For the 11th consecutive year, the World Bank Group celebrated International

Women’s Day, reaffirming the institution’s commitment to gender equality in both its development work and the organization itself.

Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the 100-year anniver-sary of International Women’s Day is a suitable milestone to engage in some serious debate: “Today is a perfect day to look at women’s role in the workplace, “ said Okonjo-Iweala. “I’m proud of what we do here in the World Bank with our clients. I’m proud of what we are beginning to do internally.”

The event corresponded with the United Nations celebration, and shared the tagline “Equal Access to Education, Training, and Career Management for Women.” It served as the unofficial kick-off to the Bank Group’s Celebration of Diversity Month.

Otaviano Canuto, VP and Head of the PREM Network, said that the global movement to achieve gender equality has progressed, but not fast enough. “The good news is that many low- and middle-income countries are now moving much faster along the path to gender equality.”

Okonjo-Iweala referred to the movements for more open and participatory government in the Middle East. “I hope you have no-ticed the prominent face of women in the gatherings in the Middle East. Whatever changes that are happen-ing in these countries, women are fully part of it and their voice must be heard.”

Investing in economic opportu-nity for adolescent girls empowers both them and society in many ways. The forthcoming Gender WDR, she emphasized, will be “one of the most exciting Bank products ever.”

“Should we be satisfied or compla-cent? The answer is no. We have a long way to go,” Okonjo-Iweala concluded. “But I’m very optimistic about this jour-ney we’ve embarked on. We will arrive. And it will not be 100 years from now.”

A panel discussion followed. Moderator Aruna Rao segued from one contributor to the next as the group considered successful initiatives that empower girls, enable girls’ education, and support the transition to the workplace.

Robert Prouty, Head of Education for All, Fast Track Initiative, said his line of work is a “very humbling experience.” He recalled recent experiences in rural Africa—where principals were not hiring female teachers because there were no guidelines for replacing pregnant teachers; and where some parents

keeping girls out of school because of dire security situations.

“We have to have a willingness to challenge our own assumptions and see the conditions under which people are really living,” said Prouty. Only then will the Bank and its part-ners truly begin to make the kind of progress it would like, he said.

Pierella Paci, Sector manager for PREM, reported that in 2010 for the first time, a majority (54 percent) of Bank projects included a gender component. “This increased by 14 percent in the four years of the Gender Action Plan.”

Elizabeth King, the Bank’s Education Sector Director, spoke about the institution’s new Education Strategy as well as her past experience in the DEC VPU conducting two pay and grade studies for Bank staff. In her opinion, ACS staff are “overqualified and under-appreciated.”

Rachel Kyte, VP of IFC’s Business Advisory Services, reported on the Global Banking Alliance of Women,

30th Edition - March 14, 2011

Celebrating the Centennial of International Women’s Day

continued on pg 4

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

thE-Junction March 14, 2011 | page 2

This year’s IFC CEO Gender Award was presented to the Africa Village Phone project

team in recognition of its work sup-porting women’s entrepreneurship.

The MNA Corporate Governance Advisory Services Program and the Africa MSME team earned second and third place. The awards were selected from 22 nominations re-ceived worldwide.

Executive Vice President and CEO Lars Thunell presented the award to Johannesburg-based Sr. Opera-tions Officer, Colin Shepherd. “IFC is in the business of fixing market failures,” Thunell said, presenting the award. “Exclusion of women from business opportunities is one of the greatest market failures of all, because it cuts across every sector of the economy in developed and developing countries.”

Special guest speaker Cherie Blair said that society was paying a heavy price in ignoring women entrepreneurs: “It’s shocking and short-sighted that women entrepre-neurs have found it harder to ac-cess capital from traditional sourc-es, when in fact they have a better record of paying it back,” said Blair, who is founder and patron of a British charity that supports women-owned businesses in de-veloping and transitional countries (her husband is former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair).

Blair recounted her experiences facing discrimination as a young lawyer looking for a job in the UK. “In the past 30 years that I’ve been a lawyer, that situation has been trans-formed. We have come a long way.”

But there is still much to be done. “Across the world, women still haven’t achieved equal pay. Too

many countries still deny even the most basic rights to women, and women face informal barriers based on tradition and culture.”

The IFC, Blair said, has played an important role in unlocking the busi-ness potential of women in the de-veloping world: “In the 21st century, our most vital raw material is human talent. And frankly if we ignore the potential of half of the population, we are never going to achieve what we should.”

The IFC CEO Gender award is organized by the Women in Busi-ness program. “The award is a way to shine a light on people and projects that are doing the right thing when it comes to creating opportunities for women,” said Zouera Youssoufou, who heads Women in Business.

The Role of Women Entrepreneurs

IFC’s Africa Village Phone Pro-gram was launched in Nigeria in 2007, and expanded to Madagascar and Malawi the following year. The program links large telecom opera-

tors with African entrepreneurs who sell airtime on the companies’ net-works to people in their local com-munities. The new business model extends service to previously under-served rural communities, satisfying pent-up demand.

“This program was not designed for women, but it just so happened that in these villages, women are the best entrepreneurs,” said Shepherd, who recognized his team by name while accepting the award. “They are the entrepreneurs that go out and make this business happen.”

As a result, the program has helped provide credit to nearly 6,000 women and trained close to 10,000 to set up phone-service businesses: “This is just the beginning of what this program can do for entrepre-neurs,” said Shepherd, who foresees expansion next year in Chad and Burkina Faso.

The IFC CEO Gender Award was created four years ago to underscore the priority IFC places on creating opportunities for women in its pur-suit of sustainable development.

And the 2011 IFC CEO Gender Award Goes To…

March 14, 2011 | page 3thE-Junction

Project: AmbassadorFormer U.S. Ambassador to Benin

Q&A with Ruth Davis

Q: Describe your first and your last Foreign Service field posting.

A: My first post was as a junior officer in Zaire in the late 1960s. What’s interesting is that I started my career during this process of African nation building and then ended my career during African democratization. As Ambassador in Benin (from 1992-1995), I feel I had a hand in helping construct the institutions that are needed to fortify and sustain a democracy. Also, I insisted they put emphasis on education for young girls.

Q: What kind of resistance did you encounter and how did you deal with it?

A: For me, the major problems were not so much overt resistance, but more benign neglect. I believe that people tend to be more comfortable with people who are more like them. As a result, they tend to promote these people. So I think that for women as well as minorities, the struggle is to make it very clear that not only are you capable, but you also have a lot to give to the institution. If I felt discrimi-nated against, I tried not to let that get me down. I stayed focused on institu-tional goals. It worked for me.

Q: What motivated you to be such a pioneer?

A: I only thought about being a pioneer at the end of my career. What I knew all along was that I was not pleased with the number of minorities. It was very important to me to repre-sent the U.S. as an African-American overseas, because there were so few of us in the Foreign Service. I also worked very hard to try and recruit and retain minorities in the Foreign Service.

Q: What is your professional legacy?A: I’d say my legacy is increasing

diversity in the Foreign Service. When I was the Director General of the Foreign Service (2001-2003), I was able to work with Secretary Colin Powell to increase minorities. I doubled the Pickering Program and helped create the Rangel Program. I focused on that. I believe that the Foreign Service should be reflective of the population, and it still is not.

Q: How else have you left your mark?A: When I was the Director of the

Foreign Service Institute (1997-2001), I created the School of Leadership and Management. That helped to change the whole culture of the State Department. Knowing political issues is not sufficient—you have to know how to lead and manage people.

Q: How are you keeping busy these days?

A: I’m a member of the selection committee for the Rangel

Fellowships, which seeks to bring minorities to the Foreign Service. We need more appointments of women and minorities at higher levels particularly. There are only about 34 percent women in the Foreign Service. There are 7 percent African American, about 6 percent Hispanic. We have about 179 Ambassadorial posts at Embassies and Consulates, of which only 44 are filled by women, 19 by African Americans, and 11 by Hispanics. So, the first challenge is getting the numbers.

Q: Any final reflections?A: Just how much this country

means to me, and how much I believe in American values. This is a country of opportunities. It’s so important that we share our values with the world. The Foreign Service gives you an opportunity to do that, which is one of the reasons that this career has been more than a career. It’s been a life that I’ve loved.

thE-Junction March 14, 2011 | page 4

Aperture: Good Practice in D&IOne in a series profiling the leaders of diversity programs around the world.

Q&A with Susan Kerr, Asian Development Bank

Susan Kerr is Principal Hu-man Resource Specialist at the Asian Development Bank,

whose mission is to reduce poverty in the Asia Pacific. Created in 1966, the ADB has 67 member countries and 26 country offices. It has about 1,000 internationally recruited staff and 1,750 nationally recruited staff.

Q: What is your current role?A: My goal is to create an orga-

nizational culture that’s inclusive so that we attract and retain diverse staff and deliver on our mission. I have a background in labor and employee relations, and have been working specifically on diversity issues for about six years. I spend about half my time on this, with the other half looking after local staffing in resident missions. I have one staff member, who dedicates 80 percent of her time to diversity issues.

Q: What is your organization’s chief rationale for diversity and inclusion?

A: It’s the business case. We want to get the best talent we can to do our work. We can make a difference through having a great staff, and the best way to recruit that kind of staff is to select from across the board. At one level, this is purely a talent-manage-ment objective with a specific business

result. The ADB is confronting complex problems, and different people bring different perspectives. If they work together effectively, they can come up with better solutions. It’s the right thing to do as well, but this is not sufficient for an organization to embrace it.

Q: Describe the trajectory of these issues in your organization.

A: We’ve had gender action plans since the mid-1990s, but we’re start-ing to use the word diversity more—including nationality, age, and life-style. Recently, we have integrated principles of diversity and cohesion into a people strategy. While we’ve had policies in place before, this is a major step forward for us.

Q: Does your organization have targets?

A: We have targets for women’s representation. We are aiming for 33–37 percent of internationally recruited staff and 23–27 percent for senior-level by 2012. Currently, we are at 28.5 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Q: What is your top priority?A: Accountability at managerial

and senior staff level. We’ve got some plans, but it’s implementation that is key. It’s increasing the understanding and the commitment at that level.

Q: What is your biggest challenge?

A: Promotion of women through the Bank. We’ve slowed down our rate. And we need to further raise our recruitment rate. The key is keeping up the momen-tum, and the commitment to progress. It’s important to “walk the talk.” I’d rather have small steps that really hap-pen, rather than big plans that don’t.

Q: What approaches have worked for you?

A: In any culture, being too con-frontational is not going to get you very far. Getting too outspoken won’t work. It’s important to identify what will work best in your organizational culture. I’ve had to decide what I can do to push the envelope most ef-fectively. And then, when there are opportunities, to leap at them.

Q: What does success look like?A: Inclusion. Targets are not

the intended result. It’s the culture. Changing the conversation. It’s about getting a culture that’s inclusive, and other things flow from that. Diversity becomes a natural instinct, when the normal business process is inclusive.

Editor’s Note: The Asian Development Bank will be hosting the 16th Anniver-sary of ORIGIN (Organizational and In-stitutional Gender Information Network) in June 2011.

For more information, contact Pauline Ramprasad, 202-473-0821, pramprasad@worldbank.org.

which has grown to become a vibrant network of 27 financial institutions, most from the developing world: “The next chapter is to set up our

efforts around gender diversity on Boards,” stressed Kyte. “The evidence is absolutely irrefutable in developed countries. The financial returns to diverse boards are better. We should be setting that as a standard to every

single one of our clients. It is prudent risk management.”

continued from pg 1

…Celebrating the Centennial of International Women’s Day