Corruption and gender in service delivery: the unequal impacts

It is increasingly recognized that gender acts as a lens to magnify the impacts of corruption, particularly when it comes to service delivery in developing countries. Corruption in the provision of basic services such as health and education can have disproportionate and negative consequences for women and girls. It can seriously compromise their access to quality schools and clinics, their own social and economic empowerment and even their country's prospects for growth, gender equality and wider social change. Corruption directly thwarts progress in all these areas by exacerbating poverty and gender gaps. In developing countries, the effects can be stark when basic services are of low quality and gender inequalities are already high. This working paper investigates corruption's role in the process and the severe impact it exacts on women and girls.