Seychelles ranks second in Africa for gender equality |19 October 2013

Seychelles is ranked second out of 52 African countries for gender equality, according to the findings revealed in the 2013 Ibrahim Index of African Governance report which was published earlier this week.

The top-performing advocate of gender equality in Africa is Rwanda, according to the report, with Mozambique in the third position, followed by South Africa and Botswana.
Rwanda's score on the index, on a range of one to 100, is 90.2, well above the average score of 53.8 for the 52 African countries.

Seychelles scored 83.8, Mozambique 78.2, South Africa 77.5 and Botswana 72.7.

Assessed by region, the countries of southern Africa are the best at promoting gender equality and those of central Africa the worst.

Gender equality is a sub-category in the indicators measuring governance. For the category of governance, Seychelles is ranked fourth in Africa.

The Ibrahim Index of African Governance is an attempt to statistically monitor African governance levels throughout all the countries of Africa.

Funded and led by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, it uses a number of different indicators to compile an overall ranking of countries, which is designed to be used as a tool for civil society in African countries to hold their governments to account.

A nation's performance on gender issues is judged by seven indicators: gender equality; gender balance in primary and secondary education; women's participation in the labour force; equal representation in rural areas; the number of women in parliament; women's economic and political rights; and laws on violence against women.

The Minister for Social Affairs, Community Development and Sports, Vincent Meriton, who is also responsible for the portfolio of gender advocacy in Seychelles, described the ranking as a momentous achievement for the country and all those who have been striving hard over the last two decades to establish strong structures promoting and defending women’s rights as well as gender equality.

“Seychelles’ position as second in Africa for gender equality could not have come at a better time for us. In fact it is just days after the country presented and defended its report on the Implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women before the Cedaw Committee in Geneva,” Minister Meriton said.

A high-level delegation led by Minister Meriton took part in the 56th Session of the Cedaw (Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) during the course of last week.

“The ranking shows that despite the daunting challenges that still exist, we are heading in the right direction. It is of paramount importance that if we want to continue to excel in the area, all the stakeholders and civil society bodies concerned must speak with one voice against discrimination of women but also be more pro-active in providing the necessary social framework and services that will supplement the mechanisms provided by government to continue promoting gender equity in the country,” the minister stressed.

Seychelles society is said to be matriarchal with the women wielding great influence in the home and in the public sphere. According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census over 55% of households are headed by women and there is a higher representation of professionals among women twice as high as the corresponding proportion of men. The census showed that 59% of the female labour force in the country works in manufacturing, accommodation, public administration, education and health and social work.

There are no legal barriers to women’s participation in political, economic and social activities and women compared to other countries enjoy a high profile in society. For some years now, and most notably since the drafting of the state party report for Cedaw, Seychelles has witnessed the nomination of more women into senior leadership roles in government and the parastatal sectors. Today Seychelles has made leaps and bounds towards achieving gender parity at decision making levels. The President of the Republic has made and continues to make efforts to nominate more women into high level leadership posts such as principal secretary, judge, chief executive officer and district administrator. The recent nomination of the female deputy chief executive officer of the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) is a testimony of this fact.

Seychelles has witnessed the nomination of our first female Judge of the Court of Appeal, first female Judge of the Supreme Court, first female Governor of the Central Bank, first female secretary general of the executive office of the President, first female chair of the Seychelles Savings Bank and the first female chair of the Seychelles Trading Company.  The country has proudly witnessed the achievement of the former chief executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board, who has recently been appointed as the new female UNWTO director for Africa.

Since the national parliamentary elections in 2011 Seychelles’ global ranking has the 5th highest proportion of women in national parliament, surpassed only by Rwanda, Andorra, Cuba and Sweden. The current percentage of women representative in parliament is at 43%. At district administrators level it should be noted that women’s representation has increased from 67% to 70%.

Equality of access to education has also been achieved. The government’s policy of free and compulsory education for all has ensured that both girls and boys from the ages of 3 to 16 have access to primary and secondary schooling and nearly 100 % of children in this age group attend school. Statistics show that more girls are enrolled in education institutions at post-secondary and tertiary levels, with positive changes noted in the enrolment in usually male-dominated institutions.