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World Bank’s health work challenged on gender

6 December 2012

US NGO Gender Action’s October report Banking on health, examines IFIs’ commitment to addressing gender issues in health-related projects. The study, assessing evidence from 2006 to 2012 in Sub-Saharan Africa, found that many World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) funded projects paid little attention to gender roles and failed to track the impacts of specific investment for women, whilst promoting user fees. The report argues that the “World Bank and AfDB risk undermining their own health-related goals by overlooking women’s rights and needs.” The study highlights the absence of gender from project evaluation frameworks.