Foreword

For all of our age's technological advances, service innovations, and instant connectivity, gender inequality stubbornly remains a defining characteristic of the structure of our economies and the opportunities for our citizens. This is especially true in many corners of the developing world, where women trail men in health and educational outcomes, access to jobs and assets, and their ability to voice their opinions and exercise agency over their lives. The response to these unequal outcomes will require, but cannot be limited to, drafting better labor laws and improving the availability of social services. It must include dedicated attention to the physical backbone of our communities and economies, and the access, quality and prices of the services that run over that infrastructure.

But is it possible for a road or a bus lane to know or care about the travelers upon it? If power lines, water pipes, rail tracks and bus lanes could bend to the needs of consumers according to their gender, would it matter? Would such gender-informed decisions in infrastructure help to address equity and fairness, job opportunity and equality of access?

The short answer to these questions is an emphatic, "Yes!"

That is, infrastructure is not gender neutral, and the examples of how infrastructure impact gender outcomes are powerfully clear, once we stop to consider them. They can be found in the way infrastructure investments are planned, designed, constructed and operated, not to mention infrastructure's reach, and the quality and prices of the services it provides.

On the side of "do no harm," the expansion of network infrastructure-from highways to pipelines to hydro-power projects-may result in disruption to communities. To ensure this disruption does not worsen the existing power imbalances between women and men, and put women at risk for sexual harassment and gender-based violence, proper consultations and contracting mechanisms are essential. This begins with the earliest stages of project design and continues throughout the supervision and oversight of the project's implementation.

Beyond this defensive need to consider infrastructure's gender impacts, infrastructure services can also be a force for good. Urban transit systems that are mapped against job locations for women, designed to provide security, and operated to remove uncertainty of arrival times, are essential to balancing labor opportunities for female workers. The design and pricing of water and power systems that recognize and value the disproportionate productivity losses of women and children having to collect water, firewood or other alternative sources of basic services to their families will look different than those that do not weigh those costs.

In the various infrastructure sectors, we're pleased to report that best-practice examples have been mounting. Yet, for infrastructure-development professionals-particularly those focused on crowding in private financing and operations and preparing public-private partnerships (PPPs)-knowing where to start integrating gender equality concerns into our work can be daunting.

However daunting, the incorporation of gender considerations is uniquely important for PPPs, where private-service providers become the main interface with consumers. Moreover, public-private partnerships offer a singular opportunity to get these plans, structures and operations right from the outset, because the construction, expansion and rehabilitation of assets, and the obligations for operations and maintenance of those assets over the long term, are joined together in PPPs. All of this is folded into the initial contracts, and regulated according to those agreed-upon standards, often for 30 years or more.

From both the public and private sides of the World Bank Group, we are pleased to offer this primer as an important first step. It consolidates and draws from a wide spectrum of examples that cut across sectors to demonstrate how infrastructure, its development, and the policies and regulations governing its construction and operation, can play a role in closing gaps between women and men. It pinpoints approaches for ensuring that projects not only do no harm, but also serve as vehicles for empowerment, providing practical guidance that can be systematically integrated into PPP projects and frameworks.

The primer points out that best practices at the intersection of gender equality and infrastructure PPPs are still evolving. We hope that readers will take ideas from these pages as inspiration for their own projects and, in doing so, advance our knowledge of the topic to the benefit of women-of all consumers, in fact-across the developing world.