Policy Reforms and Legal Frameworks

As the world marks the celebration of International Women’s Day, on 8th of March, and commemorates this occasion with month-long activities, campaigns and events, one needs to reflect on what this yearly rendez-vous really means for the gender equality journey.

Today’s generation can be proud of some strides that have been achieved through a coalition of actors promoting gender equality and the empowerment. The World Bank has tremendously developed its normative and legal arsenal, based on evidence and researches building the case for gender equality, to offer clear pathways for State and non-State actors, International Organizations, and people, on how to achieve gender equality and equity between men and women in all sectors. In the last two years alone, nearly 300 reforms were implemented worldwide aimed at reducing gender-based discrimination in legal frameworks.

Since the 4th Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 and the subsequent Beijing Programme for Action, the UN Security Council and other Intergovernmental bodies have adopted resolutions and frameworks aimed at promoting equality between women and men, and particularly ensuring that all categories of the population can ensure equal rights.

At the eve of the thirty years’ anniversary of the landmark Conference of Beijing, where are we?

Well, gender equality can be represented as a sequenced progress, where each decision and action taken constitute foundation rocks that enable the walker, regardless of its gender, to take a step forward or backward. Just as the pathways made of stones can never be identical, but rather composed of various stone pieces, each with a difference size and shape, arranged differently next to one another, the journey towards gender equality is seldom identical from one country to another.

This being said, it is largely agreed that key building blocks, or, to follow our analogy, key characteristics of these stepping stones, despite their different timing, shape, sizes, can support achieve the objectives of a society where all can enjoy rights, contribute to the betterment of society and equally benefit from additional resources made by the society, despite of their gender.

One of the first to be mentioned is indeed equal rights. It has become a recurrent advocacy point to promote/request/plead for equal rights for men and women. This, for many people dwelling in countries recognizing the importance of Fundamental Rights, could be considered a basic. Unfortunately, the World Bank report Women, Business and the Law 2023 (WBL) revealed that only 14 countries (out of the 190 nations assessed internationally) actually offer equal rights for men and women, at least from a legal perspective. In addition, only 99 countries (52%) had scores of 80 and above, with the lowest-ranked countries exerting scores as low as 30. Also interesting to note that the usual ‘democratic’ countries are not necessarily the most ‘gender equal’ as well, as gender inequality is usually intersectional and pervades domains as large as culture and religion (which could be a major reason for Gaza, Yemen, Sudan and Qatar being the last quartet of the ranking), economic regulations (the US have seen their ranking decrease due to lack of laws on equal pay, equal pensions and parental leave) or factors like political positioning. Today, as the report is released, women only possess two thirds of the legal rights afforded to men, and only eight economies, including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Sweden, scored a perfect 100 on the WBL index in 2024

But providing equal rights in writing is only a first step, and sometimes not the most significant. As such, countries with progressing normative frameworks do not always see paralleled progress on the status of women in the society. Many factors may come into play in facilitating or hindering the implementation of these frameworks, the general development status of the country is a key element. In conflict, post-conflict and humanitarian crisis contexts, where the State is both weaker and might have less resources to allocate, gender related interventions tremendously suffer the lack of attention. This is why the 2024 edition of International Women’s Day was commemorated under the theme “Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress”, with a strong call for all actors, starting by Government, Development Partners and other Bodies, to put the resources where the verbal/written commitments are.

In response to these gloomy results, the Women, Business and the Law 2024 report, posits that enacting policies that support the applying gender equality measures, establishing, or improving mechanisms to enforce gender equality laws, building capacity and awareness, and diligently monitoring outcomes are critically important to bring meaningful change in women’s lives and boost economic growth. Along with sustained commitment from governments to prioritize gender equality and women's empowerment through legislation, policy commitments, and awareness campaigns, community leaders, and individuals are critical to creating an enabling environment for the laws to be implemented.

These global data, as we can expect, conceals large regional differential. Sub-saharan Africa, along with the Middle East and North Africa show the largest gaps in the WBL legal frameworks, exceeding 60 points, with Sub-Saharan Africa having the lowest score for supportive frameworks. Furthermore, Women, Business and the Law 2.0 also reveals a shocking implementation gap of 25 points at the global level and particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, where just a quarter of the implementing frameworks measured are currently in place, with slightly fewer in Sub-Saharan Africa.

As such, sustained efforts have to be made by all countries, but Sub-saharan Africa, with prevailing structural challenges and the significant positive impact that gender equality could bring (see previous studies on the expected monetary benefit that gender equality could bring), might need to conduct more efforts than other regions. It is also important to mention that important efforts have already been registered. For instance, between 2022 and 2023, 18 economies—fewer than 1 out of every 10—enacted reforms across all WBL 1.0 indicators. These economies represent a variety of income levels. Six economies in Sub-Saharan Africa led the reform efforts: Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Uganda. Notably, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Togo enacted 16 legal changes.

This shows that change is desirable, is possible, and is happening. Albeit too slowly. At the current pace, women in the sub-Saharan Africa have to wait another 102 years to achieve gender parity with men, according to the annual Global Gender Gap Report, 2023. This assessment means that gender equality in the region may not be fully realised until 2125. The region is placed mid-way between Europe, the good student with a gender gap that could be closed in 67 years, and East Asia and Pacific which would require an additional 189 years, heightening the global average to 131 years.

Today, more than ever, the data, the agency and the urgency are there to show the way. As we close the month of March, let us commit to continue the march towards gender equality and women empowerment, for the good of our societies.

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