20101023
Citizen

Uganda is the leading country in gender equality in East Africa, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report 2010.

The report released this week ranked Uganda at 33rd position out of 134 countries surveyed worldwide.

Tanzania was the second in the EA region at number 66, while Kenya was the least performer at number 96.

The report showed that Tanzania has been recording a steep drop since 2006 when the country ranked 24th out of 115 countries.

Diminishing equality between men and women has been the trend in the country over the past four years, with Tanzania ranking 34th in 2007 and 38th the following year.

In 2009 the country dropped further to the 73rd position, before recovering this year to move six points higher.

Despite this slight improvement, the overall picture is that the country's performance was still dismal compared to the rest of the world.

The number of countries surveyed in the study increased from 115 in 2006 to 134 in 2010, making the new findings more representative of the global gender reality.

The study considered factors such as gender dimension in economic participation and opportunities in the surveyed countries, with variables including salary, leadership positions and access to high-skilled employment given due weight.

Educational attainment and outcomes were also considered, as well as overall access to basic and higher education. On this score, Tanzania ranked 114th out 134 countries surveyed, indicating erosion in the country's previous educational attainments.

However, on political empowerment, the report shows Tanzania was among the good performers.

The country was 33rd on women's representation in decision-making structures, and joined Mozambique and South Africa as among the three countries that have reached the target of achieving 30 per cent of women representation in decision-making by 2005, set by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

Before dissolving Parliament in August, Tanzania had 98 women MPs, out of a total of 320. Among the MPs 20 were elected via popular vote in constituencies while 75 were special seats legislators.

But Tanzania still lags behind neighbouring Rwanda, whose parliament in 2008 became the first in the world to have a majority of women MPs, at 56 per cent, including the speaker's chair.

On the gender dimension of access to health issues, the report shows Tanzania was at 110th position in the world.

High performing African countries in this category included Lesotho, which was ranked 8th followed by South Africa and Namibia at number 12 and 25, respectively.

The report also shows that Lesotho had a high level of female participation in the labour force and female literacy, with more girls than boys enrolled in primary and secondary education.

South Africa also had a high number of women in parliament and holding ministerial level positions, combined with narrow gender gaps in education.

Globally, the report shows that Nordic countries continued to demonstrate the greatest equality between men and women in the world.

Iceland was the overall leading country, followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Commenting on the report, Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) executive director Ananilea Nkya told The Citizen that the political system in the country undermined full attainment of gender equality.

"We do not have legal mechanisms that stipulate fairness in the number of women and men in leadership or political positions, and this has been a hindrance in attaining gender equality," said Ms Nkya.

However, she noted that the issue of equal representation in decision-making bodies should not be simplified to the extent of meaning the creation of a 50-50 per cent gender parity.

"Personally, the issue is not having many women in parliament who cannot make good representation ... We need people who can stand and fight for their voters' rights," she said.