The World Bank

Gender-disaggregated data can support the planning, implementation, and evaluation of gender-informed development projects. The sources below provide up-to-date gender-relevant data collected by the World Bank. The Bank also maintains a repository of micro datasets such as the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS).

Data from the World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development

WDR 2012 Global Qualitative Assessment

Between June 2010 and February 2011, the World Bank sent local research teams into the field to hear first-hand about how men and women "do gender" in their everyday lives. To inform the WDR 2012, these rapid qualitative assessments were undertaken in 19 countries from 6 developing regions to explore trends in gender roles and norms, and to find out what drives major economic decisions according to those women and men interviewed. The researchers met separately with small groups of males and females from three generations, convening a total of 500 groups with 4000 individuals.

Key Gender-Relevant Employment Indicators from High and Middle Income Countries

The Key Gender-Relevant Employment Indicators (KGEI) offer cross-country comparable and harmonized data from 26 OECD and middle income countries on sex-disaggregated indicators of employment, income and related outcomes. Data are available on indicators such as gender earnings ratios, employment status by sex, percentage of male and female workers employed in specific industries, effects of having children on male and female employment, and much more.

The indicators have been developed by the World Bank’s Gender and Development Group in partnership with the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS).

Enterprise Surveys

The Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of the private sector in a country that collects data on female participation in firm ownership, management, and the workforce. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures. The World Bank has collected this data from face-to-face interviews with top managers and business owners in over 130,000 companies in 125 economies.

Women, Business and the Law

The World Bank’st, Women, Business and the Law database presents indicators based on laws and regulations affecting women's prospects as entrepreneurs and employees, in part drawing on laws contained in the Gender Law Library. Both resources can inform research and policy discussions on how to improve women's economic opportunities and outcomes. The WBL database objectively highlights differentiations on the basis of gender in 142 economies around the world, covering six areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, building credit and going to court. The data was collected over a two year period, ending in March 2011, and will be updated every two years going forward.

Global Findex data on Financial Inclusion

The Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) Database is a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to measure how people in 148 countries - including the poor, women, and rural residents - save, borrow, make payments and manage risk.The Global Findex obtains data on use of these formal financial services from nearly 145,000 adults through household interviews designed to produce cross-country comparable and sex-disaggregated data on use of financial services. Surveys are carried out by Gallup, Inc. as part of the annual Gallup World Poll.

Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture

Offering the opportunity to analyze data on topics where gender-disaggregated data remain scare, the Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) project collects individually-disaggregated data on asset ownership, control of household resources, and participation in activities and programs to allow for gender analysis in agriculture.

The LSMS-ISA is a $19 million household survey project established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) within the Development Research Group at the World Bank. The LSMS-ISA project collaborates with the national statistics offices of its seven partner countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to design and implement systems of multi-topic, nationally representative panel household surveys with a strong focus on agriculture. The primary objective of the project is to foster innovation and efficiency in statistical research on the links between agriculture and poverty reduction in the region.