Indicators

This section presents a menu of gender-related output, outcome, and impact indicators to measure project results by choosing gender indicator/s that align(s) with the gaps that the project is trying to address; track(s) expected results; and is/are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). When selecting indicators, work with your M&E team, as well as with a gender specialist, to confirm and validate indicator choice; also consider sex-disaggregating indicators across the project, i.e., for those activities that may not specifically address gender gaps but that are amenable to sex-disaggregated data collection.

Focus on indicators that make sense for your project and for which you will be able to collect data. The indicators can be applied to both lending and advisory World Bank projects. They are organized, in theory-of-change models, by the toolkit’s four key constraint areas: legal and regulatory frameworks; access to finance; training, skills, and information; and access to markets.

As discussed previously, an M&E framework is best applied ex ante during the project and results-tracking design phase, so that data collection can support implementation progress and reporting from the outset. Regular monitoring and data availability will be essential at project completion to assess achievements toward lessening gender disparities.

Not all indicators will be relevant to every program or project. Rather, the selection of indicators will be determined by the intervention, its scale, and the project’s development objective. Teams are encouraged to use the guidelines and indicators during project planning and design, in collaboration with their M&E and gender team members.

A full list of the indicators illustrated below can be found in Appendix 3. Please also note that Appendix 3 lists four overarching impact indicators that are applicable to all four main constraints: # of new direct jobs created or obtained by women; # of women-owned or -led firms with increased revenue; # of women-owned or -led firms with increased aggregate productivity; and # of women reporting increased levels of self-confidence, willingness to assert themselves, willingness to take risks, or self-esteem.

Definitions of M&E Indicator TypesDefinitions of M&E Indicator Types

Indicator types
1. OUTPUTS:
  • Immediate deliverables for component(s) and/or task(s) under a given project or program. All projects and programs must demonstrate outputs for a given activity/component.
m&e indicators -2
2. OUTCOMES:
  • Medium-term results or actions implemented that followed from the immediate outputs. Outcomes are changes in knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes as a result of an intervention, usually short-term or medium-term effects of client/stakeholder actions taken that can be attributed, at least in part, to the project.
m&e outcomes
3. IMPACT:
  • The consequences, often (but not always) long-term effects, resulting from an intervention. Impact indicators for projects targeting gender disparities are intended to capture broader demonstration results, reflecting where outreach results of the project have led to further scaling up (that is, market growth, demonstration effects) as a result of a project or program.
Legal & Regulatory

Legal & Regulatory

Barriers, Interventions, and Indicators

Barriers
  • Discriminatory laws and practices
  • Lack of gender-sensitive legal frameworks/labor regulations
  • Barriers to obtaining official, state-issued documentation
  • Uneven implementation of laws and practices
  • Burdensome and costly regulations, policies, and procedures to start and operate businesses
  • Poor government outreach and information dissemination
  • Lack of information about legal and regulatory provisions
  • Inadequate/biased workplace policies, conditions, and practices
  • Biased stereotypes of authority favoring men
  • Low level of trust in public-facing bureaucrats
  • Lack of inclusion, predictability, transparency, trust, and dialogue among stakeholders
  • Low representation of women in formal institutions
  • Low capacity of women ́s representative entities, resulting in lack of participation and input into legal and regulatory decision- making
Potential Interventions
  • Reform explicitly discriminatory laws and regulations
  • Simplify business registration processes
  • Facilitate de facto gender-neutral implementation
  • Establish gender-sensitive feedback loops and/or other mechanisms that channel data on women’s priorities and constraints into reform processes
  • Focus government services on sectors with high female participation (e.g., childcare subsidies, labor reform, investment services)
  • For new legislation, implement gender-sensitive awareness-raising campaigns
  • Include women and women’s support organizations in decision-making processes (e.g., PPD, B2G feedback loops, consultations, and working groups)
  • Include women-owned/-led firms in government and industry-specific supplier databases
  • Target women-owned/-led firms via strategic communications, awareness-raising, and information sharing
  • Train public officials to understand gender-related constraints and challenges to promote greater equality in public services
  • Improve firm policies and practices to attract and retain more female workers
  • Encourage public care provisions (such as new laws, subsidies, or firm-level incentives, etc.)to increase women’s access to care services

Suggested Indicators

Outputs
  • % of public sector staff who receive gender-sensitivity training
  • # of awareness-raising campaigns conducted
  • # of sex-disaggregated supplier databases established
  • % of female feedback providers on implementation effectiveness of new laws and regulations
  • Presence of explicit organizational policy statements prohibiting gender discrimination in hiring, promotion and retention policies, salaries, and benefits (Y/N)
Outcomes
  • # of recommended laws/regulations/amendments/codes enacted or government policies adopted to address gender constraints
  • # of recommended procedures/firm-level policies/practices/standards that were improved or eliminated to address gender constraints
  • # of stakeholders who acquired new knowledge of gender-based issues
  • # of women contributing to institutional decision-making
  • # of women contributing to institutional decision-making
  • # of organizations representing women that contribute to institutional decision- making
  • % of women who reported they are satisfied or very satisfied with public service provision and/or quality
  • # of improvements measured by Women, Business, and the Law and similar indices (e.g., WEF Global Gender Gap Report)
Access to Finance

Access to Finance

Barriers, Interventions, and Indicators

Barriers
  • Weak legal/regulatory protections for financial consumers
  • Women ́s unequal ownership, access, and administrative authority (e.g., property, inheritance, collateral)
  • Gaps in the digital financial ecosystem, including digital ID, digital signature, e-KYC, agent banking networks, etc.
  • High-risk perception of women borrowers (resulting in, e.g., higher interest rates, shorter repayment periods for women)
  • Persistent focus on traditional collateral requirements (e.g., immovable property, credit history)
  • Financial provider practices and products that do not meet women’s needs
  • Permission of male family member required to conduct financial transactions
  • Limited access to technology and related digital financial services
  • Lack of technology literacy
  • Limited financial capability
  • Limited information and data on gender gaps in finance
  • Lack of women in decision-making roles in the financial sector (public and private)
Potential Interventions
  • Strengthen legal and regulatory frameworks to eliminate gender bias related to financial services
  • Increase availability of and access to financial products/ services, including digitally enabled, digitally delivered solutions for women owned/-led MSMEs
  • Strengthen credit reporting systems and other sources of data useful for financial decisions
  • Improve other financial infrastructure, such as collateral registries and factoring platforms
  • Seek gender diversity among bank agents and provide them with incentives to register women for digital accounts, including providing technology support for women users
  • Incentivize financial institutions to develop products and services that meet women’s needs (e.g., alternative-data-based lending, psychometric testing, payments, savings, credit, and insurance)
  • Improve quality and availability of sex-disaggregated data across the range of financial products and services, including new digital financial products and fintech offerings
  • Provide training on digital skills
  • Support the development of digital incubators, accelerators, and early-stage funding programs for WSMEs
  • Strengthen political awareness of and commitment to increase financial access for women

Suggested Indicators

Outputs
  • Increased availability of sex-disaggregated data
  • # of women participants in workshops, training events, seminars, conferences, networking events
  • # of women participants who benefited from digital skills programs/trainings
  • # and/or % of women and women-owned firms listed in a public credit registry and/or private credit bureau
Outcomes
  • # of improvements measured by governments through monitoring financial system data
  • # of improvements in access to finance measured through global data sources such as Findex, Finscope
  • # of improvements in the ecosystem for women’s financial access measured through global sources such as Women, Business, and the Law, Doing Business, and similar indices (e.g., WEF Global Gender Gap Report)
  • % of women trained who acquired new knowledge or skills, including in relevant technology use
  • # of recommended laws/regulations/amendments/codes enacted or government policies adopted to address gender constraints
  • # of recommended procedures/firm-level policies/practices/standards that were improved or eliminated
  • to address gender constraints
  • # of women-owned/-led firms with access to finance
  • # and/or % of women reached with financial services
  • # and/or % of unserved and underserved women provided with access to financial services, including through technology-driven delivery channels
  • # and/or % of women with mobile money accounts
  • # of outstanding loans made to women-owned or -led firms
  • Volume of outstanding loans made to women-owned or -led firms by institutional type and channel
  • % of outstanding loans made to women-owned or -led firms
  • # of women-owned or -led firms that have received loans secured with movable property
  • Value of outstanding loans made to women-owned or -led firms
  • % of women who have control over their savings
  • # and/or % of women who made or received digital payments
  • # and/or % of women depositors
  • # and/or % of women borrowers
  • # and/or % of loan accounts owned by women
  • # and/or % of deposit accounts owned by women
training

Training, Skills & Information

Barriers, Interventions, and Indicators

Barriers
  • Lack of gender-sensitive business-service ecosystem (e.g., biased trainers, mismatch between services offered and needs)
  • Lack of incentives to acquire skills due to social norms and other restrictions
  • Cost barriers to accessing training and technical assistance
  • Inadequate skills and knowledge (e.g., financial literacy, business and soft skills, and sector information)
  • Lack of access to relevant business information due to restricted ability to participate in mentoring programs/networks
  • Limited relevant education
  • Limited technology access and literacy
  • Restricted mobility
  • Business decisions constrained by male relatives
  • Asymmetric information
Potential Interventions
  • Build capacity of institutions serving women-owned businesses, including business associations and networks
  • Support the development of digital incubators, accelerators, and early-stage funding programs
  • Deliver training and facilitate networking aimed at increasing financial literacy, peer-to-peer learning, sector-specific technical skills, business and soft skills
  • Help women cross over into male-dominated, profitable sectors (through mentoring programs, role models, and information-sharing)
  • Enable women to benefit from existing mixed-sex networking and mentoring opportunities
  • Leverage apprenticeships and on-the-job learning opportunities
  • Provide WSMEs firm-level wraparound services, such as targeted technical assistance, business advice, and coaching, along with cash grants or small loans (including for technology use and implementation)
  • Identify and integrate women entrepreneurs, business professors, and advisors to join trainer cadre
  • Provide capital and business development skills through matching grants to WSMEs
  • Organize business plan competitions and entrepreneurship programs for WSMEs
  • Provide gender sensitization training for men and couples that includes instruction on the benefits of women’s economic participation
  • Strengthen women’s resilience and coping mechanisms to deal with social backlash through soft skills training

Suggested Indicators

Outputs
  • # of women participants in workshops, training events, seminars, conferences, networking events
  • # of women participants who benefited from digital skills programs/trainings
Outcomes
  • # and/or % of women trained who acquired new knowledge or skills, including in relevant technology use
  • # and/or % of staff in women’s support organizations who acquired improved knowledge or skills
  • # and/or % of women-owned or -led firms with access to finance
  • # of women who established new firms in underrepresented sectors/industries
  • # and/or % of women participating in the conceptualization and design of projects/activities
  • # of stakeholders who acquired new knowledge of gender-based issues
  • # of women contributing to institutional decision-making
  • # of new markets accessed by women-owned or -led firms
  • # and/or % of women-owned or -led firms adopting innovative/upgraded products and technology driven-processes
  • # and/or % of women-owned/-led firms that benefit from new linkages with large firms
  • # and/or % of women-owned or -led firms with increased investments
  • # and/or % of female trainers in supporting programs
markets

Access to Markets

Barriers, Interventions, and Indicators

Barriers
  • Lagging legal and regulatory provisions (e.g., digital payments, cross-border commerce, etc.)
  • Inadequate input markets (land, labor, capital)
  • Cost barriers (compliance, formalization, informal payments)
  • Limited access to finance, inputs, tools, assets, and collateral
  • Inadequate access to and limited use of technology enablers
  • Market-related information constraints (e.g., input costs, prices, demand, etc.)
  • Limited access to new customers
  • Limited access to networks, (in-)formal information sharing, and role models
  • Concentration in less profitable, lower parts of the value chain
  • Gender-based harassment in business transactions (e.g., buyers, sellers, suppliers, customs officials, etc.)
Potential Interventions
  • Design gender-sensitive trade/customs logistics, include digital-based services
  • Increase women’s access to government procurement programs
  • Build capacity of institutions serving women-owned businesses
  • Develop training programs for women (e.g., use of technology tools to access markets, trade logistics, supplier standards, etc.)
  • Enhance technology, skills, and production processes to integrate women-owned/-led firms into value chains
  • Link women to local, regional, and international markets through supplier databases, meet-the-buyer events, training, export promotion events, and study tours
  • Support technology extension services
  • Address de facto occupational sex segregation through mentoring, information provision, and skills development
  • Establish awareness-raising efforts for supply-chain professionals (procurement managers, etc.) to increase understanding of challenges faced by women business owners

Suggested Indicators

Outputs
  • # of women participants in workshops, training events, seminars, conferences, and networking events
  • # of women participants who benefited from digital skills programs/trainings
Outcomes
  • # of recommended laws/regulations/amendments/codes enacted or government policies adopted to address gender constraints
  • # and/or % of women trained who acquired new knowledge or skills, including in relevant technology use
  • # and/or % of staff in women-supporting organizations who acquired new/improved knowledge or skills
  • # of women-owned or -led firms that generated leads in business promotion events
  • # and/or % of women-owned or -led firms adopting innovative/upgraded products and technology-driven processes
  • # and/or % of women-owned or -led firms that benefit from new linkages with large firms
  • # and/or % of women-owned or -led firms that benefit from reformed customs/border services
  • # of new markets accessed by women-owned or -led firms
  • # and/or % of women who established new firms in underrepresented sectors
  • # of stakeholders who acquired new knowledge of gender-based issues
  • % of leadership positions held by women in trade and industry organizations
  • # and/or % of buyers formally committed to Women’s Empowerment Principles of gender-responsive procurement
  • % of ministry/agency procurement contracts going to women-owned or -led firms
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