To mainstream women's needs in the Bank's operations and projects, the Bank through its RSD, developed Women Mainstreaming Guidelines with the aim to build the capacity of the Bank's staff, specifically staff based in the regional hubs (RHs); and held missions to the regional hubs to deliver mainstreaming trainings to the RH staff and meet with key stakeholders.

During these missions, the Division familiarized key stakeholders in the visited countries working on women issues, such as relevant line ministries, regional bodies, national and local entities, international organizations, NGOs and other relevant institutions on the Bank's new framework on integrating women's empowerment within its development assistance and explored opportunities for collaboration.

29 Gender Country Profiles were developed since 2018 with a special focus on priority sectors of the Bank, thereby identifying the most pressing needs and challenges they face and proposing recommendations to address these challenges. The Profiles are also essential tools to be used to inform the Member Country Partnership Strategy (MCPS) and Country Dialogue that impact the design of the IsDB's interventions in these countries, thus ensuring that women needs are addressed, and their participation is enhanced.

The RSD reviewed the Bank's operations in women's empowerment since the Women in Development Unit was established in 1998 to document the progress made, including highlighting the different modalities and instruments used by the IsDB. Fifty (50) project briefs were developed to showcase the Bank's support and contribution in this area and will be demonstrated as part of the IsDB Geomap of projects.

The NGO Program, established in 1997, was the main vehicle for supporting MCs' standalone women empowerment interventions through local NGOs. The Program supported initiatives/projects focusing on women's education, skills development, income generation and entrepreneurship development as well as improving maternal health, eradicating obstetric labor injuries, such as Obstetric Fistula, and supporting women in science, mathematics, and engineering, among others.

Local and international NGOs remain to be valuable partners in development, which help to promote the participation of the most marginalized women and contribute to poverty reduction, women's empowerment, and inclusive growth.

At the operations level, since 2018, the Bank has engaged in several initiatives with a special focus on women's economic empowerment, for instance, Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi). The Bank was awarded a grant funding of USD 60 million for the BRAVE-Women program that covers Yemen, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. It is worth mentioning that this was the first time IsDBG mobilizes grant financing for women's empowerment.

The IsDB is already engaged in many strategic partnerships to reinforce and strengthen its women's empowerment role. IsDB is a member of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) Working Group on Gender (MDB WGG), established in 2001; the IsDB joined as an observer in 2011 and later has been granted a full membership since 2017.

The IsDB proposed the establishment of the Arab Coordination Group Women Economic Empowerment Task Force (ACG-WEE) in January 2019. The initiative was supported by the ACG members. The Task Force compromises of the Arab Coordination Group members. It aims at harmonizing and coordinating their efforts in women and youth economic empowerment.

The Bank first-ever Women's Empowerment Policy, which was approved by the Board in February 2019, sets the direction for the Bank's work in empowering women and girls in IsDB Member Countries. The Policy has four pillars: improving access to resources and services, mainstreaming women's needs, promoting women's agency and participation, and fostering learning and capacity development.