Evaluating World Bank development methods: considerations to improve projects targeting women

This work evaluates economically focussed development projects administered by the World Bank and makes connections between existing data on the subject and that gathered from interviews with women business owners in the tourism industry in Pokhara, Nepal who have seen economic gains independent of World Bank projects. Reviewing the literature on this subject uncovers what has been done to date and discusses a focus on economic development outcomes over social development outcomes. My research attempts to isolate economic engagement activities in general and the impacts seen on women's lives through those activities. By using interview data and ethnographic observation from my research, I give examples of how a focus on economic-centered development may be failing to incorporate critical features. In the case of the tourism industry in Pokhara, my findings suggest that economically engaged women, while experiencing certain benefits, may still be left out of social advances such as access to education, financial independence and individual rights including personal safety, a woman's right over her own body, family planning choices, and protection from child marriage. Such social development goals are worthy of inclusion in development projects and require alternative methods to those currently in use by the World Bank.