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Souhayata Haidara, a government employee, likes to talk about her life in a patriarchal society. Her career is a triumph of patience and perseverance, she says Renewal of Africa with a smile and a wink.
Ms. Haidara, currently special advisor to the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Mali, said that she was lucky not to be married at age 14, as some of his peers. Her father resisted pressure from pretenders and family members and insisted that the teenager be allowed to complete high school before getting married.
"In our culture, people believe that education is for boys and that women should get married and stay at home," she says.
According to Ms. Haidara, a graduate in environmental sciences in the United States, women's economic empowerment is based on education, thanks to a grant from the United States Agency for International Development. "I could not be where I am today without education. I earn an income. I have educated my three children – a boy and two girls, now grown-ups. I have a granddaughter of six who gets the highest grades in clbad. It makes me very happy. "
But Brandilyn Yadeta, a 32-year-old Ethiopian, missed education. "I had a baby at 19 and the father traveled abroad without letting me know. Since then, I continue to struggle to take care of my child, which is my priority over my studies. She is a small shopkeeper.
If the father refuses to pay support for his child, what options are available to a woman? "What can I do?" Ms. Yadeta asks with frustration and regret.
Ms. Yadeta and other people like her in Africa are unsung heroes: taking care of the family, a work mostly unknown to society. Yet, in monetary terms, women's unpaid work accounts for between 10% and 39% of GDP, according to the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, which provides policy badysis on development issues.
The International Labor Organization says women are disproportionately responsible for unpaid care and domestic work. It highlights this issue to justify the economic empowerment of women, which is now a hot topic in the development literature.
Sub-Saharan Africa leads reforms
A World Bank report titled Women, Business and the Law 2019: A Decade of Reforms says sub-Saharan Africa "had the largest number of reforms in favor of gender equality [of any region]. "In fact, six of the top 10 reformers are present: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Malawi, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe and Zambia.
Despite a protracted political crisis, the DRC has made the biggest improvement, partly on the basis of "reforms allowing women to register businesses, open bank accounts, sign contracts, find a job and choose the same place of residence as men, "says the report.
Mauritius has brought civil remedies against badual harbadment at work and prohibits discrimination in access to bad-based credit. Civil remedies include prohibiting employers from badually harbading an employee or jobseeker, while employees must not badually harbad a colleague. Mauritius has also imposed equal pay for men and women for work of equal value.
São Tomé and Príncipe equaled the age of mandatory retirement and the age at which both men and women can receive a full pension, which increased the rate by 1.75%. female activity of the country.
The World Bank report does not suggest that all is well for women in these countries. The report only highlights the positive changes made by countries.
The DRC, for example, may have implemented some reforms in favor of women's empowerment, but women in this country still have no rights to land or inheritance. according to the Global Fund for Women, a non-profit organization.
Theodosia Muhulo Nshala, executive director of the Women & # 39; s Legal Aid Center, a non-profit organization in Tanzania, said Renewal of Africa that "men and women [in Tanzania] have equal land ownership rights through the 1999 Village Land Act; However, there are customary laws that prevent women and girls from inheriting land from their husbands and fathers. "
While women's participation in the labor market (mainly in the informal sector) is high in many sub-Saharan African countries (86% in Rwanda, 77% in Ethiopia and 70% in Tanzania), in only eight countries (Gabon). , Ghana, Kenya, Libya and Namibia). (South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe) account for more than 50% of women's bank accounts, according to the Global Financial Inclusion database, which regularly publishes indicators of financial inclusion at the national level.
Not a zero sum game
Women's Economic Empowerment is not a zero-sum game in which women earn and men lose, notes the Urban Institute, a think-tank on Washington's policies. By promoting women's equality, annual growth in global GDP could be boosted by $ 12 trillion or 11%. by 2025, according to the Mckinsey Global Institute, a management consulting firm based in the United States.
And UN Women, an entity for gender equality and women's empowerment, said: "Investing in women's economic empowerment opens the way to gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth,
For her part, Ahunna Eziakonwa, Director of the UNDP Regional Office for Africa (2014), lost about $ 95 billion a year.see the interview on the page 12). "So, imagine if you unleash the power, the talent, and the resolve of women."
Experts believe that women's economic empowerment is the key to achieving the African Union's Agenda 2063, a continental framework for socio-economic transformation of the continent, as well as several goals of the Sustainable Development Agenda. 2030 horizon of the United Nations. This includes Goal 1, eliminating poverty; Objective 2, achieve food security; Goal 3, to ensure health; Goal 5: achieve gender equality; Goal 8: Promote full and productive employment and decent work for all; and Goal 10, reduce inequalities.
Agenda 2063's aspiration 6 envisions an "Africa whose development is based on the potential offered by individuals, especially women and young people, and who cares for children".
Take measures
What can countries do to empower women economically?
Cape Verde Minister of Finance, Planning and Public Administration Cristina Duarte and World Bank Vice President of Infrastructure Makhtar Diop recently encouraged [for] young women in their teens – a critical moment in their lives. "The Youth Empowerment and Livelihood Program in Uganda, which uses girls' clubs to provide vocational and life skills training" Duarte and M. Diop.
The World Bank recommends, among other actions, the adoption of laws promoting financial inclusion. Ms. Eziakonwa believes that countries must remove laws that impede women's behavior, including those that prohibit them from owning land. South African journalist Lebo Matshego urges women's rights activists to use social media to lobby against the customs and traditions that violate women's rights.
Vera Songwe, head of the Economic Commission for Africa, the first woman to lead the organization, said that women, especially in rural areas, needed access to the Internet to be able to take advantage of new technologies.
The CSW 2018 Report of the UN Secretary-General Challenges and Opportunities for Achieving Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Rural Women and Girls advises countries to "design and implement fiscal policies that promote gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls by investing in critical infrastructure (ICT, sustainable energy, sustainable transport and sound management of water and sanitation).
According to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former president of Liberia, positive action is the way forward. She says that "the time has come for preferential treatment of women", such as quotas on jobs and access to credit.
UN Women supported a public procurement review in Kenya in 2013, and Kenya now reserves a minimum of 30 percent of the government's annual spending on women. In 2017, as part of its women's economic empowerment program, UN Women reported successfully training 1,500 women vendors in Nairobi so they could participate and benefit from the government's supply chain. . This is an example of action consistent with Ms. Sirleaf's suggestion.
Abigail Hunt, a researcher at the Overseas Development Institute, a UK-based think tank, also believes that the quality of jobs held by women also matters. "Empowerment is limited when women enter the labor market under adverse conditions. This includes engaging women in exploitative, dangerous or stigmatized work with low wages and job insecurity. " In other words, women must have access to well-paid, secure and secure jobs.
"The path to women's economic empowerment is irreversible," says Sirleaf. "It takes a while to get it, but it comes in; no one can stop it."
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