Good practice Imported

Ciudad Mujer — El Salvador's Integrated Women's Services Programme

El Salvador · San Salvador · See the El Salvador profile · See the San Salvador profile

Evidence: Randomised controlled trial Top 4% 100/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Six centres co-locating 18 state agencies showed in a 2016 IDB RCT that participating women used 43% more public services and reported 8 pp higher life satisfaction (93% vs. 85%) than controls; the model has been replicated in Honduras and referenced in Bolivia.

+43%

Public services used by participants (2016)

93% vs 85% (+8pp)

Reported life satisfaction (2016)

Ciudad Mujer — El Salvador's Integrated Women's Services Programme

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Secretaría de Inclusión Social de El Salvador
Period: 2012–present
Keywords: government, social services, health, gender-based violence

Context

Six 'Ciudad Mujer' centres in El Salvador co-locate 18 state agencies (health, justice, economic autonomy and gender-based-violence services) under one roof to deliver integrated public services to women.

Results

A 2016 IADB randomised controlled trial found participating women used 43% more public services and reported higher life satisfaction (93% vs 85%) than controls. The model has been replicated in Honduras and referenced in Bolivia.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-23
Secretaría de Inclusión Social de El Salvador — accessed 2026-06-23
IDB Evidence Platform – Ciudad Mujer RCT — accessed 2026-06-23
World Bank feature (2013) — accessed 2026-06-23
IDB news – El Salvador women — accessed 2026-06-23

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 100/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Randomised controlled trial

Top 4% in this catalogue (794 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Curator validation1/1

Verified against IDB Evidence Platform RCT entry, World Bank 2013 feature, and IDB IDB country strategy 2021–2024.

Transferability / replicability3/3

The model was directly replicated as Ciudad Mujer Honduras and referenced in Bolivia, with the IDB actively promoting it as a transferable template for integrated women's service delivery.

Impact on gender equality1/1

An IDB-commissioned RCT documents +43% public service use and +8 pp life satisfaction among participants vs. controls — concrete, measured impact on women's access to services.

Effectiveness1/1

Rated 'Effective' by the IDB Evidence Platform; the RCT design (randomised assignment) provides high-quality causal evidence of effectiveness.

Efficiency1/1

Co-locating 18 agencies removes duplication and transport barriers; the integrated model is demonstrably more cost-effective than separate service delivery.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

Rigorous RCT by Bustelo, Martínez, Millard & Silva (IDB, 2016) provides the strongest available evaluation design; outcomes published on IDB's Evidence Platform.

Sustainability1/1

The programme has operated continuously since 2012 across multiple administrations and is embedded in El Salvador's national budget with IDB co-financing.

Achievement / evidence1/1

Six permanent centres operational (vs. four at launch), programme institutionalised, and model exported — stated goals of integrated access and replication achieved.

Gender-mainstreaming embedding1/1

The programme restructures how the state delivers services to women, embedding a gender lens across 18 agencies simultaneously rather than siloing gender within one ministry.

Cite this

Evidoria. Ciudad Mujer — El Salvador's Integrated Women's Services Programme. Persistent ID: 558bffe9-4981-4787-ac28-4557c729e3df.

Export as decision brief (PDF)

Where it's been adopted

Documented replications and adaptations of this practice elsewhere.

Place	When	Adopter	Outcome
Dominican Republic	—	Government of the Dominican Republic / IDB (DR-L1080)	Ciudad Mujer centres in Greater Santo Domingo and Santiago.
Paraguay	—	Government of Paraguay / IDB (PR-T1196)	IDB technical cooperation to design the Ciudad Mujer one-stop model in Paraguay.
Honduras	2016	Government of Honduras / IDB (HO-L1117)	Ciudad Mujer Honduras: IDB-financed adaptation of the Salvadoran one-stop model.

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