with just under of its total staff under permanent contracts and a lack of specialised personnel its organisational capacity was constrained the world bank reports that reorganisation initiatives further debilitated the institution leading to the discontinuation of some of its most important functions this example confirms that highlevel leadership committed to gender equality goals with access to potential political allies can be crucial to the mechanism s effectiveness and longterm viability these areas however have been identified among the top barriers for promoting gender equality by oecd countries