Banking on Gender: Uncovering Masculinism in the World Bank’s Environmental Policies

Abstract

The World Bank, the largest international development agency, has in the last two decades increasingly sought to “mainstream” environmental concerns into its agenda for economic development. The linchpin of the Bank’s environmental policies is its requirement for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for all projects that significantly affect the environment. Although EIA has the potential to transform policy making by making it ecologically rational, its ability to do so rests fundamentally on its sensitivity to socio-cultural issues, a major one of which is gender. I undertake a gender evaluation of the Bank’s environmental policies, with a specific focus on its conceptualization of EIA, through an analysis of Bank documents and a case study of the World Bank-financed Sardar Sarovar dam project in India. The analysis reveals that the Bank has failed to acknowledge the gender-specific implications of development in formulating its environmental policies. Gender issues remain at best an add-on to these...