The World Bank’s Transport Global Practice has developed a comprehensive gender-sensitive mobility indicator intended for universal application. The World Bank commissioned Inés Sánchez de Madariaga to serve as senior international gender advisor on gender and mobility. Her primary responsibility was to advise on the approach and scope of the project when it was still in an exploratory phase.
Some organizations maintain composite indicators that calculate gender gaps in other domains, such as health, education, economics, and civic participation. Examples include the OECD’s Social Indicators and Gender Index, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index, and EIGE’s Gender Equality Index. In the context of mobility and transportation, the absence of disaggregated data by sex is equally pertinent. Additionally, there is a lack of awareness regarding gender disparities and differences in this area. This double bias creates a vicious circle that hinders transport planning and management with a gender perspective: the absence of sex-disaggregated data prevents the development of a mobility indicator, and the lack of awareness hinders the sense of urgency to allocate resources toward data collection.
The objective of the UNESCO Chair’s work was to advise the World Bank on precisely how to fill the gap that hindered the development of a composite indicator that reflects gender gaps in mobility. The initial phase of the project involved conducting an exploratory study to determine the most effective methods of leveraging existing databases for the development of the indicator. The subsequent phase of work consisted of developing a theoretical framework to support the foundations of the composite indicator. Finally, the UNESCO Chair provided guidance in identifying potential partners for this initiative.
While the World Bank had previously acknowledged the advantages of gender mainstreaming in transportation, such as its impact on employment and human capital development, it was not until the creation of this indicator that the issue garnered the attention it deserves. This work highlighted that this was partly due to a lack of a more complete understanding of the crucial role that transportation plays in promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. It was also determined that the absence of sex-disaggregated data hindered the ability to present a compelling argument for the broader benefits of gender-sensitive transport services.
The development of this global indicator on gender and transport is expected to overcome these obstacles and highlight gender gaps and inequalities in transport and mobility. By doing so, it will enable the formulation of public policies and initiatives to counteract them.