The process of developing and providing infrastructure assets and services provides ample opportunities to enhance women's voice and agency:
• Including women's voice in the planning, design, implementation and monitoring of projects can enhance agency and voice and lead to better-designed infrastructure.
• Providing opportunities for skills development, leadership and mentorship through jobs associated with infrastructure projects can lead to increased agency for women (see Box 8).
• Requiring female participation in local decision-making bodies such as water boards can improve service quality and trigger factors that increase women's agency.
• Deploying mechanisms to prevent GBV: New processes, such as the "code of conduct" (see Box 11 and Annex 6) promoted by the World Bank can make private firms involved in the construction of infrastructure processes part of the equation to promote gender equality.
It must be underscored that agency is complex and very dependent on local context and social norms. Often social norms prevent the effectiveness of policies and services. For example, social norms are the most frequently reported constraint on physical mobility, followed by public safety (infrastructure is rarely mentioned).99 As agency is intrinsically linked with human endowments and economic empowerment, where infrastructure fills gaps in those arenas, it also helps improve agency outcomes. Experience suggests that economic growth can expand infrastructure services (for example, rural electrification) which can then reduce constraints on women's time, giving women more opportunity to earn money, which can increase their bargaining power in households.
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99 Defining Gender in the 21st Century: A Multi-Country Qualitative Study of Gender and Economic Choice, World Bank, 2011.