The External Gender Consultive Group of the World Bank

Since the EGCG was first set up by World Bank president, James Wolfensohn shortly after the Beijing conference, some progress has been made in mainstreaming gender in the World Bank. But the task is still very far from being accomplished. In the interim period the EGCG has had to deal with organisational restructuring at the Bank that left gender work in limbo for a long period, as well as continuing reluctance, with few exceptions, on the part of the Bank's operations staff (i.e. the guys and gals who actually decide how the money will be spent on different programmes and projects) to take gender seriously. Gender has fared a bit better at HQ in Washington, where a new Gender Sector Board has been created. This now puts Gender on par there with health, education etc. at least formally. However, these sector boards which are supposed to support the operational programmes have little money themselves, and weaker staffing.

In this situation, the EGCG (which meets once a year in Washington and has practically no resources) has focussed on targeted intervention. A major attempt was to input systematically in the shaping of the Policy Research Report on Gender and Development which is being produced by the Bank. The major issue here was to get the report to honestly assess the impact of macroenconomic policies on women instead of focussing (as is generally the habit at the Bank) on 'traditional' barriers to gender equality at the level of family and community. How far we have been able to go in this direction remains to be seen - the draft report is awaited. A Director for Gender and Development (head of the Gender Sector Board) is now in place. How effective she will be in managing the complex politics of gender at the Bank, how open she will be to learning from women who are nearer the ground where Bank operations actually impact, and how savvy she will be in recognising the EGCG as an ally to work with rather than a group to be controlled bureaucratically all still remain to be seen. One additional thing that is currently going on is that the Operations Evaluation Department (the bank's internal review mechanism) has launched a major review of the mainstreaming of gender in the Bank.

During 2000, the EGCG has also focussed on the working of the private sector lending entity in the World Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation. The IFC has now developed gender guidelines and increased the number of staff doing social and environmental impact assessments. Three years ago when the EGCG requested a meeting with the IFC, gender was not on their agenda. As the IFC provides a framework for regulating social and environmental impacts of investment projects, the steps they begin to take may have wider ramifications, particularly as private investment is increasing and public expenditures for development declining.

The biggest gaps appear in integrating gender and macro-economic policies. For instance, while in 1998, 63% of the Bank's lending was disbursed for structural adjustment and half of it was counted as funding for social safety nets, the analysis of the gender impacts of structural adjustment to inform policy interventions has not been developed within the Bank. The prospects for the integration of gender in economic policies may also be in jeopardy as the Bank is increasingly committing its resources and institutionalising its cooperation with the World Trade Organisation. At the WTO ministerial in Seattle, the Bank, the IMF and the WTO had a joint press release calling for greater 'coherence' (division of labour? consistency?) among them. While this appears on the surface a move in the direction of greater efficiency, the result of consistency among the big three (not that the UN does not appear anywhere in this picture) could reduce potential points of flexibility and negotiation, and may well presage a race to the bottom in terms of social and gender accountability. 

Many obstacles to mainstreaming gender still appear at the level of policy. Since 1994 no social and environmental impacts assessment has been done. Among the obstacles are the lack of conceptual clarity and the lack of consensus and commitment across the bank. The level of compliance with gender policy is not high. There is a lack of trained staff, and hence a tendency within the Bank to refer gender issues to designated structures and processes, such as the gender unit, which has had its funds cut. Only 6% of 1998 research funds were committed to gender-related research. Several decision-making groups within the Bank are unhappy with this lack of progress and called for strengthening the role of the EGCG.

Several women have been recently nominated to senior positions in the bank, including Mamphela Ramphele of South Africa, the first African and the second woman to be appointed a Managing Director of the Bank.

The EGCG work plan and the priorities for raising with the Bank include commentary on the Policy Research Report on Gender and Development, feedback and monitoring of participatory process for development of Gender Sector Strategy, and feedback on gender in the World Development Report 2000/01 on Attacking Poverty. It is crucial to integrate gender analysis in the Poverty Reduction Framework paper being prepared for the Report.

The EGCG also plans feedback on the Operations Evaluation Department study on mainstreaming gender and will propose several country case studies on lessons in operationalising gender, as well as proposing a review of the allocation of resources to gender and the Bank's gender unit.

Issues for next meeting include how gender is addressed when the World Bank is operationalising participation, and issues related to how the EGCG works. Out-going chairperson Gita Sen, and secretary Ewa Charkiewicz, who have been with the EGCG since its inception in 1996, remain as members for a further year.