Gender & Transport Projects

Integrating Gender Across the PPP Project Cycle

Multinational Development Banks (MDBs) as well as bilateral and national development banks and many other leading development organizations have a growing commitment to finance and support infrastructure projects and programs that incorporate gender considerations. They have developed a number of guidelines, practical tools, policies, and manuals that are based on best practice and aim to facilitate a gender-inclusive approach. Key recommendations for integrating gender considerations in infrastructure projects and programs are the following:

1. Analyze gender aspects during the preparation and appraisal stage, e.g. by collecting sex-disaggregated data, including women and men at an early stage in the community-wide consultations and by incorporating gender aspects into the various analyses and assessments;

2. Translate the results into the design of projects and programs, e.g. by designing gender-responsive policies, bidding documents and contracts;

3. Utilize meaningful performance indicators to monitor and evaluate actions designed to narrow gender gaps.

Following this approach gender commitments are increasingly integrated into PPP Legal and Regulatory Frameworks as well as across the PPP project cycle of individual PPP projects. Read more.

Key Topics Across Infrastructure Sectors

Click here to find out more about:

• Strengthen Engagement of Women in PPPs
• Target Women as Consumers, Beneficiaries, and Users of Services,
• Improve Safety and Prevent Gender-Based Violence
• Integrate Women-Owned Businesses in the Supply Chain
• Promote Female Employment and Corporate Leadership

Sector-Specific Legislation, Policies, Guidelines, Strategies

Action on Equality: TfL’s commitments to 2020, published by Transport for London (TfL) - Initiative to ensure gender-responsive transport planning and operation as well as a more balanced workforce, including gender-equal recruitment, increase of female applicants for apprenticeship programs, and providing mentorship to women.

Sector-Specific Gender Tools

The extent to and way in which gender considerations could be incorporated into the design and implementation of an infrastructure project depend at least to some degree on the specific infrastructure sector. Listed below are guidance materials, toolkits and other online resources that were developed by international organizations, national governments and non-government organizations to mainstream gender into transport projects:

• Gender Analysis Toolkit for Transport, published by International Transport Forum, 2024.
• India - Toolkit for Enabling Gender Responsive Urban Mobility and Public Spaces, This toolkit is intended to be a practice guide towards introducing gender equality and women’s empowerment principles in designing urban mobility systems and public spaces so that they mitigate rather than reinforce gender inequalities. World Bank, 2022
• Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) - Transport Brief, The Global Women’s Institute (GWI) at George Washington University, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the World Bank Group (WBG), and The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) October 2015.
• She Moves - Women's Issues in Transportation, European Commission Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) 2014.
• Guía para la Integración de la Perspectiva de Género en los Sistemas de Transporte Urbano que Optimizan la Movilidad (Spanish), Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), November 2013, Synopsis - Mobility for All: the Link between Gender and Urban Mass Transit (English summary), IADB, September 2014 - Relying on international best practices, this guide offers recommendations and practical examples for the incorporation of measures to improve gender equality and women’s empowerment when designing and implementing urban transport projects including considerations related to the drafting of concession contracts.
• Gender Toolkit: Transport, Asian Development Bank (ADB) June 2013 - The toolkit provides guidance for transport sector specialists and gender specialists by drawing attention to the gender dimensions of transport, and how to mainstream gender equality issues into transport project design, implementation, and policy engagement. It guides users in designing project outputs, activities, inputs, indicators, and targets to respond to gender issues in transport sector operations. ADB staff and government counterparts can use the tool kit in identifying social and gender issues to be considered and integrated into project planning, design, and implementation.
• Mainstreaming Gender in Road Transport: Operational Guidance for World Bank Staff, Transport Sector Board, World Bank 2010 - This publication aims to provide guidance on how to mainstream gender-related considerations into road transport projects to improve development effectiveness, sustainability and to reduce gender inequality. The paper draws attention to the most basic ways in which gender affects and is affected by transport policies and projects and provides practical approaches to address gender-related problems in road transport projects. It provides examples of entry points for mainstreaming gender into various road project contexts in urban, peri-urban and rural areas, highlighting documented good practices in this area and identifies opportunities where women can play a role in the planning and implementation of road transport operations, particularly through participatory approaches and labor-based road construction. Included is an innovative table that presents examples of data and indicators to be collected for creating a baseline and for measuring results at the project level.
• Gender and Urban Transport: Smart and Affordable (Género y Transporte Urbano: Inteligente y Asequible), Module 7a Sustainable Transport: A Sourcebook for Policy-makers in Developing Cities, revised September 2007, German Technical Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit - GTZ) - This report provides guidance on how gender should be addressed in transport policy and planning to promote more sustainable and efficient transport systems (English and Spanish).
• Gender and Transport Resource Guide, Online Tool developed by SSATP (Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Program), 2006 - This Resource Guide provides gender mainstreaming tools and information for individuals and groups working on policy, design, implementation monitoring and evaluation, capacity building and research in the transport sector and sectors affected by transport.
• Gender and Transport, World Bank online site - provides links to selected publications, case studies and stories.
• Gender Action Plans (GAPs) in ADB Projects, online resource provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) - Transport Project Documents
• Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) - Resource Guide - Online resource provided by the Global Women’s Institute (GWI) at George Washington University, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the World Bank Group (WBG), and The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).

Sector-Specific Case Studies

• The Case Studies section in the International Transport Forum Gender Analysis Toolkit includes examples of existing gender analyses approaches in Transport Projects. 
• Making Transport Work for Women and Men: Challenges and Opportunities - In the Middle East and North Africa - Lessons from Case Studies, World Bank September 2011 - The four case studies conducted in Casablanca, Morocco, Sana’a and rural Yemen, and the northern part of the West Bank in Palestine aim to help fill the gender data gap by increasing understanding of the ways in which transport services are facilitating or constraining women’s access to resources, markets, training, information, and employment. The studies also identify priority areas for public action to improve women’s mobility and enhance their access to economic opportunities and empowerment.
• Socially Inclusive and Gender-Responsive Transport Projects, A Case Study of the Timor-Leste Road Sector Transport Project, Asian Development Bank (ADB) 2007 - This case study provides practitioners with effective analytical tools and methods that were used in the design of ADB's Timor-Leste Road Sector Improvement Project to specifically benefit traditionally excluded and disadvantaged groups, such as women and the poor.