Fully leveraging the workforce is essential to building a more inclusive society and boosting living standards across the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (MENAAP) region. Despite the impressive educational achievements of women, only about 20 percent of working-age women are participating in the labor force.
Imagine the possibilities if this gap was closed! Closing gender employment gaps could raise GDP per capita by about 50% in the long run in the typical MENA economy, according to World Bank reports. That’s a game-changer not just for women, but for our communities and economies as a whole.
Constraints to employment range from supply-side ones such as the lack of adequate childcare or transportation, to contextual factors like unequal laws. Adopting a holistic strategy to address these constraints leads to enhanced employment outcomes. Saudi Arabia is a good example. After undertaking major legal reforms, new programs to increase female employment, effective communication campaigns, and economic structural changes, the kingdom’s female labor force participation increased from 17.4 percent in 2017 to 36.3% as of 2025. Our latest regional economic update also has data that shows how countries can take a comprehensive approach to lift mutually reinforcing barriers that limit women’s economic participation.
Let’s take a moment to focus specifically on why strengthening legal rights for women matters now more than ever. This year, the theme of International Women’s Day is “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls” as set by the UN. On our end, the World Bank Group just released the latest “Women, Business and the Law (WBL) report,” which takes a close look at how laws, policies, and practices shape women’s economic opportunities around the world. The findings are clear: women are more likely to join the workforce in countries where legal protections are stronger.
But while our region presents a very low legal frameworks score of 43 for MENA on average, 47 for Pakistan, and 5 for Afghanistan, compared to a global average of 67, there are positive trends and the region is pushing through many reforms. The report highlights that Egypt, Oman, and Jordan stand out as three of the six countries worldwide making the most significant advances.
Egypt removed job and night hour restrictions for women, mandated pay equity, increased paid maternity leave, introduced paid paternity leave, and allowed flexible work. Oman shifted maternity leave payments to the government and improved survivor benefits and pension calculations for women. Jordan set a 20 percent quota for women on corporate boards, enabled flexible work, and protected pregnant workers from dismissal. These positive steps show that meaningful change is underway across the region.
However, as the WBL report points out, strong laws are only part of the solution because real progress depends on putting them into action. In the MENA region, there’s still a big gap between legal equality on the books and what happens on the ground, with supportive frameworks scoring just 36 compared to the global average of 47.
The World Bank Group is supporting our client countries in pushing and implementing their reform agenda. The WBG has, for example, a longstanding engagement with the Government of Jordan to support evidence-based and sequential reforms to lift constraints to women’s work using our full range of analytical and operational tools. One of the interventions was to help promote childcare licensing reforms and capacity building of nurseries and caregivers. Another measure was to support women’s entrepreneurship and financial inclusion through targeted grants and incentives for the private sector– especially women-owned and led businesses.
The private sector plays a crucial role in implementing reforms that relate to making the workplace more equal. Based on the business case for improving workplace conditions to have more women included, the IFC works with private sector firms to expand employment and leadership opportunities for women. For example, under the Mashreq Gender Facility, the IFC built the capacity of 280 large firms to recruit, retain and promote more women in the workforce through Peer Learning Platforms in Jordan and Lebanon. It also supported 20 large firms across the Mashreq to develop HR gender diversity and inclusion tools, and supported private employers to assess and identify expanded childcare support, benefiting their more than 10,000 employees.
Let me end with a note related to the current context of a region experiencing conflict, because in fact, legal and policy measures addressing specific issues such as violence against women are vital to their safety and well-being, especially in fragile and conflict-affected settings. We need to be aware of how conflict and violence impact men and women differently, both directly and indirectly. We are committed to supporting actions that protect women and turn rights into realities, to unlock the full potential of every woman and girl – driving forward a more inclusive and prosperous future for all.
