BOTSWANA UP 34 PLACES IN GLOBAL GENDER GAP INDEX Botswana at top in Educational Attainment and 8th in Economic Participation, but still lagging in political office holders Earlier today World Economic Forum (WEF) released its annual Global Gender Gap Report and Index of 142 countries. Introduced in 2006, the report provides a worldwide comparative examination of gender-based disparities. Botswana’s overall rank in this year’s index was 51 with an aggregate score .778, which is a major improvement over 2013 when our overall rank was 85 with an aggregate score of .675. The aggregate score is made up of four Pillar Indexes, along with their various sub-indices and additional data. These are: 1. “Economic Participation and Opportunity” which looks at wage equality as well as labour force participation, including percentage of women in leadership positions. 2. “Educational Attainment” which examines at female literacy and primary through tertiary enrollments patterns. 3. “Health and Survival” which is largely based on female life expectancy; and 4. “Political Empowerment” which is narrowly focused on the percentage of women legislators, members of cabinet and number (if any) of female heads of state. As with previous editions, the 2014 Gender Gap Indices paint a mixed picture of our country. For the fifth year in a row Botswana is ranked (albeit this year alongside 24 other countries) as number 1 in the world in terms of gender based educational attainment. According to the report, we have earned our top rank by having achieved near perfect gender parity within our education system, while providing relatively high levels of overall enrollment and school life expectancy. With respect to Economic Participation and Opportunity we are now ranked 8th in the World, up 40 whole places from last year. Within this category we are also among the countries ranked first in the world in terms of professional and technical workers with near absolute equality. For Pillar for Health and Survival, we are now ranked 112, up thirteen places from 2013. Our still relatively low position is due to our reported life expectancy of 53 for females and 52 males, which in each case are well below current domestic figures of over 60. While the WEF figures are thus contestable they are, nonetheless, a product of international estimates driven by our continued high rate of HIV infection. As for Political Empowerment, at 124 out of 142 countries we rank nearer the bottom due to our relatively low percentage of female Parliamentarians and the fact that we have yet to have a female head of state.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 14:43:22 +0000
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