DEVELOPMENT

Global Women, Business and the Law indicator performance

Six economies in Sub Saharan Africa implemented 20 reforms to provide women with greater equality of opportunity in the areas of: Assets, Entrepreneurship, Marriage, Parenthood, Pay, Pension and Workplace.

• Equatorial Guinea not only enacted a legislation protecting a woman from sexual harassment in employment, but also established criminal penalties for such conduct.
• Lesotho and Togo enacted legislation protecting a woman from domestic violence.
• Togo enacted legislation mandating the valuation of nonmonetary contributions in marriage and granted a woman the same rights to remarry as a man. Togo also mandated the government to administer 100 percent of maternity leave benefits and prohibited the dismissal of pregnant workers.
• Rwanda and Togo prohibited gender-based discrimination in financial services.
• Rwanda increased paid maternity leave from 84 days to 98 days and prohibited the dismissal of pregnant workers.
• Sierra Leone prohibited gender-based discrimination in employment, removed restrictions on a woman’s employment in industrial jobs and mandated equal remuneration for work of equal value. Sierra Leone also enacted legislation accounting for periods of absence due to childcare in the calculation of a woman’s pension benefits.Furthermore, Sierra Leone increased paid maternity leave to 98 days, introduced paid paternity leave, and prohibited the dismissal of pregnant workers.
• Uganda granted a woman the same rights to obtain a divorce as a man.

Legal frameworks

• Women, Business and the Law legal frameworks assess laws in the books in 48 Sub-Saharan Africa economies.
• Sub-Saharan Africa has an average regional score of 4, almost 7 points lower than the WBL legal index global average of 64.2.
• None of the 48 Sub-Saharan Africa economies examined receives a score of 100 in the legal frameworks index, which means that no economy has achieved legal gender parity in the areas measured.
• Twelve economies score 70 or above, with Mauritius leading at 87.5. Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, South Africa and Togo follow with 77.5, while Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Zambia score 72.5. Benin, Cabo Verde, Kenya and Seychelles all score 70.0.
• The Mobility and Pension indicators have an average score above 80 in the legal index, meaning that most economies in Sub-Saharan Africa have removed restrictions or introduced the relevant legal rights and protections measured by these indicators.
• In Mobility, for example, 23 economies in the region score 100. These perfect scores show that these economies have enacted laws that allow a woman to choose where to live, travel internationally and outside her home, and have equal rights to confer citizenship on her spouse and their children.
• Challenges remain specifically in the area of childcare. Only one Sub-Saharan economy (Mauritius) in the region scores 100 in this indicator, compared with a regional average of only 19.3. Out of the 48 Sub-Saharan Africa economies, 22 still don’t have laws establishing the provision of center-based childcare services and 45 economies still don’t have laws establishing any form of support for families for childcare services.

Supportive frameworks

• Women, Business and the Law supportive frameworks assess the existence of policy mechanisms to implement a specific right, to provide a benefit or enforce a protection.
• The average for Sub-Saharan Africa economies in the supportive frameworks index is 5, which is 15 points below the global average of 39.5.
• Only two economies in Sub-Saharan Africa score 50 or above, with Rwanda leading at 53.3, followed by Mauritius with 52.5.
• When it comes to implementation of the law, economies in the Sub-Saharan Africa region perform relatively well in the Mobility (61.1) indicator.
• For instance, Ethiopia and Rwanda score 100 in Mobility. This perfect score reveals these economies have made passport and official identity document application processes the same for men and women, besides enacting a plan to consider women’s needs in public transportation.
• In contrast, larger implementation gaps are observed in the Workplace (9.7) and Childcare (3.6) indicators. For example, under the Childcare indicator, 42 economies out of 48 score 0 in this indicator, and only 4 have a publicly available registry or database of childcare providers. Among them, only Mauritius outlines a clear application procedure to request financial support from the government for childcare services by nonstate childcare providers.

 Copy right –Printed in the Expo Times News on MONDAY, April 8th, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)