WASHINGTON, August 26, 2009: Just 8 per cent of households in Lao PDR are headed by women, but these families account for 43 per cent of the country’s poor.
So a pilot initiative last year to bring electric power to Lao’s poor by subsidizing household connections to the electrical grid provided a welcome boost for women in 20 rural villages. While overall connection rates in the pilot rose from 78 to 95 per cent, rates for female-headed households increased from 63 to 90 percent.
This innovative pilot, implemented by Electricité du Laos and funded by the World Bank Group’s Gender Action Plan and Australia’s overseas aid program, is an example of the overall increase in World Bank support and lending in fiscal 2008 for gender-related issues in developing countries to improve women’s social and economic conditions.
A new World Bank report, Implementing the Bank’s Gender Mainstreaming Strategy: FY08 Annual Monitoring Report (PDF), reveals gender issues informed the design of 45 per cent of all lending operations in fiscal year 2008 –from July 2007 to June 2008- compared to 35 per cent in fiscal 2006.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
