2. Improving gender equality and empowering
women are pathways to making sustainable
human development and to achieving other
MDGs (especially accelerating maternal and
child health care, improving education and
reducing poverty and hunger)

3. The cost to society of not investing in gender
equality and female empowerment can be
heavy. Over 2005–2015, wide gender gaps in
education at primary and secondary levels
were estimated to reduce economic growth
by 0.4 percentage points annually, increase
birth rates by about one child per
woman, increase child deaths by 32 per year
(per 1,000 live births) and raise by 2.5
percentage points the prevalence of
underweight children (Abu-Ghaida and
Klasen, 2004).

4. Progress on this goal is encouraging. Many
African countries are making notable
performance – especially on gender parity in
primary school education and number of
seats held by women in parliament – but
promoting women in paid employment
outside agriculture is still a challenge

5. Cultural practices (including inequitable
inheritance practices, early marriage and
household power dynamics), few economic
opportunities for women and too little
political will still impede progress.

6.  Indicator 3.1: Ratios of girls to boys in
primary, secondary and tertiary education: The primary
school ratio is still generally improving in Africa
◦ However males are still favored in Equatorial Guinea
with about 20% change between 1991 to 2009
◦ Continental performance is below the average of the
group of least developed countries and Southern Asia
◦ Namibia, Lesotho and Mauritius are making efforts to
change in favor of males

7.  Advances are less clear for the secondary
school ratio
 Egypt and Rwanda are very close to achieving
gender parity in secondary school.
 Six countries achieved parity in school life
expectancy – Cape Verde, Lesotho, Malawi,
Rwanda, Mauritius and São Tomé and Príncipe
 However, drop-out rates are higher for girls
in most African countries

8.  The ratio for tertiary education shows
uninspiring gains
◦ However, there is a higher rise in women’s
participation in tertiary education in many African
countries, especially in high-income countries
where female students out number male students
(eg Algeria, Cape Verde and Tunisia had a gender
parity index of more than 1.0)
◦ On a general note, Africa will not achieve gender
parity in tertiary education by 2015.

9. This indicator measures how much an economy
diversifies livelihoods from agriculture and
informal activities. It is premised on the
emerging reality that wage employment is a
key element of improving household well-
being

10. African women’s employment in the non-
agricultural wage employment is low
relative to other regions of the world (18.8%
in North Africa and 32.6% in the rest of
Africa compared with 43% in Latin America
and the Caribbean 41.7% in Eastern Asia).

11.  There is steady progress by most countries in
Africa largely driven by the adoption of legal
frameworks that guarantee seats for women
in the national parliament
 Eight countries have reached the target of 30
per cent women in the national parliament –
Rwanda, South
Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Tanzania, Burun
di, Uganda and Senegal

12. 15 countries still have fewer than 10 per cent
of women in the national legislature.
Countries that regressed are
Niger, Chad, Guinea Bissau, Congo, Equatorial
Guinea, Ghana, Cameroon and Comoros

13.  Economic and social policies that respond
better to the needs of men and women –
including affirmative action strategies, the
reform of customary laws that discriminate
against women and girls, and more human
and financial resources to enforce and
implement such laws – are crucial for meeting
this goal.

14.  Furthermore, policy changes should address
factors that discourage women from
attending and completing a full course of
education – confronting factors that promote
early marriage, the seclusion of girls and the
education of boys rather than girls – and
should promote women’s participation in
productive economic activity and politics.

15.  Promoting women’s employment outside
agriculture will require generating productive and
decent jobs, improving labour market
functioning, creating job opportunities for
women (including enabling women to access
higher skilled jobs), subsidizing social services to
enable more women to have more time to
participate in remunerative economic
activities, and addressing cultural practices that
discriminate against girls’ education or that
create imbalances in household power dynamics.

16.  In the political realm, efforts are needed to
break the socio-cultural impediments that
hinder women’s political participation
through training and advocacy on how
women can enhance their leadership role and
contribute fully to public debate and policy
decisions.