Abstract/Description

Since becoming a member in 1950, Pakistan has received around $40 Billion in development assistance from the World Bank (World Bank, 2023). The current portfolio under the ongoing assistance program includes 58 projects, amounting to about $15 Billion across different provinces and districts (World Bank, 2023). A number of these projects, especially pertaining to economic inclusion, are centered around fostering women's empowerment for sustainable and inclusive economic growth and ending extreme poverty in developing countries. According to WB’s “Gender Strategy 2030”, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 5, one key feature of its assistance is to help overcome “resource” and “agency” constraints that impede women’s and girls’ ability to determine and realize their potential in Global South states (World Bank, 2023). Its Operational Approach to Women's and Girls’ Empowerment (WGE) provides a systemic framework through which assistance programs and projects can be designed to feature specific goals of women's empowerment in recipient countries and regions (Wendy et al., 2023). In this context, the WB has also sponsored various such projects in Pakistan. However, the true impact of these projects, especially in regard to gendered human development and labour market access, remain largely elusive. Thus, to fill this evident gap, this study conducts a comprehensive empirical analysis of WB projects that have been established in Pakistan in the past decades (2005 to 2018) at a sub-national (district) level. To the best of my knowledge, this shall be the first empirical study to use quasi-experimental techniques to identify the association and impact of WB aid/assistance on female education and labour market access in Pakistan. We use publicly available georeferenced information on WB projects by the AidData Center at the College of William and Mary to undertake this project (AidData, 2017).

Keywords

World Bank, Women Empowerment, Gender Strategy, Operational Approach to Women's and Girls’ Empowerment (WGE), Empirical Study, Labour Market, Female Education

Location

MAV 2 room, Adamjee building

Session Theme

Human Development and Inclusion II

Session Type

Parallel Technical Session

Session Chair

Abdul Salam Lodhi, Baluchistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences

Session Discussant

Amir Jahan, Institute of Business Administration ; Sadia Mehboob, Institute of Business Administration

Start Date

9-12-2024 2:30 PM

End Date

9-12-2024 4:30 PM

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Dec 9th, 2:30 PM Dec 9th, 4:30 PM

Impact of Multilateral Aid on Female Access to Education and Employment: A Spatiotemporal Analysis of World Bank (WB) Aid Projects in Pakistan

MAV 2 room, Adamjee building

Since becoming a member in 1950, Pakistan has received around $40 Billion in development assistance from the World Bank (World Bank, 2023). The current portfolio under the ongoing assistance program includes 58 projects, amounting to about $15 Billion across different provinces and districts (World Bank, 2023). A number of these projects, especially pertaining to economic inclusion, are centered around fostering women's empowerment for sustainable and inclusive economic growth and ending extreme poverty in developing countries. According to WB’s “Gender Strategy 2030”, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 5, one key feature of its assistance is to help overcome “resource” and “agency” constraints that impede women’s and girls’ ability to determine and realize their potential in Global South states (World Bank, 2023). Its Operational Approach to Women's and Girls’ Empowerment (WGE) provides a systemic framework through which assistance programs and projects can be designed to feature specific goals of women's empowerment in recipient countries and regions (Wendy et al., 2023). In this context, the WB has also sponsored various such projects in Pakistan. However, the true impact of these projects, especially in regard to gendered human development and labour market access, remain largely elusive. Thus, to fill this evident gap, this study conducts a comprehensive empirical analysis of WB projects that have been established in Pakistan in the past decades (2005 to 2018) at a sub-national (district) level. To the best of my knowledge, this shall be the first empirical study to use quasi-experimental techniques to identify the association and impact of WB aid/assistance on female education and labour market access in Pakistan. We use publicly available georeferenced information on WB projects by the AidData Center at the College of William and Mary to undertake this project (AidData, 2017).