Stakeholders discuss Seychelles’ updated gender gap analysis and gender country profile |10 September 2022

Delegates and guests in a souvenir photograph

Stakeholders from government ministries, organisations, entities, the civil society, National Assembly’s women caucus, the Central Bank of Seychelles, the supreme court/family tribunal, the Attorney General’s Office and the private sector, among other stakeholders, met on Monday afternoon in a half-day workshop to validate the Seychelles updated gender gap analysis and gender country profile.

The Seychelles updated gender gap analysis and gender country profile has been coordinated by the research and policy planning division within the family department and is funded by the European Union (EU).

The division in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism and the EU is preparing a new EU gender action plan for 2021–2025 (GAP III) which calls for a “gender-equal world”.

The report has been made possible through consultations via virtual meetings to provide qualitative and sex-age disaggregated data to facilitate the analysis on the gender situation in the country with the aim of contributing to the political/policy dialogue and facilitate the development of gender-sensitive country strategies as well as programmes and projects.

Also present for the discussion held at the Seychelles Trading Company (STC) conference room was European Union ambassador to Seychelles, Vincent Degert, and his delegation.

Ambassador Degert said that overall, while there has been some significant progress in advancing women's and girls' rights, no country in the world is totally on track to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030.

He noted that while this is unfortunately a reality, at the same time, it is an extra motivation for us to do more and better amid the Covid-19 pandemic which has further exacerbated the existing gender inequalities and threatened hard-won gains.

“If we want to achieve progress on women’s and girls’ empowerment and analyse the extent to which we are promoting gender equality, we need to have the relevant tool to allow us to measure results,” said Ambassador Degert.

Speaking on the country’s gap and gender profile, Ambassador Degert said the fact that we have signed, ratified and domesticated most of the international conventions and treaties related to gender equality and equity sends a strong signal of our commitment to the gender issue.

“We are also pleased to note the adoption of the Domestic Violence Act in 2020. During our discussions this (Monday) morning, I will be particularly pleased to hear more about measures taken by government to implement the Act,” said the ambassador.

He also queried on the temporary shelter for battered women funded by the EU, which until now has not been materialised.

He was also keen to understand how government is tackling this issue by increasing economic opportunities for women via entrepreneurship and so on and wanted to hear more on sexual education in schools in relation to the high level of teenage pregnancy (60% of girls between 15 and 19 compared to global average of 42.5%) and how government is tackling this.

In his opening remarks, principal secretary for the family department, Clive Roucou, said the term gender can be referred to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructive and gender equality is the state in which access to rights or opportunities is unaffected by gender.

He noted that gender equality should not be seen as a battle of both sexes but rather as an issue of justice, respect and fairness and most importantly a human rights concern whereby both sexes have equal opportunities in life.

PS Roucou stated that the information gathered will help the research and policy planning division in the implementation of new policies related to gender and furthermore to make contributions to the political and policy dialogue with EU in line with facilitating the development and funding of projects in respect to the country’s social aspects.

He thanked Ambassador Degert for his presence in the discussion and assured him that the “half-way home will be coming very soon”.

In her presentation on key findings on the gender issues in the country, consultant Janick Bru revealed that demographically from the provisional result of the national census 2022, the sex ratio is 166 men to 100 women (53,927 males and 46,220 females) due to male migrant workers. The life expectancy for male is 72.2 years while for women it is 82 years. She added that 54% of females are house heads with 72% in the Ile Persévérance district but most poor households are headed by women.

She acknowledged that while all legal frameworks and policies in line with international standards for protection of both genders are in place, both men and women face various forms of gender-based violence (GBV). She said there are more males than females on substance abuse (drug and alcohol) and that family violence, domestic violence and spousal violence are on the increase, especially after confinement from Covid-19.

She noted that the findings show that spousal violence has nothing to do with substance abuse.

Regarding the participation of women in leadership, many management and leadership positions in the public sector are held by women (between 38% and 55% in most cases) while the participation of women in politics is still very low with 23% representation in the National Assembly.

Among her general conclusions and recommendations: a more coordinated approach to tackle GBV/domestic violence and the need for permanent shelters for anyone in need of help, to find ways to increase the level of participation of women in politics, source funding to build and train staff for planned national shelter for victims, to finalise the publication of procedures manual for handling of GBV cases and to develop a male engagement programme focused on sensitising youths among others.

Text & photos by Patrick Joubert