World Development Report 2012: Gender equality and development
03 October 2011
Policymakers and practitioners still face gaps in knowledge both in how gender equality
matters for development and how best to incorporate these links in policy design. The World
Development Report 2012 aims to bridge these gaps by building upon the growing body of
multidisciplinary theory, evidence, and data on these links while highlighting the knowledge gaps
that remain across the world in the context of the development process. The Report argues that
closing gender gaps is not only a core development objective in its own right, it is also smart
economics.
The analytical core of the Report constitutes a conceptual framework that examines the factors that have fostered change and the constraints that have slowed progress. The analysis focuses on the roles of economic growth, households, markets, and institutions in determining gender differences in education and health, agency, and access to economic opportunities.The report cites examples of how countries could gain by addressing disparities between men and women:
- Ensuring equal access and treatment for women farmers would increase maize yields by 11 to 16 percent in Malawi and by 17 percent in Ghana.
- Improving women’s access to agricultural inputs in Burkina Faso would increase total household agricultural production by about 6 percent, with no additional resources—simply by reallocating resources such as fertilizer and labor from men to women.
- The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that equal access to resources for female farmers could increase agricultural output in developing countries by as much as 2.5 to 4 percent.
- Eliminating barriers that prevent women from working in certain occupations or sectors would have similar positive effects, reducing the productivity gap between male and female workers by one-third to one-half and increasing output per worker by 3 to 25 percent across a range of countries.
The analysis leads to the identification of four priority areas for domestic policy action:
- Reducing excess female mortality and closing education gaps where they remain
- Improving access to economic opportunities for women
- Increasing women's voice and agency in the household and in society
- Limiting the reproduction of gender inequality across generations
