The UK's Development Minister will arrive at the World
Bank Group and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington D.C. today [23
October] for a series of engagements focused on advancing gender
equality.
It will mark the Minister's first time attending in her capacity
as the UK's Governor to the World Bank Group. Her visit coincides
with Chancellor Reeves attending the IMF Annual Meetings, marking
the first time for the UK to send two female governors to the
Meetings.
In a speech at the conference tomorrow [24 October], the Minister
will outline her priorities for gender equality and announce a
£7.5 million investment over the next two years, and continued
support beyond that, in the World Bank's Umbrella Facility for
Gender Equality (UFGE). The facility supports the generation of
high-quality data and evidence to address gender inequality and
boost women's economic and social empowerment.
The UFGE, which has received funding from the UK since 2012, has,
for example, benefitted half a million women in Rwanda who
were found to be losing rights over land due to not having
marriage certificates. In Nigeria, the programme funded
research on the benefits of cash transfers, which the government
used to inform the expansion of its national livelihoods
programme, covering more than 4 million vulnerable households.
The new funding will enable the UK's support to the UFGE to
expand beyond Africa into Asia and the Pacific and support the
development of new methods to collect and use gender data,
including through the adoption of AI technology.
The UK's Development Minister said:
“My mission is to help create a world free from poverty, on a
livable planet, for all. Women and girls are at the heart of
this.
“Britain is back with a voice on the world stage. We are
playing a leading role with the World Bank to improve the lives
of women and girls around the world.
“The funding announced today will deliver projects that will
have an enormous impact on the lives and economic situations of
women and girls across the globe and drive economic
growth.”
This year's Meetings come as the World Bank Group and IMF
celebrate their 80th founding anniversary and
will bring together finance and development ministers from all
over the world to agree joint approaches to addressing pressing
international development issues.
Minister Dodds' attendance follows a keynote speech at Chatham
House, in which she outlined her vision for a modern approach to
international development.
Over the course of the Annual Meetings, the Minister will also
host an event on conflict prevention, bringing together ministers
from the Global South, international financial institutions,
humanitarian actors, and academics, to discuss how the World Bank
Group and IMF can work better in an increasingly fragile world.
