World Bank-IFC Report: Ghana makes strides towards Gender Parity

Washington, September 26, 2011A new report from the World Bank and IFC released today finds that women still face legal and regulatory hurdles to fully participating in the economy. Women, Business and the Law 2012: Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion finds that while 36 economies reduced legal differences between men and women, 103 out of 141 economies studied still impose legal differences on the basis of gender in at least one of the reports key indicators. The report also identifies 41 law and regulatory reforms enacted between June 2009 and March 2011 that could enhance womens economic opportunities.

Globally, women represent 49.6 percent of the population but only 40.8 percent of the workforce in the formal sector. Legal differences between men and women may explain this gap. The report shows that economies with greater legal differentiation between men and women have, on average, lower female participation in the formal labor force. Competitiveness and productivity have much to do with the efficient allocation of resources, including human resources, said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group. The economy suffers when half of the worlds population is prevented from fully participating. It is certainly no surprise that the worlds most competitive economies are those where the opportunity gap between women and men is the narrowest. The report measures such things as a womans ability to sign a contract, travel abroad, manage property, and interact with public authorities and the private sector. In all economies, married women face more legal differentiations than unmarried women. In 23 economies, married women cannot legally choose where to live, and in 29 they cannot be legally recognized as head of household.

Every region includes economies with unequal rules for men and women, although the extent of the inequality varies widely. On average, high-income economies have fewer differences than middle- and low-income economies. The Middle East and North Africa have the most legal differences between men and women, followed by South Asia and Africa. In Africa, a notable exception is Kenya, which leads globally with the most gender-parity reforms during the past two years. Regionally, the most improvements in gender parity occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia.

The report can be accessed at wbl.worldbank.org.

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Regional Facts: Sub-Saharan Africa

Out of 35 economies covered in Sub-Saharan Africa, only ten: Angola, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe have no legal gender differentiation regarding the usage of property and basic legal transactions such as signing a contract or getting a passport.

However, in Zambia customary law or personal law are considered valid sources of law even if they violate constitutional provisions on nondiscrimination or equality. Therefore, customary law may take away from legal gender parity.

However, the region is slowly but surely moving towards more gender parity. Kenya was a top reformer, with the promulgation of its new Constitution which included a number of positive measures for women. And in Botswana the newly introduced small claims court is often used by women to collect child maintenance. There are also new credit bureaus in Ghana and Uganda and Mauritania that cut the minimum loan amount for inclusion in the credit bureau by half.

In Sub-Saharan Africa only Lesotho does not provide paid maternity leave. But only 15 economies out of 35 provide any type of paternity leave and none provides for parental leave - where both the mother and the father share the child raising responsibilities. Seven economies in Sub-Saharan Africa made changes over the past one year and half that affected the indicators in Women, Business and the Law. Those economies are: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. Kenya was the country with the highest number of reforms. Rwanda introduced paternity leave.

South Africa increased the maximum amount for small claims courts.

For more information about the Women, Business and the Law report series, please visit: wbl.worldbank.org

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About the Women, Business and the Law Project: The project measures how regulations and institutions differentiate between women and men in ways that may affect womens incentives or capacity to work or to set up and run a business. Women, Business and the Law objectively measures such legal differentiations on the basis of gender in 141 economies around the world, covering six areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, building credit, and going to court. While the project provides a clear picture of gender gaps based on legal differences in each economy, it is a simple snapshot measuring only legal differentiation. It does not capture the full extent of the gender gap, nor does it indicate the relative importance of each aspect covered. For a collection of national legal provisions impacting women's economic status in 183 economies, please visit the Gender Law Library.

About the World Bank Group The World Bank Group is one of the worlds largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It comprises five closely associated institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), which together form the World Bank; the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Each institution plays a distinct role in the mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the developing world. For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org, www.miga.org, and www.ifc.org.

In Washington D. C. Nadine Ghannam

Phone: (202) 473-3011

E-mail: nsghannam@ifc.org