Boosting equality of opportunity and advancing women’s economic empowerment, the Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved new strategies for the promotion of gender equality and equality of opportunity.

EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso said: “These strategies reflect one of the Bank’s key strategic priorities for the next four years and highlight our commitment to promoting gender equality and equality of opportunity across our regions. We have an ambitious goal of scaling up our gender-focused investments, integrating gender-equality components into at least 40 percent of EBRD annual investments, and to scaling up our inclusive projects to a quarter of our annual investments by the end of 2025.”

The new strategies aim to address the impacts of megatrends such as climate change and digitalization on gender equality, in order to support a just and fair transition for all. The strategies also focus on some of the deep-rooted barriers to women’s full participation in the economy and public life, including the lack of affordable care and the persistent risk of gender-based violence and harassment.

To date, the EBRD has invested more than €10.5 billion in projects with inclusive and gender-equality measures, supporting over 70,000 women entrepreneurs, opening up access to skills and jobs for more than 75,000 young people, women, people with disabilities, refugees and others and improving access to economic opportunity for more than 7.5 million people across the EBRD regions through better access to services and infrastructure.