This report is one of six gender and investment climate reform assessments undertaken in six Pacific nations including Papua New Guinea. The report analyses gender-based investment climate barriers which constrain private sector development and identifies solutions to address them. Four key investment climate areas are considered: public private dialogue; starting and licensing a business; access to justice, the courts, and alternative dispute resolution; and access to, and enforcement of, rights over registered land.

Mining has not always had good press in the development arena, due to a history of inadequate environmental and social governance. This short paper argues that there is enormous opportunity to be had in including women in mining operations. The author looks at how International Finance Corporations’ (IFC) Gender Program was able to implement strategies to help two IFC mining clients better integrate women into their operations. The author highlights how in so doing, IFC has contributed to the clients’ sustainability objectives and to improved performance through greater gender diversity.

This study presents an assessment of the role of gender in economic growth in Ghana with emphasis on constraints to enterprise operations, investment, and growth among women owned firms. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women own up to a third of businesses in Africa, and that this represents a significant source for scaling up economic growth in such countries. In Ghana, women make up about 50.1 percent of the entire labor force and are mostly involved in micro enterprises and the retail trade.