African Centre for Gender

From all of us here at the African Center for Gender at Economic Commission for Africa, to all women in Africa and beyond.. A Happy International Women's Day!!!

The Executive Secretary of Economic Commission for Africa, Dr. Vera Songwe and famous international journalist Ms. Zain Verjee listening to the innovative girls and sharing their experiences on pushing the boundaries of our society.

At Economic Commission for Africa, we have gathered with Ethiopian girls studying and innovating novel practices in their own fields in celebration of .

We are pleased to announce the launch of the African Women Leadership Fund (AWLF) Platform.

The African Women Leadership Fund is an Impact Fund that aims to strengthen economic empowerment of women and accelerate the emergence of African women fund managers.

This presents an exciting, opportunity for up- and- coming young African women in the financial sector to participate and become part of this cutting edge initiative. In developing the AWLF Platform, the complexities, specificities and diversity of the African continent have been accommodated.

The AWLF is but one of many funds and it aims to fill a gap and complement existing ones. The main objective of this fund is to economically empower African women in a meaningful and sustainable way.

We proceed with the conviction that any and all resources made available to empower the African woman are resources well spent. This fund aims to improve access to finance for women but also puts women in the driving seat on resource allocation

Check out: https://competitions.potential.com/awlf/

AWLF

ECA’s historic Africa Hall turns orange in support of taking action to raise global awareness and inspire policy commitment by member States to end violence against women.

The recent increase in the share of women ministers in African cabinets, notably in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Seychelles, offers a unique opportunity for African women to showcase how gender parity can improve quality of governance and accelerate development in Africa.

The map below shows the share of women ministers in African cabinets based on data from and methodology of the Interparliamentary Union (IPU). ECA has updated IPU’s data to reflect the most recent situation across the continent. Accordingly, there are 302 women ministers in Africa out of a total of 1,348 ministers. Consequently, women’s representation in African cabinets remain on average at 22 per cent which is below halfway to gender parity. This is a major impediment to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 5.5 (Target 5 of SDG5) which ensures “women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.”

The bar chart below below breaks-down the African average into five subregions. Notably, Southern and Eastern Africa are doing much better than West and North Africa. However, there is still a long way to gender parity in cabinets in the top performing subregions. There is also substantial variation in subregions. For instance, Mauritius and Lesotho are lagging in Southern Africa with 9% and 14% female representation in their cabinets, respectively. In Eastern Africa, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti and Somalia have less than 15% female representation in their cabinets. In North Africa, Mauritania leads the way with 30% female representation in its cabinet while in Morocco only one female minister is present in the cabinet of 19 ministers. In West Africa, Mali leads the way with over 33% female representation followed by Senegal with 26% female representation.

Globally, recent developments have increased the number of African countries attaining over 33% female representation in their cabinets, as shown in Figure 3 below. There are currently 7 African countries out of 22 countries with over 33% representation.

ECA will continue to update these figures to raise awareness about the extent to which women are penetrating the African Cabinets. Moving beyond quantities is also in ECA’s agenda to better understand the portfolios of women ministers and their track record of contribution to their respective countries.

Based on the latest available data from Interparliamentary Union (IPU) from October 2018, we mapped the share of women in African parliaments. Out of a total of 11,037 parliamentarians in Africa, only 2,591 are women bringing the African average for the share of women in parliaments to 23%. While this is a commendable progress over time, it barely represents the halfway to attaining gender parity in African parliaments. Out of 35 countries with more than 33% female representation in parliaments, there are 9 African countries including Rwanda (61%), Namibia (46%), South Africa (42%), Mozambique (40%), Ethiopia (39%), Tanzania (37%), Burundi (36%) and Uganda (34%).

IPU has been collecting data since 1997. Looking at African average over 1997-2018, there is evidence for commendable progress. However, it is not enough and more importantly, there is a slowdown in the growth of women parliamentarians across the continent particularly since early 2010s. ECA is committed to continuing to monitor the share of women parliaments in Africa and the activities of female and male parliamentarians toward achieving their agendas.

There is substantial variation across Africa. While Southern Africa is close to attaining the 33% representation threshold, West Africa on average lag substantially behind other subregions. Out of 15 countries in West Africa, only 5 countries have over 15% female representation in their parliaments. Senegal leads the way with 42% female representation in its parliament ranking 4th in Africa. In Southern Africa, Namibia and South Africa are within reach of gender parity in their parliaments with 46% and 43% female representation, respectively. Mozambique is also close at 40%.

In Eastern Africa, Rwanda leads the way with 61% female representation in its parliament ranking it 1st among all African countries. Ethiopia, Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda follow suit with over 33% female representation in their parliaments. In North Africa, Tunisia and Sudan are close to reaching 33% threshold while Egypt records the subregional minimum at 15% female representation. Central Africa has slightly higher average women’s share relative to West Africa thanks to Cameroon where female representation in parliament reaches a subregional maximum at 31%.

The African Center for Gender aims to transform the worldwide momentum toward gender equality with gender statistics from Africa. Check out our album and follows us on Twitter !

The African Center for Gender celebrates the International Women's Day and pays tribute to urban and rural activists who work relentlessly to transform women's lives!

Join us in the celebration of the International Women's Day on March 8th, 2018. We'll be hosting panel discussions with urban and rural activists in search of success stories that we can replicate across the continent

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The Gender Parity and Equality Website of the United Nations is now online. Check it out at www.un.org/gender. It will showcase UN's progress in achieving gender parity and also be transparent about challenges faced.

UNITED for GENDER PARITY |