Extractive industries (EI) can bringmany positive development impacts to the communitiesinvolved, but also have the potential to create orexacerbate vulnerabilities within these communities.Benefits and risks are often evaluated and measured at thecommunity level, with little examination of the differentimpacts on men and women. In fact, evidence suggests that agender bias exists in the distribution of risks and benefitsin EI projects: benefits accrue to men in the form ofemployment and compensation, while the costs, such as familyand social disruption, and environmental degradation, fallmost heavily on women. Despite the ample evidence of genderbias, and its implications, in EI, there is significantscope for increasing the gender focus of most EI projects inthe World Bank. Analyzing and adapting projects to localgender issues can help to mitigate the risks created by EI,and amplify the potential benefits to both men and women,leading to increased profitability and more sustainabledevelopment impacts. Furthermore, understanding and adaptingprojects to improve gender sensitivity is essential torealizing the Bank's stated commitment to bothmainstreaming gender and to the third Millennium DevelopmentGoal (MDG) of gender equality and empowerment of women. Thefollowing guidelines briefly outline some of the ways thatEI can impact men and women differently and the associateddevelopment implications, and provide step by stepsuggestions for how to understand and integrate genderissues into World Bank Group EI project design.
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