Bosnia and Herzegovina: gender disparities in endowments access to economic opportunities and agency.

This assessment presents a broad picture of the main gender disparities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in endowments, economic opportunities, and agency. The report builds on the framework of the 2012 World Bank World Development Report 2012 on gender and development and the World Bank’s regional gender report on Europe and Central Asia: opportunities for men and women, that focuses on the household and individual members’ bargaining power and their ability to access (i) endowments, education, health and physical assets, (ii) economic opportunities, labor market, employment, entrepreneurship, and (iii) agency, political participation and voice, gender-based violence, and the legal framework. The remainder of the report is organized as follows. The next subsections provide general patterns of gender gaps across socio-demographic groups. Chapter one discusses ‘agency’ and describes factors which may shape the process how men and women use their endowments and utilize economic opportunities to achieve desired outcomes. Chapter two, in turn, analyzes gender disparities in endowments, such as health and education. Chapter three focuses on gender gaps in the labor market, entrepreneurship and earnings, access to finance and poverty. The last section, chapter four, presents conclusions and policy recommendations.