Assessment and recommendations

Africa has a high level of discriminatory social institutions

The SIGI 2021 Regional Report for Africa reaffirms that African women currently face the highest level of discrimination in laws, social norms and practices compared to women in other regions of the world (OECD, 2019[1]). The region obtains a SIGI score of 40 – the highest among the world’s regions – indicating a significant level of discrimination in social institutions as well as a need for political engagement and investment to strengthen progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. Notwithstanding wide variations among African countries, levels of discrimination in social institutions at the sub-regional level range from medium to high. Southern Africa fares the best with a medium level of discrimination and an overall score of 32 compared to the other African sub-regions: North Africa (49), Central Africa (44), West Africa (44) and East Africa (39).

Discrimination in the family remains the most challenging dimension in Africa

In Africa, the highest levels of discrimination in social institutions are found in the family sphere, highlighting the persistence of deep-rooted unequal power relations between women and men within the household. The level of the “Discrimination in the family” dimension of the SIGI ranges from very high in North Africa to high in West and East Africa and to medium in Central and Southern Africa. These high levels of discrimination reflect in large part legal frameworks that fail to ban girl child marriage, that reinforce the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work performed by women, and permit the co-existence and application of customary and informal laws – which are not aligned with civil law – that limit women’s rights to divorce and to claim their inheritance rights.

Since 2009, child marriage rates have decreased in many African countries, but progress has been uneven across the continent. Many African countries maintain discriminatory and inadequate legal frameworks that allow girls to enter into marriage before the age of 18 years with parental and/or judicial consent. Recent legal reforms supporting the alignment of domestic legal frameworks with international conventions could pave the way towards the elimination of child marriage. Although the prevalence of girl child marriage declined by 7 percentage points in Africa between 2009 and 2018, more efforts are required. Today, 23% of African women aged between 15 and 19 years are married, divorced or widowed, compared to 16% globally. Girl child marriage is still a dominant problem in Central and West Africa, and advances to eradicate the practice remain very slow compared to progress globally (UNICEF, 2018[3]).

Discriminatory social institutions also perpetuate women’s subordinate status and limit their ability to take decisions within the household. Intra-household dynamics are often characterised by asymmetries in terms of decision-making power. In 2019, 16% of African women considered their spouse to be the main and sole individual responsible for decisions regarding the use of money which they have earned from a job, a business, selling things or other activities (Afrobarometer, 2019[4]). In addition, persistent discriminatory stereotypes and biases regarding women’s and men’s roles result in the unequal division of household tasks (OECD Development Centre, 2019[5]). In 2017, on average, African women spent four times more time on unpaid care and domestic work than their male counterparts. Moreover, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for care work in households and families has increased in a context where such work is undertaken predominately by women and girls.

Weak legal protections and high prevalence rates make eradicating violence against women an urgent challenge for Africa

The SIGI dimension measuring women’s restricted physical integrity in Africa found that social institutions exhibit a medium level of discrimination. Levels of discrimination range from low in North and Southern Africa, to medium in East, Central and West Africa. However, violence against women remains a critical issue in the region, with one in three ever-partnered African women having been the victim of violence from an intimate partner at least once in their lifetime. No African country has a comprehensive legal framework that protects women from all forms of violence – including, but not limited to, rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment.

At the same time, social acceptance of intimate-partner violence remains very high, which fuels this harmful practice. Nearly half of African women and girls believe that a husband may be justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances, namely if she burns food, argues with him, goes out without telling him, neglects the children or refuses to have sexual relations. However, increased efforts to raise awareness of domestic violence are provoking a shift in social norms, and attitudes that tolerate or justify the practice are waning, although more efforts are required, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Much evidence suggests that the psychological, social and economic effects of the pandemic have led to an increase in domestic violence cases, rape and sexual abuse (UN Women and UNFPA, 2021[6]).

African women face challenges in gaining ownership of and control over economic assets

Africa exhibits a medium level of discrimination for the dimension measuring women’s access to productive and financial resources, albeit much higher than the global average. Levels of discrimination are particularly high in Central Africa. Many African countries have made great strides in improving women’s access to financial services. Indeed, the vast majority of African countries guarantee the same rights to women and men to open a bank account in a formal financial institution without the signature and authority of their spouses or guardians. Similarly, legal frameworks provide women with the same rights as men to obtain credit. Among other factors, digitalisation and the rapid development of mobile banking have been instrumental in increasing women’s financial inclusion across the region.

Nevertheless, laws and customs continue to curtail women’s rights to own and control critical assets such as land. In a context where agriculture accounts for about 15% of the continent’s GDP and 51% of working women are employed in agriculture, women represent only 12% of the owners of agricultural land. They are also disproportionately underrepresented among homeowners. These low levels of ownership, which often stem from collective and traditional biases related to inheritance and the symbolic value of land, have long-lasting consequences for women’s empowerment, particularly their ability to produce required collateral to mobilise capital and obtain loans.

African women also continue to face gender-based discrimination in the work environment. Legal barriers prevent women from entering certain professions deemed arduous and/or hazardous, including jobs in mining, energy, agriculture and other sectors. At the same time, attitudinal data show that 18% of respondents believe that women should not participate in paid work, a view that further perpetuates the gender gap in labour force participation across African countries.

African countries have taken steps to expand women’s civil liberties

Africa exhibits a medium level of discrimination for the SIGI dimension measuring women’s restricted civil liberties. Discrimination is more acute in North Africa stemming primarily from restrictive legal frameworks that limit women’s rights to acquire, change or retain their nationality (OECD/ILO/CAWTAR, 2020[7]). The other sub-regions exhibit a medium level of discrimination in social institutions related to women’s civil liberties.

Quotas and special measures have enhanced women’s political participation but discriminatory attitudes still restrict women’s political voice. In African countries with quotas of any kind, women’s representation in parliaments is 10 percentage points higher than in those that have no quotas at all; however, the effect of quotas depends on their design, the character of electoral systems and political will. Negative attitudes towards women in public life and discriminatory social norms also hamper women’s ability to fully participate in the public sphere. In 2021, African women accounted for 25% of representatives in lower or single houses, but wide variations exist across countries (IPU Parline, 2021[8]). Although laws guarantee women the same rights as men to vote and to hold public and political office, negative attitudes towards women’s leadership linked with restrictive masculinities are still prevalent in some countries. On average, 63% of the population believes that men make better political leaders than women.

Discriminatory social institutions have a profound impact on women’s empowerment

Despite significant economic and social progress in recent decades, women still do not enjoy the same legal, economic and social rights as men in a majority of countries. Gender-based discrimination in rights, opportunities and outcomes interconnect and overlap resulting in a reinforcement of women’s and girls’ marginalisation. In Africa, women’s outcomes are lower than those of men as measured by the Africa Gender Index. These results stem primarily from restrictions on women’s employment, access to education and health (AfDB, UNECA, 2020[9]). Underpinning these unequal outcomes are discriminatory social institutions which establish the acceptability or unacceptability of decisions, choices and behaviours for women in society and define their role. In this regard, discriminatory social institutions, as measured by the SIGI, constitute the hidden side of gender inequality and largely explain the persistence of unequal outcomes in areas such as employment, entrepreneurship, health and political representation (OECD, 2019[1]). African countries with higher levels of discrimination in social institutions are further from achieving gender parity (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Higher levels of discrimination in social institutions are associated with lower levels of parity in outcomes

Discriminatory social norms and gendered power imbalances hamper women’s health and restrict their physical integrity throughout their lifecycle

Deep-rooted discriminatory social norms result in unequal power relations within the private sphere, which may produce poor health outcomes for women. Prevailing cultural beliefs, traditions and customs determine gender roles, including restrictive masculinities, which establish the conditions under which women can exercise autonomy in making decisions regarding their own health care (Woldemicael and Tenkorang, 2009[10]; OECD, 2021[11]). In at least half of the 40 countries for which data are available for 2002-18, the husband was the main decision maker regarding women’s health care. In contrast, men are more likely to have decision-making authority over their own health care than their female counterparts (IFC, 2015[12]). With regard to sexual and reproductive healthcare, women in Africa are more likely to base decisions on their partner’s fertility preferences and attitudes towards family planning (World Bank, n.d.[13]). The consequences women face due to diminished decision-making power over their own health may be severe, as men may not have adequate knowledge to make reliable and legitimate choices regarding women’s health or might refuse women’s access to health care and treatment if they disagree with certain practices derived from social norms – including examinations or medical treatment by male doctors and nurses (OECD, 2021[11]).

The high rates of gender-based violence in African countries is deeply rooted in discriminatory social norms and attitudes that consider violence a private matter. At the root of violence are restrictive norms of masculinities that perpetuate male dominance in the private sphere as well as acceptance and entitlement to perpetrate physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence (OECD, 2021[11]). In accordance with these restrictive norms, women are expected to be “obedient, silent and good” and should accept the violence inflicted by men and in some cases by other women. Similarly, FGM, a particular form of violence against young girls and adolescents, persists in several African countries as a result of customary, religious or traditional practices or laws that allow and encourage this harmful practice. Data on this practice are subject to considerable gaps. Tracking information for SDG indicator 5.3.2, which measures the “proportion of girls and women aged 15-49 years who have undergone female genital mutilation”, is currently available for only 26 African countries (OECD, 2019[1]). In addition, the absence of legislative frameworks aimed at eliminating and banning FGM allows the practice to persist. In 2018, on average, 16% of African women aged 15-49 years believed that FGM should continue (OECD Development Centre/OECD, 2019[14]).

The practice of girl child marriage is also rooted in social norms and customary practices. A staggering 23% of African girls marry before their 18th birthday compared to just 3% of boys. A growing body of evidence shows that young girls are more likely than adult women to be married to substantially older men. The apparent age gap between child brides and their adult husbands results in limited agency, autonomy and low decision-making power within the household. This imbalance of power in child marriages precludes a substantial number of girls from negotiating contraceptive methods with their partners, which in turn results in early pregnancies. The resulting impacts on girls’ and women’s physical and psychological health and well-being are severe. SIGI data show that rates of girl child marriage are positively correlated with rates of adolescent pregnancy (Figure 3).

Important factors contributing to the prevalence of this practice include compliance with elders’ customs and beliefs, the dominant role of marriage in the development of girls’ lives, and norms, beliefs and ideologies related to girls’ transition from childhood to adulthood. Finally, the customary practice of bride price may generate a strong incentive for parents living in poor households to marry their daughters in exchange for the payments. This practice in turn results in high rates of child marriage and adolescent pregnancies (Lowes and Nunn, 2018[15]). In circumstances of extreme poverty or during severe economic shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, girls may be considered a potential source of wealth due to this custom. In areas where bride price is a common practice, loss of household earnings increases the likelihood of marriage by 3% (Voena and Corno, 2016[16]).

Figure 3. Adolescent pregnancies stem from discriminatory social institutions such as child marriage among girls

Discriminatory social institutions limit women’s access to the labour market and key economic assets, while hampering women’s entrepreneurship

Discriminatory legal frameworks governing workplace rights in Africa jeopardise women’s inclusion in the labour market and their economic empowerment. In particular, discriminatory laws across the continent continue to prevent women from entering the labour market and hinder their advancement. These laws also impede the recognition and redistribution of care responsibilities among men and women and contribute to the persistent gender pay gap.

Discriminatory social norms and biases, and notably discriminatory gender roles within the household, curtail women’s access to the labour market. Women continue to assume the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work (Figure 4, Panel B). At the same time, in a context of widespread informality and high unemployment rates in certain countries – particularly for youth and women – the region is characterised by a high level of discriminatory attitudes that often discourage women from choosing to have a paid job outside the household (Figure 4, Panel A). These two factors help explain in part the large gaps in labour force participation observed across the continent as well as women’s lower job status. In 2020, the labour force participation gap stood at nearly 20 percentage points, with 54% of African women contributing to the labour force compared to 73% of men. In addition, the proportion of employed women working in the informal sector is slightly higher than for men (90% and 83%, respectively) (ILO, 2018[18]). The characteristics of women’s employment – low participation, high informality and vulnerable employment – are also direct consequences of women’s dual role in many African countries as the primary caretaker of the household and a necessary contributor to the household’s income.

Figure 4. Traditional gender roles within the household and discriminatory attitudes hamper women's labour force participation

Men’s traditional status and roles, household decision-making practices, and discriminatory inheritance laws and practices limit women’s ownership of agricultural land and constrain their economic independence. Women’s limited ownership of agricultural land in Africa stems primarily from traditions and customs that consider men to be the rightful owners of the land. For the most part, customary laws are the primary determinant of who owns, manages, inherits and accesses land. Social practices granting the administration of large household assets to husbands in marriage as well as inheritance practices that favour men also curtail women’s land ownership. In the context of Africa where agriculture remains a major source of employment and income, these barriers to women’s agricultural land ownership have a large impact on women’s capacity to have an income of their own and to provide collateral to apply for loans.

Discriminatory social norms and biases related to women’s access to markets, finance, training and networks also hamper women’s entrepreneurship in Africa. African women are more likely to be entrepreneurs than men but evidence suggests that, on average, women-led companies have monthly profits that are 34% lower than those run by men (World Bank Group, 2019[21]). This gap is partly explained by horizontal segregation, which stems from underlying social norms and biases, as sectors dominated by men are more profitable than those in which women-led businesses are concentrated. Other deeply entrenched barriers to women’s entrepreneurship include social norms viewing men as better business managers than women, and their internalisation by women themselves, as well as reduced access to financing. The latter stems in particular from women’s lack of collateral, which is itself the product of women’s lower ownership of valuable assets and lower-income.

Women’s underrepresentation in political processes is rooted in discriminatory attitudes towards women’s leadership, gendered power imbalances and gender-based violence

Discriminatory social institutions are a root cause of women’s underrepresentation within the political sphere. Social norms uphold the belief that public and political leadership is the domain of men and place greater value on masculine leadership styles. Such norms help maintain the views that men make better political leaders than women and should be elected rather than women. These discriminatory views are held by more than a quarter (28%) of the population in Africa (Afrobarometer, 2019[4]), and at the population level are negatively correlated with women’s political representation in parliaments (Figure 5). Discriminatory social norms not only prevent women from stepping forward as candidates and political leaders, they also prevent them from gaining such positions whether through election or appointment.

Figure 5. Discriminatory attitudes towards women’s political leadership are linked to underrepresentation of women

Discriminatory social institutions also impede women’s access to the tools and resources necessary to pursue political leadership. While household decision making is a complex process, the unequal influence that men and women have over decisions in this sphere contributes to underlying inequalities in both private and public life. A lack of decision-making power over resources and their use and women’s own time and movement can seriously impede women’s ability to participate in community governance, political processes, civil society organisations and more.

Political violence and sexist discourse actively discourage women’s greater participation in politics in Africa. Discriminatory social norms and the associated sexist discourse represent an important barrier to women’s participation in politics. Sexist discourse focuses on gender stereotypes that portray women negatively and argue for their exclusion from the political arena. It shares much in common with views that restrict women’s role to the private sphere where their primary responsibility is care of the family and the home. Such discourse can promote political violence which at its core aims to deter women’s participation in political and decision-making processes. Politically motivated gender-based violence takes the form of physical, sexual as well as verbal and psychological violence, and aims to amplify women’s insecurity in the public space, diminishing their self-esteem, and deterring them from pursuing public and political leadership roles (Krook, 2017[23]).

Policy recommendations to address gender inequalities and accelerate women’s empowerment

Despite important progress made across various fronts in the majority of African countries, gender equality is still far from being achieved. In order to address current gender gaps and inequalities, policy makers in co-ordination with all stakeholders need to reinforce efforts to harness the potential of women and girls across three thematic areas: women’s physical integrity, economic empowerment, and political voice, leadership and agency.

Women’s physical integrity

Improve women’s access to family planning

Allow married teenage girls to access family planning services without mandatory authorisations from their husbands or parents in accordance with Article 14 of the Maputo Protocol.
Strengthen the supply chain of contraceptive methods through the adoption of innovative logistic models.
Carry out awareness-raising campaigns and activities in schools, universities and youth groups on family planning and contraception methods.
Expand information on family planning and HIV prevention by sharing key family planning messages via motorised caravans and radio spots.

Reduce maternal mortality rates

Train more midwives to provide skilled birth attendance for women (poor women, women living in rural areas, migrant women) and comprehensive family planning counselling.
Employ new technologies to deliver important information on maternal, new-born and child health.
Offer conditional cash transfers to improve maternal health and birth indicators.

Prevent and eliminate child marriage

Establish 18 years as the minimum legal age for marriage for girls and boys, without any legal exceptions, in compliance with international and regional legal frameworks aimed at eliminating the harmful practice of child marriage, and Article 6 (c) of the Maputo Protocol.
Remove bans prohibiting pregnant and married adolescent girls from returning to school and sitting exams.
Set up programmes aimed at providing mentoring and support networks to adolescent girls.

Eradicate violence against women and protect them from all forms of gender-based violence

Provide all women with legal protection from all forms of gender-based violence including the home, at work and in public places and educational institutions.
Establish one-stop-service centres for victims and survivors of gender-based violence.
Improve adequate and affordable access to legal and psychosocial services for victims and survivors of gender-based violence, including women in detention, domestic workers and survivors of sexual exploitation.

End the harmful practice of female genital mutilation

Criminalise the practice of FGM and establish penalties for all perpetrators, including parents and medical practitioners. Add an extraterritorial jurisdiction clause extending penalties to citizens who commit the crime outside of the country.
Ensure the effective enforcement of the law by prosecuting perpetrators and providing guidance on prevention, protection, support and follow-up assistance services for survivors.
Involve customary chiefs and religious and local leaders in the formulation and adoption of national programmes, policies and strategies aimed at eradicating harmful practices and discriminatory attitudes towards women’s health and physical integrity.
Mobilise public opinion against the practice through tailored awareness-raising interventions within local communities on the short- and long-term negative consequences of FGM on women’s and girls’ physical and mental well-being.
Include FGM modules in national surveys on a systematic basis to monitor its appearance.

Women’s economic empowerment

Improve women’s access to the labour market and quality jobs

Improve women’s and girls’ education by providing the necessary skills to access better jobs, putting in place retention measures for girls dropping out of school, establishing sensitisation campaigns against girl child marriage inside and outside of schools, and creating programmes to provide girls with access to secondary school facilities, particularly in rural and remote areas.
Address gender norms and structural biases that contribute to horizontal segregation and prevent women from entering certain sectors, by establishing academic orientation sessions and individualised coaching at school to encourage girls and women to join STEM fields, reforming school material to eliminate gender stereotypes and developing vocational training programmes.
Measure and recognise women’s share of unpaid care and domestic work by developing the capacities of National Statistical Offices, providing training on the design and deployment of time-use surveys, and systematically embedding them in nationally representative surveys carried out by NSOs.
Leverage infrastructure development projects to provide communities with enhanced access to basic services, in order to reduce women’s and girls’ share of unpaid care and domestic work, and ensure that a gender perspective is integrated into infrastructure projects from the outset.

Improve access to assets and promote entrepreneurship for women

Strengthen women’s capacities and position in the agricultural sector by establishing trade collaboration schemes for women in agriculture and designing training programmes for women farmers that explain how to capitalise on intra-regional trade.
Improve women’s financial literacy through dedicated training programmes and workshops targeted at schools and women entrepreneurs, and by integrating compulsory financial education modules into school curricula.
Stimulate entrepreneurship among women early on by establishing career guidance sessions in schools and identifying mentors and champions.
Support women entrepreneurs by setting aside public procurement contracts for women-led businesses, establishing training programmes aimed at overcoming women’s unconscious self-defeating biases, and developing mentorship programmes and peer-support groups to develop valuable business networks.
Improve women’s access to finance by introducing women-specific solutions for credit access, for example through public credit guarantee schemes or lower collateral requirements for women-owned SMEs.
Address traditional norms of restrictive masculinities that constrain women’s economic empowerment and transform them into gender-equitable ones through communication campaigns and training programmes to inform and sensitise community leader as well as boys and men of the benefits of women’s economic empowerment for the whole community.

Women’s political voice, leadership and agency

Support women’s political representation at all levels

Consider the enactment of quotas and/or temporary special measures with enforcement mechanisms to increase women’s representation in politics at the local and national levels.
Enact legislation that creates financial incentives and support mechanisms for gender balance on party lists.
Provide information, networking, mentoring and training for aspiring women leaders on electoral and political processes, candidacy procedures, access to media, campaign finance and building a strong network of supporters, in order to bolster their confidence and capacity to run for elected office.
Strengthen accountability and oversight mechanisms for policies and strategies to promote gender equality in decision making in line with the 2015 OECD Recommendation of the Council on Gender Equality in Public Life (OECD, 2016[24]).
Develop and implement programmes aimed at addressing gendered divisions of unpaid care and domestic work, and support the development of infrastructure that can reduce the time required for care and domestic work-related tasks.
Develop and circulate rosters of women qualified for appointed positions in order to facilitate the identification and promotion of women leaders.
Work with the media and other key stakeholders – including men and boys – to eliminate sexist discourse, unfair practices and gender-based political violence, by enacting and upholding gender-sensitive broadcasting standards. This work should strive to improve awareness of the importance of gender-balanced political participation through the promotion of positive examples of women leaders and campaigns.

Promote women’s full and equal political participation

Strengthen legislation by defining and prohibiting online harassment, and adapting laws on gender-based violence and violence against women to include political violence. In order to support the implementation of laws in this area, develop inter-ministerial policies that create a context for co-ordination among the police and other relevant authorities.
Work with ICT providers to improve access for women and girls to ICTs, especially given their importance for accessing governance-related information and services.
Develop programmes promoting digital literacy that specifically target women and girls from a young age, with a view to narrowing the digital divide.
Create awareness-raising and public education campaigns on gender-equal roles in the household that relate specifically to joint decision making, the allocation of household tasks, and masculinities supportive of women’s engagement in the public and political sphere.
Invest in gender-disaggregated data on mobile and Internet access and use, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a view to informing policy measures to address digital gaps hindering women’s equal access to information and participation in political processes.
Strengthen gender- and age-disaggregated data collection efforts on political participation and representation.

Improve the meaningful participation of women in peace and security processes

Enhance collaborations with various actors to address the main drivers of inequalities and fragility in line with the 2019 OECD DAC Recommendation on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (OECD, 2021[25]).
Support the development and enhancement of conflict prevention efforts and survivor/victim-centred responses and support mechanisms in alignment with the OECD DAC Recommendations on Ending Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH) (OECD, 2019[26]).
Promote and enforce women’s leadership in peace and security through the development and adoption of National Action Plans to implement UNSCR 1325.
Ensure the comprehensiveness of National Action Plans by integrating specific and measurable targets, a long-term vision that is gender-transformative, clear structures of responsibility and accountability (with greater implementation power granted to civil society organisations) and budgetary commitments to implement UNSCR 1325.
Ensure that sufficient funding is allocated to the promotion of women’s roles in peacebuilding.
Consider signing the Women, Peace & Security and Humanitarian Action (WPS-HA) Compact, which calls on governments and other signatories to take voluntary actions to promote women’s meaningful participation in peace processes, among other aims (UN Women, 2021[27]).

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