Market Development Facility, 2015 – 62 pages
This Strategic Guidance Note explains the background to and international thinking on WEE and describes how the MDF programme addresses WEE. Most notably, it provides an interesting example of how to structurally integrate a diagnostic WEE framework in a wider market development approach.
BEAM Exchange, 2016 – 51 pages
This document is intended to support market systems programmes to understand and address unpaid care work by:
For programmes that target women’s empowerment, heavy and unequal unpaid care will likely be a system-level constraint. By understanding how programmes’ interventions interact with existing care work and responsibilities, they can use the potential of systemic responses to improve both market operations and livelihood outcomes.
BEAM Exchange, 2016 – 49 pages
This report details the challenges for donor agencies to design and implement gender-transformative programmes. It is both an update of the Making Markets Work for the Poor WEE Framework (the M4P WEE Framework) for those who utilised the earlier resource, and a standalone paper for others who have more recently ventured into the space. However, this paper goes further than the important work of refining concepts, sharing experiences, and offering practical advice per process step; it highlights the paradigm shift that must take place for market systems initiatives to fully embed WEE and to create sustainable and equitable systems change.
FAO, 2018 – 116 pages
These guidelines aim to support practitioners in translating FAO’s Gender-Sensitive Value Chain Framework into action. They are primarily intended to assist practitioners in designing and implementing interventions that provide women and men with equal opportunities to benefit from agri-food value chain development. They offer practical tools and examples of successful approaches to foster a more systematic integration of gender equality dimensions in value chain interventions in the agricultural sector and enhance the social impact of these interventions. The publication consists of two main sections:
FAO, 2016 – 52 pages
The purpose of this publication is to introduce the Gender-Sensitive Value Chain (GSVC) framework, which facilitates the systematic integration of gender equality dimensions into value chain development programmes and projects. In addition to accounting for the levels of analysis presented in the Sustainable Food Value Chain framework (core and extended VC, national and global enabling environments), the GSVC framework features two additional levels: the household and individual level. Most value chain development approaches stop at the household level. Yet gender inequalities often originate within the household, and individual agency and power might also depend on intrahousehold dynamics. The report raises awareness of gender inequalities and discusses the importance of addressing these dimensions in value chain development, while also building a common approach for work on GSVC development.
This framework is complemented by the Guidelines for practitioners that provide specific tools to support practitioners in designing, implementing, and monitoring GSVC programmes.
BERF, 2016 – 32 pages
This report investigates how to make incremental improvements to existing programmes and learn more about how they can benefit women, whilst continuing to build on what is already working in the field. This report recommends the following:
BERF/DFID, 2017 – 39 pages
This scoping study indicates how customary laws and practices can impact women as owners and managers of enterprises and as employees of these enterprises. Areas within the business environment that are most directly affected by customary laws and practices include:
The study also includes some case studies highlighting promising interventions that directly or indirectly address customary law and practices to create a more gender-equitable business environment.
USAID, 2018 – 88 pages
This report examines how laws and regulations in developing and transitional countries limit or enable women to enter, remain, and advance in the formal sector workforce. Specifically, this study analyses how gender inequalities in civil and administrative laws, regulatory employment restrictions, occupational licenses, employment discrimination, and sexual harassment limit women’s abilities to engage in wage employment. It also analyses how laws and policies can support working women and working parents in not only remaining but also thriving in the workplace.
World Bank 2021 – 134 pages
Women, Business and the Law is a platform and report that analyses laws and regulations affecting women’s economic inclusion in 190 economies. Every year, the project presents progress on eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they move through their careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension.
This year’s study took place amidst a global pandemic that threatens progress toward gender equality. In this context, barriers were identified to women’s economic participation and reform of discriminatory laws encouraged. Important findings on government responses to the COVID-19 crisis and pilot research related to childcare and women’s access to justice are also included.
WEF, 2021 – 405 pages
The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks the evolution of gender-based gaps among four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment) and tracks progress towards closing these gaps over time.
Main takeaways: