Year One of the WBG Gender Strategy 2024-2030: Expanding Opportunities for all

On September 30, 2025, an internal joint IEG and Gender Group event was organized to reflect on the first year of implementing the WBG Gender Strategy 2024-2030 - Expanding opportunities for all, with a focus on more strategic and meaningful country engagement toward gender equality. Drawing on the 2024 IEG evaluation of a decade of gender efforts, the session addressed the progress of strategic country-led approaches to advancing gender equality and strengthening coordination across WBG institutions.

Panelists showcased country-led engagement toward gender equality and how they are engaging differently with the new WBG Gender Strategy and in response to IEG's recommendations. Presentation by IEG highlighting key findings and recommendations from the 2024 evaluation, particularly on enabling country-driven engagement, challenges to implementation, and the importance of bottom-up, context-sensitive approaches - reference/launch of the gender technical report. Discussion continued regarding institutional and policy reforms and on replicating and implementing solutions at scale toward gender equality. Notable transformative project examples were cited in health in Guinea, digital inclusion in Togo, job creation in Senegal, financial inclusion in Pakistan, and Türkiye all with measurable benefits for women.

Some key takeaways from this discussion include:

• Strong collaboration between the Gender Group and IEG is regarded as a model for future strategies that could be replicated. Operations tend to reflect clear and actionable IEG recommendations more effectively.
• Promoting gender equality is essential for the global public good and requires collective action, including integration into macroeconomic policies. Gender issues are macrocritical and use of macro and gender lenses in innovative operations benefits inclusive and sustainable development.
• Outcome oriented project implementation was successful using approaches which can lead to lasting changes in attitudes and social norms; scaling up initiatives requires adapting tools like questionnaires to be concise and suitable for use by local governments. There is a need for systematic monitoring of gender-based violence (GBV) to inform policy and practice.
• Gender focal points help secure gender tags for operations, shape policy narratives, and improve results.

The speakers closed by expressing optimism for continued progress in the second year of the Gender Strategy implementation.