Evaluating Decade of World Bank Gender Policy 1990-99

Gender issues are clearly an important dimension of the fight against poverty. It is increasingly recognized that gender must become an explicit part of the design and implementation of development interventions and that if development policies and interventions do not address gender issues, the outcomes will be inefficient and unsustainable. If gender-blind, even the most meticulously planned policies and interventions can affect gender-based social and economic factors in unanticipated ways. Such ignorance of gender will distort the distribution of benefits and opportunities between men and women.