Women
are an Untapped Opportunity in Africa’s Rise to Prosperity
WASHINGTON,
March 8, 2011 --
Ms. Obiageli Ezekwesili
It is hard not to be inspired by the widely recognized economic
growth story of Africa: more than a decade of robust growth
for a region that has become a credible destination for
investment and has rebounded faster than most other regions
of the world from the global financial crisis.
International
Women’s Day celebrated yesterday reminds us all not
only of the sacrifices and resilience of African girls and
women, but of the missed opportunities to tackle the gender-related
obstacles that keep 50 percent of Africa’s population
out of the most vibrant economic sectors on the continent.
In
Africa, the feminization of poverty still remains acute.
One in twenty girls born today in Angola, Mozambique, Liberia
and Sierra Leone will die in childbirth. An African woman
is 25 times more likely to die during labor than a European
woman. Girls still face genital mutilation in 28 African
countries. More than 800,000 Africans, most of them female,
are victims of human trafficking. Three young women are
infected with HIV/AIDS for every young man in Africa.
The
African woman, however, is also Africa’s face of hope,
strength and opportunity. The rate of female entrepreneurship
is higher in Africa than in any other region of the world.
An African country – Rwanda – boosts the highest
female representation in parliament. The primary enrollment
rate has climbed from 84 girls for every 100 boys in 1991
to 91 in 2009.
Significant
strides have been made on the path towards gender equity,
but great challenges remain. The ratio of girls to boys
in secondary school has barely moved in the last 18 years
– from 76 girls per 100 boys to 79. In tertiary education,
there are only 68 young women for every 100 males. In stark
contrast to Rwanda, female representation in parliament
across Sub-Saharan Africa is only about 18 percent.
The
road to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa
can only be built on a gender inclusive agenda, unleashing
the productive power of women. That agenda should advance
women’s education and access to information, protect
women’s rights, improve women’s access to agricultural
inputs and security over their land, promote female entrepreneurship,
and increase the participation of women in government and
public life. Urgent action in five key areas would help.
First,
more African girls must go to and stay in school long enough
to be armed with the skills essential for success. Girls
need support at the secondary and post-secondary levels,
where the crucial school to work transition is made. It
is also vital for girls to acquire skills beyond the classroom
– the kind that allow for innovation and entrepreneurship
when faced with limitations.
Second,
protecting women’s rights is essential for enhancing
their access to economic mobility. Family laws on inheritance,
marriage, labor markets and land rights are greater determinants
of economic decision making and empowerment than are business
regulations. Legal restrictions on mobility, work outside
of the home and control of personal assets are in dire need
of reform in many African countries.
Third,
women must gain access to productive resources. If women
and men had the same access to agricultural inputs, productivity
on women’s farms could increase 10 to 30 percent. It
will take innovative programs to provide women with these
inputs and concerted action to protect their rights to land,
ultimately altering the course of agricultural productivity
for women, and for the continent.
Fourth,
with African women currently absorbed by businesses concentrated
in the less productive areas of the informal sector, breaking
free will require access to credit – not just microfinance
– but to higher credit amounts at low interest rates
with longer maturity terms. These need to be complemented
by the right kind of technical support for female entrepreneurs,
delivered in a timely fashion.
Progress
is possible and can come swiftly, as primary school enrollment
has shown. It cannot only be symbolic, though. While education
is an essential starting point, it is only the first of
many hurdles in shrinking the gender gap in earnings and
empowerment. Africa needs to hear the voice of the missing
half, who can help set a more representative and inclusive
agenda with the right priorities – including advocating
for greater commitments for pro-poor, pro-children and pro-women
policies and reforms.
Success
will require that African governments work with citizens
and the private sector, civil society, communities and Africa’s
friends in the development community. It will require sustained
political will, a commitment to enforce laws that strengthen
the agenda on policies friendly to girls and women.
At
the World Bank, we are bringing our stone to help build
the foundation for progress, keen to listen to the ideas
of the poor and recognize that the African people must lead
this process. Our Road Map for Gender Mainstreaming addresses
gender challenges. Our Gender Action Plan fosters women’s
access to land, agricultural inputs, infrastructure, labor
markets and financial services while our Adolescent Girls
Initiative trains mentors and empowers young African women
to transition to work. As World Bank President Robert Zoellick
puts it: “It goes beyond a matter of fairness or decency.
It makes no economic sense to lose out on the energy, creativity
and dynamism of half of the world’s population”.
Our
private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation
(IFC) has invested a combined $170 million under a Gender
Entrepreneurship Markets (GEM) initiative which has benefited
thousands of women in 23 Sub-Saharan African countries.
The
subject is close to our hearts at the World Bank. Gender
equity and development will be the focus of the Bank’s
flagship World Development Report for 2012. It is one of
the themes for our three-year funding period (2011-2014)
for which the Bank has raised $49.3 billion to benefit the
world’s 79 poorest countries, 38 of them in Africa.
Last
week, the World Bank Board of Executive Directors endorsed
our new Africa Strategy. Among others, the tools for implementing
the strategy – partnerships and knowledge – will
leverage our funding to deepen and accelerate economic growth
that generates jobs, is broad, diversified and inclusive
- benefiting the poor and women – on whom the well-being
of children and future generations is so dependent. So far,
gender has been an obstacle, yet every obstacle is an opportunity
in disguise. The expansion of economic and social empowerment
of the African woman is the key to the realization of the
African promise.
Ms.
Obiageli Ezekwesili is the World Bank Vice President for
the Africa Region.
