Gendering the World Bank provides an unusual, wide-ranging and accessible account of the constitution and effects of discourses of neoliberal governance. Paying particular attention to how gender matters in and to contemporary global governance, the author focuses in particular on the development discourse of the World Bank.

Extrait de l'introduction : "This report presents the main findings of a recently cempleted desk study under-taken for thw Social Development Family of the World Bank's Environemtally and Socially Sustainable Development (ESSD) Network. The primary objectives of the review are to : (a) identify the current rationale, language, and underlying policy approach to Gender and Development (GAD) adopted by the World Bank ; (b) evaluate the extent to which these are shared across the institutions ; and (c) make reommandations concerning future steps toward mainstreaming gender in the World Bank. Although the origins of the review relate to needs specifically identified by ESSD, the issues raised go beyong social development, and are relevant to all Bank staff concerned with mainstreaming gender and development into World Banl lending and nonlending operations at the policy, program, and project level."

Med spansk og fransk referat.

This publication focuses on the gender dimensions of intrastate conflicts (civil wars), organised around eight key themes of gender and warfare, sexual violence, formal and informal peace processes, post-conflict legal frameworks, work issues, rehabilitation of social services and community-driven development. For each theme, the authors examine the impact on gender roles of conflict situations, the development challenges involved, and the policy options available to help build more inclusive and gender balanced post-conflict societies.

Since the early 1980s Ecuador has experienced a series of events unparalleled in its history. Its &“free market&” strategies exacerbated the debt crisis, and in response new forms of social movement organizing arose among the country&’s poor, including women&’s groups. Gendered Paradoxes focuses on women&’s participation in the political and economic restructuring process of the past twenty-five years, showing how in their daily struggle for survival Ecuadorian women have both reinforced and embraced the neoliberal model yet also challenged its exclusionary nature. Drawing on her extensive ethnographic fieldwork and employing an approach combining political economy and cultural politics, Amy Lind charts the growth of several strands of women&’s activism and identifies how they have helped redefine, often in contradictory ways, the real and imagined boundaries of neoliberal development discourse and practice. In her analysis of this ambivalent and &“unfinished&” cultural project of modernity in the Andes, she examines state policies and their effects on women of various social sectors; women&’s community development initiatives and responses to the debt crisis; and the roles played by feminist &“issue networks&” in reshaping national and international policy agendas in Ecuador and in developing a transnationally influenced, locally based feminist movement.

The Independent Evaluation Group’s (IEG) Results and Performance of the World Bank Group (RAP) is a comprehensive assessment of World Bank Group performance, drawing on recent IEG evaluations. The report also examines how effectively the World Bank Group addressed current and emerging development challenges. This year’s RAP focuses on gender integration in World Bank Group operations, building on previous examinations of World Bank Group approaches to risk management (RAP 2013) and the Millennium Development Goals (RAP 2014). 'No country, community, or economy can achieve its potential or meet the challenges of the 21st century without the full and equal participation of women and men, girls and boys.' This statement from the World Bank Group website’s topic page on gender states the essential importance of gender for development. In line with that view, the World Bank Group made considerable progress in addressing gender issues during the past 15 years. Gender has been a prominent corporate objective since the first World Bank Group strategy, introduced in 2001. This year, a new World Bank Group gender strategy has been launched—the first joint World Bank†“International Finance Corporation (IFC) strategy to focus on gender. It is an important step toward sharpening the corporate focus on gender and improving the approach to gender mainstreaming. This report describes how mechanisms for integrating gender in projects and country strategies are working, and to what extent they provide meaningful information about progress and results on gender. The analysis aims to inform World Bank Group efforts to strengthen the approach to documenting, assessing, and evaluating results as part of the new strategy rollout. The report also reviews how effectively the World Bank Group’s portfolio and country programs deliver results, and its system for monitoring the implementation of IEG’s recommendations.

Disparities between men and women in basic rights, access to resources, and power to determine their own lives continue to exist in virtually all countries of the world. This report reconfirms this importance of gender equality in the fight against poverty and stresses the urgency of promoting gendered-related action.