147
Female representation in national parliaments, 1997 vs. 2025 (proportion of seats held by women, World Bank)
male
male
female
female
1997
2025
grant-funded training programs have equipped more than 440 young women as business mentors and multipliers in rural communities. And in Bangladesh, the OPEC Fund’s 2023 Annual Award for Development — dedicated to the theme of gender equality and climate action — recognized the civil society organization Dhaka Ahsania Mission for empowering more than 115,000 women and smallholder farmers through agricultural expansion and value chain support. These examples reflect a broader approach. OPEC Fund projects consistently pair invest ments in infrastructure, agriculture and social services with specific measures that expand women’s access to skills, markets and decision- making. In agriculture, concessional finance is paired with extension services that reach women farmers; in education, investments are coupled with safe transport and childcare solutions; in financial intermediation, credit lines are designed with products and safeguards that expand women’s access without increasing their risk.
As a financing partner, the OPEC Fund is main streaming gender across sovereign and non- sovereign operations, while tracking results. These cover everything from the number of women gaining access to essential services and decent work to the share of women-owned small enterprises financed through institutional intermediaries. Project preparation now includes gender analyses and consultations to ensure that women’s voices shape both design and implementation. Looking ahead, closing the gender digital divide alone could benefit 343.5 million women and girls, lift 30 million out of poverty by 2030 and add an estimated US$1.5 trillion to global GDP, according to the UN. Without accelerated action, 351 million women and girls could still be in extreme poverty by 2030. The goal is shared prosperity grounded in equal rights. The route is partnership: evidence-based, country-led and locally owned, with women not as beneficiaries at the end of a chain but as co-architects of sustainable development.
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