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IWD: World Bank restates commitment to closing gender disparities
The World Bank Group has restated its commitment to closing disparities between men and women as the world celebrates International Women’s Day.
President of the World Bank Group, David Malpass, said this in a message titled; “The World Bank Group and International Women’s Day” posted on the World Bank blogs on Wednesday.
Malpass said the bank’s commitment to gender equality had increased in ambition over time.
“Gender and development has been an International Development Association (IDA) Special Theme since IDA16, recognising that reducing gender disparities is essential for reducing poverty.
“In IDA20, the number of gender policy commitments has increased from six to eight, with ambitious targets in areas including economic inclusion, gender-based violence prevention, and childcare.”
He said entrepreneurship offered an important path to empowerment.
Malpass said the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), based at the World Bank, was supporting tens of thousands of women entrepreneurs, with more than 1.2 billion dollars of financing to date.
He said the International Finance Corporation was working with private sector clients to promote women’s entrepreneurship and advance economic inclusion in the workplace.
“Across the World Bank Group and with partners, clients and donors, there is much work underway that aims to address gender disparities including the ID4D initiative that works to close gender gaps in financial inclusion.
“Others are efforts to reduce the prevalence of gender-based violence and the Gender Innovation Labs that undertake impact evaluations to generate more evidence on how to close gender gaps.
Malpass said the labs were in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.
He said most importantly, the bank was integrating gender in its operations worldwide.
“At the World Bank Group, we continue to hold ourselves accountable for progress on achieving more gender-inclusive recruitment, promotion, leadership development, and mentoring programmes.
“We also hold ourselves accounrable in diverse candidate pools and interview panels; enhanced career development and learning opportunities; and greater opportunities for work-life balance.
“Today, women account for 53.5 per cent of our workforce, and 43 per cent of management, a share that has grown significantly.
According to him, there is much work ahead, and International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to galvanise attention and to restate our commitment to closing disparities between men and women which is in the interests of everyone.
Malpass said that addressing critical gender gaps, including female labour force participation, offers an opportunity to boost incomes and stimulate growth.
He said research from the World Bank had repeatedly made clear that accelerating gender equality could generate significant economic gains.
According to him, the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2023 report published recently, shows that 2.4 billion women of working age do not have fully equal economic opportunity.
“In 2022, only 34 gender-related legal reforms were recorded across 18 economies, the lowest number since 2001. It is important that the pace of legal reforms accelerates.”
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Anambra State Sector Command, has confirmed the death of a woman in an accident at Okpoko Market on the Asaba-Onitsha Road.
The Sector Commander, Mr Adeoye Irelewuyi, who confirmed the accident to journalists in Awka on Thursday, said that the woman was hit while she was crossing the road.
He said that the accident, which occurred on Wednesday, involved a commercial tow truck with registration number XA550BMA.
“Eyewitness report reaching us indicates that the truck was towing a vehicle in an uncontrollable speed along the axis.
“The vehicle that was being towed got detached from the tow truck.
“It hit and killed a female adult, who was said to be crossing the road, while the tow truck continued its movement.
“FRSC rescue team came to the scene and took the woman to Toronto Hospital, Onitsha, where she was confirmed dead and her body deposited at the hospital’s mortuary,” he said.
While sympathising with the family of the dead, the sector commander urged motorists, especially tow truck drivers, to exercise a high level of professionalism.
He also urged the drivers to always use standard equipment and avoid speeding.
The Chairman, Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Lagos State Chapter, Mr Mojeed Iyiola, said the state government’s maize palliative to members of the association made a positive impact on the sector.
Iyiola said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
“We received about 150,000 tons of maize in February from the Lagos State government as palliative to cushion the effect of high feed prices.
“The major benefit of the palliative is that it actually cushioned the cost of production for most poultry farmers in the state.
“The palliative was beneficial as it made the cost of some poultry produce, especially eggs to drop,” Iyiola said.
He noted that prior to the palliative, a crate of egg was sold between N3,500 and N3,700 at the farm gate, but after the palliative, it now sells between N3,200 and N3,400.
According to the PAN chair, retailers and middlemen who sell from N3,800 to N4,200 do that for their personal gain.
“We have urged our members to sell their eggs at reasonable prices following the receipt of the palliative from the government.
“We appreciate the Lagos State government for the palliative but we also urge the federal government to do likewise, to further reduce the cost of production in the sector.
“This will consequently lead to drop in the prices of all poultry produce across board,” he said.
He said the palliative was shared among financial members of the association at no extra cost.
“As an association we shared the grains equally across PAN’s eight zones in the state equally. We also mandated each zone not the sell even a grain of the maize.
“We, however, considered new poultry farmers who wanted to the join the association as beneficiaries of the palliative,” said Iyiola.
He noted that through the palliative, more poultry farmers were recruited into the association.
“The maize was shared only to poultry farmers and not feed millers, it is the major component of poultry feed formulation,” he said.
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