The theme for the International Women’s Day celebrations for 2020 was “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. This day also marked the 25th anniversary since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995 that was adopted by 189 governments. Through the Beijing Declaration, governments committed to taking bold strategic action in 12 critical areas of concern: poverty, education and training, health, violence, armed conflict, economy, power and decision-making, institutional mechanism, human rights, media, environment and the welfare of the girl child .
In addition to the Beijing Declaration, through the pledge to leave no one behind, countries committed to fast-track progress for those furthest behind through implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Among them, SDG 5 envisions that by 2030 there will be no discrimination against women and girls. However, the world is not on track to achieve this.
The Human Development Report’s Gender Inequality Index ( a composite measure reflecting inequality in achievement between men and women in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and labour market ) shows that overall progress towards gender equality has been slowing in recent years as shown in Figure 1 below . The values for the Gender Inequality Index (GII) range between 0 and 1. Higher GII values indicate higher inequalities between men and women and thus higher loss to human development.
Figure 1: Progress towards Gender Equality
Data from the 2019 human development report showed that Sub-Saharan Africa had a GII of 0.573 – the highest among other regions of the world, followed by the Arab States at 0.531 and South Asia at 0.510 as shown in Table 1. This means that Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States and South Asia have the highest inequalities between men and women in the world leading to a higher loss in human development.
Table 1: Gender Inequality Index: Regional Dashboard
Kenya is classified among the Medium Human Development Countries (countries with Human Development Index of between 0.550 and 0.699 ) had a GII of 0.545 ranking 134 out of the 189 countries surveyed (Table 2). Kenya had a lower GII than the Sub-Saharan Africa index, meaning that she is a small step ahead of some countries in the region. However, the GII is higher than other regions in the world, confirming that Kenya is a poor performer in the quest to achieving gender equality.
Table 2: Gender Inequality Index: Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
Source: Human Development Report 2019, Statistical Table 5
On closer examination of the GII components, huge disparities emerge between the components and SDG targets. For instance, Kenya’s maternal mortality ratio in 2015 was 510 which is more than seven times higher than the SDG 3 health target of reducing the global health maternal mortality ratio to 70 per 100,000 live births . High maternal mortality ratio means that less priority is being given to the well-being of women during childbirth. The implication for this is decreased life expectancy for females hence losses in human development.
Adolescent birth rates which represent the number of births to women aged between 15 and 19 years stood at 75.1 births per 1000 women. This figure is lower than the Sub-Saharan average of 104.7births but it is twice as bad as the global average that stood at 42.9 births. The risk of maternal mortality and other complications associated with pregnancy is higher among adolescent girls than in women aged 20-24years. As a matter of fact, pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading causes of death among girls aged 15-19 years globally. This means that Kenya risks losing twice as many adolescent girls through pregnancy and childbirth complications as compared to the global averages. Furthermore, early childbearing tends to interfere with adolescent girls’ schooling hence they are not able to achieve higher levels of education. Consequently, they are subjected to low skilled jobs that have low earnings leading to low standards of living.
On women’s active participation in politics and political representation, Kenya’s record shows that women managed to have 23.3% of the seats in parliament. This is lower than the threshold set out by Kenya’s constitution which dictates that the Parliament should not be composed of more than two-thirds of one gender. The danger of low representation of women in parliament is policy issues that majorly concern women such as equality, education, women’s relatively poor economic position, childcare and violence against women are mostly overlooked. As a result, gender inequalities become deeply entrenched in society due to the absence of a policy framework that supports women empowerment.
Regarding education level, a low percentage (29.8%) of the females aged above 25 years had obtained some secondary education compared to 37.3% of the males. These figures indicate that a substantial proportion of both males and females have not achieved proficiency in functional literacy and numerical skills. Low levels of education, especially among women, negatively influence their economic status as they are subjected to low skilled jobs that offer low earnings. In addition, the risk of having children with poor health which more often than not leads to infant mortality is higher since higher education fosters the capacity to absorb new information on health, nutrition and hygiene. Since low education levels adversely affect all the other components of the GII, we can conclude that this dimension is the largest contributor to Kenya’s sub-optimal performance in the GII. It is therefore imperative to expand secondary education and remove any barriers that are preventing the female population from accessing and completing secondary education.
The labor force participation rate indicates that both women and men are almost equally engaged in economic activities as shown in table 2 above. The labor force participation rate for women in Kenya and Sub-Saharan Region are generally higher than global rates reflecting that women in the Sub-Saharan region are engaged in economic activities to a higher degree. However, due to their low level of education, most of these women are engaged in the informal sector or low skilled jobs where they are protected by minimal regulations; have few or no benefits; lack voice, social security and decent work conditions; and receive lower income and possible job losses ii.
Conclusion
The results reveal that gender inequalities substantially erode human development achievements. Kenya’s human development loss due to gender inequality stands at 54.1 %, meaning that, by addressing gender inequalities, Kenya will increase her potential to achieve human development by more than 50%. Improving reproductive health and education levels among women are low hanging fruits for Kenyan policymakers as these dimensions of the GII are the main contributors to gender inequality.
While Kenya has long implemented the NHIF (National Hospital Insurance Fund) whose core mandate is to provide medical insurance coverage to all its members and their declared dependants and also to make medical care affordable, enrolment rates, particularly in the voluntary and informal sectors, remain low. Yet, NHIF is the most common type of health […]
Introduction According to the United Nations, Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) are “bilateral agreements between two countries which allocate taxing rights over income between those two countries thereby preventing double taxation of income. The main objective of DTAs therefore, is to prevent and or eliminate avoidance and evasion of taxes on income and capital by both […]
Courts as Monopolies Access to justice is fundamental in any democratic society, ensuring individuals can pursue their legal rights and seek redress for grievances. However, when courts operate as monopolies, it can have implications for access to justice. Monopolies have exclusive control or dominance over a particular market or industry. Courts are monopolies because they […]
Introduction Public policies are formulated to achieve specific societal outcomes, and when their implementation is delayed or falls short, it can lead to significant adverse consequences on the overall functioning of the system they are designed to govern. Implementation delays in government policies can occur for various reasons. These include intricate and protracted bureaucratic implementation […]
Introduction Every year since 2007, various countries around the world come together to celebrate Data Privacy Day, observed on the 28th of January. For Kenya, this day commemoration, spearheaded by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, brings together Data controllers, industry players, consumers and businesses. The theme for the 2024 celebration is: ‘Fostering a […]
Post date: Thu, Apr 16, 2020 |
Category: Gender and Development |
By: Melody Njeru, |
The theme for the International Women’s Day celebrations for 2020 was “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. This day also marked the 25th anniversary since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995 that was adopted by 189 governments. Through the Beijing Declaration, governments committed to taking bold strategic action in 12 critical areas of concern: poverty, education and training, health, violence, armed conflict, economy, power and decision-making, institutional mechanism, human rights, media, environment and the welfare of the girl child .
In addition to the Beijing Declaration, through the pledge to leave no one behind, countries committed to fast-track progress for those furthest behind through implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Among them, SDG 5 envisions that by 2030 there will be no discrimination against women and girls. However, the world is not on track to achieve this.
The Human Development Report’s Gender Inequality Index ( a composite measure reflecting inequality in achievement between men and women in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and labour market ) shows that overall progress towards gender equality has been slowing in recent years as shown in Figure 1 below . The values for the Gender Inequality Index (GII) range between 0 and 1. Higher GII values indicate higher inequalities between men and women and thus higher loss to human development.
Figure 1: Progress towards Gender Equality
Data from the 2019 human development report showed that Sub-Saharan Africa had a GII of 0.573 – the highest among other regions of the world, followed by the Arab States at 0.531 and South Asia at 0.510 as shown in Table 1. This means that Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States and South Asia have the highest inequalities between men and women in the world leading to a higher loss in human development.
Table 1: Gender Inequality Index: Regional Dashboard
Kenya is classified among the Medium Human Development Countries (countries with Human Development Index of between 0.550 and 0.699 ) had a GII of 0.545 ranking 134 out of the 189 countries surveyed (Table 2). Kenya had a lower GII than the Sub-Saharan Africa index, meaning that she is a small step ahead of some countries in the region. However, the GII is higher than other regions in the world, confirming that Kenya is a poor performer in the quest to achieving gender equality.
Table 2: Gender Inequality Index: Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
Source: Human Development Report 2019, Statistical Table 5
On closer examination of the GII components, huge disparities emerge between the components and SDG targets. For instance, Kenya’s maternal mortality ratio in 2015 was 510 which is more than seven times higher than the SDG 3 health target of reducing the global health maternal mortality ratio to 70 per 100,000 live births . High maternal mortality ratio means that less priority is being given to the well-being of women during childbirth. The implication for this is decreased life expectancy for females hence losses in human development.
Adolescent birth rates which represent the number of births to women aged between 15 and 19 years stood at 75.1 births per 1000 women. This figure is lower than the Sub-Saharan average of 104.7births but it is twice as bad as the global average that stood at 42.9 births. The risk of maternal mortality and other complications associated with pregnancy is higher among adolescent girls than in women aged 20-24years. As a matter of fact, pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading causes of death among girls aged 15-19 years globally. This means that Kenya risks losing twice as many adolescent girls through pregnancy and childbirth complications as compared to the global averages. Furthermore, early childbearing tends to interfere with adolescent girls’ schooling hence they are not able to achieve higher levels of education. Consequently, they are subjected to low skilled jobs that have low earnings leading to low standards of living.
On women’s active participation in politics and political representation, Kenya’s record shows that women managed to have 23.3% of the seats in parliament. This is lower than the threshold set out by Kenya’s constitution which dictates that the Parliament should not be composed of more than two-thirds of one gender. The danger of low representation of women in parliament is policy issues that majorly concern women such as equality, education, women’s relatively poor economic position, childcare and violence against women are mostly overlooked. As a result, gender inequalities become deeply entrenched in society due to the absence of a policy framework that supports women empowerment.
Regarding education level, a low percentage (29.8%) of the females aged above 25 years had obtained some secondary education compared to 37.3% of the males. These figures indicate that a substantial proportion of both males and females have not achieved proficiency in functional literacy and numerical skills. Low levels of education, especially among women, negatively influence their economic status as they are subjected to low skilled jobs that offer low earnings. In addition, the risk of having children with poor health which more often than not leads to infant mortality is higher since higher education fosters the capacity to absorb new information on health, nutrition and hygiene. Since low education levels adversely affect all the other components of the GII, we can conclude that this dimension is the largest contributor to Kenya’s sub-optimal performance in the GII. It is therefore imperative to expand secondary education and remove any barriers that are preventing the female population from accessing and completing secondary education.
The labor force participation rate indicates that both women and men are almost equally engaged in economic activities as shown in table 2 above. The labor force participation rate for women in Kenya and Sub-Saharan Region are generally higher than global rates reflecting that women in the Sub-Saharan region are engaged in economic activities to a higher degree. However, due to their low level of education, most of these women are engaged in the informal sector or low skilled jobs where they are protected by minimal regulations; have few or no benefits; lack voice, social security and decent work conditions; and receive lower income and possible job losses ii.
Conclusion
The results reveal that gender inequalities substantially erode human development achievements. Kenya’s human development loss due to gender inequality stands at 54.1 %, meaning that, by addressing gender inequalities, Kenya will increase her potential to achieve human development by more than 50%. Improving reproductive health and education levels among women are low hanging fruits for Kenyan policymakers as these dimensions of the GII are the main contributors to gender inequality.
While Kenya has long implemented the NHIF (National Hospital Insurance Fund) whose core mandate is to provide medical insurance coverage to all its members and their declared dependants and also to make medical care affordable, enrolment rates, particularly in the voluntary and informal sectors, remain low. Yet, NHIF is the most common type of health […]
Introduction According to the United Nations, Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) are “bilateral agreements between two countries which allocate taxing rights over income between those two countries thereby preventing double taxation of income. The main objective of DTAs therefore, is to prevent and or eliminate avoidance and evasion of taxes on income and capital by both […]
Courts as Monopolies Access to justice is fundamental in any democratic society, ensuring individuals can pursue their legal rights and seek redress for grievances. However, when courts operate as monopolies, it can have implications for access to justice. Monopolies have exclusive control or dominance over a particular market or industry. Courts are monopolies because they […]
Introduction Public policies are formulated to achieve specific societal outcomes, and when their implementation is delayed or falls short, it can lead to significant adverse consequences on the overall functioning of the system they are designed to govern. Implementation delays in government policies can occur for various reasons. These include intricate and protracted bureaucratic implementation […]
Introduction Every year since 2007, various countries around the world come together to celebrate Data Privacy Day, observed on the 28th of January. For Kenya, this day commemoration, spearheaded by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, brings together Data controllers, industry players, consumers and businesses. The theme for the 2024 celebration is: ‘Fostering a […]