Goal 3 Promote gender equality and empower women
Figure 3.5 Africa made the fastest progress on the gender parity index for school life expectancy, but still trails 1.2
Gender parity index
1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 Africa Arab States (including (excluding North Africa) North Africa)
Central and East Europe 1998
East Asia and Pacific
Latin America and the Caribbean
2009
Source: Authors’ compilation from UNESCO Institute of Statistics, http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/tableView. aspx?ReportId=185.
reducing the value of education to girls in many African societies.
The ratio for tertiary education shows uninspiring gains Progress on the gender parity index for tertiary education is slow, but very few countries have data for 2009. Out of the 21 countries with such data, three countries (Algeria, Cape Verde and Tunisia) had a gender parity index of more than 1.0, while the index for four countries (Chad, Congo, Eritrea and Niger) was extremely low, at 0.17–0.34 (table 3.2). The best improvement during 1991–2009 was in CAR, Mali, Mauritania and Tunisia. Djibouti, Chad and Congo regressed. Based on the tardy progress, Africa will not achieve gender parity in tertiary education by 2015. Although progress on tertiary gender parity remains low, tertiary female enrolment has grown almost twice as fast as men’s over the last four
decades in Africa, made possible by factors such as greater social mobility of girls and women, enhanced income potential and international pressure to narrow the gender gap. High national per capita income has a correlation with low gender disparity in secondary school, and women are more likely to pursue tertiary education in countries with relatively high incomes – and less likely to do so in low-income countries. But low economic and job opportunities tend to discourage tertiary education for women and men. Indicator 3.2: Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector This indicator measures how much an economy diversifies livelihoods from agriculture and informal activities. It is premised on the emerging reality that wage employment is a key element of improving household well-being. Monitoring progress is problematic, though, owing to paucity
Assessing Progress in Africa toward the Millennium Development Goals, 2012
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