The World Bank Group, Population Reference Bureau, and the Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov) hosted a panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment and Sustainable Development. The panel was held in conjunction with the 60th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW60) in New York from March 14-24, 2016. Panelists shared evidence on CSW60’s primary theme of women’s empowerment and sustainable development. Sameera Al Tuwaijri of the World Bank’s Health, Nutrition, and Population Global Practice discussed efforts by the World Bank’s Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) project to increase women’s and adolescent girls’ empowerment and their access to quality reproductive child and maternal health services. SWEDD also seeks to improve regional knowledge generation and sharing, and regional capacity and coordination. Tanya Byker of Middlebury College shared findings on the fertility and economic impacts of a reproductive health care initiative to reach adolescents in South Africa. Gretchen Donehower of the University of California, Berkeley, and project director of Counting Women’s Work, shared her work on the gender dividend.
Learn more on Investing in Women and Girls for a Gender Dividend.
