powerful public-private platform that has the potential for with the aim of closing gender gaps in the private sector. significant impact. It also provides guidance to companies and industry associations as well as governments on how to close MGF works directly with the governments of Iraq, education, health, jobs, asset, and leadership gaps and Jordan, and Lebanon to support country commitments tackle gender-based violence and harassment as a cross for increasing female labor force participation rates. cutting issue. In addition, a regional work program supports cross- country activities and issues of regional concern, such as IFC’s gender and economic inclusion work is guided by the those related to refugees and internationally displaced WBG Gender Strategy, IFC’s implementation plan (FY20-23) persons (IDPs). and four gender related capital increase commitments. Working with the UN system, in particular ILO, UNCTAD, UN Activities supported by MFG fall under three Women and the UN Global Compact, as well as many private interconnected pillars: sector associations, helps IFC ensure solutions that are • Dialogue & Participation: Building capacity and sustainable and scalable. IFC influences emerging business awareness at all levels, across sectors and segments. models and patterns in the online and o -line economy • Data & Knowledge: Country and regional data and to highlight gender gaps and mobilize key stakeholders analytics for evidence-based policies. to address them. It uses UFGE financing to analyze gender issues, develop solutions and help innovate with pilots in • Innovating for Results: Testing and assessing private sector firms in client countries. interventions to identify solutions and provide support to catalytic initiatives that boost women’s economic opportunities. MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA’S MASHREQ GENDER FACILITY (MGF) MGF provides technical assistance to the Mashreq countries to strengthen the enabling environment for women’s economic participation and enhance their Examples of UFGE Impact Across the Regions | 25 Figure 6. Mashreq countries have set ambitious targets for raising female labor force participation MGF: Country Highlights for women and girls; in addition, preparations for the launch of a mobile app to report violations are underway. Women’s economic empowerment in Iraq was furthered (iii) Information Technology outsourcing and food by several private sector-led activities including: (i) manufacturing were identified as target sectors to promote the first webinar for the Women’s Employment Peer- women’s employment and discussed across the national Learning-Platform (PLP)6 focused on the business benefits technical team. A qualitative assessment was completed of flexible work, family friendly policies, and women in on access to information on the registration of home- nonconventional jobs (ii) a competition to recognize based businesses. A mixed-method study was launched private sector firms with gender diversity goals; (iii) on the socioeconomic impact of microlending on women finalization of the Training of Trainers (TOT) curriculum for business borrowers. gender sensitization and investment readiness training for incubators and accelerators and (iv) completion of the case In Lebanon, a DigitalAG4Her hackathon competition was study on the Nafith Logistics company featuring women in launched to crowdsource and support innovative ICT- nonconventional jobs—the first of three case studies on based solutions for women working in agriculture. The workplace policies to attract, retain and promote women Peer Learning Platform in partnership with the Chamber in the private sector. of Commerce of Beirut and Mount Lebanon held its third webinar with the topic being the business benefits of In Jordan, progress was made on several fronts. (i) The implementing anti-sexual harassment policies in the Women’s Employment Peer-Learning-Platform (PLP) workplace. A competition was launched to recognize launched its third webinar with a focus on the business private sector companies with Gender Diversity goals; benefits of implementing anti-sexual harassment policies winners received advisory services from IFC. A Market Study in the workplace. (ii) Several government departments to facilitate export opportunities was concluded and a participated in training on gender considerations for the large number of women-led business completed the Crisis Code of Conduct to ensure safe public transportation Management Training Program with follow-up coaching. 6 IFC and MGF, partnered with the largest business associations across Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon to create a community in each country called the Women’s Employment Peer-Learning-Platform (PLP), with the goal of increasing women’s recruitment and retention in the workplace. The platform has created an avenue for the largest employers in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon to engage on issues related to gender diversity in the workplace. 26 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report SPOTLIGHT ON RESULTS Evidence from Regional GILs Shows the Pandemic E ect on Women’s Employment “Is the COVID-19 pandemic having a disproportionate Sectors that employ a higher share of women have impact on women?” been more a ected SARGIL collected data from rozee.pk, the largest online job This was the question of the hour as countries moved into portal in Pakistan. The data showed that while there was lockdowns and work-from-home strategies. However, a significant overall fall in job postings, the decrease was gathering evidence to answer this question was a challenge particularly marked in female-dominated sectors. By April with social distancing measures in place. 2020, job postings in manufacturing, education, health, and Moving quickly, GILs capitalized on existing country professional services dropped to 24 percent of the previous engagements and strong local partnerships to gather year’s level. Meanwhile, traditionally male-dominated evidence on the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic on industries were more resilient. For instance, job postings women, incorporating high-frequency telephone surveys, in the ICT sector dropped to a more modest 38 percent of online surveys, and other new data collection methods in its previous level. Similarly, high-frequency phone surveys their ongoing engagements. They used this evidence to conducted by LACGIL showed that 56 percent of job losses produce contextualized policy recommendations. in the region were concentrated in four of the five sectors that employ the highest share of women: trade, personal KEY FINDINGS services, education, and hotels and restaurants. Prior to the crisis, 60 percent of employees in these sectors Women have been more likely to lose were women. their jobs LACGIL analyzed three sets of high-frequency phone Female-owned businesses have been hit surveys from 13 Latin-American countries. Findings the hardest revealed that women in Latin America and the Caribbean were disproportionately burdened by job loss during the AFRGIL partnered with Facebook and OECD to conduct a pandemic. Surveys conducted in May 2020 showed that global survey among approximately 25,000 businesses with female workers were 44 percent more likely than male established Facebook Business Pages in over 50 countries. workers to have stopped working and 62 percent more likely The survey revealed di erences in the rate of closures to have lost their jobs. As the months passed, di erences in between female and male-owned MSMEs in countries like work stoppage rates between women and men went from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. For example, in 17 percentage points in May 2020 to 15 percentage points Nigeria, the survey found that by June 2020, 44 percent in August 2020. Further, by August 2020, almost 1 out of 5 of surveyed female-owned and 33 percent of male-owned women participating in the survey remained unemployed. businesses had closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, equivalent to a 11 percentage point gender gap in business closures. In Ethiopia, the GIL conducted a real-time survey which revealed that participating female-owned business experienced a reduction of about 50 percent in sales and profits. Spotlight on Results | 27 Employment aspirations among adolescent girls and From data to action boys have diminished Based on these findings, GILs have developed policy In Bangladesh, a survey conducted by SARGIL with GAGE recommendations adapted to regional and country-level found that job loss, reductions in household income, and recovery e orts including: decreased investment in education have a ected the • In Pakistan, SARGIL recommends social safety nets well-being and job aspirations of adolescents. Computer- and support services targeted at women who were assisted telephone interviews conducted with over 2,000 previously employed in sectors that su ered the adolescents between May and June 2020 revealed that largest declines in employment. 53 percent disagreed with the statement that “nothing would interfere with their job aspirations”. Impacts on job • In the Africa Region, AFRGIL recommends measures aspirations varied according to household vulnerability to help bu er women-owned businesses against the status and sex. For example, 34 percent of adolescent girls e ects of COVID-19, such as enabling women’s access believed financial constraints would interfere with their job to lines of credit. aspirations, compared to 28 percent of adolescent boys. • In Ethiopia, data on the impact of the crisis on female- owned businesses influenced the design of the Women Entrepreneurship Development Project (WEDP II), which will provide a rescue package to participating financial institutions to provide more flexible loans to women entrepreneurs and support new revenue-based credit products. based credit products. 28 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Ethiopia’s Women Entrepreneurs Gain Access to Finance To support women entrepreneurs with a range of financial institutions to provide more flexible loans for women products and training opportunities, AFRGIL launched the entrepreneurs. Based on evidence produced by AFRGIL and Innovations in Financing Women Entrepreneurs (IFWE) IFWE and the success of pilots which introduced methods project in 2020. It builds on AFRGIL’s research on the to get around collateral constraints, the AF introduced constraints faced by women-owned firms and the GIL’s a specific component to the line of credit, called the strong track record of introducing innovative pilots and Innovative Finance Facility. Microfinance institutions evaluations in World Bank operations in Ethiopia. Since its can access this part of the line of credit only if they inception, IFWE has supported the generation of several reduce their collateral requirements by using new credit new training approaches and financial products developed scoring technologies. under the Women Entrepreneurship Development Project (WEDP), including psychometric credit scoring and Further, in collaboration with IFWE and based on evidence entrepreneurship e-learning. Launched by the Government from previous IFWE pilots, the AF project introduced of Ethiopia in 2012, with support from the World Bank and digital training, which o ers a more flexible and COVID- in advisory with the AFRGIL, WEDP provides a line of credit 19-resilient approach than classroom-based training and to financial institutions that finance women-owned micro can facilitate learning for female entrepreneurs who juggle and small businesses in Ethiopia.7 multiple responsibilities at home. The AF will also introduce training modules on digital literacy, accessing e-commerce IFWE has helped shape the design of WEDP’s new Additional platforms, introducing digital payment options, Financing (AF), a $100-million operation which will provide among others to prepare women-owned firms for the a rescue and recovery package to participating financial digital economy. I would like to get a degree in construction technology and management. Working as an entrepreneur is much better than being an employee of an organization. There is a lot of opportunities for women in construction, though few women work in the field. Many people think the construction sector is only for men, but women can install electricity as well as any man. Merhawit Hailemariam, 26, Electrician, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 7 As of September 2021 , approximately 44,000 women entrepreneurs have registered with WEDP and approximately US$ 158 million has been disbursed to 18,984 clients. Close to 25,000 women entrepreneurs participated in entrepreneurial trainings across 10 cities, with a 98.6 percent completion rate. Clients who accessed a loan through have also considerably outperformed firms that did not access external financing, with profits increased by 35 percent and employment by 73 percent compared to a control group. WEDP firms are employing a total of 89,282 workers, of whom 61 percent are female. Spotlight on Results | 29 Capturing Data on Gender-based Violence through Phone Interviews without Jeopardizing the Safety of Respondents During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a range To understand which factors were likely to trigger or of countries reported stark increases in cases of intimate mitigate GBV, the team used a machine learning algorithm partner violence (IPV). However, these reports were based to si through 156 variables from rich datasets collected on anecdotal evidence or on increased calls to help lines, as part of the impact evaluations prior to the COVID-19 which not every survivor of IPV may have access to. It pandemic and through the phone surveys conducted in was necessary to understand how and why gender-based 2020. Several important patterns emerged. Among these, violence (GBV) increased during the pandemic. However, findings showed that household food insecurity was social distancing requirements necessitated phone strongly associated with exposure to GBV and that women’s surveys, which made ensuring safety of the respondents access to jobs protected them from increased exposure to di icult and in-person surveys even more challenging. GBV a er the onset of COVID-19. Based on consultations with GBV experts, the EAPGIL team Questionnaires and instructions for carrying out surveys in developed a series of questions, which did not directly ask a safe manner have been made publicly available through about exposure to violence, but allowed respondents to a research note and shared with other parties wishing to infer its likelihood. For example, the team created several carry out similar work, including the WB High Frequency vignettes where a hypothetical situation of GBV was Phone Surveys team, and the UN Women. These internal described and respondents were asked how likely it was and external partners are now using material developed for such situations to happen in their community. EAPGIL by EAPGIL to capture better data on the impact of the administered such proxy questions through phone surveys pandemic on the incidence of GBV. to respondents of ongoing Impact Evaluations in Indonesia, Lao PDR, and the Philippines to capture exposure to For more details, see EAPGIL Policy Brief: What Factors GBV without compromising the respondents’ safety. For Exacerbate and Mitigate the Risk of Gender-Based Violence instance, in Indonesia, 866 women were interviewed; 83 During COVID-19? percent of respondents perceived an increase in GBV in their communities a er COVID-19. The team combined the impact evaluations and phone survey data to understand changes in likelihood of GBV since the onset of the pandemic, as well as factors that mitigate or exacerbate it. 30 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report The Colombian Data Observatory for Women Countries need access to quality country-level gender data. The Observatory is innovative in that, for the first time, it Without a proper understanding of the inequalities that brings together data from the National Statistical O ice, the women and men face in areas like employment, income, Ministry of Health, the World Bank Group, the UN Women, and access to assets, development practitioners and and others, to provide a snapshot of today’s average woman governments struggle to design interventions that help to in Colombia. The Observatory allows users to visualize and narrow these inequalities. To facilitate this understanding, compare data on women and men in di erent areas (e.g., LACGIL, with the support of UFGE, worked with the World demographics and population, gender-based violence, Bank Poverty and Equity Global Practice to assist the power and decision making, economic empowerment, government of Colombia in establishing the Colombian education, and ICT). It also allows users to compare Observatory for Women. women across age groups, over time, or across geographic locations. For example, it features over 25 indicators of As part of the technical assistance, LACGIL helped identify women’s economic autonomy. The first of these indicators international observatories with comparable experiences. looks at unemployment rates by sex and year: for instance, It also provided suggestions on relevant indicators, data, in 2020, 20.4 percent of women in Colombia were and dimensions to be frequently monitored. Based on an unemployed compared to 12.7 percent of men. But the assessment of the main data gaps, LACGIL recommended Observatory also includes graphs and figures that illustrate that new data be collected to enrich and expand indicators di erences in unemployment rates in rural and urban areas about women’s specific vulnerabilities. across the di erent departments in Colombia and in the capital city, Bogotá. The Observatory… shows how the condition of the average woman varies across departments and over time. It exposes the gaps in the conditions of women vis-à- vis those of men in multiple areas. And how such gaps evolve over time and across territories, between urban and rural contexts. And it looks beyond Colombia too. When possible, the Observatory compares women in Colombia with those across Latin American and the Caribbean and globally. José Cuesta, Senior Economist, The World Bank Spotlight on Results | 31 Women Online Gig Workers in South Asia Face Particular Challenges Remote work arrangements have become part of the “new Burden of care: Women in the sample reported taking on normal” during the COVID-19 pandemic and are expected additional care responsibilities at a higher rate than men to become more common. While women benefit from the during the lockdown; 23 percent of women spent additional increased flexibility o ered by remote working and stand time on childcare, compared to 17 percent of men, and 24 to gain from a greater involvement in digital employment percent of women reported an increase in time spent in opportunities, an August 2020 policy brief from SARGIL eldercare, compared to 19 percent of men. sheds light on the issues that women working in in digital jobs can face. Intra-household tensions and violence: While both men and women in the sample reported an increase in domestic The study was based on data collected on Amazon violence during the lockdown, it was higher for women. A Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing website where month a er the outset of the pandemic, female online gig businesses can hire remotely located workers to perform workers experienced an increase of 15-20 percent of all discrete tasks. However, other studies from 2020 already forms of violence. These rates were 2-3 times higher than showed that women online gig workers were likely to work those reported by men in either period. longer hours and get paid less than men for the same jobs. Further, employers did not consider the unequal household Understanding the challenges faced by women online gig roles, mediated by cultural norms, which resulted in an workers in India is important for their wellbeing but also for increased workload for female online gig workers. In the broader workforce who might need to work remotely in addtion, since online gig work is driven by demand, there the a ermath of COVID-19. can be more job uncertainty, particularly during times of For more information, see https://documents1.worldbank. crisis when businesses are a ected. org/curated/en/752451605243945323/pdf/Care-Work-and- Data from 1,168 online workers was analyzed by SARGIL Intra-Household-Tensions-during-COVID-19-Evidence- and showed that these challenges continued to grow from-an-Online-Survey-of-Gig-Workers-in-India.pdf during the pandemic: 32 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Powered by Women Myanmar— Moving Women into Non-traditional Jobs Myanmar made renewable energy a national priority Two of the companies changed their community under the Myanmar National Electrification Plan (2015- engagement strategy to enable greater participation from 2030), yet women were not well represented in this sector. women in the community to better understand their needs Hiring was low and few women held leadership and and concerns. For example, a hydropower company now technical positions. organizes separate consultations for women and men, and has created dedicated spaces for women to raise their To help renewable energy firms in Myanmar realize the concerns. A solar power company changed processes for benefits of gender equality, a UFGE grant through the customers signing up for solar-powered electrical services, IFC’s Gender and Economic Inclusion Group launched the meeting separately with women’s groups to provide them Myanmar Powered by Women Program in 2017. Seven with a more detailed explanation of the o ered services, companies joined this peer-to-peer learning program the specific electrical household goods that can be and endorsed commitments to take specific, measurable operated using solar power, as well as the benefits of this actions in at least one of the following areas: form of renewable energy. • Enhancing the engagement of women as Many of the participating companies increased the number stakeholders in Environmental and Social Impact of women in leadership positions. Driving change around Assessments (ESIAs); gender and social norms was a key part of increasing • Enhancing opportunities for women in leadership; women’s representation in leadership positions within the organization, enabling both women and men who meet • Promoting respectful and supportive workplaces for job requirements to be considered for roles previously men and women; and considered more appropriate for men. As a result, in • Promoting women in non-traditional jobs. 2020, one company reported an increase in women in When the program drew to a close in 2020, an evaluation management positions, from 34 percent to 53 percent. showed that each participating company had advanced Due to the success of Myanmar’s Powered by Women in one or more of the four commitment areas. Overall, Program, the initiative has been scaled, leading to the the initiative generated an increased focus on recruiting creation of similar programs in other countries and regions. women, particularly into non-traditional jobs, such as field The program has informed future Powered by Women engineer roles. By March 2020, 42 percent of new employees programs in other markets including Nepal and Pakistan. among these companies were women, compared to a A similar model was adopted in Africa with Energy2Equal. baseline figure of 11 percent. Five of the companies also adopted anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies and half adopted flexible work provisions and additional maternity leave allowances. Spotlight on Results | 33 Task Teams Working Toward Better Childcare Policies and Reforms The lack of childcare solutions has proven to be a major Producing evidence barrier to women’s labor force participation. To engage The UFGE report, Women’s Economic Participation in Iraq, policy makers and increase dialogue on childcare solutions Jordan, and Lebanon (2020) showed that, in Lebanon, and reform, WBG Task Teams and country governments the rate of women’s participation in the labor market fell explored this issue in several studies and pilots across the from 70 percent for women without children to less than globe. Working together, they achieved several significant 30 percent for women that had children under 3 years results including: of age. A study from Chile revealed that 9 percent of women participants in the World Bank’s High Frequency surveys conducted between May-June 2020 reported not working due to additional care tasks during the pandemic, compared to 0.7 percent of men. A recent qualitative study explores the impacts of a pilot that established mobile creches for women employed in public works in Burkina Faso. It shows that the intervention has benefited not only I was able to save enough money to pay mothers but also their children and coworkers. for a hairdressing course where I learned to braid and dye hair, and now I’m Bringing together stakeholders planning on opening my own salon. I can also help cover household expenses and, In October 2020, the MGF organized a Regional Childcare thanks to the childcare center, I’ve learned Clinic, which convened around 150 participants representing how to take better care of my children. the government, private sector and civil society from Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. Evidence, technical resources, and tools to support the implementation of childcare solutions Sophie Ilboudo, 34-year-old mother of were presented and discussed. The clinic provided an three and beneficiary of a mobile childcare opportunity for participants to build on and apply learning creche, Burkina Faso to address specific country challenges for the expansion of childcare policies and services. Further, capitalizing on the network created through the clinic, MGF launched a Childcare Community of Practice which provides a platform to connect with practitioners and policymakers, share experiences and challenges, collaborate across di erent stakeholders in the childcare ecosystems and access the latest relevant research on this agenda. 34 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Making a case for employer-supported childcare Building on the progress made in FY20 to make the case for employer supported childcare in Vietnam and Myanmar, IFC continued to lead the Working Group on Employer- supported Childcare with representatives from over 15 organizations in Vietnam. Sharing best practices A UFGE grant enabled the World Bank Group to organize a study tour for public o icials from Turkey to learn about childcare services and social assistance programs in Chile and Mexico. This experience informed the design of a pilot program for childcare demand support. The grant also supported technical reviews and a Regulatory Impact Analysis for a Dra Law on Preschools. These inputs informed amendments to the Personal Income Tax Law granting an exemption of taxes on earnings to private crèches and daycare centers. Building on evidence The UFGE brief 10 Key Messages about COVID-19 and Women’s Work in Chile (In Spanish) provided evidence on the relationship between women’s increased care responsibilities at home and their decreased labor force participation a er the onset of the pandemic. It led to the government commissioning a second report. The new study, Childcare is key to Chile’s post- pandemic economic recovery: Policy considerations (Spanish) has already informed policy discussion on reforms to Chile’s childcare system during a post- pandemic context. Spotlight on Results | 35 HIGHLIGHTS OF GRANTS CLOSED IN FY21: ENCOURAGING ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND OVERCOMING OCCUPATIONAL SEGREGATION women entrepreneurs receive cash grants, they tend to Women’s Work: A Holistic Approach channel a lower share of this capital toward the business than men do. One of the reasons for this is that they face greater pressures to spend this capital at home or share with family members. For this reason, a UFGE study in Ghana sought to evaluate the potential of add-on interventions in making cash grants work for women’s businesses. It found that while unconditional small-scale cash grants had no impact on WOMEN’S WORK: the business performance of women-owned businesses, A HOLISTIC conditioning the cash grant on reaching a predefined APPROACH savings goal (one-third of total cash grant) led to an increase of 15 percent in sales, 10 percent in profits, and a 25 percent increase in investment in raw materials. Several factors contributed to these results. Women in the control group followed a savings plan that was implemented through a weekly savings collection with a commercial bank, with weekly visits from the bank’s field o icers. The study argues that conditionality mechanisms can a ect the behavior and investment decisions of the recipients. The A significant number of UFGE grants that closed in FY21 account combined with the weekly collection service can have helped shed light on what works and what doesn’t constitute a self-commitment mechanism and strengthen work in addressing barriers faced by women entrepreneurs the beneficiary’s self-control. The savings account provides across regions. This learning will influence how policies the beneficiary with a means to shield her capital from and interventions can be designed to achieve results. household needs. Finally, savings goal were matched to a business investment decision, building a stronger mental link between the cash grant and business investment. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM COMPLETED A second set of female-owned businesses participated in the UFGE GRANTS study and received grants conditionally on attending a joint decision-making training with their spouses. The training 1. Make cash grants work for women aimed to help women entrepreneurs and their husbands An important barrier faced by women entrepreneurs is that focus on the earnings potential associated with di erent they have less access to capital and finance with which opportunities, regardless of who within the household to grow their business; yet evidence suggests that when 36 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report ‘controlled’ this opportunity. This training intervention led likely to own micro-enterprises and have fewer employees. to greater investments in business equipment, inventory, The reports found that closing the earnings gap between and raw materials. male and female vendors by 2025 would yield a combined gain of almost $300 billion in these regions. Conversely, unaddressed gender gaps could lead to losses of 2. Train for both so and hard skills approximately $50 billion annually. In Mexico, impact evaluations of two innovative interventions to support women entrepreneurs found Beyond providing a business case for the inclusion of that combined access to training on so and hard skills women in such platforms, the reports identify a set of key led to improvements in the profitability of women-owned actions that e-commerce platforms can adopt to recruit businesses. The first intervention was a training program female vendors and boost sales and profits: that mixed so skills with traditional hard skills and led to Provide business training: Female entrepreneurs tend to the adoption of better business and managerial practices value access to business training more than men. In Africa (e.g., financial management, marketing, and formalization) for example, 48 percent of women cited business training and ultimately improved sales (by 9 percent) and profits as a helpful resource over the last 12 months, compared to (by 13 percent). The second intervention consisted of low- 40 percent of men. cost business consulting services to small retailers that aimed for improvements in store appearance, branding, Design targeted financial technology o erings for and bookkeeping. The impact evaluation found that women: For example, platforms can use vendor sales participating firms were able to increase their monthly histories to provide services to entrepreneurs who might sales by an average of 17 percent two years a er program otherwise not qualify for loans due to lack of collateral or completion. The impact evaluations showed that both formal credit histories. interventions were cost-e ective in that the return on Incentivize uptake of value-added services: Women investment would cover program costs in less than a year. entrepreneurs can benefit from training on how these services can influence product ranking and sales; reports 3. Include women on e-commerce platforms found that men were 12 percent more likely to use paid As more businesses became more dependent on digital platform services and advertising which, in turn, influenced platforms due to social restrictions during the COVID-19 their sales. pandemic, the di erences between online businesses Collect sex-disaggregated data: This helps to monitor owned by women and men have become more acute. For key indicators on seller recruitment, preferences, and instance, in Africa, online sales by women dropped by 7 performance on a regular basis. percent, while men’s rose by this same percentage. In the Philippines and Indonesia, women’s sales went down by Boost participation in non-traditional sales areas: 27 and 44 percent, respectively. Reversing these trends E-commerce can help lower barriers to entry for is important to ensure women can compete in the digital female entrepreneurs into high-value male-dominated economy following the pandemic. sectors; the studies found that women participating in e-commerce platforms performed well in segments like Launched in 2021, IFC’s Women and E-commerce in electronics where they are o en underrepresented in Africa and Women and E-commerce in Southeast Asia non-online spaces. reports drew on data from Jumia and Lazada, two of the largest e-commerce platforms in Africa and Southeast Asia, to demonstrate the extent of women’s participation in e-commerce and how online platforms can benefit women business owners. The Africa report found that besides significant gaps in earnings, women were more Highlights of Grants Closed in FY21 | 37 4. Cross over to male-dominated sectors According to a UFGE-financed global report “Breaking Barriers: Female Entrepreneurs Who Cross Over to Male- Dominated Sectors,” to be o icially launched in 2022, women-owned businesses tend to concentrate in low profit yielding sectors, with lower returns, more informality and lower potential for growth. While this is not the only factor that contributes to profit inequalities between female and male-owned business, evidence shows that globally, women who enter male-dominated sectors earn 67 percent higher profits, compared to those that operate in traditionally female-concentrated sectors.8 The report analyzes data from studies conducted in 10 countries, as well as a multicountry survey of female entrepreneurs using a social media platform. While there are di erences among countries and even among subsectors, the report finds that women-owned firms tend to concentrate in trade and retail industries, such as hairdressing, food services, hoteling, and male-owned enterprises dominate most manufacturing sectors. The report analyzes the varied factors that contribute to the segregation of female-owned businesses and, to understand the characteristics that di erentiate female- owned business that move (cross over) into more profitable male-dominated sectors from those who are in the less profitable female concentrated sectors. 8 Global Profitarchy: Gender and the Choice of Business Sector 38 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report How can Women Entrepreneurs Cross Over to Male-dominated Sectors? The ‘Breaking Barriers: Female Entrepreneurs Who Cross Three studies carried out in Mexico, Guinea, and East Asia Over to Male-Dominated Sectors’ global report shows that Pacific region show that there are certain facilitating factors female entrepreneurs who cross over to male-dominated associated with crossovers. And while all these factors sectors (MDS) perform better than female entrepreneurs in were not assessed in every country, at least one factor was female-concentrated sectors in all countries studied except assessed for each study. These factors include: for Cambodia, where operating in female-concentrated • Support, networks, and exposure to the field; sectors appears to be more profitable. • Access to capital; Characteristics such as women’s education, spousal • Basic education, business skills, and support, past exposure to male-dominated sectors through socioemotional skills. work experience or training, exposure to MDS through male relatives, mentors, or role models appear to be positively associated with crossing over in almost all countries where Mexico crossover study these factors were assessed. An analysis conducted in Mexico as part of an impact evaluation, sheds light on the benefits experienced by Evidence-based programs and policies could support female entrepreneurs working in male-dominated sectors women to cross over and contribute to their business and factors associated with female entrepreneurs who cross performance more generally. Some of the recommendations over to these sectors.9 Data collected from 3,539 female- discussed in the report include encouraging spousal owned businesses working in non-male-dominated sectors support, safely connecting women to mentors and role and 368 working in male-dominated sectors showed that models, and providing early exposure to and training for those that crossed over to male-dominated sectors, in MDS. In addition to addressing skills gap, it is also weekly sales and profits increased by over 66 percent and important to provide access to capital and loans to support 78 percent, respectively. The study found that women entry into MDS, li constraints around access to networks that had male role models such as a father entrepreneur within sectors, and improve the overall working conditions working in a traditionally male-dominated sector, were in MDS for women. 6 percentage points more likely to cross over. For women that had male mentors, the possibility of crossing over increased by 4 percentage points. 9 The “Breaking Barriers: Female Entrepreneurs Who Cross Over to Male-Dominated Sectors” report complements data from this impact evaluation with additional data. Highlights of Grants Closed in FY21 | 39 Guinea women entrepreneurship sector East Asia and Pacific region selection study crossover study Guinea’s “Women Breaking Barriers/Femmes Sans EAPGIL supported the first in-depth analysis of female Barrieres” (WBB) program sought to increase the entrepreneurs operating in male-dominated sectors (MDS) participation of women-owned businesses in male- in Southeast Asia. Study results will be featured in the dominated sectors in Conakry. The program combined “Breaking Barriers: Female Entrepreneurs Who Cross Over mentoring sessions to build women’s business knowledge to Male-Dominated Sectors” report to be launched in FY22. and entrepreneurial skills with training and information sessions on topics such as opportunities, risk, and returns Analyses focused on four countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, on male-dominated sectors.10 Lao PDR, and Vietnam. Similar to results from other regions, the analysis found that crossovers outperform women- Results indicated that WBB participants were 34 percent owned businesses operating in female-concentrated sectors more likely than those in the control group to own a in all countries except Cambodia. Factors that characterized business in January 2020. The share of women in male- female crossovers in Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam dominated sectors among participants in the WBB included higher education levels, greater access to capital, program was 11 percent, 170 percent above the control stronger networks, and fewer domestic responsibilities. group. Study results are informing actions to encourage For this reason, the study argues, alleviating such barriers the participation of women in MSME development adopted may enable more female entrepreneurs to break into under Guinea’s MSME Growth Competitiveness and Access male-dominated sectors. However, in some countries, to Finance project, and the government’s Center for Women crossovers continue to be outperformed by male-owned Entrepreneurship. businesses in the same sector. This suggests that policies to support female crossovers should be considered as only one promising tool in a broader set of policies to support female entrepreneurs. 10 The follow-up survey for WBB had to be conducted by phone in mid-2020 because of social distancing restrictions. 40 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report UFGE COMMUNICATIONS AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING The UFGE Secretariat oversees the implementation of the grant-funded programs, liaises with donors, and ensures oversight of communications, and knowledge management activities as the program moves from evidence to impact. The consolidated UFGE website, completely revamped in FY20, continues to be regularly updated to provide easy access to all knowledge products that have been financed since inception: over 230 publications, as of June 30, 2020. In addition, the UFGE Secretariat regularly distributes its updated quarterly newsletters and information of note to donors, NGOs, the private sector, and other development partners. PUBLICATIONS Top 6 downloaded publications of FY21 Profiting from Parity : Unlocking the Potential of Women’s Business in Africa (18,728 downloads) Supporting Women Throughout the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Emergency Response and Economic Recovery (2020) (10,040 downloads) Community-Based Approaches to Intimate Partner Violence (9,464 downloads) Levelling the Field : Improving Opportunities for Women Farmers in Africa (6,164 downloads) In Search of Equity: Exploring Africa’s Gender Gap in Startup Finance (2021) (1,781 downloads) Adolescence in the time of COVID-19: Evidence from Bangladesh (2020) (1,044 downloads) What Factors Exacerbate and Mitigate the Risk of Gender-Based Violence During COVID-19?: Insights From a Phone Survey in Indonesia (2020) (860 downloads) UFGE Communications and Knowledge Sharing | 41 UFGE Publication and Impact Since its publication in 2019, lessons and recommendations The report has had a ripple e ect, influencing UFGE grants from African GIL’s flagship report, Profiting from Parity: across regions as well numerous World Bank projects, Unlocking the Potential of Women Entrepreneurs in Africa, which have included recommendations in their design. have shaped the design of at least 11 operations, with $361 As a result, report recommendations are helping to create million of direct component influence. The report analyzed jobs and drive the performance of women-owned firms the main contributors to di erences in firm profits between in multiple regions. For example, the report featured the women-owned and men-owned business and proposed example of an intervention in Togo, which found that solutions to address these gaps based on evidence from both female and male entrepreneurs benefited from AFRGIL’s studies in multiple countries from the region. participating in personal initiative training, increasing These include providing female entrepreneurs with training their profits, and generating a 91 percent return on training on so skills and access to secure mechanisms for savings, investment. Based on this evidence, projects across such as mobile saving accounts. six World Bank Global Practices, including, The Ghana Economic Transformation Project, the Malawi Financial Inclusion and Entrepreneurship Scaling Project, and the World Bank’s Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We- Fi) projects in Bangladesh and Nigeria, included personal initiative training recommendation in their designs. 42 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report UFGE KNOWLEDGE SHARING: Part 3: Safety on public transport WEBINAR MINISERIES Several cities have put into place di erent mechanisms to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and violence Two four-part webinar miniseries, launched as part of in public transport. This webinar showcases relevant the broader Solutions for Women’s Empowerment series, interventions from WB-financed operations to prevent generated tremendous global interest and were attended and respond to violence against women and girls in public by a range of bilateral and multilateral agencies, NGOs, the transport, in Lima, Sierra Leone and Quito. private sector, ministries and WBG sta . NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2020 Watch Webinar Freedom to Move This webinar miniseries focused on closing the gender gap withing transport and mobility. How do women’s mobility Part 4: Part IV: Ride-Hailing—a conversation choices decide their access to jobs? How safe is public with Bolt, PickMe, and Uber transport for women and are gender-segregated transport New technologies and business models are rapidly o ering o erings the answer? And finally, will ride-hailing services opportunities to reshape lives while improving economies. o er women greater freedom of movement? The sharing economy—especially the ride-hailing industry—is a notable part of this transformation. Can ride- Part 1: What factors shape hailing improve women’s mobility and work opportunities? Listen to discussion of practical challenges and solutions women’s mobility? from Uber, Bolt, and PickMe. Women’s social and economic empowerment depends on the ability to move about freely and safely. Women use Watch Webinar transport modes, assess public space safety, and make employment decisions very di erently depending on their social standing, ethnic background and geographical APRIL-MAY 2021 location. Presenting research from Argentina, Brazil, Peru, India, and North Macedonia, this miniseries unpacks Childcare Solutions Miniseries mobility among di erent of groups of women, and o ers Changing fathers’ attitudes toward early childhood practical recommendations for improving their mobility. education, promoting employer-supported childcare, and sharing innovative interventions to help retain mothers in Watch Webinar the labor force—the UFGE Childcare Solutions miniseries presents several pathbreaking is taking place in April and May as part of the broader Solutions for Women’s Empowerment webinar series. Part 2: Navigating the debate on segregated transport Does o ering segregated transport such as women-only Part I: Changing fathers’ attitudes and train cars or women drivers in the ride-hailing industry involvement in care and early childhood e ectively address the wider problem of sexual harassment education and assault? Evidence on these solutions is scarce. This Incentivizing fathers’ involvement in child-bearing webinar presents three recent studies of public and private practices has the potential to a ect two important goals: segregated transport to shed a more nuanced light on ensuring that children get appropriate attention and care the debate. to foster their development; and facilitating higher female labor force participation. This session discussed policy Watch Webinar interventions to influence fathers’ involvement in childcare. Watch Webinar UFGE Communications and Knowledge Sharing | 43 Part II: The impact of childcare on women’s Part IV: Implementing childcare labor force participation – the devil is in the interventions—what works and how can it details be scaled up? This session features findings from di erent studies which Speakers of this session will present on interventions that show that making childcare services available increases helped mothers in Burkina Faso and Mongolia reconcile women’s chances of participating in the labor market. and their care and work responsibilities and the e ects these that getting married and having children is associated with have had on women’s labor force participation. lower labor force participation rates for women in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. Watch Webinar Watch Webinar April 2021 DISPLACEMENT x GENDER x ECONOMIC Part III: Creating family-friendly EMPOWERMENT workplaces. Lessons from South and East The Mashreq Gender Facility created a webinar series Asia, and MENA entitled “DISPLACEMENT x GENDER x ECONOMIC This session features IFC’s latest research findings on the EMPOWERMENT”. The series seeks to facilitate knowledge business case for employer-supported childcare in Pakistan sharing and discussion on intersectional challenges and and Vietnam, as well as insights from the work conducted opportunities for the public and private sector related to by the Mashreq Gender Facility to enhance the regulatory economic empowerment of refugee/internally displaced framework in Jordan, and an overview of IFC’s guidance women in the Mashreq. note for and work with employers on childcare during COVID-19. Watch Webinar 44 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report UFGE LESSONS LEARNED AND THE WAY FORWARD: BRINGING KNOWLEDGE TO OPERATIONS FOR IMPACT Since its inception in 2012, the work of the UFGE has helped to find pathways to women’s economic empowerment, contributing to ongoing WB operations. These pathways have varied in scale from country-focused to global grants, from programmatic grants to those facilitating more acute activities. The timeframe required to see the impacts of large-scale interventions can be long, while smaller grants show “quick wins.” Yet, as we have seen in both the Western Balkans and Turkey, programmatic grants may be more impactful. This seems to be supported by the recent WBG Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) review of the WBG Gender Strategy (2016-2023). Looking to the future and building on the recommendations of the IEG review requires the WB to anchor gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in its policy dialogue with governments, in the design and implementation of core policy reforms, in the strengthening of institutions, and in building resilient and inclusive service delivery systems. This approach is firmly rooted in the evidence that gender equality is both the right development objective and smart economics. Continuing with its four pillars/areas of focus—Regional Gender Innovation Labs, Private Sector Solutions, Data Analytics, and Research for Country Impact—the UFGE will continue to work at both the regional and country level to inspire, inform, facilitate, and support WBG e orts on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. UFGE Lessons Learned and the Way Forward | 45 46 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report ANNEXES Annexes | 47 ANNEX 1A. FINANCIALS: CONTRIBUTIONS BY DONORS TF071893 & TF072809 | Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality | Contributions in US$ Reporting Period: July 1, From inception to period 2020-June 30, 2021 ended: June 30, 2021 A. Funds committed by Development Partners 12,478,374 157,409,981 Australia 12,682,325 Canada 3,203,845 32,713,133 Denmark 1,611,306 2,672,877 Finland 145,568 Germany 9,960,964 Iceland 800,000 2,946,407 Latvia 46,586 Netherlands 9,534,535 Norway 8,560,025 Spain 551,151 Sweden 1,186,831 14,855,743 Switzerland 4,260,480 United Kingdom 28,939,054 United States 3,866,000 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 5,676,392 25,675,132 B. Funds received from Development Partners 18,850,730 136,492,659 Australia 12,682,325.00 Canada 7,070,848.73 28,231,926.97 Denmark 651,996.74 1,713,567.87 Finland 145,567.71 Germany 1,085,639.10 8,769,686.6 Iceland 600,000.00 2,346,406.71 Latvia 46,586 Netherlands 9,534,535.00 Norway 792,489.64 8,560,024.87 Spain 551,151.00 Sweden 1,186,830.92 14,855,743.07 Switzerland 4,260,480.29 United Kingdom 1,575,444.65 28,939,054.32 United States 96,000.00 3,866,000.00 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 5,791,480.00 11,989,603.00 C. Investment Income earned 174,585 3,106,422 D. Total Funds Available (B+C) 19,025,315 139,599,080 E. Total Disbursements 12,750,552 88,660,749 Grant Disbursements 12,519,517 85,482,007 Program Management 229,115 1,800,062 Administrative Fee 1,920 1,378,680 F. Cash Balance at end of reporting period (D-E) 50,938,332 G. Outstanding Development Partner Commitments at end of reporting 20,917,322 period (A-B) 48 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report ANNEX 1B. FINANCIALS: ALLOCATIONS AND DISBURSEMENTS TF071893 & TF072809 | Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality | Allocation and Actual Disbursements for Period Ended: June 30, 2021 Disbursements Allocated* of which Reporting From (Breakdown) period ($) inception ($) Country-Led Research, Innovation & Multi-Sectoral Solutions 50,487,950 3,271,744 31,705,969 Strategic Country Allocations (include Mashreq, Turkey, 32,613,909 Western Balkans, etc.) Multi-Regional Allocations 17,874,041 Regional Gender Innovation Labs 84,419,290 8,409,322 44,939,916 Africa GIL 71,989,290 EAP GIL 8,140,000 LAC GIL 1,290,000 MNA GIL 1,000,000 SAR GIL 2,000,000 Private Sector 6,613,991 348,723 5,963,783 Better Gender Data 5,106,794 325,487 2,026,433 Program Management Costs (including Secretariat functions, 7,176,081 393,355 2,645,968 and Knowledge Management and Learning) TOTAL 153,804,105 12,748,632 87,282,069 *Allocated includes funds not yet received, but so -preferenced for particular areas of work. Annex 1B | 49 ANNEX 2. REGIONAL GENDER INNOVATION LABS THE AFRICA GENDER INNOVATION policies related to the COVID-19 emergency response and recovery, including the Jobs Recovery Strategy in Ethiopia. LAB (AFRGIL) In Nigeria, AFRGIL shaped national-level social protection The AFRGIL has met or exceeded many its targets in 2021 programming prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 81 active impact evaluations, 7 impact evaluation as well as a COVID-19 response operation. workshops, approval for 40 technical concept notes and a total of 16 projects moved forward to the design phase. Shaping gender strategies: AFRGIL played a key role in shaping the World Bank institutional gender architecture The AFRGIL’s programmatic influence, continues to grow. and gender strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa as the region Some highlights of operational influence include the scale- was reorganized into two separate units: the Western and up of IE results through the additional financing of the Skills Central Region and the Eastern and Southern Region. In the Development for Employability Project in the Republic of Africa Western and Central Region (AFW), the AFRGIL team, the Congo, where evidence showed that women were more in close coordination with the senior management, has likely to apply for vocational training in male-dominated held multiple engagements with teams working on gender trades when they were informed about the sector-specific to create an e ective model for coordination going forward. earnings. Further, AFRGIL continued to scale its evidence AFRGIL will continue to lead in knowledge generation on personal initiative training, now reaching and informing and quality control of activities on gender in AFW and is the design of at least 26 operations, with over $1 billion of currently leading the dra ing of AFW’s Regional Gender direct component influence, since its launch. Action Plan FY22-FY27 with a core team of representatives from across the World Bank’s Practice Groups. In the Africa Highlights of FY21 Eastern and Southern Region, the GIL is poised to lead a similar e ort to develop AFE’s Regional Gender Action Plan Integrating gender with COVID-19 response: The GIL in FY22. used its research to ensure that WB teams, policy makers and implementing partners could integrate e ective Disseminating knowledge: AFRGIL shared GIL results with gender interventions with the COVID-19 emergency policy makers, academics, international organizations, response and recovery operations. For instance, AFRGIL and other stakeholders, presenting results at 82 events provided just-in-time policy and program design support for approximately 3,469 participants. Presentations to more than 60 COVID-19 response and recovery projects and panel discussions included: a session on financing within the World Bank and for six development partners for women in agriculture during the Agricultural Green during the pandemic. This translated into $487 million in Revolution Forum; a presentation of new GIL agriculture direct influence on seven emergency COVID-19 operations results to the World Bank’s Agriculture Global Practice; between August and December 2020. four sessions that featured GIL evidence on couples’ training, supporting women farmers, measuring women’s Engaging with policies and programs: Country-level agency, and supporting women entrepreneurs during the labs in Ethiopia and Nigeria ramped up impact evaluations World Bank’s Gender Learning Week; presentations to enabling AFRGIL to embed evidence from the diagnostics the WB AFW Regional Management Team on the gender and other recent GIL research in operations and policy. architecture for maximizing impact on gender equality in The Gender Innovation Policy Initiative for Ethiopia (GIPIE) AFW; a Land Portal webinar on “What Works for Women’s carried out or scoped new impact evaluations within the Land and Property Rights”; an Alliance for a Green agriculture and entrepreneurship thematic areas. Evidence Revolution in Africa (AGRA) webinar on “African Resilience on the importance of large loans to growth-oriented women Investment Series for Women”; presentations on the Niger entrepreneurs was embedded in Ethiopia’s National ASP IE results at sessions including the “Multi-Faceted Entrepreneurship Strategy. GIPIE also worked to shape 50 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Social Protection Strategies” seminar as a part of the Africa Phone Surveys team, and UN Women. EAPGIL has been Chief Economist’s seminar series, a presentation at a virtual using collected data to analyze the gender dimensions of conference on new directions in graduation research, and other policy relevant questions, including the e ects of presentations and discussions at large events with the countries’ social protection responses on child labor and Partnership for Economic Inclusion; presentations of the the role of international migration in mitigating the impact Facebook Future of Business COVID-19 results to over 800 of the pandemic. policymakers and researchers through a series of webinars and conferences (WeTalks webinar in collaboration with Engaging with policies and programs: EAPGIL’s impact Data2X, Devex webinar and PSDRN Conference); workshops evaluations and other inferential research have had with Global A airs Canada focusing on the Nigeria Gender considerable impact on projects and policy. For example, Innovation Lab, social protection, social norms and EAPGIL’s impact evaluations are impacting the design of 4 women’s economic empowerment; workshops with the WB operations in Lao PDR, Indonesia and the Philippines Agence Française de Développement on adolescent girls, and have contributed to defining the focus of new WB agriculture, and private sector development; presentations analytical and advisory services, including the Indonesia to Nigerian policy makers on the diagnostic findings Gender Equality for Growth Program. through the dissemination event for the Nigerian Economic Expanding portfolio: EAPGIL has successfully established Update report as well as the Nigeria Community of Practice new partnerships and expanded its portfolio. It is starting (CoP) on Demographic Dividend (DD); and presentations work on four new impact evaluations, requested by the WB to the Rwandan government on the latest findings from an operational teams. The data collection for these projects evaluation of an intimate partner violence intervention. will be financed through project funds or other external resources. Responding to demand from other teams, THE EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC GENDER EAPGIL is also expanding its inferential research program on childcare with four new studies, co-funded through the INNOVATION LAB (EAPGIL) WB budget or through collaboration with partners, such as EAPGIL has exceeded its target established in the first UNU WIDER. tranche of funding, nearly doubling the target number of impact evaluations: from 6 to 10 (6 completed, 4 on-going), The continuing demand for EAPGIL’s expertise and and producing multiple knowledge products, ranging interest in its work is a testament to the high quality of from academic papers published in peer reviewed journals rigorous and innovative research the unit continues to to policy briefs and research notes accessible to a broad produce. Continued engagement and expansion into new audience, and used by development practitioners. partnerships and areas is constrained only by uncertainty regarding the availability of future funding. Highlights of FY21 Integrating gender with COVID-19 response: EAPGIL THE LATIN AMERICA AND THE has supported a gender-focused response to COVID-19, CARIBBEAN GENDER INNOVATION leveraging its work on several impact evaluations to collect data through phone interviews on the impacts of the LAB (LACGIL) pandemic, including impacts on gender-based violence The LACGIL portfolio includes five ongoing impact evaluations (GBV) through questionnaires developed to ensure safety of and 10 inferential studies spanning 10 countries. A key public respondents while collecting sensitive information. These good prepared by LACGIL was the policy note “The Gendered innovative measures and data have been subsequently Impacts of COVID-19 on Labor Markets in Latin America and used by other WB teams, including the WB High Frequency the Caribbean” at the onset of the pandemic. Annex 2 | 51 Highlights of FY21 found that in Brazil, the femicide rate for women ages 15- 49 years was halved when wage equality was better for Integrating gender with COVID-19 response: A cross- women and when women had access to women’s police country study, which drew on High-Frequency Phone stations. It reinforced arguments in favor of policies that Surveys conducted in the 13 Latin American countries, enhance women’s access to economic opportunities and showed that female workers were 44 percent more likely highlighted the key role of pro-women institutions. than male workers to stop working at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. It also established some of the main drivers Impacting operations: As the first generation of LACGIL of women’s job losses. For instance, it showed that women impact evaluations are coming to fruition, operational were more likely to work in service-oriented sectors that impacts are beginning to materialize. For example, LACGIL were more a ected during the pandemic. It also indicated supported an impact evaluation of the World Bank’s that presence of school-age children at home was linked DIGITAGRO project in Guatemala, to explore whether with a rise in job losses among women, but not among men. digital technology can enable women agripreneurs to gain The study was among the first to quantify the di erential better access to markets. A recent World Bank operation impacts of COVID-19 on women’s and men’s participation “Guatemala: Responding to COVID-19: Modern and Resilient in labor markets in the region. Findings were shared widely Agri-food Value Chains”, plans to develop digital tools (such across World Bank’s external platforms through a set as an online platform for online transactions) based on the of blogs, a feature story, and a press release. They were materials, practical lessons, and impact evaluation results broadly disseminated by international media, including the from the DIGITAGRO project. The materials have also been Financial Times, The Economist, and El Pais. shared with the Guatemala Ministry of Agriculture and Food to inform the potential scale-up of an information A second LACGIL inferential study, focusing on the impact campaign to be implemented by the ministry. of the pandemic on women’s labor force participation in Chile, led the government to request additional Disseminating knowledge: LACGIL’s demand driven recommendations and entry-points to improve access approach and close coordination with Country to childcare. The study explored how the pandemic Management Units and operation teams has facilitated had reinforced existing gender gaps in use of time and the sharing of study results with government counterparts allocation of domestic and care responsibilities among and policy makers. For instance, an impact evaluation Chilean families and how this had a ected women’s ability in Bahia, Brazil, measured the impact of a peer-led high to engage in employment opportunities. Results from this school program designed to prevent teenage pregnancies research were featured in a blog co-authored by the Sub- and help students complete high school. The study found secretary of Women’s Issues and the WBG Chile. Based on that network-based interventions, especially those led by study findings and recommendations, the government “popular” students, were e ective in reducing teenage requested an additional study focusing on scenarios for pregnancies and increasing reproductive health knowledge. childcare expansion. (see SPOTLIGHT: UFGE Partners Team The study was innovative in that it explored and showed up for Better Childcare Policies and Reforms.) how changing aspirations and sexual behavior involves not only information transmission but also trust and closeness Engaging with policies and programs: In FY21, LACGIL to the source of information. In coordination with the completed four inferential studies on a range of topics World Bank’s Country Management Unit in Brazil, study including childcare, GBV, and economic empowerment. findings are being shared with government counterparts These studies were developed into four policy notes, through a series of presentations. The Ministry of Education including two that showed the impact of COVID-19 on has requested additional support to develop maps for women’s employment. Findings from studies and impact targeting sexual health and environmental curriculums in evaluations were also shared through three capacity- Bahia state. building events for policy makers and five workshops for World Bank operation teams. Another inferential study 52 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Building Gender Data: The LACGIL has contributed to Solidarity (MoSS) and a local NGO. The study shows that lack the improved availability of country-level gender data of accessible, a ordable, and quality childcare represents a by providing technical and analytical support to the significant barrier for women’s labor force participation. On Government of Colombia for the establishment of the average, mothers participating in the study spent 11 hours Colombian Observatory for Women. (See SPOTLIGHT on per day on childcare and 7 hours per day doing household LACGIL: The Colombian Data Observatory for Women) chores. Further, 40 percent of women reported spending more time on household chores during the COVID–19 pandemic. Almost 96 percent of women in the pilot study THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH expressed interest in having access to childcare centers AFRICA GENDER INNOVATION LAB but were concerned about high costs. Study findings are (MNAGIL) informing a rigorous impact evaluation which will assess the e ects of providing childcare subsidies on female MNAGIL became fully operational in FY20. Key labor supply and will also connect participating mothers to accomplishments of the MNAGIL during its second year of employers providing formal jobs to evaluate demand side implementation include implementing four IEs, completing restrictions. MNAGIL, MoSS and a local NGO are currently an IE on the impact of a cash grant intervention on vulnerable selecting several childcare centers to work with in the women’s engagement in economic activities; publishing greater Cairo area. a research policy report, two research and policy notes, and conducting a high frequency computer-assisted phone survey in 10 MENA countries to evaluate the impacts of the THE SOUTH ASIA REGION GENDER COVID-19 pandemic on women, girls, boys, and men. INNOVATION LAB As SARGIL moved into its second year, the COVID-19 pandemic Highlights of FY21 hit South Asian countries. During this period, SARGIL Integrating gender with COVID-19 response: MNAGIL responded to the shi in the region’s development priorities supported regional response to the COVID-19 pandemic by launching a new set of impact evaluations and just-in-time by conducting new inferential research on the di erential research projects to promote the uptake of gender-sensitive impacts of the pandemic on women and men in 10 MENA responses to COVID-19. In addition, SARGIL continued to countries. The GIL partnered with the World Values Survey deepen the scope of knowledge curation activities to o er to conduct high-frequency rapid phone surveys in Algeria, evidence-based solutions to World Bank teams, researchers, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi practitioners, and public audiences. Key accomplishments Arabia, and the West Bank and Gaza. The methodology of FY21 include expanding the core team with academic used computer-assisted telephone interviews for data a iliates, sta time from other parts of the WBG, and collection on 95 indicators that examined a range of issues consultants; launching four impact evaluations, two of which including how COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns have focus exclusively on addressing the impacts of COVID-19 a ected jobs, businesses, finances, health, and income, at from a gender lens, and completing an impact evaluation the household and individual level for men and women. on gender discrimination in the workplace; publishing five The study also highlights the impact on perceptions policy notes on the disproportionate gender impacts of toward women’s jobs, childcare, gender and intimate COVID-19 on women and girls’ wellbeing; completing three partner-based violence, girls’ early education and other systematic review notes based on the meta-analysis of relevant indicators. women’s economic empowerment interventions, focusing on skills, assets, and labor market policies; launching three Designing impact evaluations: In Egypt, findings from a synthesis papers focusing on evidence-based interventions pilot study on barriers to female labor force participation on gender-based violence, women’s groups, and micro- are being used to inform the design of an impact evaluation entrepreneurship; and organizing six knowledge events implemented in partnership with Egypt’s Ministry of Social and webinars to promote continued learning during home- based work. Annex 2 | 53 Highlights of FY21 Disseminating knowledge: Three key areas of work were developed: (a) formulating synthesis papers to capture Integrating gender with COVID-19 response: SARGIL what is known about e ective interventions from evidence responded to COVID-19 through two main areas of work: already available, (b) leveraging virtual platforms to (a) documenting the gender impacts of the pandemic as improve the accessibility of evidence for World Bank task it unfolded throughout 2020, and (b) integrating a gender teams, and (c) promoting knowledge exchange and learning lens in COVID-19 response. As part of the first, SARGIL among a wider network of development researchers and conducted data collection and analysis to capture the practitioners through public events. gender impacts of COVID-19 and delivered three just-in- time analyses on: intra-household tensions among online Maintaining a growth trajectory: Despite the impacts of gig workers in India; learning outcomes, attitudes, and COVID-19, SARGIL continued to grow with new research behavioral impacts on adolescents in Bangladesh; and projects and partnerships, both within and outside labor market impacts in Pakistan. As part of the second the World Bank. With the addition of four new impact area of work, SARGIL worked with WB operational teams to evaluations, the impact evaluation portfolio has expanded design impact evaluations of gender-specific interventions to 10 evaluations, and the inferential research portfolio that were embedded in COVID-19 response operations has grown to 10 research projects across five countries in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as launching new in the region—Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, impact evaluations on firm-level interventions to promote and Nepal. SARGIL has expanded its core network of women’s participation in wage employment. a iliates through cross-support sta from various Global Practices, South Asia Chief Economist O ice (SARCE), other Managing the impacts of COVID-19 on ongoing projects: GILs, Development Research Group (DEC), and external SARGIL successfully mitigated the risks posed by lockdowns, institutions such as George Washington University, J-PAL, interruptions in program rollout, and data collection Princeton University, Aga Khan Foundation, International restrictions. The suspension of field activities slowed University of Florida, and Overseas Development Institute down the implementation of ongoing impact evaluations. (ODI). Finally, SARGI -complementing its resources from the SARGIL mitigated this risk by accommodating flexibility UFGE-secured approximately US$ 0.71 million in funding in intervention design, implementation modalities, and from regional Trust Funds for new synthesis papers and a timelines. On the other hand, cancellation of a World Bank Virtual Interaction Platform. operation in Nepal due to a change in government priorities and urgency to redirect funds toward public health resulted in an impact evaluation being dropped in the design phase. 54 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report ANNEX 3: NEW GRANTS INITIATED IN FY21 In FY21, the UFGE had limited core funding to allocate for engaged with schooling during the COVID-19 lockdown new grants; however, previously preferenced funds were and return to school once schools have safely reopened. available for use. The GILs used such preferenced allocations It targets households with young girls that are likely to not coupled with savings from completed work to expand return to school a er the pandemic due to reasons such their portfolios. In many cases, teams which had received as budget constraints and increased household tasks. It preferenced funding for ongoing work, simply added to focuses on understanding the extent to which providing existing activities by broadening or deepening the scope of behavioral nudges can increase girls’ access to education work underway. resources in the home, reduce their burden of household work and the likelihood that they will drop out of school, and a ect their learning and skill levels. It is embedded COUNTRY GRANTS within a larger program using technology for distant In Pakistan, a set of new interventions launched by learning together with cash transfers, to minimize the SARGIL focuses on testing measures to improve women’s impact of COVID-19 on learning and school dropouts during participation in labor markets. school closures. Pakistan Women’s Wage Subsidy Experiment Afghanistan Cash-for-Work Pilot A firm-level subsidy intervention measures the impact In Afghanistan, SARGIL launched a Cash-for-Work (CfW) of providing wage subsidies to promote women’s entry pilot specifically designed and targeted to women. The into mid-level technical and managerial jobs in male- intervention is embedded within a larger labor-intensive dominated technology sectors in Pakistan. The study public works program providing cash/in-kind support to will explore whether wage subsidies for hiring women in seasonally food insecure households. The pilot will include technical/professional roles in Pakistani firms lead to the several features to improve women’s access to the CfW hiring of more women, and whether the gender attitudes program. Activities considered more suitable for women- of managers become more progressive a er working such as community gardens, community child-care centers alongside women. or cooking activities at public work sites- will be included in labor-intensive public works. Further, eligible communities Does Information on Female-Friendliness of Workplace will be required to include one or two “female-friendly” Encourage Women’s Employment? projects in public works. To encourage female demand A second intervention focuses on demand side constraints for employment, jobs will take into account social aspects to women’s participation in employment in Pakistan. It that limit women’s access to jobs, such as rules about seeks to evaluate whether making available gender-relevant mobility and allocated responsibilities at home; they will information about workplaces (such as the proportion of include “female-sensitive add-on features” such as breast- female coworkers, flexible work arrangements, support feeding sites and o er safe transportation options. Finally, for childcare and safe transportation options) promotes randomly selected households will receive an social norms women’s job applications. It will assess whether this helps related message to address norms which prevent women employers find well-qualified female workers and can from participating in jobs.a therefore help reduce labor market mismatches, which o en represent a challenge for educated youth. Mozambique Women’s Land Tenure Security Impact Evaluations SMS GIRL Impact Evaluation Two randomized controlled trials will be conducted to This impact evaluation measures the e ects of providing study the impact of increased land tenure security on behavioral nudges through WhatsApp and SMS messages women farmers and their households in rural Mozambique, and household visits on helping girls in Pakistan stay with and without accompanying interventions aimed at a As of August, 15th, 2021, grants in Afghanistan were placed on hold. Annex 3 | 55 relaxing additional constraints faced by women farmers. GLOBAL AND These additional constraints can include limited access to information, inputs, markets, and credit. The activity will MULTICOUNTRY GRANTS evaluate two interventions: (i) a large-scale nationwide Global grants indicate e orts involving countries in two project implemented by the government, which will take or more regions. Multicountry grants are those where a pro-active approach to strengthen women’s land rights work is proceeding in more than one country within the through specific information and incentives for women’s same region. names to be included on the titles; and (ii) a smaller-scale project implemented by NGO’s NCBA-CLUSA and Cadasta, Strengthening Gender Surveys and Statistics which will issue sporadic land-use titles to selected Aim: To strengthen the capacity of national statistical households that agree to include a woman’s name, systems in at least 10 partner countries to address gender individually or jointly, on the title. data gaps. Nigeria Gender Innovation Lab Under this intervention, technical support will be provided The Nigeria Gender Innovation Lab (NIGIL) is a country- (survey design, data collection, questionnaire reviews, level initiative of the AFRGIL. The goal of the Nigeria GIL is to etc.) to country national statistical o ices (NSOs) and equip policy makers and project teams in Nigeria with new government departments, to engender the collection of evidence on what does and does not work in addressing data in key surveys. It will focus on the World Bank Data the underlying causes of gender inequality, and how best For Policy (D4P) core products, such as household surveys, to close gender gaps in earnings, productivity, and assets. population censuses, enterprise surveys, establishment Through this work, NIGIL aims to inform the design of censuses, and agricultural surveys, and support the innovative policies and programs in Nigeria and ultimately countries’ Census and labor force survey activities as well. improve outcomes for Nigerian women. The intervention will seek to enhance the speed by which new guidelines and best practices are incorporated into The GIL will generate state-of-the-art evidence on what national statistical systems in the partner countries. works to empower women through a series of five new impact evaluations. These impact evaluations aim to shed Ensure Women’s Financial Future light on e ective interventions to close gender gaps in Aim: To support first-of-its kind research on women’s economic sectors by addressing the drivers of these gaps, risk profiles. as identified in the Nigeria gender diagnostic. The GIL also Research will inform the design of innovative financial risk aims to influence four key government policies—including mitigation products to meet women’s needs throughout the successor plan to the Economic Recovery and Growth their lifetimes and across various roles (e.g. caretakers, Plan (ERGP) (the Medium-Term National Development entrepreneurs, employees, and individuals). Risk profiles Plan), the National Social Protection Policy, the Agriculture for women in select low-income/IDA countries will be Promotion Policy (2021-2025), and the Gender in Agriculture developed to enable insurers to create tailored products Policy—and five programs in Nigeria by 2025, working and services that address the unique and disproportionate hand-in-hand with policy makers to equip them with the financial risks women face in their daily lives as related evidence generated by the Nigeria gender diagnostic and to education, work especially entrepreneurship, family the impact evaluation findings. In doing so, NIGIL expects and relationships, health and wellbeing and aging. The to influence at least $400 million in development spending. research will consider the gender di erential impacts of COVID-19, and will assess how the pandemic is amplifying pre-existing financial risks, and how risk mitigation tools can build women’s financial resilience to these risks. 56 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Gender and Natural Resources (INR) COVID-19 Gender Specifically, the grant will support: (i)The piloting and Solutions for IFC INR Clients testing of two innovative interventions in the domains of Aim: To support the piloting of gender advisory solutions menstrual hygiene management and entrepreneurial skills for IFC Infrastructure and Natural Resources (INR) clients for adolescent girls in Niger and Mauritania (ii) Enhancing and develop tools to close gender gaps in communities the quality of the design and regional coordination of where INR projects are implemented, in the context of impact evaluations conducted in six countries of the Sahel COVID-19 response. under the SWEDD to generate knowledge in a context where evidence is scarce and (ii) channeling the evidence derived It will pilot and scale-up a range of advisory solutions for from the impact evaluations into the design of promising INR companies in Sierra Leone and Guinea. For example, it interventions to empower girls and young women within will support a pilot Gender-based Violence and Harassment and beyond the SWEDD project. (GBVH) response for a company in Sierra Leona, advise them on developing a Respectful Workplace and provide training CARE4WOMEN: Creating Access to Respectful for human resource managers to support the mental health Employment for Women in Afghanistan of employees in a gender-sensitive way. The grant will also This grant supports research to fill knowledge gaps on support the development of several knowledge products, demand-side barriers to women’s formal employment including practical tools to ensure that the specific needs in Afghanistan. Research will highlight examples of and vulnerabilities of women from communities- which best practices and approaches to increase women’s have been exacerbated by the pandemic- are taken into representation in the formal labor market and encourage consideration in company operations and interventions. employers to o er respectful workplaces. It is expected that the results of this research will increase recognition Empowering Girls and Women in the Sahel of the business case for investing in women and demand Aim: To help build the evidence on what works (and what from Afghanistan’s private sector to develop gender- does not) to empower adolescent girls and young women smart solutions.b to delay marriage and childbearing, and to spur the demographic dividend in the Sahel region, through the Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) project. b As of August, 15th, 2021, grants in Afghanistan were placed on hold. Annex 3 | 57 ANNEX 4. IMPACT EVALUATIONS Africa Activity Country Description Empowering Adolescent Benin Within the Sahel Women's Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) project Girls through School in Benin, the conditional cash transfer intervention will deliver transfers to selected Transfers in Benin adolescent girls in the first cycle of secondary school for 3 years. Participating girls in all targeted communes will receive monthly transfers of CFAF 9,000 or CFAF 13,200 depending on the age of the adolescent, and the provision of transfers will be conditional on school attendance. The study will seek to test whether the impact varies depending on the recipient and modality of the payment—for example whether payments are made directly to girls or to parents, and via mobile money or cash. Empowering Adolescent Girls Benin Girls' and boys' clubs will be held in a safe space within the local community, led by in Benin through Safe Spaces locally-recruited mentors, and follow a curriculum covering topics including sexual and for Girls and Boys, and Youth- reproductive health, the disadvantages of early marriage and childbearing, and broader led Community Distribution discussions of gender roles and respect. A supply-side contraception intervention will of Contraceptives harness existing local youth committees to distribute contraceptives, thereby allowing adolescents to access contraceptives from their peers. Addressing Capital and Benin The World Bank’s Benin Youth Employment Project is supporting the Government of Skills Constraints to Benin to o er business and life skills trainings and cash grants to vulnerable male and Youth Self-employment female youth. Half of the project beneficiaries are women, and some aspects of the training were designed to ensure high female participation. Another component of the project is providing 500 young women with technical trainings in non-traditional sectors.  Plans Fonciers Ruraux Benin The land registration program under evaluation consisted of two key steps: each community identified and demarcated all parcels, and customary land ownership was legally documented through land use certificates. The improved land tenure security increased long-term investments in cash crops and trees and erased the gender gap in land fallowing—a key soil fertility investment. However, some women shi ed their agricultural production to un-demarcated (and less productive) plots of land so that they could now guard these plots.  Empowering Adolescent Girls Benin The Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) is a six-country in the Sahel: Evidence from project aiming to accelerate the demographic transition by addressing both supply- and a Multicountry RCT of the demand-side constraints to family planning and to reproductive and sexual health. All Sahel Women Empowerment the projects fall into one or more of three windows of eligible interventions: life skills and and Demographic sexual and reproductive health knowledge projects that build adolescent girls’ capacity Dividend Project to lead healthy and productive lives; improving economic opportunities through support for income-generating activities; and improving girls’ school enrollment and retention. Impacts of a Partial Portfolio Burkina Faso The study will generate evidence related to the following research questions: What is Credit Guarantee for Women- the impact of community-based safe spaces programs on adolescent girls’ sexual and owned Firms on Credit reproductive health knowledge and behaviors, and on empowerment indicators such Supply and Access to Credit as aspirations and self-esteem? What is the impact of community-based safe spaces in Burkina Faso programs on involvement in income-generating activities, savings, and earnings? What is the impact of combining safe spaces and livelihood support interventions on health, empowerment, and economic outcomes? The Impacts of Payment Burkina Faso As part of the Strengthening Women Business Linkages in Agricultural Value Chains in the Digitization and Product Sahel We-Fi Project, this study assesses the extent to which digital services interventions Traceability: Evidence from can advance women shea nut collectors’ economic empowerment in Burkina Faso. The the Shea Nut Supply Chain in project is partnering with international shea buyers to introduce two services—payment Burkina Faso digitization and product traceability—into their supply chains. The study will provide evidence on the potential for payment digitization to increase women’s empowerment and help assess whether facilitating product traceability can boost these impacts. Mobile Creches Burkina Faso Evaluation of childcare services to labor-intensive public works (LIPW) participants, for children under the age of five.  The creches are operated by trained LIPW participants. Embedded into the Burkina Faso Youth Employment and Skills Development project, the couples’ training intervention sensitizes couples on men’s roles as fathers, intrahousehold communication, collaborative decision-making and planning, child development, and gendered roles in the household. 58 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Activity Country Description Empowering Adolescent Girls Burkina Faso The Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) is a six-country in the Sahel: Evidence from project aiming to accelerate the demographic transition by addressing both supply- and a Multicountry RCT of the demand-side constraints to family planning and to reproductive and sexual health. All Sahel Women Empowerment the projects fall into one or more of three windows of eligible interventions: life skills and and Demographic sexual and reproductive health knowledge projects that build adolescent girls’ capacity Dividend Project to lead healthy and productive lives; improving economic opportunities through support for income-generating activities; and improving girls’ school enrollment and retention.  Promoting Livelihoods, Burkina Faso The Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program includes a regional activity that supports Productive Inclusion and country-level programs to design, implement, and evaluate accompanying measures Resilience among the Poor: to promote productive inclusion and resilience among the poor in the Sahel. This A Multicountry RCT for productive measures package includes: sensitization on aspirations and social/gender the Sahel Adaptive Social norms, Village Savings and Loan Associations, life skills training, business skills training, Protection Program individual coaching, a one-time cash injection of about $200, and information on prices and markets.   Cameroon Social Safety Cameroon The project involves a specially designed group workshop, where couples unpack Nets Project their beliefs about the acceptability of intimate partner violence and social or gender norms. The second component focuses on changing behaviors and shi ing gender norms through community edutainment: designing and implementing a media message (through television, radio, street theatre, social media, music etc.) to both entertain and educate. LONDO: “Stand Up” Central African The Londo project provides temporary employment to vulnerable people by providing Public Works Republic the opportunity to participate in a road maintenance public work scheme. Each worker receives a daily wage and a bicycle which he or she can keep a er successful completion of a contract period. Among other questions, the IE explores how a woman can benefit in terms of increased bargaining power. Empowering Adolescent Girls Chad The Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) is a six-country in the Sahel: Evidence from project aiming to accelerate the demographic transition by addressing both supply- and a Multicountry RCT of the demand-side constraints to family planning and to reproductive and sexual health. All Sahel Women Empowerment the projects fall into one or more of three windows of eligible interventions: life skills and Demographic and sexual and reproductive health knowledge projects that build adolescent girls’ Dividend Project capacity to lead healthy and productive lives; improving economic opportunities through support for income-generating activities; and improving girls’ school enrollment and retention. successful completion of a contract period.  Empowering Adolescent Girls Cote d’Ivoire The Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) is a multicountry in the Sahel: Evidence from project aiming to accelerate the demographic transition by addressing both supply- and a Multicountry RCT of the demand-side constraints to family planning and to reproductive and sexual health. All Sahel Women Empowerment the projects fall into one or more of three windows of eligible interventions: life skills and and Demographic sexual and reproductive health knowledge projects that build adolescent girls’ capacity Dividend Project to lead healthy and productive lives; improving economic opportunities through support for income-generating activities; and improving girls’ school enrollment and retention. Côte d’Ivoire Mighty Girls Cote d’Ivoire This project aims to develop and evaluate the impact of an interactive SMS socioemotional learning-based intervention targeting former beneficiaries of the IRC Pro-Jeunes program. Beneficiaries will develop socioemotional skills by reading the story of peers facing various issues related to sexual and reproductive health. A variant of the intervention will o er a small reward for participation. This variant, along with the core intervention, will be tested as part of a randomized impact evaluation. Land Policy Improvement Cote d’Ivoire As part of its e orts to strengthen rural land rights, the Government of Cote d’Ivoire and Implementation is carrying out a systematic land registration process in selected areas: it includes clarification, village boundary demarcation, land certification, and formalization of contracts. In addition, a set of two complementary, cross-randomized interventions will be designed to increase women’s access to and documented ownership of land. One will attempt to influence underlying social norms around women’s land rights and e ect behavior change, and another will subsidize the certification process for those household heads willing to register land in the name of a wife or daughter. Annex 4 | 59 Activity Country Description Agriculture Support Project Cote d’Ivoire Working with the Ministry of Agriculture in Cote d’Ivoire, the GIL is examining the impact of receiving subsidized, improved seedlings and agricultural extension trainings on households—and of spouse participation in agricultural extension trainings. In the cotton sector, GIL is investigating how providing inputs—like oxen and traction equipment— improves agricultural productivity or shi s intrahousehold allocation of labor. Employment for Women in Cote d’Ivoire GIL is testing a financial innovation among workers in cashew-processing plants: a Agro-Processing direct-deposit commitment savings account to generate evidence on the impact of redistributive pressure on workers’ labor supply and earnings. In the first phase of the project, workers who were o ered the account increased their labor productivity and earnings by 10 percent, which translates into an 18 percent increase for workers who opened an account. The e ect appears driven by increased e ort of workers while on the job. Preliminary evidence suggests that the visibility of an account to one’s social network and the degree of redistributive pressure a worker faces are strong determinants of account take-up. Empowering Adolescent Girls Cote d’Ivoire The Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) is a six-country through Safe Spaces and project aiming to accelerate the demographic transition by addressing both supply- and Accompanying Measures in demand-side constraints to family planning and to reproductive and sexual health. In Cote d’Ivoire Cote d’Ivoire, the government is implementing safe spaces for both in- and out-of-school adolescent girls and young women aged 8 to 24, as well as a series of accompanying measures such as academic tutoring, support for income-generating activities, and parallel clubs for boys and men. Pro-Jeunes Cote d’Ivoire PRO-Jeunes targets 10,000 vulnerable youth between the ages of 15-24 in urban and rural Cote d’Ivoire. The project includes foundational skills training through an e-learning platform and coaching/mentoring; entrepreneurship and employment search support; and the support for entrepreneurship and employment search paired with intensified mentorship/coaching. Gendered Impacts of Democratic The Social Response to the Ebola Crisis Program takes place in health zones a ected by Public Work Programs Republic of Congo Ebola, with the goal of improving the public infrastructure by addressing the needs of in a Fragile State the communities and the public health teams. It targets poor and vulnerable men and women over 18 years of age who reside in the same health zone of the worksite. Selected beneficiaries receive US$3 per day and will be authorized to work 60 days for a period of 3 consecutive months. Agricultural Rehabilitation Democratic Within the World Bank PARRSA project, an experimental impact evaluation examines and Recovery Republic of Congo the project’s regeneration of the market for improved seeds, the di usion of improved Support Project farming practices through agricultural extension, and the improvement of rural roads infrastructure, analyzing how male and female farmers learn about new technologies and access markets. Engaging Men through Democratic The Engaging Men through Accountable Practice (EMAP) intervention aims to engage Accountable Practice Republic of Congo men to reflect on how they can reduce and prevent intimate partner violence and, more broadly, prevent violence against women and girls in their communities. The program consists of 16 weekly group discussion sessions that explore existing understandings of masculinity; discuss the types, causes, and consequences of violence against women and girls; and create more positive role models, promoting self-reflection and pushing men to analyze and change their own power and privilege. The program had no impacts on women’s physical, sexual, or emotional experience of violence, but the study found a significant decrease in men’s intention to commit violence. There was a large and positive impact on the sharing of housework. Great Lakes Sexual and Democratic The Great Lakes Emergency Sexual and Gender Based Violence and Women’s Health Gender-Based Violence Republic of Congo project is a World Bank regional project that supports the governments of Burundi, project: Narrative Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to address and prevent sexual and Exposure Therapy gender-based violence (SGBV) in the Great Lakes region. Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) is a short-term intervention to reduce PTSD symptoms resulting from exposure to multiple traumatic events, including SGBV. Focusing on the traumatic events, the client constructs a chronological narrative of their life story and a coherent narrative is then structured with the assistance of the therapist. Clinical experts from the NGO Vivo International, employ a “training of trainers” approach to build local capacity and ensure sustainability of the intervention. 60 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Activity Country Description Western Growth Poles Democratic The study will generate evidence related to the following research questions: What is Republic of Congo the impact of Growth Pole projects on farmers’ agricultural yields, profits, food security and real income? What is the impact of childcare service provision on female farmer agricultural yields, food security, income and child development outcomes? DRC Rural Childcare Pilot Democratic This rural childcare intervention pilot in the Western Growth Poles project areas will use (Western Growth Poles) Republic of Congo a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of providing childcare services to women farmers’ use of time, agricultural productivity, well-being, and children’s development. Empowering Women Democratic The proposed evaluation in the SME Development and Growth Project will use a Entrepreneurs through Republic of Congo Randomized Controlled Trial to study the relative impacts of personal initiative (PI) Personal Initiative Training training—with and without the spouse—and in-kind grants on women-owned MSMEs in in DRC Goma. The study will examine the impacts of PI training, and PI training in couples, with a social norms component. Cross-Border Traders Project Democratic The program ‘Improving the Conditions of Cross-Border Traders in the Great Lakes Republic of Congo Region of Africa’ aimed to strengthen the capacity of DRC border o icials, traders, and trader associations and to facilitate policy dialogue and improved coordination between traders and government o icials. The intervention provided training on taxes and tari s and information on gender-based violence to small-scale, cross-border women traders on the borderland of the Great Lakes Region. Those o ered the training were 8 percentage points more likely to cross the border before border o icials typically arrived at their post and experienced a 5 percentage point drop in both the incidence of gender- based violence and the payment of bribes. These results highlight the need to improve COMPLETED governance and establish clear cross-border trade regulations, particularly on the DRC side of the border. Food Security Project Ethiopia This World Bank-funded program o ered recurring loans to vulnerable households in food-insecure communities in Ethiopia. It comprised grants to communities/kebeles, focusing on three main activities: (i) Community-level Assets Building such as rural roads, rural water supply, and water and soil conservation activities; (ii) Household Asset Building and Income Generating Activities (IGA) to support technical advisory services to beneficiary groups; and (iii) Child Growth Promotion (CGP) for social mobilization. The study found that participation in the program resulted in reduced food insecure months, COMPLETED lowered the likelihood of shock experiences, increased o -farm activities, and enhanced the use of financial institutions.  Rural Capacity Ethiopia The Rural Capacity Building Project (RCBP) comprised a series of investments into the Building Project physical infrastructure, training, and administrative apparatus aimed at improving and enhancing the delivery of agricultural extension service systems throughout Ethiopia. For COMPLETED agricultural extension services, the intervention mainstreamed gender concerns into the program and increased the number of female extension agents.  Women Entrepreneurship Ethiopia Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), a social enterprise, o ers training to women to help Development Project - entrepreneurs learn basic technology and business skills, and to foster the self-esteem Business Training and entrepreneurial spirit needed to build sustainable livelihoods. It was found that the training had a significant, positive impact on profits. Approximately one year a er the training, entrepreneurs who were o ered the training recorded 30 percent higher profits COMPLETED than the control group. A positive e ect on proxies for confidence and motivation was found, suggesting a change in mindset among training participants.  Women Entrepreneurship Ethiopia The project tests psychometric technology that predicts the likelihood that an Development Project - entrepreneur will be able to repay a loan, as an alternative to traditional collateral Psychometrics in Ethiopia. Psychometric loan appraisal technology assesses ability (business skills, intelligence) and willingness (ethics, honesty, attitudes, beliefs) to repay a loan. If participants score above a certain cut-o  they can get an uncollateralized loan of up to $7,500. It was found that customers who scored at a high threshold on the psychometric test were seven times more likely to repay their loans compared to lower- performing customers.  Ethiopia Financial Heuristics Ethiopia A financial heuristics training will be implemented over the phone for retail entrepreneurs of the Women Entrepreneurship Development Project (WEDP) across Addis Ababa, Hawassa and Adama. The main objective of the training is to alter people’s financial knowledge and behavior by o ering rules of thumb training programs that are easy to understand and recall. Annex 4 | 61 Activity Country Description Ethiopia DOT Ethiopia A couples’ curriculum will be incorporated into DOT’s ScaleUp! entrepreneurship training Couple’s Training program that targets more established women entrepreneurs who have already received some foundational mindset-oriented business training. The couples’ curriculum will be o ered via in-home sessions where female entrepreneurs will be randomly assigned to attend 3 in-home sessions with their husband or partner. Ethiopia Urban Safety Net Ethiopia This impact evaluation aims to study a life skills training and 6-month apprenticeship and Jobs Project: Labor opportunity o ered to a randomly selected group of young job seekers. Enrollment Market Intervention and completion of training programs will be incentivized by providing child care and Impact Evaluation transport subsidies for women during the training periods. The training content will be adapted to improve women’s outcomes and will include training on self-worth and confidence, managing emotions, communication, teamwork, and workplace rights, and information on returns in male-dominated occupations. A er completion of the six- month apprenticeship program, a subsample of the treatment group will further benefit from Job Search Support such as certification. Assessing the Impact of Ethiopia This impact evaluation will assess the impact of a locally adapted self-help guidebook a Stress and Emotion by WHO on Doing What Matters in Times of Stress for managing disruptive emotions and Management Training psychological distress. It will be delivered to female entrepreneurs at their residence, Intervention for Female followed by 5-6 phone calls from a trained mental health helper to reinforce the materials Entrepreneurs over a 5-week period. The Impact of Online Ethiopia This consists of three interventions to address female business owners’ restrictions in Business Training and Peer accessing training. The first intervention uses an e-learning app that has an interactive Interaction for Women and gamified approach. The second intervention involves virtual chat groups led by a moderator who will post motivating questions related to material covered in courses every week. The third intervention combines both interventions to test whether networking can motivate completion of an e-learning course, and increase the returns to using the app. Competitiveness and Ethiopia The Competitiveness and Job Creation (CJC) Project aims to contribute to job creation Job Creation by attracting investments and improving enterprise competitiveness in the targeted industrial zones and their linked domestic enterprises. The impact evaluation examines the impact of access to jobs in the industrial zone on employee welfare, and conducts ancillary research on issues prioritized by CJC firms, including analyses on employee performance and retention, and impacts of wage subsidies. Farmer Innovation Fund Ethiopia The Farmer Innovation Fund (FIF) is a sub-component of the Rural Capacity Building Project (RCBP), designed in response to low turnout of female participants in other RCBP components. It is an intervention that involves farmers who decide on training methodology options and innovative pilot approaches. The project is designed to increase women’s participation in extension services and enhance productivity by providing start-up capital for their group activity, and trainings in agricultural production and commercialization. Public Safety Nets Program - Ethiopia This impact evaluation focuses on a pilot of community-based childcare centers under Childcare Pilot the Productive Safety Nets Program Project in Ethiopia. The pilot will open 45 childcare centers in 45 randomly selected kebeles across 6 woredas.  The childcare centers will provide 20 households (15 public-works households and 5 non-public-works households) in each kebele with access to childcare for nine months. Second Agriculture Ethiopia The Second Agriculture Growth Project (AGP2) aims to increase agricultural productivity Growth Project and commercialization of smallholder farmers. The focus of the impact evaluation is on the use of video-based extension (building on small, mobile projectors to deliver video messages to small groups) to generate demand for nutrition-dense crops and nutrition- sensitive technology. Women Entrepreneurship Ethiopia Through the Women Entrepreneurship Development Project, loans and entrepreneurship Development Project training were provided to growth-oriented, women-owned MSMEs in six cities across Ethiopia. The evaluation measures the impact of both project components (loans and training) on women’s well-being via increased business knowledge, income, and employment levels. The results suggest that large, individual-liability loans can make a significant di erence in accelerating growth in the business incomes and employment levels of women-owned enterprises. 62 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Activity Country Description Women Entrepreneurship Ethiopia This study o ers a rigorous evaluation of two types of training programs o ered Development Project - to women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia who are part of the World Bank’s Women Personal Initiative Training Entrepreneurship Development Project (WEDP). The study will compare an innovative action-based entrepreneurship skills training course, called “Personal Initiative (PI) Training” with a more traditional business training, called “Basic Business Skills and Entrepreneurship Development (BSED) Training.” Women in Agribusiness Ethiopia WALN is a business training, mentoring, and networking program targeted at high- Leaders Network potential women entrepreneurs in five regions of Ethiopia. It provided business and leadership training for a small cohort of high-performing business women who would go on to become mentors, and organized mentoring sessions provided by mentors to promising businesswomen they had nominated as mentees—and seeded a network of business entrepreneurs. Ethiopia So Skills for Ethiopia This intervention will evaluate the impact of a so skills training program under the Factory Workers Competitiveness and Jobs Creation Project (CJC) on worker retention and employee welfare. The intervention will also test a personal initiative program that is aimed at behavior development on three pillars: persistence, future-orientation and self- starting behavior. Resilient Landscapes and Ethiopia The project complements initial investments in biophysical watershed restoration with Livelihoods Project associated activities promoting sustainable livelihoods in restored landscapes, through support for climate smart agriculture (CSA), diversified income generating activities (IGAs), connections to value chains, and improved land tenure. The main objective is to improve climate resilience, land productivity and carbon storage, and increase access to diversified livelihood activities in selected rural watersheds. SME Finance Project Ethiopia With the Small and Medium Enterprise Finance Program (SMEFP), the Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) plans to conduct a study to investigate enterprises who get a lease for productive capital and explore the impact on business growth, employment generation, and employee satisfaction. Land Titling Registration Ghana In close collaboration with ISSER at the University of Ghana, this study looked at the di erence in impact on men and women who were provided with formal land titles to rural and semi-urban plots in a pilot title registration district in the Central Region. The program was successful in registering land in the targeted program area. However, increased land registration did not result in increased agricultural investments, credit taking, or productivity. Land registration did, however, impact how households allocated agricultural labor. Specifically, households whose land was registered decreased their COMPLETED amount of agricultural labor with no changes to productivity and only a small reduction of agricultural production. Impact of Formal Savings on Ghana This study evaluated the impact of a savings product for salaried workers who receive Salaried Workers’ Spending pay via a direct deposit. Overall, the product significantly increased savings with the bank and Borrowing without increasing overdra s. However, a er accounting for other sources of savings, clients with above-median baseline overdra histories didn’t accrue new savings during the commitment period. Rather, they drew down other savings to o set the committed COMPLETED amount and took on new debt. In contrast, individuals with below-median overdra histories significantly increased savings both during and a er the commitment period. Commercial Agriculture Ghana Findings from survey data collected among Kpong and Weta rice farmers suggest that Project, Intra-household non-cognitive skills significantly a ect technology adoption decisions, returns from Dynamics and Farm adoption, and technical e iciency in rice production, and that the size of the estimated Productivity: The E ects of impacts exceeds that of traditional human capital measures. Personality traits may help Women’s Access to Irrigated accelerate innovation di usion in the short term and help farmers to respond flexibly to Land Rental and Inputs new opportunities and risks in the longer term. In the Upper East, traditional survey- based measures, as well as experimental methods were used to try to understand intra- household dynamics. Additional analysis using both the data on household dynamics, COMPLETED as well as disaggregated agricultural production data collected from both husbands and wives, is still ongoing. Annex 4 | 63 Activity Country Description Financial Inclusion and Ghana This study included two interventions. First, it utilized a savings deposit collection service Savings Promotion in in which collectors visited customers regularly to collect savings deposits. Deposits were Eastern Ghana placed in their bank account and were available for withdrawal at any time. Second, customers were given wooden boxes that had a lock and key, to be used as they saw fit. These interventions were tested alone and in combination. Deposit collection increased total value of bank deposits. Lockboxes had no impact on value of bank deposits, but did COMPLETED reduce the number of bank deposits. No impacts were found on total savings. There was a positive impact on bank loans. Gender, Insurance and Ghana The specific objectives for this project include assessing the e ects of regular extension Agricultural Productivity services on output of women farmers as part of a larger e ort in providing community- based extension services to a larger population in northern Ghana, integrating a gender dimension into a project that was previously focused only on men, and testing the e ects of counterpart funding of drought index insurance support to women and its influence on household allocation of resources including land. Impact of Commitment Ghana This study evaluates the impact of mobile phone-based bank savings accounts on Savings Accounts Linked to customers, including one with a hard, fixed, and mandatory withdrawal restriction (“hard Mobile Money commitment”), and one with a a so , flexible, optional withdrawal restriction (“so commitment”). A spousal information treatment is cross-randomized. Making Cash Grants Work for Ghana This experiment tests the e ectiveness of providing (i) unconditional cash grants; (ii) Female Entrepreneurs grants conditional on reaching a pre-defined savings goal; and (iii) grants conditional on both the beneficiary and her partner attending a training on allocation of resources within the household. It finds that household division of roles and responsibilities a ects the way that women microentrepreneurs manage their finances, and women o en prioritize savings over business investment. Women Entrepreneurs and Guinea This evaluation studies the impact of providing women entrepreneurs with adequate Crossing Over information, technical support, coaching, and know-how, as well as internship exposure, in their success as entrepreneurs in male-dominated productive sectors. The Impacts of Kenya This impact evaluation focused on the Girls Empowered by Microfranchise (GEM) program Microfranchising on Young in Nairobi, which aimed to help out-of-school young women launch branded franchise Women in Nairobi businesses connected to two well-known Kenyan brands. The intervention combined a number of distinct elements: business and life skills training, franchise-specific training, start-up capital, and ongoing business mentoring. In the medium-term, both the franchise and cash grant treatments led to substantial increases in women’s income. Women who participated in the program were also more likely to be self-employed than those who did not participate. However, the positive impacts on income observed in the medium term were not sustained over the longer term. The main lasting impact was COMPLETED that women in both the franchise and cash grant programs were more likely to be self- employed than women who did not participate. Youth Employment and Kenya This program will include a national business plan competition to award grants to Opportunities Project entrepreneurs ages 18 to 25 with high potential to create jobs for vulnerable youth. The 1,500 shortlisted applicants will receive a one-week training. This study will build on the recent Nigeria YouWin! Study to examine whether smaller grants can work. Economic Empowerment of Liberia A part of the World Bank’s Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI), EPAG was implemented Adolescent Girls and Young in Liberia and o ered a 12-month employment program with 6 months of classroom Women (part of Adolescent training and 6 months of follow-up support. Classroom training included socioemotional Girls Initiative) skills and either vocational training or business skills training. Additional support included free childcare during classroom training, savings accounts, transportation stipend, and completion bonus. The EPAG program increased employment by 47 percent and earnings by 80 percent. In addition, it had positive e ects on a variety of empowerment measures, including access to money, self-confidence, and anxiety about COMPLETED circumstances and the future. The evaluation found no net impact on fertility or sexual behavior. 64 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Activity Country Description Sisters of Success: measuring Liberia The Sisters of Success (SOS) Program used mentors and girls’ groups to deliver life skills the impact of mentoring and (specifically social and emotional skills) to adolescent girls aged 12-15. Relative to control girls’ groups in supporting girls, in just under a year, treatment girls are about 4 percentage points and 3 percentage girls’ transition into points more likely to have completed primary school and to have enrolled in secondary adolescence and adulthood school, respectively. Significant improvement was also noted in the quality of girls’ relationships with their peers and parents. These impacts are concentrated among the younger girls, aged 12-13. Cash for Work Madagascar This impact evaluation measures the impact of cash for work among beneficiaries. Cash for work was provided to the poorest members of the village (known as fokontany) as determined by a combination of a means test validated by a local social protection committee. Cash for Work Savings Madagascar This impact evaluation tests the comparative impact of two interventions: behavioral nudges to encourage beneficiaries to save their earnings and use them on productive activities, and trainings on group savings, evaluating business opportunities, and making a business plan. Business Registration Malawi The intervention tested in this impact evaluation included: (1) assistance in registering Impact Evaluation a business; (2) assistance in obtaining a Tax Payers Identification Number; and (3) an information session from a bank where business bank accounts are o ered. In the study, when registration is made virtually costless, an overwhelming number of women-owned firms (73%) chose to register. However, when o ered the chance to engage in costless registration for taxes, almost no firms elected to pursue this option. Combining business registration with an information session at a bank including the o er of a business bank account leads to an increased use of formal financial services, and results in increases in women-owned firms’ sales and profits of 28 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Graduation Program Malawi The Irish NGO Concern is implementing a graduation approach in 200 villages of Impact Evaluation Mangochi and Nsanje districts. The intervention consists of a cash transfer for the extreme poor with the following accompanying productive measures: skills training and coaching, access to savings facilitations, and an asset transfer. In addition, in selected villages in which the women receive the package, a couple’s empowerment training known as “family first” will be provided for households receiving the package. Empowering Adolescent Girls Mali The Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) is a six-country in the Sahel: Evidence from project aiming to accelerate the demographic transition by addressing both supply- and a Multicountry RCT of the demand-side constraints to family planning and to reproductive and sexual health. All Sahel Women Empowerment the projects fall into one or more of three windows of eligible interventions: life skills and and Demographic sexual and reproductive health knowledge projects that build adolescent girls’ capacity Dividend Project to lead healthy and productive lives; improving economic opportunities through support for income-generating activities; and improving girls’ school enrollment and retention. Empowering Adolescent Girls Mauritania The Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) is a six-country in the Sahel: Evidence from project aiming to accelerate the demographic transition by addressing both supply- and a Multicountry RCT of the demand-side constraints to family planning and to reproductive and sexual health. All Sahel Women Empowerment the projects fall into one or more of three windows of eligible interventions: life skills and and Demographic sexual and reproductive health knowledge projects that build adolescent girls’ capacity Dividend Project to lead healthy and productive lives; improving economic opportunities through support for income-generating activities; and improving girls’ school enrollment and retention. Promoting Livelihoods, Mauritania The Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program includes a regional activity that supports Productive Inclusion and country-level programs to design, implement, and evaluate productive accompanying Resilience among the Poor: measures to promote productive inclusion and resilience among the poor in the A Multcountry RCT for Sahel. This productive measures package includes: sensitization on aspirations and the Sahel Adaptive Social social/gender norms, VSLA, life skills training, business skills training, individual coaching, Protection Program a one-time cash injection of about $200, and information on prices and markets. Three versions of the package are being tested: full package, package without the sensitization and life skills training, package without the cash injection. Annex 4 | 65 Activity Country Description Menstrual Hygiene Mauritania As part of the second phase of the SWEDD project, a holistic school and community- Management Pilot based intervention that addresses stigma and improves knowledge on Menstrual Intervention-SWEDD Hygiene Management (MHM) will be implemented. This intervention will take advantage of the existing activities implemented at the Safe Spaces (SS) already in place through the SWEDD project, such as the SS curriculum that includes a module on basic MHM knowledge and practices and the provision of hygiene kits. In addition, a pilot intervention addressing stigma by engaging not only adolescents, but their families and other community members, will be implemented. Mauritania Cash Transfer and Mauritania Through the Mauritania Social Safety Net System, the World Bank is supporting the Family Dialogue Government of Mauritania to develop a social safety net program (Tekavoul) to support the resilience and human capital investment of extreme poor households in Mauritania. The intervention centers on a couples’ intervention aimed at changing gender norms through the engagement of both the female and male spouse. Tekavoul: Cash Transfers and Mauritania The World Bank is supporting the Government of Mauritania to develop a social safety Accompanying Measures net program to support the resilience and human capital investment of extreme poor households in Mauritania. The program consists of cash transfers for five years, a package of production measures—including social/gender norms sensitization, VSLA, life skills trainings, individual coaching, a one-time cash injection, and information on prices and markets—and beneficiary households are required to attend social promotion activities every three months. Mozambique Bottom-Up Mozambique This impact evaluation aims to uncover the e ects of social gender role training and vs. Top-Down Interventions facilitation services for access to finance, networking and markets on the performance in Fostering Female of female-owned businesses. The first intervention is a Social Gender Role Training Entrepreneurship (SGR) aimed at empowering female entrepreneurs to overcome social gender roles and reduce perceived gender barriers (internal barriers). The second intervention uses a top- down approach to improve at the margin critical areas of the environment that women entrepreneurs face while doing business. Specifically, the intervention will provide women entrepreneurs access to facilitation services for a set of agreed access to market, network and finance opportunities. Harnessing the Demographic Mozambique As part of the Harnessing the Demographic Dividend Project, this impact evaluation aims Dividend (Safe Space + to uncover the e ects of a gender-sensitive training and mentorship program aimed at Engaging Parents) empowering adolescent girls in Mozambique. The project includes two interventions. The first intervention is a signature safe-space program, which provides experience-based life-skills training and mentorship to out-of-school adolescent girls. It aims to improve their life outcomes, such as education, employment, marriage, childbearing, self- e icacy and wellbeing. The second intervention will focus on raising awareness on girls’ empowerment among parents of the targeted girls, with the aim to overcome restrictive gender norms and positively influence parental aspirations and investments towards daughters. Specifically, this intervention will highlight the benefits of sending girls back to school and reducing child marriage and early pregnancy. Integrated Growth Poles Mozambique This study will assess the impact of three key interventions: (i) rural road rehabilitation, Project (Personal (ii) agricultural extension, (iii) personal initiative training. Initiative Trainings for Women Farmers) Securing Women’s Land Mozambique The intervention aims to improve women’s land tenure security in rural Tenure in Mozambique Mozambique by providing land use permits to female-headed households and to through Innovative married households conditional on co-titling. An add-on intervention aims to relax Technology from the constraints to long-term land investments (e.g. poor access to inputs, markets, and Bottom Up limited human capital) through access to a discounted bundle of trees. The two interventions will crosscut each other, and there will be a pure control group.  Terra Segura Mozambique This study tests the impact of two community-level interventions on female farmers’ land tenure security, investment decisions, incomes, and empowerment levels. This first intervention is a low cost, fit for purpose participatory methodology to deliver community delimitation and parcel land tenure regularization at scale. The second intervention provides targeted support to help women smallholders expand their yields and income and strengthen their food security and resilience to shocks.  66 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Activity Country Description Matching Grant Scheme for Mozambique One of the components of the Competitiveness and Private Sector Development Project Business Performance is focused on matching grants for business development services (BDS) of MSMEs in Mozambique. Micro firms would receive a matching grant of 70 percent of the BDS cost and SMEs would receive matching grants of 50 percent of the cost. This evaluation will assess the impact of the Mozambique Government’s matching grant program on business performance. It will also assess the e ects of the program by gender of the entrepreneur and for sectors where the majority of the employees are women. Empowering Adolescent Girls Niger The Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) is a six-country in the Sahel: Evidence from project aiming to accelerate the demographic transition by addressing both supply- and a Multicountry RCT of the demand-side constraints to family planning and to reproductive and sexual health. All Sahel Women Empowerment the projects fall into one or more of three windows of eligible interventions: life skills and and Demographic sexual and reproductive health knowledge projects that build adolescent girls’ capacity Dividend Project to lead healthy and productive lives; improving economic opportunities through support for income-generating activities; and improving girls’ school enrollment and retention. Promoting Livelihoods, Niger The Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program includes a regional activity that supports Productive Inclusion and country-level programs to design, implement, and evaluate productive accompanying Resilience among the Poor: measures to promote productive inclusion and resilience among the poor in the A Multicountry RCT for Sahel. This productive measures package includes: sensitization on aspirations and the Sahel Adaptive Social social/gender norms, VSLA, life skills training, business skills training, individual coaching, Protection Program a one-time cash injection of about $200, and information on prices and markets. Three versions of the package are being tested: full package, package without the sensitization and life skills training, package without the cash injection. Export and Agro-pastoral Niger PRODEX seeks to increase the value of targeted agro-pastoral export products, with a Market Development Project broader view toward boosting incomes of project-supported producers and stimulating agricultural growth. The intervention under evaluation delivered matching grants to provide support services (training, access to credit, market facilitation, and technical assistance) and targeted infrastructure to male and female farming and livestock groups. Texting for Change: Mobile, Niger The Texting for Change program under evaluation consisted of two key interventions. The Messages and Savings first intervention involved the provision of a simple lockbox, which o ered individuals a secure place to put their money, but without any commitment to make deposits or limit withdrawals. The second intervention was a series of SMS reminders about household spending on religious festivals and other savings goals. It found that providing lockboxes did not yield strong impacts on household expenditures for religious, ceremonial, or health expenses. However, households in the lockbox villages were more likely to use cash savings and were less likely to sell livestock to finance these expenditure needs and sent more children to school, and these e ects did not vary by gender. Business Process Nigeria This study focused on the impacts of an information and communications technology Outsourcing Youth (ICT) training intervention on employment of targeted university graduates in five major Employment Project cities. A treatment group received training for employment in IT industry jobs and general o ice skills training. A er two years, the treatment group was 26 percent more likely to work in the ICT sector. However, on average, the program had no impact on the overall likelihood of being employed. A er the training intervention, women who at baseline COMPLETED were implicitly biased against associating women with professional attributes, were three times more likely than unbiased women to switch to the ICT sector. Nigeria Innovative Lending Nigeria This study will assess an innovative credit product designed to surmount longstanding Products for Women- collateral constraints faced by women entrepreneurs by using cash flow to determine Led SMEs credit worthiness impacts on SMEs access to finance and firm performance. It will also test the impact of a dynamic incentive, by randomizing a subset of those SMEs who are o ered the loan and telling them they will be approved for another loan of higher value each time they complete a loan cycle (up to a certain limit). Impact evaluation of AGILE’s Nigeria This impact evaluation will assess life skills training and digital literacy training at the Life Skills + Digital Literacy senior-secondary school (SSS) level targeting rural beneficiaries of the Nigeria Adolescent Training Intervention Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) Project. It aims to estimate the component for adolescents causal impacts of these school-based intervention programs on young women’s school in rural Nigeria retention and attendance, socioemotional skills, knowledge of gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health, early marriage, child-bearing and labor market outcomes. Annex 4 | 67 Activity Country Description Feed the Future Nigeria Nigeria Feed the Future Nigeria Livelihoods Project (FNLP) o ers a wide range of services, Livelihoods Project including agricultural extension services, input vouchers, business and financial literacy skills training, mentoring, and improved access to finance. The IE will evaluate the overall bundled FNLP program in Kebbi state and also focuses on two key components: the caseworker mentoring scheme and unconditional cash transfers o ered to extremely vulnerable households. The cash transfers were structured to research the best delivery mode by varying the size and timing of payments. Receiving cash transfers monthly or quarterly made no di erence on the impacts of the cash transfer. National Social Safety Nigeria The project aims to provide targeted regular cash transfers to poor and vulnerable Nets Project households across Nigeria through a consolidated national social safety nets registry. The project includes three packages: i) a basic cash transfer package; ii) a human capital top-up package; and iii) a livelihoods package. The project compares three alternative delivery mechanisms for the livelihoods package: i) using government workers; ii) using community agents to complement the government workers; and iii) requiring that CTFs and community agents are female. A novel couples training intervention was proposed to support households in making the most e icient decision about the productive member to target for the livelihood package. Productivity Enhancement Nigeria Women and Youth Empowerment, a component of the APPEALS program, will provide and Livelihood Improvement technical and business training, grants, and mentorship to 10,000 women and youth in Support Project the agri-business sector. As part of the study, a portion of beneficiaries is expected to also receive socioemotional skills training and a gender norms intervention. Skills for Jobs Nigeria Skills for Jobs is a training program provided by the Nigerian government. It is made up of three components: life skills, vocational/sector-specific skills, and entrepreneurship skills; and providing internships and apprenticeships with public and private sector organizations. Skills Development for Republic of The Skills Development for Employability Project has been launched by the Government Employability the Congo of the Republic of Congo to address the challenge of youth unemployment in urban areas. This project o ers young men and women the opportunity to enroll in six-month long vocational training courses, followed by a “support to transition” period during which beneficiaries complete internships and receive regular assistance with their job search or entrepreneurial endeavors. Cross-Border Traders Project Rwanda The program ‘Improving the Conditions of Cross-Border Traders in the Great Lakes Region of Africa’ aimed to strengthen the capacity of DRC border o icials, traders, and trader associations and to facilitate policy dialogue and improved coordination between traders and government o icials. The intervention provided training on taxes and tari s and information on gender-based violence to small-scale, cross-border women traders on the borderland of the Great Lakes Region. Those o ered the training were 8 percentage points more likely to cross the border before border o icials typically arrive at their post and experienced a 5 percentage point drop in both the incidence of gender- based violence and the payment of bribes. These results highlight the need to improve COMPLETED governance and establish clear cross-border trade regulations, particularly on the DRC side of the border. Adolescent Girls Initiative Rwanda The Initiative provides skills development and entrepreneurship support for 2,000 vulnerable girls and young women aged 16-24 and includes: two weeks of life skills trainings, six months vocational training (culinary, arts and cra s, food processing, and agriculture), and 5.5 months of placement or cooperative formation. Innovations included life skills training and creation of safe spaces (girls’ rooms) in vocational training centers. The vocational training project led to a substantial increase in non-farm employment among beneficiaries, with the share of girls reporting businesses, wage employment, or internships rising from 50 percent to 75 percent. Respondents reported COMPLETED wider social networks and moderate improvements in their relationships with friends, family and community members following their participation in the project. 68 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Activity Country Description Pilot Land Title Registration Rwanda This program seeks to systematically clarify rights over land and demarcate parcels, leading to the issuance of title certificates to land holders. The program mandated that all married couples receive land titles in the names of both spouses. An impact evaluation of this program highlights four main e ects; namely, (i) significant investment impacts that are particularly pronounced for women; (ii) improved land ownership for legally married women and better record of inheritance rights; (iii) a reduction in the probability of COMPLETED having documented land ownership for not legally married women; and (iv) a reduction in land market activity rather than distress sales. Returns to So Skills Training Rwanda The intervention will deliver so -skills training focused on interpersonal skills (e.g., for Recent Graduates communication, collaboration, etc.) for recent university/TVET graduates in Rwanda. Training will be intensive, comprising in-person daily activities for 4 weeks. Participants will be o ered transport support, accommodation (including childcare facilities) and subsistence fees. Great Lakes Sexual and Rwanda The couples training intervention is based on an improved version of the SASA! program Gender-Based Violence: of the NGO Raising Voices. During 22 sessions over six months, participating couples MIGEPROF Couple’s training discuss violence against women and the gender imbalance of power. They are sensitized to the potential benefits of mitigating this violence and learn concrete ways to address it. National Land Rwanda This was a randomized roll out of a national land registration program which included Title Registration the demarcation of parcels, dispute resolution, and issuance of land titles. As part of the registration process, men and women who were cohabiting/married were given joint rights over the land. Equal inheritance for boys and girls was also specified. Promoting Livelihoods, Senegal The Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program includes a regional activity that supports Productive Inclusion and country-level programs to design, implement, and evaluate productive accompanying Resilience among the Poor: measures to promote productive inclusion and resilience among the poor in the A Multicountry RCT for Sahel. This productive measures package includes: sensitization on aspirations and the Sahel Adaptive Social social/gender norms, VSLA, life skills training, business skills training, individual coaching, Protection Program a one-time cash injection of about $200, and information on prices and markets. Three versions of the package are being tested: full package, package without the sensitization and life skills training, package without the cash injection. Empowerment and Sierra Leone This initiative provides adolescent development centers (ELA clubs), life skills training, Livelihoods for livelihood training, and credit support to start income-generating activities. To this Adolescent Girls end, 200 target villages were randomly assigned to either a control group or one of three treatment groups: the first o ered the ELA club and life skills training; the second o ered all the previous plus livelihood training; and the third o ered the entire package including microcredit support. A wide range of outcome indicators related to economic and health behaviors of adolescent girls were examined. In control villages, over the crisis, women spend significantly more time with men, out-of-wedlock pregnancy rates rise, and those exposed to severe Ebola-related disruption have a 16 percent drop in school enrollment post-crisis. These adverse e ects are significantly reversed in treated villages. The intervention thus fosters a range of basic skills, as well as entrepreneurial skills and health knowledge gained from intervention clubs. CHOICES Gender Norms Somalia The CHOICES model, a component of Save the Children’s programming in Somalia, and Attitudes Training involves training young adolescents on attitudes towards gender and gender norms. This for Adolescents impact evaluation will focus on measuring the impacts of the CHOICES training model in increasing gender equality and shi ing the attitudes of the boys and girls who participate in the training. The Impact of Reference South Africa The e ect of formal reference letters from former employers on youth employment Letters on the Job Search outcomes was evaluated. Results showed that reference letters improve firms’ screening ability and employment outcomes, especially for women. Reference letters allow firms to identify higher-ability candidates and increase the likelihood of employer call-backs. Women who use the reference letter double their employment likelihood, while no e ect is observed for men. Annex 4 | 69 Activity Country Description Youth Job Search Assistance South Africa Intervention findings showed that assessing young workseekers’ skills in multiple domains, certifying their assessment results, and allowing them to share the skills certification with firms, substantially increases employment and earnings. Providing information only to work-seekers or only to firms has positive but smaller e ects on labor market outcomes, showing that both work-seekers and firms face information frictions, that can be alleviated by assessment and certification. The Impact of Action South Africa This evaluated the e ect of an action planning intervention in tandem with job Planning on the Job Search counseling on the e iciency and e ectiveness of job search among unemployed youth. Results showed that participants who completed a detailed job search plan increased the number of job applications submitted by as much as 27 percent, but not the time spent searching. Greater search e iciency and e ectiveness translated to sizeable improvements in employment outcomes. Participants in the action planning group plus counseling intervention were 45 percent more likely to receive job o ers and 42 percent more likely to be employed three months later. However, there were no gender- di erentiated e ects. Women do not seem to increase their number of applications but reduce the number of search hours, which suggests higher e iciency in applications rather than increased intensity. Adolescent Girls Initiative South Sudan The ELA project established 100 community-level girls’ clubs in four states of South Sudan targeting girls ages 15 to 24. The clubs operated from late 2010 to June 2013 and o ered a safe space to socialize, receive socioemotional and vocational skills training, support for savings, and community sensitization. The socioemotional training covered topics such as early marriage and sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Versions of this program have been or are being evaluated in Bangladesh, Uganda, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone. Taking conflict into account as a mediator for the program’s e ectiveness, it was found that the intervention had positive impacts on a range of labor market and financial outcomes for girls who were not a ected by the conflict. The impact of the program on girls’ social empowerment and the control over their own bodies, however, is ambiguous. Empowerment and Tanzania The ELA intervention aimed to increase the economic empowerment of adolescent girls Livelihoods for in rural Tanzania through life-skills training, income- generation skills training, and access Adolescent Girls to microfinance. A er launching the core interventions of ELA (i.e. setting up adolescent girls clubs, and conducting life skills, livelihood and vocational training) in all treatment communities, half of the clubs were provided with microcredit services. The results show no impact of the standard ELA model on young women’s social and economic outcomes. However, the program led to an increase in savings among adolescent girls from communities that received the ELA program with microfinance. O ering this formal COMPLETED microfinance service also increased participation in informal savings groups by both the ELA participants and non-participants in these communities. Virtual Business Incubator Tanzania This tested two kinds of trainings, one basic in-class training and one enhanced version supplemented with individualized coaching, to test their respective impact on women with established small businesses in Tanzania. The intervention found that targeting the right entrepreneurs can improve the e ectiveness of a tailored training and even lead to improvements in performance. While, on average, neither training led to revenue or profit growth, entrepreneurs with at least nine years of experience benefited from the enhanced program through increased revenues. Further, content and delivery method of business support provided to the female entrepreneurs impacted their adoption of COMPLETED business practices. While the basic training did not have an impact on business practices, participants in the enhanced training were more likely to adopt new practices. Business Women Connect Tanzania This study evaluated two interventions: the first promoted the use of mobile savings accounts, and the second provided business training in addition to the use of mobile savings accounts. One year post-intervention, the results show that women save substantially more through the mobile account. Women also access more microloans through the accounts, expand their business portfolio, and report higher levels of empowerment and well-being. The business and financial literacy training further bolstered the usage of the mobile savings accounts and led to greater capital investment, labor e ort, new products, and better business practices. 70 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Activity Country Description Promoting Safe Sex Tanzania The AFRGIL is evaluating the Promoting Safe Sex Among Adolescents project in Tanzania, Among Adolescents which builds on the ELA programs, to assess the relative and combined e ectiveness of interventions targeting girls and interventions targeting boys on girls’ sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes. Girls are supplied with SRH training and free contraceptives, as well as help with setting healthy goals to improve their SRH outcomes. Boys are o ered SRH training through soccer clubs. This design will enable AFRGIL to understand the di erential impacts of demand- and supply-side interventions, as well as the added impact of working with boys on girls’ SRH outcomes. Labor Market Returns to Tanzania The project takes BRAC’s new Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents Socioemotional Skills curriculum, which centers on an extensive set of activities covering a broad range of for Adolescents socioemotional skills, and splits it into skills which focus on awareness, and skills which focus on management. Using this, two separate, intensive multi-day training courses for adolescents and young adults were developed—one focused on awareness skills, and one focused on management skills. A quarter of the youth in the sample will receive both training courses. Managerial Training for Togo Through an experiment in Togo, a team of researchers introduced the personal initiative Informal Firms training program, a new and e ective psychology-based entrepreneurship training that outperforms traditional business training. 500 firms were o ered the IFC Business Edge training and 500 firms were o ered the personal initiative training. Personal COMPLETED initiative training led to a boost in profits for microentrepreneurs and was particularly e ective for female entrepreneurs. Youth Employment Program Togo This research study focuses on evaluating the e ects of labor market interventions in Togo: a 12-month internship program, an internship program plus a voucher for training in an area of firms’ need, and a so -skills training. The evaluation will compare these interventions in order to learn about their impact on employment, income, living standards, financial independence, savings and investment behavior, and social status. This study will also focus on the gender disaggregated e ects of the so -skills training and internship programs. Empowerment and Uganda The ELA project in Uganda aims to increase the economic empowerment of adolescent Livelihoods for girls in rural areas by providing life skills training, income-generation skills training, and Adolescent Girls access to microfinance. The program increased the likelihood of participants engaging in income-generating activities by 32 percent; self-reported routine condom use by those who were sexually active increased by 50 percent; fertility rates dropped by 26 percent; and there was a 76 percent reduction in adolescent girls reporting having had sex against their will during the past year. Competitiveness Uganda In Uganda, the GIL tested two policy instruments to encourage female land ownership. and Enterprise The intervention o ered fully subsidized land titles for rural households. The first policy Development Project instrument makes the subsidy conditional on including a wife’s name in the title; the second provides households with information about the benefits of joint titling. The intervention generated high demand for titling, as well as for co-titling with the husband and wife. It was found that both policy instruments further increased demand for co- titling, but adding a condition was particularly e ective with the probability of co-titling increasing by 50 percent under the condition, relative to a 25 percent increase with gender information. Farm & Family Uganda Two interventions designed to deepen women’s participation in cash crop production Balance Project and sales are being tested: a household-level intervention to provide in-kind incentives to husbands to transfer (or newly register) outgrower contracts in the name of their wives; and ii) a couples’ sensitization workshop intervention to promote gender equality and cooperation within outgrower households. A large share of men (70 percent) agreed to the contract o er. Being randomly assigned to a couples-based workshop on cooperation and gender awareness increased men’s willingness to accept the o er by 7 percent. Annex 4 | 71 Activity Country Description Orange Flesh Sweet Uganda The impact evaluation will examine several interventions, including agriculture extension Potato Project and input provision, produce marketing services, knowledge of health and nutrition, and growth monitoring and promotion (GMP) for under-5 year olds, on consumption and promotion of the orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP). The evaluation will also study credit, time inconsistency, and price risk barriers that female smallholders may face in adopting new nutrient-rich crops, by o ering credit, input vouchers, and price insurance products. Results suggest that providing farmers with subsidized input packages and training was su icient for households to grow and eat the crop. The few women who sold sweet potatoes were less likely to be pregnant and reported higher decision-making power on agriculture decisions prior to the intervention. Workers Apprenticeship Uganda The Katwe Small Scale Industry Association (KASSIDA) Workers Apprenticeship and Managerial Training and Training Skills Program focuses on providing technical and managerial skills to Skills Program entrepreneurs and their workers in targeted small-scale sectors in the outskirts of Kampala. This evaluation assesses the impacts on performance of a technical and managerial training program in the informal sector and investigates gender di erences in these e ects. A qualitative study seeks to understand the constraints women face in starting businesses in male-dominated sectors. The impact evaluation also tests the e ects of the two types of training on the business owners’ networks of contacts. Empowerment Pilot to Zambia Zambia’s Keeping Girls in School (KGS) initiative is a component of the World Bank- Reduce School-Related funded Girls’ Education and Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods (GEWEL) Project, Gender Based Violence which aims to increase access to livelihood support for extremely poor rural women and access to secondary education for disadvantaged girls. The impact evaluation will examine the e ects of a mix of three components: 1) The KGS scholarship initiative, which will finance secondary school fees of adolescent girls aged 14 to 18 years in households that are beneficiaries of the GEWEL social cash transfer, with proof of enrollment in a government secondary school; 2) an additional lump-sum educational grant for KGS scholarship beneficiaries to cover non-tuition education expenses; and 3) a holistic empowerment intervention that includes separate safe spaces for girls and boys, school engagement, and community engagement to address school related gender based violence (SRGBV). Supporting Women’s Zambia The Supporting Women’s Livelihoods (SWL) is a government-led initiative aiming to Livelihoods reach 75,000 extremely poor women in 51 districts of Zambia by 2020. Building on the “graduation” approach, the intervention provides beneficiaries with a comprehensive package consisting of: a short business skills and life skills training, a productive grant, follow-up support and mentoring, and facilitation of savings groups. Latin America and the Caribbean Improving Aspirations Brazil This experimental study in Bahia, Brazil, aims to measure the e ects of a goal-setting Through Peer-Educators skills peer-led program on high school students’ educational attainment, self-esteem, in Bahia aspirations and teenage pregnancy rates. Investing in Digital Guatemala This is an impact evaluation design for the implementation of digital tools and extension Technology to Increase program seeking to increase market access for female-led agribusinesses. Market Access for Women Agri-entrepreneurs Promoting Women Mexico This examined the cost-e ectiveness of so -skills training as a complement to hard Entrepreneurship through managerial training in improving performance of women-led businesses. The training Rigorous Experiments program led to the adoption of better business and managerial practices (e.g., financial management, marketing, and formalization) ultimately improving sales (by 9 percent) and profits (by 13 percent). 72 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Activity Country Description Improving Measurement of Peru This study tests new methods that provide greater privacy levels to survey respondents Intimate Partner violence when they answer questions about IPV victimization. The project randomizes three di erent types of questions across 8,000 women in rural Peru. Preliminary results suggest that reporting of IPV increases with questions that give respondents higher degrees of privacy. The analysis will also shed light on the type of biases introduced by questions that do not o er privacy to the respondent. Since IPV prevalence is a sensitive topic, data collected using traditional methods may su er from non-random measurement error, raising concerns about the validity of descriptive studies, impact evaluations, and policy choices. Co-responsibility in Uruguay The project designed an experimental approach to implement and Childcare: Increasing evaluate behaviorally informed solutions to encourage fathers to take part-time Fathers’ Take Up of Part-Time parental leave granted by law to private sector workers in Uruguay. Parental Leave East Asia and the Pacific Community-based Childcare Cambodia This measures the impact of sustainable community-based childcare services provided Services in Cambodia to workers in garment factories in Cambodia. The IE tests whether expanded childcare centers a ect the development outcomes of children, the well-being and work performance of garment factory workers, and the labor market outcomes of other household members. Promoting Agent Banking Indonesia The Promoting Agent Banking in Indonesia IE suggests that both demand-side and in Indonesia supply-side interventions can boost women’s profits and have benefits that outweigh the costs. On the demand-side, a short financial literacy training for female entrepreneurs, and on the supply-side, higher incentives for banking agents, both increased profits COMPLETED of female entrepreneurs. The incentives were more cost-e ective, but demand-side approaches led to impacts on empowerment and were stronger for the poorest women. Aspirations and Indonesia This tested the impacts of two variants of a growth mindset and self-management Career Choices intervention in secondary schools in Java and Sumatra. Neither version of the intervention a ected students’ national exam scores or aspirations for higher education levels, but both versions improved socioemotional skills and study behaviors. Impacts were stronger for disadvantaged students and the intervention shi ed some teachers’ COMPLETED mindsets toward a positive perception of failure for learning and progress, despite not targeting them directly. IE of Indonesia’s Indonesia This project provides evidence on international migration and the choice between Desmigratif program documented and undocumented migration. It examines the impact of “Desmigratif” interventions by the Ministry of Manpower that provide information services to potential migrants in each project village to encourage safe and documented migration. The evaluation will explore two additional modes of delivering information.  Non-experimental impact Indonesia A non-experimental impact evaluation of the e ectiveness of the Government of evaluation of a partial credit Indonesia’s Kredit Usaha Rakyat (KUR) program which aims to enhance MSMEs’ access to guarantee program finance by addressing the higher perceived credit risk, thereby encouraging bank lending to this particular business segment.  Indonesia Government to Indonesia This will evaluate a new iteration of Indonesia’s G2P program, which delivers cash and People 4.0 in-kind transfers to eligible poor households. The G2P 4.0 program aims to improve the delivery of government transfers by making increased use of digital finance tools such as mobile banking and expanding the choices available to beneficiaries in how they receive and use transfers. This IE will evaluate the G2P 4.0 program, and develop add-on interventions that test di erent modalities of delivering information to beneficiaries, who are mostly women. The IE will test whether expanding the financial options available to women can work to increase their agency and decision-making power, as well as financial literacy and savings. Impact Evaluation of Indonesia This will evaluate the impacts of community mobile clinics, using randomized design and Community Mobile Clinics administrative data on enrollment into social programs. Annex 4 | 73 Activity Country Description IE of clean cooking Lao People’s The evaluation of the Laos Clean Cookstoves Initiative provides evidence on how access technology in Laos Democratic to modern cooking technology impacts women’s time use, labor market activities, Republic and health.  IE of Laos Road Lao People’s This is an evaluation of a public workfare program targeting women in rural Laos. The Maintenance Groups Democratic intervention is part of a Laos Poverty Reduction Fund (PRF) project to improve rural Republic transport infrastructure. Under the project, roads that have been newly constructed or improved by PRF receive maintenance from road maintenance groups (RMGs) comprised COMPLETED of local women paid for their work. The IE assed the e ects of participation in the RMGs on these women, with a focus on women’s empowerment. Comprehensive Agrarian Philippines This IE tested how the subdivision of collective land titles distributed through the Reform Program Philippines’ land reform program a ected farmers’ tenure security, decision-making, and agricultural practices and productivity, among other outcomes. The grant made significant contributions to the measurement of intra-household decision-making by COMPLETED identifying reasons behind spousal disagreement on survey questionnaires and designing and testing new measures of intra-household decisionmaking. Conditional Cash Transfers Philippines This IE studied the long-term e ects of a flagship CCT program that seeks to improve and Women’s Empowerment health, nutrition and education of children. The IE follows adolescents who briefly and Agency participated in the Philippines Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4P) and found that even brief participation in the program increased age of marriage and age of first birth for women. However, there were no impacts on educational, labor market outcomes and proxies of economic welfare for women or men. There was also no evidence of changes COMPLETED in empowerment or gender norms. Results suggest that longer term participation in the program may be needed to move the needle on these outcome changes. Philippines Support to the Philippines This tests the impacts of the Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT) Project on Parcelization of Lands for agrarian reform beneficiaries. Individual Titling Non-experimental Impact Vietnam This was a collaboration with the World Bank’s Transport and ICT team in Vietnam to Evaluation of the Third Rural understand the gender specific impacts of a large-scale transport project using a mixed- Roads Rehabilitation methods analysis. The IE found that while improved roads are associated with increased in Vietnam agricultural trade in both female- and male-headed households, only male-headed households see an increase in agricultural production. The di erence may be due to COMPLETED female-headed households’ relatively lower access to labor that can take advantage of the new infrastructure. SAR Targeting the Ultra Poor Afghanistan This is an evaluation of a ‘big push’ package to ultra-poor women (transfer of livestock, Impact Evaluation cash stipend, skills training, and coaching) on poverty reduction and women’s empowerment across 80 villages in the Balkh province of Afghanistan. Strengthening Women’s Afghanistan This community-based pilot intervention provides tailored skills training, business Economic Empowerment support services, and financial access to poor women in rural and peri-urban areas. The evaluation will measure impacts on women’s work, earnings, and savings as well mobility, attitudes and decision-making. Afghanistan Drought Early Afghanistan This female-friendly Cash-for-Work (CfW) pilot is specifically designed and targeted to Warning, Finance and women. Intervention is embedded within a larger labor-intensive public works program Action Project providing cash/in-kind support to seasonally food insecure households. Bangladesh Adolescent Bangladesh Evaluation of school-and community-level interventions for improving school retention Students Program and wellbeing in Bangladesh, including safety, voice, agency, and empowerment of adolescent girls and boys. Interventions include school-based training on sexual harassment, growth mindset training, and outreach for increased awareness in schools and communities. Tejaswini Socioeconomic India This is an evaluation of a skills training and education intervention on secondary school Empowerment of Adolescent completion and employability outcomes of adolescent girls in the state of Jharkhand. The Girls and Young Women IE explores how the selection of candidates to educational programs can be made more e icient by matching students to courses of their choice. 74 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Activity Country Description Gender and Caste India This IE tested the role of perceptions about gender and caste on the job performance of Discrimination workers and their expectations from supervisors. It is an extension of a research project toward Managers under IZA Institute of Labor Economics to address underrepresentation of women in positions of management. COMPLETED Using Online Employability India The impact evaluation aims to test the impact and e icacy of online learning tools Skills Programs to Improve in providing career skills, knowledge, and so skills to young women. Finding online Labor Force Participation alternatives to in-person learning is an increasingly pertinent policy issue in the fallout for Women of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Women and girls tend to have lower digital access than men; thus, testing the e icacy of an online program for them is especially relevant for the success of any career or vocational institutes that enroll women in developing countries. Third Punjab Education Pakistan This tests a model of low-cost and scalable nudges to keep girls enrolled in school and Support Project continuing learning during the pandemic. The intervention uses di erent content across a text messaging and a social mobilization campaign to remind families of the importance of girls’ education and layers this communication on top of existing programs for girls. Wage subsidy intervention Pakistan This is a firm-level wage subsidy intervention to promote women’s entry into mid-level to boost female labor technical and managerial jobs in male-dominated technology sectors in Pakistan. The force participation study hypothesis is that wage subsidies for hiring women in technical/professional roles in Pakistani firms will lead to more women being hired for these roles and that managers who work with these women will develop more progressive gender attitudes. This could potentially result in more women being hired overall in firms exposed to the female wage subsidy. Gender sensitivity in job Pakistan This tests a new gender sensitive job advertisement format in one of Pakistan’s leading advertisements online job portals that posts more than 1,000 jobs a day. It measures impact of the advertisement format on women’s job applications and whether it helps employers find well-qualified female workers. MNA Using Digital Technology to Egypt The objective is to overcome barriers to the adoption of the new technology of digital Expand Markets for Female advertising, to expand markets for small firms—a significant share of which are women- Entrepreneurs in Egypt led informal MSEs—and spur firm growth. Assessing the Impact of Egypt The randomized controlled trials evaluate the impact of interventions of improved access Providing Access to Nurseries to and a ordability of nurseries on female labor force participation (FLFP) and cross- on Female Labor Force randomize connecting mothers with work opportunities to assess the labor demand on Participation FLFP among the most vulnerable women in Egypt. Enhancing Female Tunisia This is an impact evaluation of a capital injection intervention that targets prospective Entrepreneurship female entrepreneurs graduating from a Labor Intensive Public Works program through a Public Works (PWP) under the Community Works and Participation Project (CWLP) program, which Program and a Capital provided temporary employment opportunities for vulnerable populations through Injections Intervention the rehabilitation and upgrade of local socioeconomic infrastructures in Jendouba. It included Randomized Control Trials of females who did and did not participate in PWP activities randomly allocated to business grants and business grants plus “gender dialogue” sessions involving their male partners. The intervention showed that business grants had limited e ects in promoting women’s engagement in entrepreneurship activities and needed to be coupled with additional interventions to address social norms which limit women’s participation in income-earning opportunities. However, COMPLETED cash grants—which were coupled with training on financial literacy in all cases—boosted women’s access to finance and usage of financial institutions. Evaluating the Impact of Yemen To measure the impact of training and input grants on the sustainable livelihoods of Training and Livestock on women livestock breeders in a conflict context, the team will employ cluster Randomized Women’s entrepreneurship, Controlled Trials. The aims is to analyze the impact of the intervention on women’s employment, and empowerment, income, and indicators of livestock productivity. empowerment Annex 4 | 75 ANNEX 5. ACTIVE GRANTS Africa Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Gender and Youth Benin 2014 2022 606,475 To build the evidence base of interventions Employment in Benin to promote employment of girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa. LONDO Impact Evaluation Central African 2018 2022 811,803 How does the impact on a household di er in CAR Republic depending on whether a woman or a man participates in a public works project? Land Policy Improvement Cote d'Ivoire 2019 2022 1,280,918 This impact evaluation of the Cote & Implementation Project d'Ivoire Land Policy Improvement and Impact Evaluation in Cote Implementation Project will employ d'Ivoire a randomized controlled trial design to address two over-arching policy questions: 1) can a one-o asset transfer or a potentially permanent switch to a joint property regime cost-e ectively strengthen women's property rights and improve household welfare in rural customary settings? 2) what is the impact of a systematic land registration program on measures of social cohesion, conflict, and productivity? Youth Employment and Cote d'Ivoire 2019 2022 1,491,601 How do school and community-based Adolescent Girls and Women safe spaces impact sexual reproductive Empowerment in Cote health, schooling, employment, and other d'Ivoire (P169541) socioeconomic outcomes for young girls? Impact Evaluation of DRC Democratic 2015 2022 1,137,877 Evidence on growth poles interventions and Western Growth Poles Republic of Congo mechanisms of reducing gender inequality through these programs. Impact evaluation of DRC Democratic 2020 2024 992,000 Evaluation of impact on farmer’s agricultural SME Development and Republic of Congo yields, profits, food security, and real income. Growth Project This includes any observed changes in the allocation of agricultural tasks between men and women within the household. Innovations in Financing Ethiopia 2020 2025 3,805,000 Pilot and rigorously test the impacts of Women Entrepreneurs (IFWE) innovative, disruptive, and potentially transformative approaches to increase access to finance and provide necessary skills and services to about 25,000 female entrepreneurs. Impact Evaluation of Mauritania 2020 2022 429,000 Evaluate a family dialogue pilot intervention Mauritania Family Dialogue aiming to transform norms around gender and Safety Nets Pilot roles and women’s participation in economic activities. Mozambique WLTS Impact Mozambique 2021 2022 1,600,000 Two randomized controlled trials to study the Evaluations impact of increased land tenure security on women farmers in rural Mozambique and their households, with and without accompanying NEW IN interventions aimed at relaxing additional FY21 constraints faced by women farmers. Nigeria APPEAL Women & Nigeria 2019 2022 801,931 Measure impact of teaching technical, Youth IE personal initiative and negotiation trainings and giving in-kind business grants to women and youth in small and medium scale agribusinesses. 76 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Employ- Nigeria Gender Nigeria 2021 2022 7,500,000 The Nigeria Gender Innovation Lab (NIGIL) is Innovation Lab a country-level initiative of the regional Africa Gender Innovation Lab. It seeks to equip policymakers and project teams in Nigeria with new evidence on what does and what does not work in addressing the underlying causes of gender inequality, and how best to NEW IN close gender gaps in earnings, productivity, FY21 and assets. Gender and Skills Republic of Congo 2014 2022 1,119,601 Evaluate the impact of a new job and Development in Republic entrepreneurship training program on male of Congo and female youth to generate practical and e ective solutions to address youth unemployment throughout the region. CHOICES Impact Evaluation Somalia 2018 2022 1,152,931 Measuring the impacts of the CHOICES in Somalia training model in increasing gender equality and shi ing the attitudes of the boys and girls who participate in the training. CEDP Gender Innovation Lab Uganda 2014 2022 1,917,065 To inform operations and policies that aim Impact Evaluation to promote how best to secure women's property rights. Impact evaluation of Zambia 2018 2022 818,182 Assess whether a one-time infusion of capital Supporting Women's (both monetary and human) can boost Livelihoods (SWL) in Zambia women’s self-employment and increase their incomes more than the cost of the intervention. East Asia and Pacific EAP GIL: Pillar 2 - East Asia and 2016 2022 2,800,400 Inferential research on intra-household Intervention, Deep Dive Pacific decision making on labor and care, and Research occupational segregation, gender gaps in agricultural productivity, and female entrepreneurship. Impact Evaluation of the Indonesia 2018 2022 986,000 Evidence on international migration and Desmigratif Program: the choice between documented and Supporting Safe Migration undocumented migration. in Indonesia Impact Evaluation of Clean Lao People's 2019 2022 611,875 Evidence on how access to modern cooking Cooking Technology in Laos Democratic technology impacts women’s time use, labor Republic market activities, and health. Latin America and the Caribbean LAC Gender Innovation Lab Latin America 2019 2022 635,000 Generate, disseminate, and help operationalize evidence-based scalable policy solutions to enhance gender equality in the region. Annex 5 | 77 Middle East and North Africa Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Assessing the Impact of Arab Republic of 2020 2022 170,000 The randomized controlled trials evaluate the Providing Access to Nurseries Egypt impact of interventions of improved access to on Female Labor Force and a ordability of nurseries on female labor Participation in Egypt force participation (FLFP) and crossrandomize connecting mothers with work opportunities to assess the labor demand on FLFP among the most vulnerable women in Egypt. Using Digital Technology to Arab Republic of 2021 2023 200,000 This intervention will rigorously test if an Expand Markets for Female Egypt input-based intervention of training and a Entrepreneurs in Egypt subsidy on digital marketing is more or less e ective than a results-based (i.e., pay-for- result) intervention in encouraging small firms' technology adoption behavior for growth. It will investigate if there are gender- NEW IN di erentiated e ects of such interventions in FY21 terms of growth and formalization. IRAQ/MGF - Women's Iraq 2020 2025 1,500,000 Technical assistance to the government of Economic Opportunities Iraq to li legal constraints and normative barriers to women’s access to the work force, employment in the private sector, and access to finance and ownership of agricultural land. JD/MGF - Women's Jordan 2020 2025 1,500,000 Technical assistance to the government of Economic Opportunities Jordan to li constraints to women’s access. State of the Mashreq Women Jordan, Iraq, 2020 2025 430,000 Report describing the current situation of Flagship Report Lebanon women in Mashreq countries in terms of their access to economic opportunities, as well as analyze factors that might lie behind the observed outcomes. MGF Forcibly Jordan, Iraq, 2020 2025 200,000 Generate new or consolidate employment Displaced Women Lebanon opportunities for displaced women living in the Mashreq through supply/ demand activities and supporting the enabling environment. LEB/MGF - Women's Lebanon 2020 2025 1,500,000 Technical assistance to the government of Economic Opportunities Lebanon to li constraints to women’s access to the work force, providing care services, and legal reform on sexual harassment. MNA Gender Innovation Lab Middle East and 2019 2022 480,000 Generate, disseminate, and help North Africa operationalize evidence-based scalable policy solutions to enhance gender equality in the region. Evaluating the Impact of Republic of Yemen 2020 2022 150,000 Evaluation of a livestock and productivity SMEPS’ Livestock Program project on 1,100 women livestock breeders on Women’s Empowerment across 70 villages in Yemen whose businesses in Yemen have been negatively a ected by the ongoing conflict. Enhancing Female Tunisia 2020 2022 200,000 Evaluating the impact of a capital injection Entrepreneurship through intervention targeting women entrepreneurs Capital Injections graduating from Labor Intensive Public Works in one of the most under- served regions of rural Tunisia. 78 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report South Asia Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) SAR GIL Impact Evaluation Afghanistana 2020 2022 150,000 Evaluate a community-based pilot of the Afghanistan intervention providing tailored hard and Strengthening Women's so skills training, business support Economic Empowerment services, and financial access to poor and Project (SWEEP) vulnerable women in Afghanistan’s rural and peri-urban areas. SAR GIL Afghanistan Afghanistana 2020 2022 150,000 Evaluate the impact of a one-o "big-push" Targeting the Ultra Poor package of transfer of livestock assets, cash consumption stipend, skills training, and coaching on poverty reduction and women’s empowerment across 80 villages in the Balkh province in Afghanistan. Early Warning, Early Finance Afghanistana 2021 2022 150,000 Assess the e ectiveness of cash-for-works and Early Action Project interventions on consumption, dietary diversity and shock resilience, as well as on the economic and social empowerment of women in four districts targeted under NEW IN FY21 Afghanistan's Early Warning, Early Finance and Early Action Project. CARE4WOMEN: Creating Afghanistana 2021 2022 200,000 Fill-in knowledge gaps on demand-side Access to Respectful barriers to women's formal employment in Employment for Women Afghanistan, and recommend approaches in Afghanistan to increase women's representation in the formal labor market and encourage employers to o er respectful workplaces. NEW IN FY21 SAR GIL Impact Evaluation Bangladesh 2020 2022 150,000 Evaluates strategies, such as training on of Bangladesh Adolescent sexual harassment and growth mindset, for Girls Program improving school retention and overall well- being, including safety, voice, agency, and empowerment of adolescent girls and boys in Bangladesh. SAR GIL Tejaswini Impact India 2020 2022 150,000 Evaluate the impact of a skills training and Evaluation in India education intervention on secondary school completion and employability outcomes of adolescent girls in the state of Jharkhand in India. SAR GIL - Using Online India 2021 2022 150,000 A virtual life skills, digital literacy, and Employability Skills employability skills intervention for young Programs to Improve women. A survey and analysis to measure Labor Force Participation the impact of this intervention will also for Women be conducted. NEW IN FY21 SAR GIL - SMS GIRL Pakistan 2021 2022 100,000 This tests a model of low-cost and scalable Impact Evaluation nudges to keep girls enrolled in school and continuing learning during the pandemic. The intervention uses di erent content across a text messaging and a social mobilization campaign to remind families of the importance of girls’ education and layers NEW IN this communication on top of existing FY21 programs for girls. a On hold as o August 15, 2021 Annex 5 | 79 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) SAR GIL Pakistan women’s Pakistan 2021 2022 150,000 This study seeks to understand, in the context wage subsidy experiment of a field experiment, whether temporary wage subsidies can increase female employment in Pakistani firms. NEW IN FY21 GIL Does Information on Pakistan 2021 2022 80,000 Twofold interventions to reduce information Female-Friendliness of asymmetry on job attributes that attract Workplace encourage female jobseekers between employers women employment? and jobseekers. The first intervention will use an experimental job posting format to prompt employers to voluntarily disclose information about relevant job attributes for women. Under the second intervention, job notification text messages with information about gender-relevant job attributes will be sent to randomly selected jobseekers, while NEW IN other jobseekers will receive job notifications FY21 without this information. South Asia Gender South Asia 2019 2023 600,000 Generate, disseminate and help Innovation Lab operationalize evidence-based scalable policy solutions to enhance gender equality in the region. World Private Sector World 2015 2022 193,991 N/A Window Governance Improving Availability and Cambodia, 2019 2022 2,069,350 Increase availability and quality of individual- Quality of Individual-Level Ethiopia, Nepal, level data on ownership of and rights to Household Survey Data in Tanzania, Malawi physical and financial assets, work and IDA Countries employment, and entrepreneurship. Digital2Equal World 2019 2022 190,000 Contribute to evidence-based policy recommendations in support of women's ability to participate in the platform economy by documenting the business case and best practices. Strengthening gender World 2021 2024 3,037,444 Provide technical support to country surveys and statistics national statistical o ices and government departments to engender the collection of data in key surveys such as the census, NEW IN labor force surveys, household and FY21 enterprise surveys. Ensure Women's World 2021 2022 100,000 Inform the design of innovative financial risk Financial Future mitigation products to meet women's needs throughout their life and across various roles (E.g. caretakers, entrepreneurs, employees, and individuals). The internvention will develop risk profiles for women in select low-income/IDA countries to enable insurers to create tailored products and services that address the unique and disproportionate financial risks women face in their daily lives as related to education; work, especially NEW IN entrepreneurship; family and relationships; FY21 health; and wellbeing and aging. 80 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Gender and INR- COVID19 World 2021 2023 100,000 Support the piloting of gender advisory Gender Solutions for IFC solutions for IFC Infrastructure and Natural INR Clients Resources (INR) clients and develop tools to close gender gaps in communities where INR NEW IN projects are implemented in the context of FY21 COVID-19 response. Empowering Girls and World 2021 2024 2,700,000 This activity will help build the evidence Women in the Sahel on what works and what does not work to empower adolescent girls and young women to delay marriage and childbearing, and to NEW IN spur the demographic dividend in the FY21 Sahel region. Annex 5 | 81 ANNEX 6: CLOSED GRANTS Africa Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) GIL Africa Regional Report on Africa 2014 2015 92,317 An evidence-based regional policy report Gender and Agriculture drawing on nationally representative micro- econometric evidence from several African countries to uncover the factors that drive productivity gaps between male and female farmers. The findings and recommendations are being implemented and adopted by client countries and World Bank projects. Gender-Informed Mobile Africa 2014 2017 899,593 Mobile phone surveys collected high Phone Surveys in Africa frequency and timely gender disaggregated information for pilot countries Madagascar, Malawi, Senegal and Togo. A handbook was published entitled Mobile Phone Panel Surveys in Developing Countries: A Practical Guide for Microdata Collection. IEs for Gender & Property Africa 2014 2019 61,826 A working paper and journal article on how Rights in AFR improved land tenure for women in Benin led to increased productive investment and widow-headed households could remain in their original dwellings as a result of formalized customary land rights. Africa Regional Africa 2016 2019 397,385 The report 'Profiting from Parity: Unlocking Report on Gender and the Potential of Women’s Businesses in Entrepreneurship Africa', proved to be at the cutting edge of research on female entrepreneurship, and has over 18,000 downloads. The report received substantial media coverage and has influenced at least 15 WBG projects. What Works Africa 2018 2019 113,727 “A review of 270 educational interventions for Girls' Education - from 177 studies in 54 low- and middle- The Missing Evidence income countries and their impacts on girls, regardless of whether the interventions specifically target girls.” Women’s Participation in Burkina Faso 2017 2021 270,000 Piloted a mobile childcare model to improve Labor Intensive Public Works women’s access to temporary labor-intensive in Burkina Faso public works under the Burkina Faso Youth Employment and Skills Development Project, and evaluated the program’s e ectiveness. The intervention was piloted in three locations and has since been scaled up; CLOSED by 2019, a total of 20 mobile creches had IN FY21 been established. Impact Evaluation of Gender Burundi 2014 2017 82,646 Dropped as the evaluation proved infeasible. Norms and Empowerment in Burundi Gender and Employment in Cote d'Ivoire 2014 2020 761,333 A direct-deposit commitment savings account Cote d'Ivoire enabled workers to convert productivity increases into private savings which cannot be accessed by others. In the first phase, workers increased their labor productivity and earnings by ten percent, which translates into an eighteen percent increase for workers who opened an account. 82 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Impact Evaluation of Democratic 2014 2015 111,086 The experimental impact evaluation examines DRC PARRSA Republic of Congo the project's regeneration of the market for improved seeds, the di usion of improved farming practices through agricultural extension, and the improvement of rural roads infrastructure, specifically analyzing how male and female farmers learn about new technologies and access markets. Deepening the Jobs Impact Democratic 2018 2020 204,895 Men and women assigned to incentivized of the Public Works Programs Republic of Congo savings groups had increased savings, lower through Capital Injection and debt levels and higher employment levels Social Network Stimulation: compared to their counterparts in other A Randomized Control Trial treatment groups or the control group, and in Eastern DRC (UFGE) the impacts were larger for women. Gender and Technology Ethiopia 2014 2017 26,723 Dropped as the evaluation proved infeasible. in Selected Agricultural Value Chains IE Women Agricultural Ethiopia 2014 2019 1,185,443 Evaluation of WALN, a business training, Leaders Project mentoring, and networking program targeted at high-potential women entrepreneurs in five regions of Ethiopia. It aimed to increase business performance and community leadership of participating women by improving their business skills, self- confidence and business networks. Gender and Wage Ethiopia 2015 2020 454,935 Findings suggest that industrial parks can Employment in Ethiopia provide better earning potential for workers compared to work opportunities that young female jobseekers typically have. In addition, simple supports to facilitate the job application process can have large impacts on applicant success rates in finding employment and their earnings potential. The work is likely to influence policy dialogue in Ethiopia since it is being intensively disseminated to government counterparts by the Gender Innovation Policy Initiative for Ethiopia. Gender and Private Sector Ethiopia, Malawi, 2014 2020 1,649,366 A number of results from the studies financed Development in Africa Togo, Uganda by this grant are being used not only in Africa but across the World. The personal initiative training evaluated in Togo has been expanded elsewhere including in DRC, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Mauritania, and Mexico, both in World Bank and other partners’ work. IE Ghana MSME Investment Ghana 2015 2021 1,132,938 This study found that while unconditional and Gender small-scale cash grants had no impact on the business performance of women-owned businesses, conditioning the cash grant on reaching a predefined savings goal led to an increase in sales and profits.The sample group that received a cash grant conditionally on saving commitments also had an increase in investment in raw materials. In addition, women-owned business which received grants conditionally on attending a joint decision-making training with their CLOSED spouses, had greater investments in business IN FY21 equipment, inventory, and raw materials. Annex 6 | 83 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Evidence for Addressing the Ghana, 2014 2017 136,878 Dropped as the evaluation proved infeasible. Gender Gap in Agriculture in Mozambique, Niger Sub-Saharan Africa Gender and Access to Guinea 2014 2017 21,584 Dropped as the evaluation proved infeasible. Finance in Guinea Guinea Women Guinea 2018 2021 283,309 Evaluated whether expanding women Entrepreneurship Sector entrepreneurs’ access to information, Selection Study skills and mentoring increased the number of women who start businesses in more profitable male-dominated sectors. By January 2020, the share of women in male-dominated sectors among program CLOSED participants was of 11 percent, 170 percent IN FY21 above the control group. Gender and Property Rights Kenya 2014 2019 339,345 Dropped as the evaluation proved infeasible. in Kenya Impacts of Microfranchising Kenya 2015 2019 48,894 In the short-term, both the franchise and cash on Young Women in Nairobi grant treatments had significant positive impacts on young women's lives, with substantial increases in women's income. In the long term, female participants were more likely to be self-employed. Promoting Young Women's Kenya 2017 2021 228,021 Ongoing intervention to asses the gender Economic Opportunities di erentiated impacts of a large capital and Empowerment Through infusion to young entrepreneurs through a Productive Self-Employment country-wide business plan competition. and Entrepreneurship The intervention supported a series of laboratory experiments to study di erences in competitive behavior between men and women. It found significant di erences in competition entry between men and women in mixed-gender and high-stakes conditions. However, women competing only with other women were significantly more competitive than women in the mixed-gender scenario CLOSED and just as competitive as men in the IN FY21 mixed scenario. Kenya Coding Bootcamps Kenya 2018 2021 329,423 Grant was dropped. Impact Evaluation Mobile Technologies and Kenya, Tanzania, 2017 2020 497,786 Building on findings and recommendations Digitized Data to Promote Uganda emerging from a a stocktaking on the Access to Finance by Women potential of mobile technology initiatives in Agriculture to address inequalities in access to finance among male and female farmers, technical asssistance was provided to three Digital Financial Services providers: Fenix in Uganda, Digifarm in Kenya, and MyAgro in Tanzania. The TAs leveraged research insights for the design and development of targeted financial products and marketing. Economic Empowerment of Liberia 2013 2017 3,550,000 The project revealed that literacy and Adolescent Girls and Young numeracy is critical. The project also revealed Women, Round 3 Activities the psychological, social, and financial needs of adolescent girls and young women during the Ebola crisis. The project informed the country's Education Sector Plan, particularly on the issue of female vulnerability. 84 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Liberia EPAG Supervision Liberia 2013 2017 49,287 Evidence on the particular psychological, social, and financial needs of adolescent girls and young women during the Ebola crisis. Gender and Empowerment Liberia 2014 2019 904,874 Evaluation of a 12-month employment in Liberia program with 6 months of classroom training and 6 months of follow-up support for adolescent girls. Agricultural Inputs Liberia 2014 2017 12,197 Dropped as the evaluation proved infeasible. and Gender Cash for Change in Madagascar 2017 2020 191,780 The work supported by the grant provided Southern Madagascar critical insights into the development of a social welfare and nutrition project called “FIAVOTA” (which means “assistance” in the southern local dialect), implemented to assist households in the districts most a ected by the 2016 drought, particularly regarding extreme poverty and food insecurity in the south of the country. Based on promising results to date, including from results of the work financed by the UFGE grant, the Government of Madagascar has decided to consolidate the cash transfer program in Southern Madagascar and bring it into the fold of Madagascar’s overall safety net system, with a transition in focus from emergency response to resilience. PASEF II Impact Evaluation Madagascar 2018 2021 51,865 This grant was dropped. in Madagascar Enhancing Women’s Market Mozambique 2016 2018 246,016 This agricultural extension intervention is Access in Agribusiness one of the first to combine traditional training on farming best practices with innovative psychology-based training aimed at fostering an entrepreneurial mindset. IE of Supporting Nigeria 2014 2019 1,284,162 The evaluation showed that cash transfers to Vulnerable Households women in extremely vulnerable households project in Nigeria had an immediate, positive impact: women were more likely to work, and the entire household ate more food, more regularly, and diversified their diet. These results were embedded into the Nigerian Government’s design of their national livelihoods and cash transfer program. Adolescent Empowerment Sierra Leone 2014 2020 1,067,189 Results show how policy interventions can be and Livelihoods e ective even in times of aggregate shocks, and highlight how the lack of safe spaces in low-empowerment contexts, such as Sierra Leone, is a key channel through which aggregate crisis can damage the economic lives of young women. Impact Evaluation of Gender South Africa 2014 2017 4,747 Dropped as the evaluation proved infeasible. Norms and Empowerment in South Africa Annex 6 | 85 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) IE South Africa Skill South Africa 2015 2020 234,272 The use of template reference letters and job Certification & Counselling search action plans led to increases in job o ers and hiring, particularly for women. This has been integrated into the o ering of the South African Western Cape Department of Labor. IE South Africa Youth Job South Africa 2015 2020 707,614 The intervention indicated higher Search Assistance employment rates, higher earnings, and more accurate beliefs about their skills among work seekers who received a skills certificate. The results influenced the new Supporting Innovations for Youth Employment in South Africa and Kenya’s Youth Employment and Opportunities project. Gender and Safety Nets South Sudan 2014 2017 200 Dropped as the evaluation proved infeasible. Impact Evaluation in South Sudan Gender and Agricultural Uganda 2014 2020 644,149 The dietary diversity of women and the Technology Adoption youngest child were found to improve; and in agriculture intervention households, young boys were less likely to report a problem with eyesight. However, there is no evidence that any of the interventions had an impact on overall household food security, income, or other maternal- and child-health outcomes. Uganda Farm & Family Uganda 2016 2019 707,650 Testing ways to increase women’s Balance Gender Innovation participation in agricultural markets and Lab Impact Evaluation their control over cash crop profits: in-kind incentives to husbands to transfer out grower contracts in the name of their wives, and a couples' intervention. The results suggest that simple encouragement can be an e ective tool to nudge men to include their wives in household commercial activities. Impact Evaluation of Youth Uganda, Tanzania, 2014 2018 317,072 The activities under this trust fund have Skills Training Programs South Sudan significantly contributed to strengthening the in Africa evidence base on how to design interventions aimed at empowering adolescents both economically and socially. A policy note on e ective interventions has been published and informed adolescent girls programming in several countries. East Asia and the Pacific E ect on Female Knowledge Cambodia 2015 2017 99,846 The impact evaluation showed the maternal and Behavior Towards and child health and nutrition pilot (cash Nutrition from a Maternal transfers) can play a role in achieving and Child Health & Nutrition improved nutrition outcomes, particularly Cash Transfer Pilot among children 0-1, for whom the evaluation observed a reduction in stunting. 86 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Childcare Provision in Cambodia 2018 2020 15,210 The evaluation of factory-based childcare Garment Factories: Impacts was deemed infeasible, but the initial review on Productivity, Economic revealed regulatory shortcomings which the Empowerment, Early government has committed to strengthening Childhood Development and identified community-based childcare as and Gender Norms a potentially better model; now being tested with support from IFC and the World Bank. Banking on Women Cambodia, 2016 2019 777,446 Market study on the specific financial and (BOW) - EAP Indonesia, non-financial needs and opportunities Philippines, for women-owned SMEs in Vietnam. The Vietnam methodology is being used in other regions and informed the Indonesia Country Strategy 2018. Mekong Informal Cambodia, 2014 2015 79,971 Survey of small and informal traders at border Trade Facilitation and Lao People's checkpoints in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Gender Study Democratic Vietnam. Recommendations informed the Republic dialogue with customs departments in both Lao PDR and Cambodia through ongoing trade programs. Unpacking the Linkages Cambodia, 2017 2019 125,000 Literature review, secondary data analysis, Between Women’s Lao People's qualitative data collection on linkages Endowments, Economic Democratic between women’s economic activities, Opportunity, and Republic endowments, and malnutrition. Malnutrition in Cambodia and Lao PDR Improved Employment Cambodia, 2018 2019 121,937 An in-depth understanding of key constraints for Women in Cambodia: Lao People's to improved employment for women in Constraints and Democratic Cambodia as well as recommendations Opportunities Republic, for addressing these constraints in existing Myanmar policies and programs. Piloting Women’s China 2014 2016 - Project was dropped. Participatory Rural Land Registration in China Gender Dimensions of China 2014 2016 99,028 A study, 'Gender Dimensions of Collective Collective Forest Tenure Forest Tenure Reform in China', found that Reform in China women were disadvantaged in the reform process. The survey of 3,500 households in seven provinces shows 95 percent of the land tenure certificates are signed by male heads of households. The study identifies income generating options for women in the forestry and related sectors, and recommends policy actions to improve the property rights, income security and status of women in the rural areas. Gender Impacts of Intelligent China 2015 2017 82,323 Study showed intelligent transport systems Transport Systems contribute to bridging the gender gaps in transportation, enhancing satisfaction with public transport, and providing greater safety for female riders. Annex 6 | 87 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Meeting Needs for Long-Term China 2016 2018 196,393 Findings informed the design of aged care Care and Implications for projects in Anhui ($110 million) and Guizhou Female Labor Supply – ($350 million), emphasizing sustainable Evidence from Anhui delivery and financing models for home- and province in China community-based care. They also informed IFC dialogue on eldercare in China and led to acknowledgement of how formal care increases female labor force participation and the importance of professionalization of care for women's wages and job prospects in China's Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) and Country Partnership Framework (CPF). Gender Dimensions of China, Vietnam 2014 2017 94,402 The studies help understand the dynamics Urbanization: Generating of how men and women experience Lessons Learned from China di erent changes in terms of income, job and Vietnam opportunities, access to social services, and information. Rural Accessibility Mapping China, Vietnam 2017 2019 120,909 An open-source platform to evaluate e icacy of World Bank projects on rural accessibility to include gender-specific indicators on access to financial services, markets, jobs, and maternal health clinics. Regional Funding for In- East Asia and 2014 2020 606,263 The grant’s piloted code of conduct Country Capacity Building Pacific informed the Bank’s Good Practice Note on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Over 20 WB investment projects participated in south- south learning on good practices in urban and transport sectors. Female Labor Force East Asia and 2014 2016 125,440 New care research informed the report 'Live Participation and Care Pacific Long and Prosper' and a book on China aged care informed public dialogue on aging and long-term care in China, which has resulted in a lending request for the China Anhui Aged Care System Demonstration Project, and a planned multi-province P4R operation on aged care in China. EAP GIL Governance and East Asia and 2016 2020 194,691 Governance and administration of the EAP Administration Pacific Gender Innovation Lab. Improving Maternal Health in Indonesia 2014 2017 93,132 Service Delivery Survey of private maternal Indonesia health providers consisting of maternity clinics and midwife practices, in the 64 districts prioritized by the government. Data was used to inform the preparation of I-sphere project. Findings were shared at a stakeholder forum for the evidence summit to reduce MMR in Indonesia. Aspirations and Indonesia 2018 2020 787,236 The grant generated evidence about how Career Choices socioemotional skills learning may close gender gaps in human capital. It feeds into ongoing dialogue between the World Bank and the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture on the development of socioemotional skills among lower-secondary students. 88 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Promoting Agent Banking Indonesia 2018 2020 528,123 The evaluation found convincing evidence in Indonesia that alleviating skills constraints in the presence of agent banking can support women’s business development and agency in Indonesia. The business and financial literacy training and mentoring program led to a 15.2 percent increase in women’s profits and increased women’s decision-making authority over household purchases. Generating Evidence on Lao People's 2014 2016 59,521 Three policy notes and a consultation Supply-Side Capacity to Democratic workshop on health care in Lao PDR informed Inform the National Free Republic the design of the Health Governance and Maternal and Child Nutrition Development Project, preparations Health Policy for SCD, and other analytical work in Lao PDR. IE of Laos Road Lao People's 2019 2020 609,975 The research suggests that while men and Maintenance Groups Democratic women benefit from better roads, women Republic benefit less than men, and points to complementary programming as a way to improve benefits for women. Stopping Gender-Based Mongolia 2014 2016 76,931 This is a Men’s Strength Survey on male Violence by Engaging attitudes and behaviors on issues like with Men childcare, and the drivers of adverse outcomes (e.g., gender-based violence, alcoholism, and school dropout). A national media campaign along with community outreach was rolled out and was well received with requests to replicate the campaign at the provincial levels. The campaign also led to the inclusion of specific activities targeting men and boys in the National Gender Action Plan 2016-2021. Constraints Underlying Mongolia 2016 2017 92,970 The study contributed to a significant public Gender Disparities in dialogue in Mongolia, leading to improved Mongolia’s Labor Market: design of the Mongolia Employment Support Launch of a Piloted Project and request for an impact evaluation Qualitative Tool on childcare. The study methodology is being used in Cambodia, Malaysia, the Solomon Islands, and Vietnam. Childcare and Female Labor Mongolia 2018 2020 196,691 The study showed that in addition to positive Market Outcomes: Evidence impacts on mothers’ wages and employment, on What Works from a public childcare also significantly increased Rigorous Impact Evaluation fathers’ hourly wage. The study provided advice to the Municipality of Ulaanbaatar on the need for further expansion of the program to cover the high demand. The grant also funded a future paper, which will examine the correlation of outcomes with the quality of kindergartens, lessons that will inform dialogue on early childhood education. Board Gender Diversity Myanmar 2016 2019 323,330 IFC Corporate Governance team launched the Board Gender Diversity in ASEAN study on June 27 in Jakarta. The study provides extensive research on the current state of board diversity in ASEAN countries (plus China) and, among other things, draws interesting correlations between diversity and performance. Annex 6 | 89 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Analyzing Forced Myanmar 2017 2019 37,094 Analytical work on both the Thai and Displacement in EAP: Myanmar sides has been undertaken to Opportunities & Challenges identify knowledge gaps with respect to to Supporting Myanmar return of Myanmar refugees from Thailand. Refugees Returning The findings of this work have informed the from Thailand design of the Inclusion and Peace Lens (IPL) in Myanmar, which is used to screen all new proposed investment operations, and which the social development team administers. Get2Equal - South East Asia Myanmar, Vietnam 2016 2021 2,289,388 Targeted studies and engagement with companies to increase quality of employment and business leadership opportunities for women and expand opportunities for female entrepreneurs. This included numerous reports and guidance notes to improve the understanding of quality care services and gender equality in employment, and expand opportunities for women entrepreneurs in supply chains.The intervention also supported advisory services, peer-learning platforms and tools to improve companies' capacity to CLOSED access, retain, develop, and promote IN FY21 women talent. Gender Based Violence Papua New Guinea 2016 2017 149,273 Research on how women in urban settings in Urban PNG: Improving deal with experiences of violence; strategies, Knowledge, Evaluation and networks of support and pathways of resort. Interventions The has informed policy dialogue at the country level on how best to deal with the devastating levels of GBV, including how to support the role out of the Family and Sexual Violence Act. The research has provided much needed granular knowledge about how these issues are currently being dealt with within urban settlements. Comprehensive Agrarian Philippines 2018 2020 738,537 The grant made significant contributions Reform Program IE to the measurement of intra-household decision-making by identifying reasons behind spousal disagreement on survey questionnaires and designing and testing new measures of intra-household decision- making. Lessons on ways to improve the process of parcelizing collective land titles are being scaled up under the World Bank- financed Support to the Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling project. CCTs, Women's Philippines 2019 2020 508,916 Analysis on whether benefitting from Empowerment and Agency the Philippines CCT program “Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program” (4 Ps) during the transition to adolescence leads to long term empowerment in the social and economic realms. The study found that even brief participation in the 4Ps program increased age of marriage and age of first birth for women. However, there were no impacts on educational, labor market outcomes and proxies of economic welfare for women or men. Findings suggest that longer participation in the program may be needed to move the needle on education, labor market engagement, and inter-generational transition of poverty. 90 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Hem No Leit Tumas: Evidence Solomon Islands 2014 2014 35,750 Study on improving outcomes through the for Improved Outcomes in women’s literacy program in Solomon Islands. Solomon Islands Women's Informed policy dialogue and led to the Literacy Programs government to allocate more funds towards Adult Literacy Programs. Pacific Gender Indicators Solomon Islands 2014 2015 26,096 Analysis on gender gaps in the Solomon in Fisheries Islands fishing sector. Informed IFC engagement with SolTuna and additional analytical work. Enhancing Women’s Skills in Solomon Islands 2018 2020 150,261 The study identified skills gaps, challenges to the Informal Economy accessing financial resources, and gender- in Solomon Islands related barriers that young women face in generating an income in Solomon Islands. Findings led the CAUSE project to pilot literacy classes for CAUSE participants to enhance the confidence of women participants, training completion rates, and results. Furthermore, CAUSE has expanded the post-training support services. Situation Assessment for Thailand 2014 2015 69,191 A study and a situational assessment of Men and Youth in Conflict- young and adult men impacted by conflict in a ected Areas in southern Thailand. Informed the Expanding Southern Thailand Community Approaches in Conflict Situations project in Thailand. Expanding Knowledge Timor Leste 2018 2019 96,448 A new visual tool to identify areas of poverty on Gender Gaps in Timor and gender inequality down to the village Leste Using Gender- level. This data and the associated maps Disaggregated Data enable government, civil society and development partners to pinpoint areas where development outcomes are lagging, highlighting gender gaps in access to economic activities, education, health, and power and agency. They reveal that female disadvantages in education and high levels of domestic violence against women are higher in poorer areas of Timor-Leste. Making Resettlement Vietnam 2016 2017 192,647 Developed a toolkit for integrating gender Gender-Informed: Handling dimensions into development-induced land the Intersections Between acquisition and resettlement processes Practitioners, Policy Makers in Vietnam. and Development Partners Non–Experimental Impact Vietnam 2017 2019 108,106 Evaluation of the Third Rural Transport Evaluation with a Gender Project to inform future operations and Focus of the Third Rural increase client demand for gender- Transport Project in Vietnam smart operations. Annex 6 | 91 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) EAP Research on Female Cambodia, 2018 2021 290,000 Produced evidence on the constraints to Entrepreneurs Operating in Indonesia, female entrepreneurs in the region and Male-Dominated Sectors Lao People's provided guidance on how to tackle these Democratic constraints. The intervention found that Republic, Vietnam, female entrepreneurs who operate in Timor-Leste male-dominated sectors have higher profits than those in female-concentrated sectors in Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos. Factors commonly associated with crossing-over into male-dominated sectors include more education, lower burden of unpaid care work within the home, and living in urban areas. However, sector segregation is only one of the factors contributing to the gender gap in profits, with male entrepreneurs seeing higher profits than women regardless of sector. Recommended policies to decrease the gender gap in profits include those focussed CLOSED on reducing women’s unpaid care burden and IN FY21 ensuring access to skills training. EAPGIL Inferential Research East Asia 2016 2021 69,036 Inferential research on intra-household and Pacific decision making on labor and care, occupational segregation, gender gaps in agricultural productivity, and female entrepreneurship. In Timor-Leste the intervention provided the first analysis of the gender productivity gap in agriculture in the country, showing that women produce 15 percent less than men per hectare of land and that this gap is predominantly due to di erences in access to inputs. In Indonesia, the intervention produced the first ever estimate of the impact of public preschool on female labor force participation (FLFP) in the country, demonstrating that an additional preschool per 1,000 children increases employment of mothers of eligible children by approximately 9 percent. Inferential work on the gender wage gap in Vietnam produced the first quantitative estimates of the role of occupational sorting on di erences between CLOSED men and women’s earnings and the reasons IN FY21 for this sorting. Europe and Central Asia Life in Transition Survey III Albania, Armenia, 2015 2016 211,096 The survey pilot revealed that the adding Azerbaijan, gender-relevant questions/modules were Belarus, Bosnia applicable across a large geographical and and Herzegovina, cultural space spanning the entire Europe Bulgaria, Croatia, and Central Asia region. The survey data is Estonia, North expected to inform both SCD and CPF in the Macedonia, ECA region, as well as contribute to gender Georgia, assessments, and analyses of labor markets Kazakhstan, and poverty. Kosovo, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan 92 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Land and Leadership Albania, Bosnia 2013 2014 115,793 Two working papers and three regional and Herzegovina, conferences to design and present country Kosovo, North action plans to improve women’s land rights Macedonia, in six countries in the Western Balkans. Montenegro, Informed policy dialogue and World Bank Serbia Group-financed land administration projects in the region and created new demand to address gender and property rights in the Western Balkans. Land and Gender - Improving Albania, Bosnia 2014 2016 43,793 Sex-disaggregation of property data in Data Availability and Use in and Herzegovina, seven countries in the Western Balkans. the Western Balkans Kosovo, North The grant influenced the project design of Macedonia, a new land administration project in Serbia Montenegro, and standardized reporting on gender Serbia disaggregated data. Improving Gender Data in the Albania, Bosnia 2018 2019 125,427 Report on the gender norms of Roma and Regional Roma Survey and Herzegovina, non-Roma men and women in marginalized Kosovo, North neighborhoods of Serbia, and the impact Macedonia, of these norms on schooling, work, and Montenegro, Serbia household decision-making. Gender Evaluation of Child Armenia 2014 2018 16,890 The evaluation of Armenia's policy reform Related Benefits in Armenia that introduced di erentiated subsidies by birth order to promote fertility found a positive impact on the fertility of women who had already had two births and found no heterogeneity in response to the policy by wealth, schooling or residence in rural versus urban area. Armenia's Wild Harvest Armenia 2017 2020 55,392 The grant financed a pilot to promote and Value Chain develop women's economic outcomes in the wild-harvest sector through collaboration with the Armenian Young Women’s Association to improve entrepreneurial skills and enhance value-chain participation together with policy support to the Ministry of Agriculture to improve the wild-harvest sector's regulatory environment and include more women in formal decision making. Missing Girls in the South Armenia, 2013 2015 139,187 Working paper and knowledge brief Caucasus Azerbaijan, Georgia published with findings and lessons on how to tackle norms and behaviors related to son preference and to promote gender equality and the value of girls. Informed Georgia SCD and CPF and a follow-up behavioral intervention campaign requested by client to tackle son-preference. Gender Sensitivity in Energy Armenia, Belarus, 2014 2015 195,192 Report and toolkit to understand social issues Investments Bulgaria, Croatia, in energy tari and subsidy reforms in ECA. the Kyrgyz Informed policy dialogue in Kyrgyz Republic Republic, Romania, and Belarus, and the preparatory process Tajikistan, Turkey for SCDs in Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine. Informed eight country-level Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIAs), and WBG projects. Report and key findings are also part of a WBG Open Learning Campus Institute’s e-Course on Gender and Energy, and informed a regional report, 'Adapting to Higher Energy Costs'. Annex 6 | 93 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Promoting Gender Equality Bosnia and 2013 2020 2,065,280 The grant financed a large body of analytical in the Western Balkans Herzegovina, work on care services, labor market inequality Kosovo, North and associated productivity losses, skills Macedonia, Serbia mismatch and barriers to mobility. The findings have been used in country policy dialogue and contributed to the Bank’s first ever gender development policy loan in Albania. Jobs and Shared Prosperity Bosnia and 2014 2017 99,670 The qualitative methodology developed in ECA: A Gender Lens Herzegovina, and applied in this regional study provides North Macedonia, innovative and valuable analysis both at Georgia, the regional level, but also in terms of the Kazakhstan, broader global agenda on economic mobility Kosovo, Kyrgyz and jobs. The work was used for analytical Republic, Serbia, products (e.g. employment strategy and SCD Tajikistan, Turkey in Kyrgyzstan, poverty and equity work in the Western Balkans, ECA Care work, upcoming ECA Social Contract flagship, etc.), operations (e.g. Gender DPL, Kazakhstan youth project etc.), and Kosovo CPF consultations at the World Bank. Addressing Behavioral Bulgaria 2016 2018 48,782 Empowerment pathways for Roma girls and and Social Norms to Train, women and their families to make strategic Educate and Empower Roma decisions on education. The grant led to an Girls in Bulgaria early design of a behavioral intervention to boost aspirations. ECAGEN Database Europe and Central 2013 2018 140,742 A searchable database of harmonized Asia microdata on gender dimensions of poverty and shared prosperity to support meaningful diagnostics by those working on Systematic Country Diagnostics, lending projects and results frameworks. Gender Aging and Care Issues Europe and Central 2014 2016 84,787 Working paper on the role of informal in ECA Asia childcare and eldercare in aging societies in the ECA. Main findings included in regional report on aging titled, Golden Aging: Prospects for Healthy, Active, and Prosperous Aging in Europe and Central Asia. Research and methodology informed RAS in Estonia, Poland, and Chile, the SCD and CPF in Serbia. Informed policy dialogue on the expansion of childcare services in Kosovo, and aging and care in Poland. Beyond Women in STEM Europe and Central 2016 2019 149,207 Examination of women’s participation in STEM Fields: Gender Di erences in Asia fields of study and sectors of employment in Fields of Study and the Labor Europe and Central Asia, including causes of Market in ECA gender gaps and e ective interventions to address them. Strengthening the Gender Europe and Central 2017 2019 149,763 Evidence on gender-specific issues related Lens in Building the Evidence Asia to inflow and integration of migrants and Base on Refugees and refugees in Europe to inform policymaking. Migrants in the European Union 94 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Can Communication Georgia 2016 2019 204,202 Study on attitudes related to son preference, Campaigns Change Son perceived value of daughters, and sex Preference and Raise Value of selection in Georgia, and a communication Daughters? Evidence from a campaign to change prevailing attitudes. Pilot in Georgia New Technology to Record Kosovo 2016 2017 125,340 Support to the national cadastral agency to Property Rights integrate use of technology into the national registration program, and legal support to families to complete the complicated inheritance and other legal procedures with the court. The results on the use of the new technology are also being used as case studies for the World Bank Big Data Briefs and a forthcoming WB 'Emerging Technology for Land Administration' report. Women’s Economic Kosovo 2017 2019 59,281 Study on barriers to women’s economic Empowerment in Kosovo empowerment and policy advice on how to improve design and implementation of skills formation and intermediation services. Impact of Productive Kosovo 2018 2020 59,862 A report 'Gender Inclusion in Productive Investments on the Inclusion Investments in the Western Balkans' and of Women in Agriculture two briefs were prepared that succinctly presented the findings on how selection criteria and preconditions potentially disadvantage farming women and how statistics and survey data can be improved to highlight the contribution of women in farming. Findings are being disseminated and are likely to influence projects in the region. Exploring Gender Norms in Kyrgyz Republic 2016 2018 77,606 The study complements a recent nation-wide Kyrgyz Republic survey by UN Women and the UNFPA. The study explored the dynamics of gender norms following the political and economic transition in Central Asia and generated new information about norms and behaviors governing the practice of bride kidnapping and women's participation in local decision making.  Busting the Labor Supply- Poland 2017 2018 56,086 Analysis of labor market incentives for family Fertility Trade-O in Poland. benefits and the long-term care system Towards a More Gender- showed labor supply constraints are only Sensitive Design of Child likely to get worse in the future absent policy Care Services and Subsidies action on family and Long-Term Care benefits. It also showed Poland's 500+ family program, while reducing child poverty, creates severe labor market disincentives, especially for women. Findings led to high-level policy dialogue with the O ice of the Deputy Prime Minister in Poland,and have been published in the paper 'Can Mothers A ord to Work in Poland?' The findings formed part of recommendations set forth by the European Commission for Poland which led to increased government financing for childcare. Annex 6 | 95 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Gender Innovation in Private Russian Federation 2014 2016 149,768 A report on female entrepreneurs and access Sector Finance to finance in Russia. Report was meant to support a potential IFC project on women entrepreneurs in Russia but due to the geopolitical environment, the project was cancelled, and the dissemination e orts of the UFGE-funded grant were curbed. Gender-Informed Road Serbia 2014 2018 206,559 The global road safety and gender review Safety Strategies conducted led to development of a gender- informed Road Safety Action Plan approved by the Government of Serbia in 2016. It also led to improvement of the country's crash database and data collection tools to include gender-disaggregated data. The grant also supported piloting of gender sensitive road safety actions for adolescent students in secondary schools that are cost e ective and scalable. Roma Adolescents - Serbia 2014 2015 22,233 Study on the situation of Roma adolescent Qualitative Research boys and girls, compared to Serbian youth. Serbia Access to Justice for Serbia 2014 2015 27,000 Review of access to justice which informed Poor Women and Men policy dialogue in Serbia and informed the government's Chapter 23 Action Plan for EU accession. Evaluation of a Serbia 2018 2021 150,000 Increase fathers’ involvement in Communication Campaign early childhood development with a on Fathers’ Attitudes and communications campaign aimed at Practices in Early Childhood changing parents’ views and behaviors Development in Serbia related to investing time in child stimulation and care. CLOSED IN FY21 Youth in Central Asia: Tajikistan 2017 2019 195,660 Study to understand prevalence of male Development Approaches to and female youth exclusion and linkages Prevent Extremism to extremism. Increasing Access of Women Turkey 2013 2021 3,690,369 Multisectoral work on women’s economic to Economic Opportunities opportunities, examining barriers to in Turkey employment such as childcare supply and other work-life policies. CLOSED IN FY21 Gender Employability and Turkey 2014 2019 92,587 Study on the role of behavioral skills and So Skills conscious or unconscious labor market discrimination in Europe and Central Asia. PREM Expertise - Turkey Turkey 2014 2017 309,631 Multisectoral work on women’s economic Women’s Access to Economic opportunities examining barriers to Opportunities employment such as childcare supply and other work-life policies. A Profiling of Employment Turkey 2014 2015 34,974 Policy note and modeling tool to profile job Services Beneficiaries in seekers, with a focus on women, to provide Armenia and Turkey With a them with better assistance. The new Focus on Female Workers modeling tool was delivered to the Public Employment Services of Turkey. 96 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Diagnostic of Rural Women's Uzbekistan 2016 2017 149,994 Research provides a more nuanced Empowerment in Uzbekistan understanding of the opportunities and constraints women face in developing new income generating initiatives both in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in rural Uzbekistan. As a follow-up, the Uzbekistan Women's Committee requested assistance in conducting value chain analysis and training for women-led business in the eight most depressed districts of Uzbekistan. Finding from the report also informed the design of Jobs and Skills for Modern Economy Project. Latin America & the Caribbean Gender-Smart Interventions Argentina 2017 2018 119,999 Four municipal employment o ices (MEO) in Employment Programs for adopted new inclusion measures for women NEET Youth and LGBTI participants, including o ering childcare services on site, and/or monetary compensation for childcare. The Ministry of Labor is working to scale this pilot in 10 MEOs in urban centers. Changing Odds Among Argentina 2017 2019 122,830 "The piloted public-school curriculum for Vulnerable Teenage Girls improving self-esteem and educational and by Promoting Goal-Setting labor aspirations led to increases in school and Preventing Unplanned enrollment among teenage girls in vulnerable Pregnancies communities, along with an increase in the use of contraception and general health services." Womens' Mobility in Argentina, 2017 2019 119,947 A qualitative study of the large metropolitan LAC cities Brazil, Peru regions of Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and Lima that helps practitioners, companies and municipalities think beyond infrastructure improvements to improve women’s mobility. Advancing Gender Agency Argentina, 2014 2016 149,628 Published report, Roads to Agency, which in LAC: Experiences from the Nicaragua, Peru informed the policy dialogue in Nicaragua and Transport Sector strengthened the design of a follow-up project titled Rural and Urban Access Improvement Project in Nicaragua. Understanding Agency Bolivia 2014 2015 118,157 A perception survey on gender and ethnicity by Measuring Women's in Bolivia which informed public dialogue, Perception on Exclusion and WBG country engagements instruments SCD, Discrimination and a regional flagship report on Indigenous Latin America in the Twenty-First Century. Expanding Women's Agency Brazil 2014 2016 103,597 Assessment of productive value chains among through Productive Inclusion 32 organizations based on an adaptation of in Rural Areas at Northeast IFPRI’s Women Empowerment in Agriculture Brazil Index (WEAI) framework. Urban Mass Transport: Brazil 2014 2017 145,792 The grant supported development and Gender Agency and Inclusion implementation of 40 electronic information (Via Lilas Program) kiosks in SuperVia stations and Barcas (ferries) with information on how women could seek support for gender-based violence. The grant also supported a training course for public transport employees aimed at raising awareness of and addressing violence against women in public transportation. Annex 6 | 97 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Strengthening Sub-national Brazil 2017 2019 119,652 "In response to a request from Piaui’s state Government Capacity government, a community-based model to Promote Economic was piloted in two municipalities. The pilot Empowerment and Prevent developed a toolkit for community-level Violence Against Women activism, engaging with men and young people to strengthen prevention of violence against women and girls. With resources from the Piaui Pillars of Growth and Social Inclusion project, the state government will fund the expansion of training activities to additional municipalities, and the development of systematized lessons learned about the entire process." Expanding Women’s Brazil 2017 2018 117,581 Findings suggest that encouraging Agency through Productive the formation of women’s producers’ Inclusion in Rural Areas of organizations is an e ective way to stimulate Northeast Brazil women’s empowerment as well as for targeting resources to female producers who do not generally benefit from the same level of access to agricultural inputs as male producers. The project team is also working closely with the State (Rio Grande do Norte) Secretariat of Education to make training materials available for pedagogical activities in state schools to educate children and youth on gender issues. Improving Human Capital Brazil 2020 2021 225,000 Experimental study in Bahia, Brazil, aiming through Increased to measure the e ects of a goal-setting Aspirations in Bahia skills peer-led program on high school students’ educational attainment, self- esteem, aspirations and teenage pregnancy rates. The study found that network-based interventions, especially those led by “popular” students, were very e ective in reducing teenage pregnancies and increasing reproductive health knowledge. It showed that changing aspirations and sexual behavior involves not only information transmission CLOSED but also trust and closeness to the source of IN FY21 information. Womens Economic Colombia 2017 2018 119,973 A profile of caregivers and households that Empowerment: Challenges could benefit from the provision of care of the Care Economy services as part of a national care system in Colombia being developed by the government. The grant also supported a stocktaking of existing public programs and services (cash transfers, incentives) addressing the di erent needs of households with dependents. The work will be used in continued dialogue with Colombia's new government and the methodology can be replicated elsewhere in the region. Enhancing Opportunities Dominican 2017 2021 123,069 Developed a new credit scoring model to through Access to Republic predict characteristics and behaviors of Productive Assets for creditworthiness for women and men using Female Entrepreneurs: machine learning techniques. Testing Gendered Credit Scoring Models CLOSED IN FY21 98 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Text Me Maybe! Peer-to-Peer Ecuador 2014 2015 63,553 Impact evaluation, data collection, and Sexual Education and Mobile report. Informed country dialogue about Texting to Reduce the Risk of teenage pregnancy. Led to the Chimborazo Teenage Pregnancy Development Investment Project to adopt an SMS component to improve children’s nutrition; and a project by the municipality of Quito to adopt the peer-to-peer component to work on social issues of at- risk youth. Expanding Labor Market El Salvador 2014 2016 47,489 Qualitative evaluation of the El Salvador Opportunities of Women Temporary Income Support Program (PATI), in El Salvador which combined income support with training targeting women. The evaluation focused on the role of these interventions in promoting women’s agency. Lessons led to changes such as integrated support for childcare to address constraints to women’s participation. Migration and Women's Guatemala 2014 2015 108,555 Study on the impacts of male-out migration Agency in Agriculture: The on agriculture and women’s agency Case of Central America in Guatemala. Tackling Teenage Pregnancy Nicaragua 2017 2020 14,892 Project was cancelled. in Nicaragua Haiti Adolescent Haiti 2013 2015 581,211 Impact evaluation, report, and videos on a Girls Initiative pilot program aimed to foster labor market opportunities for young women in Haiti. Informed the LAC regional gender strategy and the SCD about jobs for vulnerable groups, gender gaps, and GBV. Informed country dialogue on issues, such as youth inclusion, skill-development, and labor market programs. Piloting the Delivery of Haiti 2014 2015 121,079 A study of the Adolescent Girl Initiative Agency in Haiti pilot in Haiti, which fostered labor market opportunities for young women. The grants supported context-customized modules with content on self-esteem, aspirations, empowerment, and other so skills, which were delivered through workshops held at community organizations. Findings revealed both extremely high and substantively constrained aspirations of young women. The project reduced these constraints and the beneficiaries revealed higher aspirations. Using Innovative Haiti 2017 2019 123,981 "A behavioral diagnostic found that in Mechanisms in the Health addition to structural barriers and the Sector to Reduce Gender inadequate quality of care services, Inequalities and Enhance behavioral biases and perceptions deter Economic Opportunities pregnant women from seeking medical care for Women because they expect to be received poorly at clinics and hospitals. As a result, the Ministry of Public Health and Population is developing a policy to better integrate traditional birth attendants in the health care system and develop training and support to enhance safety of the deliveries that they assist as part of a new health project." Annex 6 | 99 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Testing Evidence-Based Honduras 2014 2016 109,444 Published a global review of community- Approaches to Foster based interventions to address intimate- Collective Action in partner violence. The well-known SASA! Addressing Intimate intervention was adapted to the LAC Partner Violence context and was adopted by the Safer Municipalities Project. Knowledge Management Latin America 2014 2021 820,000 Expand and share operationally relevant knowledge to improve gender equality. Hold regional knowledge contests to target government agencies, civil society, and academia, and disseminate around agency- related topics. Developing Gender Data Mexico 2016 2019 349,809 A new data analytics tool gives valuable Analytics in LAC insights to banks on their performance with women customers, assisting in the design of value propositions to reduce the financial gender gap. Initially, the tool was used by financial institutions in South America. Mobility and Access to Mexico 2017 2020 121,533 To help the city improve public transportation Economic Opportunities in safety, the World Bank developed a Mexican Cities methodology for calculating the social cost of sexual harassment in public transport. Analysis of Cross-Over: Mexico 2019 2021 290,000 Data collection and analysis showed that Promoting Female weekly sales and profits of female-owned Entrepreneurship business which crossed over to male- dominated sectors, were 66 percent and 78 percent larger, respectively. Women that had male role models and male mentors were 6 CLOSED and 4 percentage points more likely to IN FY21 "cross over". Mexico - Promoting Female Mexico 2020 2021 139,478 Examined the cost-e ectiveness of so skills Entrepreneurship Through training as a complement to hard managerial Rigorous Experiments training in improving performance of women-led businesses. The training program led to the adoption of better business and managerial practices (e.g., financial management, marketing, and formalization), CLOSED ultimately improving businesses' sales by 9 IN FY21 percent and profits by 13 percent. Economic Empowerment of Panama 2017 2020 123,814 A demand and supply study of indigenous Indigenous Women women's economic empowerment in Panama, as well as a pilot intervention that strengthened the ecosystems for indigenous women in four communities through so skills training and other issues critical to enable and support women to build their community women's agency, confidence and capacity to become economic actors. The grant also established four community banks. Developing a Model for St. Lucia 2014 2015 87,719 A gender-informed household demand Gender-Inclusive Climate assessment and a marketing strategy Adaptation Finance published in the Operations Manual of Climate Adaptation Finance Facility (CAFF). It helped with capacity building for the Central Statistics O ice in St. Lucia. It also informed the design of a national survey on climate change adaptation and the development of an outreach plan to finance household upgrades, and informed the CAFF component of the Saint Lucia Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project. 100 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Evaluating The Impact St. Lucia, Grenada 2017 2018 119,999 A tourism, gender and competitiveness of the Non All-Inclusive survey was developed and conducted among versus All-Inclusive Tourism employers and employees in St. Lucia and Development Grenada to look at the di erent experiences of men and women in two models of tourism, all-inclusive and non all-inclusive. The report finds women represent most of the employees and managers in the hotel industry in St. Lucia and Grenada. Yet, women still face significant disadvantages compared to men, finding evidence of occupational segregation and a gender compensation gap. Middle East and North Africa Socio-Economic Mobility Arab Republic of 2018 2020 138,275 The qualitative study supported by this Across Genders and Egypt grant has provided a nuanced and a deeper Generations in Egypt: The understanding of how men and women, Role of Jobs and Resilience young and old, experience macroeconomic shocks, juxtaposed against their own individual shocks and changes in life situation. This understanding will be useful in guiding policy dialogue on social mitigation policies in Egypt. Using Digital Technology to Arab Republic of 2020 2021 200,000 Cancelled. This intervention was Expand Markets for Female Egypt re-structured. Entrepreneurs in Egypt Civil Legal Aid for Women Jordan 2014 2018 199,531 The grant helped the Justice Center for Legal Aid build capacity in designing and implementing quantitative and qualitative surveys. The findings showed that providing legal aid to poor women to resolve legal problems did not end their poverty but did mitigate their poverty situations and provided some increase in agency that could be carried over to other aspects of social and economic life. Understanding How Jordan 2017 2018 246,753 Innovative study on the impact of social Changing Gender Norms norms on women’s labor market outcomes Impact Education and in Jordan. Findings informed the design of Employment Outcomes the Jordan First Equitable Growth and Job Creation Programmatic Development Policy Financing. Syrian Refugee Crisis Impact Jordan, Lebanon 2016 2018 272,837 Data on the socioeconomic and living conditions of a representative sample of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, using both quantitative surveys and qualitative fieldwork. Cooperation Among Middle East and 2017 2019 229,970 The grant led to invaluable data on the Syrian Refugees North Africa socioeconomic and living conditions of a representative sample of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, using both quantitative surveys and qualitative fieldwork. The data was analyzed and used in the main report: "Syrian Refugees and their Hosts: Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq." Research techniques and ideas were shared internally with other teams planning qualitative work at the World Bank. Annex 6 | 101 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Violence in Conflict-a ected Middle East and 2017 2019 - Project was dropped Contexts North Africa Measuring Gender Impacts of Morocco 2014 2017 178,290 The initial findings showed that empowering a Micro-enterprise Project for young women from disadvantaged Disadvantaged Youth backgrounds through economic opportunities is possible. The results of the evaluation have informed the Morocco SCD/CPF process at the World Bank, by highlighting the importance and feasibility of targeting youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. The baseline results of the evaluation have also been shared with the Ministry of Youth in Rabat to inform the ongoing policy dialogue and project preparation of a scale-up project. Morocco Urban Transport Morocco 2015 2017 144,876 The study enhanced the World Bank’s Program - Gender Survey knowledge of the urban transport sectors as it confirmed that women as well as other vulnerable subgroups face the most acute challenges in the transit system of Moroccan cities (particularly in terms of security and safety). It also recommended important actions (CCTV, patrols, etc.) to mitigate these issues. This work supports the implementation of the Morocco Urban Transport PforR, a Program-for- Results project. Increasing Women's Morocco 2017 2019 145,754 Increase knowledge of e ects of Plan Maroc Economic Opportunities Vert (agri-food productivity project) on Under the Plan Maroc Vert women’s economic opportunities in agri- food sector; identify interventions that have increased women’s economic opportunities; develop recommendations for expansion of successful initiatives. Enterprise Revitalization and Republic of Yemen 2014 2017 34,886 Data collection and working paper to evaluate Employment Pilot (EREP) a youth internship program in Yemen. The in Yemen outbreak of civil war caused the second wave of the internship program to be cancelled— based on the limited data, a paper was published but policy dialogue was not possible. Enhancing Female Tunisia 2017 2019 229,996 Randomized controlled trial of public works Entrepreneurship through program to test e ect of additional small Labor Intensive Public Works: business grant given to subsample of former A Randomized Control Trial female participants aiming to strengthen of the Community Works and female leadership and sustain livelihoods Local Participation Project in over long term. Results are pending end-line Rural Tunisia data collection under a separate UFGE grant. Investigating Gender Tunisia 2017 2020 193,607 A randomized controlled trial to provide Discrimination in the Labor unbiased estimates of whether (and to what Market through a Field extent) gender-based discrimination in Experiment in Tunisia labor markets hinders women’s economic opportunities. The study found that women with identical qualifications to men do not have equal chances to find jobs in the IT field. 102 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report South Asia Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Impact Evaluation of the Afghanistan 2018 2019 62,938 Evaluate the impact of a skills training and Afghanistan SWEEP education intervention on secondary school completion and employability outcomes of adolescent girls in the state of Jharkhand in India. The evaluation is ongoing under a separate UFGE grant. Women Mobile Financial Bangladesh 2016 2018 350,000 A nationwide market study of 4,000 Services women,to demonstrate the commercial potential of mobile financial services to serve more women and reveal barriers to women’s adoption and use of these services. Findings were used to develop a roadmap to guide private sector providers and other stakeholders, including development institutions and regulators, to better involve women in the sector. Financial Inclusion of Women Bangladesh 2016 2019 240,297 A joint IFC and Bangladesh Bank initiative Ready-Made Garments developed the business case for electronic Workers through Mobile wage payments and helped secure buy-in Financial Services from the mobile financial services (MFS) sector. The result was that between 2016 and 2018, more than 70,000 female garment workers opened mobile financial accounts. This success helped convince the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and international retail brands to advance the adoption of digital wage payments across the sector. Addressing Barriers to More Bangladesh 2017 2019 92,476 The paper explores constraints women in and Better Jobs among Low slums and low-income neighborhoods in Income Women Dhaka face. Using unique individual-level data it finds that female labor force participation is higher in low-income neighborhoods and among women with little education, and younger unmarried women. It also finds correlations with so skills and type of work, need for childcare, as well as safety in public spaces and in the workplace. Stopping Child Marriage in Bangladesh 2017 2019 119,788 "A pilot conducted in partnership with the Bangladesh: Developing Ministry of Education targeted the factors that a Behavior Change influence the decision-making process Intervention Using of parents to prevent child marriage. An Social Media accompanying study showed the importance of targeting factors that influence parents’ decisions." Energy Access and Womens Bangladesh, India 2017 2019 45,472 This paper investigates the link Empowerment between electricity access and women's empowerment. It finds that electrification enhances all measures of women's empowerment and is associated with an 11-percentage point increase in the overall empowerment index. Employment and education are identified as the two most important causal channels through which electrification enables empowerment. Annex 6 | 103 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Deepening the Analytical India 2014 2018 195,706 Produced several working papers on Foundation for Operations factors that explain low female labor force participation in urban India. Insights from these papers were integrated into a special edition of the World Bank’s India Development Update (IDU), which unpacks why India has the lowest female labor force participation rate in the world. The IDU has been widely disseminated, cited in the media, and shared through di erent forums, including with the Indian government. Data Driven Insights India 2016 2018 45,321 Findings from the global review of how to Enhancing Women e-commerce platforms support women and Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship revealed that access to Access to Finance through finance is a key constraining factor, with more E-Commerce than 80 percent of women entrepreneurs interviewed quoting issues in accessing financing through informal sources. Stringent collateral requirement, continuity of business, and digital comfort were also identified as key challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. DIME Edutainment and Mass India 2017 2018 49,636 The impact evaluation workshop on Media BCC IE Workshop in entertainment education brought together Gender & Development media producers (e.g. MTV, BBC, Discovery), development partners (e.g. DFID, Gates and Ford foundations), policy makers, and project teams interested in developing edutainment research projects, especially in the gender and GBV space. The workshop also launched two social media impact evaluations which will be the among the first to study the e ectiveness of GBV edutainment interventions delivered online. Pilot Impact Evaluation India 2017 2019 45,111 Impact evaluation of series of WEvolve online of Online Intervention entertainment-education products that aim to against GBV change social norms and behaviors regarding gender and GBV. Final results are forthcoming in FY21. Urban Transport and Gender: India 2018 2019 124,708 Identify and evaluate barriers to and A case study of Mumbai opportunities for women’s access to and use of urban transportation and implications for female economic empowerment and agency in urban India by expanding data and evidence. Youth, Gender and ICT Nepal 2014 2016 196,754 The grant resulted in the development Program in SAR of the Nepal FightVAW (Violence Against Women) platform, which introduced a helpline and full-fledged case management system to improve response to GBV based on ideas generated during a Hackathon. The platform is now being scaled up in four districts of Kathmandu through a new project—Integrated Platform for Gender Based Violence Prevention and Response ($2m) in Nepal. The project will improve the quality and reach of services for GBV response in four districts of Kathmandu through a comprehensive response system with a 24- hour helpline and referral service for better coordination among existing service providers. 104 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Women’s Jobs Diagnostic Pakistan 2017 2020 110,949 Analytical studies on female labor force participation in urban Pakistan provide more nuanced analysis of women’s low labor force participation in a way that proves more useful for project teams in designing targeted actions based on income and education levels of women and their households. Findings helped shape legal reform commitments and actions as part of the country’s new $500 million Securing Human Investments to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) policy loan. As a result, the loan now aims to improve legal protection for women homebased workers through workers’ bills at the federal and provincial levels. An Evidence-Based Roadmap Pakistan 2018 2019 118,896 "The report, Revitalizing Pakistan’s Fisheries, for Female Transformation provides a roadmap for women-led through Small Fish enterprises. It draws on a UFGE-funded Enterprise Solutions in background study in June 2018, to Pakistan recommend that policies for the revitalizing of fisheries substantially benefit poorer households and women. The planned $150 million IDA project Sustainable Aquaculture For Economic Growth And Nutritional Security in Pakistan has taken up these recommendations, including promotion of small-fish aquaculture for nutrition and women-led enterprise development, women’s empowerment in decision making, strengthening the aquaculture postharvest value chain which already has 80-90 percent women participation, and GBV prevention." Conflict and Female Labor Pakistan 2018 2020 42,525 This paper explores the link between the Participation in South Asia prevalence of violent conflicts and extremely low female labor force participation rates in South Asia. The Labor Force Surveys from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan are merged with the Global Terrorism Database to estimate the relationship between terrorist attacks and female labor supply. Gender Innovation Lab South South Asia 2014 2019 1,001,790 Generate, disseminate and help Asia operationalize evidence-based scalable policy solutions to enhance gender equality in the region. Addressing Gender-Based South Asia 2014 2018 967,450 The work has resulted in an increase in Violence in South Asia the number of projects in the region that include GBV as well as in policy dialogue. GBV activities were integrated in six World Bank operations. In Nepal, the work helped strengthen collaboration with the National Women Commission which led to the preparation of a stand-alone GBV project in the country. An extensive mapping of interventions and programs focused on GBV was conducted and turned into a searchable database on the South Asia gender website. Annex 6 | 105 Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Identifying Constraints Sri Lanka 2017 2018 99,898 The study, identifying constraints to women’s to Women’s Economic economic empowerment in the conflict- Empowerment in the Conflict a ected areas of Sri Lanka, found that A ected Areas of Sri Lanka demographic imbalances have contributed to growing vulnerability of women within social institutions, including family, marriage, and the public spheres in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. While the conflict in Sri Lanka ended in 2009, the assessment is directly informing the Bank’s operational engagements in these provinces and has been used in the dialogue with the government for projects currently under preparation.  World Bootcamps for Female Digital Argentina, 2017 2020 500,000 Participants in the treatment group indicated Employment Colombia, Pakistan, that having a women-centered alternative Kenya to learn coding influenced their decision to enroll to the program. Anecdotal evidence collected throughout the implementation suggests that targeted amenities o ered by the bootcamps, such as childcare, professional female mentoring, practical experience, so -skills development, were essential to attracting female participants. Tackling Gender in Brazil, the Solomon 2016 2018 196,547 5 business cases of companies that have Agribusiness: Improving Islands, South experienced business benefits as a result of Business, Changing Lives Africa, Vietnam improvements in women’s working conditions or an increase in women’s employment opportunities. The case studies informed the IFC Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services (MAS) Department’s Gender Strategy Implementation Plan and helped MAS sta identify approaches with agribusiness clients. It also led to the adoption of a new IFC Advisory Services project on women’s employment. Gender Housing Finance Colombia, India, 2016 2020 369,681 The report,' Her Home', provides country- Initiative Kenya specific insights into the barriers women currently face in obtaining housing finance, details the size and nature of women’s housing finance markets, and o ers recommendations for policy makers and financial institutions to overcome barriers, improve women’s access to finance, and ultimately improve the lives of millions of women and their families around the world. Global Women Crossovers Global 2021 2021 154,000 Generated new evidence on women crossovers across multiple contexts, identified underlying constraints that hinder women enterpreneurs from crossing over to male- dominated sectors and proposed policy CLOSED actions to help women enter into higher- IN FY21 return sectors. 106 | 2021 UFGE Annual Report Grant Name Country Starting Closing Funding Summary (FY) (FY) granted (US$) Gender Responsive Extractive World 2016 2018 300,000 A set of toolkits for natural resources Industries companies to integrate gender into their operations. The tools have been applied in client engagements such as in the Nachtigal hydro project in Cameron. The tools were also used in the design of the gender strategy and approach for the IFC-Canada Partnership for Africa. Innovation in Banking World 2017 2020 119,682 The UFGE grant helped IFC solidify the Women Through a partnership with Financial Alliance for Women Partnership with GBA and share knowledge on how to support women SMEs through financial and non- financial services. Knowledge events allowed experts, including banks and practitioners, to connect, disseminate research findings and knowledge pieces, and showcase and recognize banks that have e ectively served women SMEs and women customers. We Care, We Heal: World 2017 2019 187,658 Grant cancelled Aging and Gender Annex 6 | 107 For more information, please contact: The UFGE Secretariat | Gender Group Email: ufge@worldbankgroup.org Web Address: www.worldbank.org/gender/ufge The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C., 20433