Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of the United States that multilateral development banks should—

(1) fully involve women in borrowing countries in the identification, planning, implementation, and evaluation of mainstream development activities financed by such banks;

(2) recognize and support women’s direct and indirect roles in the economic development of their countries and communities;

(3) recognize and support women’s direct and indirect roles in the education and social development of, the maintenance of the health of, and in the provision of adequate nutrition for, family members and communities, especially children;

(4) work to remove legal and customary barriers which impede the full participation of women in economic and social development, such as lack of access to credit, property rights, education, health care, and government services; and

(5) involve women’s groups in borrowing countries in project identification and preparation in order to factor their assessments of women’s economic and social needs into project design.

The Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct—

(1) the United States Executive Director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association to support attempts to strengthen the role of the Women in Development division in policy development, project design and implementation, and evaluation; and

(2) the United States Executive Directors of the regional multilateral development banks to support exploring the establishment of a mechanism, or the strengthening of any existing mechanism, within each of the respective banks, to advise, advocate, and promote the full intergration [1] of women in the planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of lending activities both in borrowing countries and within the banks.

Each annual report to the Congress by the National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Policies shall describe the actions taken by the multilateral development banks to implement the policies established under this section.

(Pub. L. 95–118, title XVI, § 1604, as added Pub. L. 100–202, § 101(e) [title I], Dec. 22, 1987, 101 Stat. 1329–131, 1329–134.)