Bangladesh Gender Equality Diagnostic Of Selected Sectors

Over the last two decades, Bangladesh has made progress in women's participation in the labor force, gender parity in primary education, and women's political representation. Areas of concern include the high prevalence of violence against women, obstacles to women's access to resources and assets, unequal terms of their labor engagement, and impact of their overwhelming responsibility for care work. The Government of Bangladesh has made policy commitments toward gender equality and established an institutional framework to fulfill these. This publication intends to support the government in its attempt to address persisting gender inequalities and gaps through a multisector approach across policies, programs, and projects. It provides insights into gender issues in urban; transport; energy; and skills, vocational, and tertiary education, and gives suggestions for strengthening gender mainstreaming in projects.

For the past decade, the Maldives has experienced economic growth, mostly driven by tourism. As an archipelago comprised of small islands, the land area is limited and the resource base narrow, with low potential for agriculture and other industries and high vulnerability to climate change. Its small population is dispersed and fragmented, making delivery of services costly and difficult. With resources and services concentrated in the capital city of Malé, the atolls are underdeveloped. Progress has been notable in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, improving maternal health, and reducing child mortality. However, challenges remain in gender equality and women's empowerment (with low female-to-male ratio in tertiary qualifications), limited share of female employment, and low participation of women in political development and decision making. This publication intends to support the Government of the Maldives in its attempt to tackle persisting gender inequalities and gaps through a multisector approach across policies, programs, and projects. It provides insights into gender issues in energy; fisheries; micro, small, and medium enterprises; transport; tourism; and water and sanitation and suggestions for strengthening gender mainstreaming in project design, implementation, and monitoring.

This publication presents a gender equality diagnostic of education, energy, transport, and water and sanitation in Sri Lanka—four sectors which are the major areas of cooperation between ADB and the Government of Sri Lanka. The sector-focused chapters provide insights into the gender equality issues and considerations relevant to sector planning, related government policies and legal frameworks and commitments, and institutional structures for promoting gender equality actions. Each chapter concludes with gender issues and opportunities to consider in designing sector-related interventions for possible use by and discussion with government, civil society, and development partners.

Bhutan has experienced extraordinary change since the 1960s when it opened itself to the world and started the process of planned development. It has transformed itself from a subsistence economy into a middle-income country with rising human development indicators. Yet progress comes with new challenges. These include differences in living conditions and opportunities between rural and urban areas that fuel rural-urban migration, labor shortages in agriculture, and unemployment. There are gender dimensions to each of these challenges, prompting the Government of Bhutan and its development partners to mainstream gender in its policies, programs, and projects. This publication intends to support this process by providing insights into gender issues in agriculture and rural livelihoods, education, energy, environment, private sector development, transport, urban development, and work and unemployment.

This report assesses how Bangladesh is cutting gaps in gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in financial services and shows how support for women entrepreneurs alongside better technology access can boost sustainable development. It explains the rapid growth of Bangladesh’s financial sector, analyzes policies, and explores how the rise of mobile financial services is improving inclusion for women and vulnerable groups. Outlining steps including better access to cheap mobile phones and internet, it shows how increasing credit to women-owned small businesses and targeting insurance products can help mainstream GESI and incorporate it into the design and implementation of ADB-funded projects.

Women owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have a great potential to contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction through employment creation and income generation. In Bangladesh, women-owned SMEs have different characteristics when compared with men-owned SMEs and tend to face specific challenges and obstacles. To capitalize on this potential, these challenges and constraints have to be addressed in initiatives that aim to support SME growth. The Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Development Project supported the development and expansion of SMEs in Bangladesh from 2009 to 2013. In specific pilot districts, the number of women-owned SMEs increased by over 10%. The training of women SME owners in business development, accounting, loan application rules and processes, and in the regulations governing businesses facilitated their improved access to institutional finance. The formation of advocacy groups and membership in different associations enhanced the confidence of women SME owners and their ability to lobby for policy changes. Dialogue and relation building between participating financial institutions and women's SME associations helped foster mutual understanding and cooperation, leading to better outcomes for women-owned SMEs. Participating financial institution policies and products require further adaptation to meet the needs and circumstances of women-owned SMEs.

This publication presents a gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) analysis of priority sectors in Nepal and identifies how gender equality, social inclusion, and women's empowerment approaches can be integrated into them. The diagnostic focused on six sectors: agriculture and natural resources management, energy, skills development, urban development, transport and water, and sanitation and hygiene. It was conducted with the aim of informing the GESI initiatives of the Government of Nepal, the Asian Development Bank, and other development partners of the country.