Gender and Economy

The Action Plan relies on this policy framework; it is not designed to replace the gender mainstreaming strategy, but rather to advance its implementation.  The Plan defines a concrete four-year road map to intensify the implementation of the gender mainstreaming strategy in the economic sectors.  Execution of this roadmap would give gender issues more traction institutionally and would position the Bank to be a global leader on the issue of women's economic empowerment.

The informal economy has been characterized by a high level of participation by women.  Therefore a discussion of the informal economy is intertwined with the work of women.  Results of the October (199) Household Survey showed that among employed women, the largest portion was in elementary (19.4%), domestic (17.8%) and clerical occupations (16.3%) whereas among employed men the largest portion (19.6%) was in artisan and craft related occupations.  However both women's work and the informal sector have largely been discounted as marginal to the ‘real' economy and therefore been historically neglected in most scholarship on the economy and the labour market.

Gender responsive budgeting (GRB) is budgeting responsive budgeting (GRB) is budgeting that integrates a gender perspective and tracks how budgets respond to gender equality and women's rights requirements. This entails examining not only actual allocations and revenue raising measures but also budgeting systems, budgeting processes and looking at the roles of the various actors throughout the process. It also entails investing in making available mechanisms, guidelines, data and indicators that enable gender equality advocates to track progress, benefit incidence and show how supposedly gender neutral budgets impact women.