A new report has painted a gloomy outlook on Africa’s gender efforts. Although some countries on the continent have made progress towards gender parity, the gap between men and women in both society and work remains high, according to McKinsey, a global consulting firm. This continues to fuel inequality, compromising the continent’s economic health, the firm said in a report dubbed The Power of Parity: Advancing women’s equality in Africa, which was released on Tuesday in Kigali at the ongoing Global Gender Summit. Because of that, the report says, it would take more than 140 years for the continent to reach gender parity. Currently, women account for more than 50 per cent of Africa’s population but in 2018 they generated only 33 per cent of the continent’s collective Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the report says. Overall, progress towards gender equality has stalled, it says. While a large majority of women work, most of them work in informal sectors and have not been able to break into higher-paid, quality jobs and leading positions. “We want to see sustained and coordinated action to reverse this,” Mayowa Kuyoro, an Associate Partner at McKinsey Africa, says. Africa particularly scores badly in areas of health and education. Maternal mortality rates, for instance, are high on the continent, a limitation to women’s growth in society. At the same time, education between girls and boys is disproportionate. McKinsey suggests the continent could add $316 billion to their GDP growth by 2025 if all countries matched the progress towards gender equality of their best performing neighbour. Seizing the considerable economic benefits from empowering women, what the report refers to as the power of parity, will require decisive and systematic action by all stakeholders. Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Namibia and Algeria, are some of the countries on the continent that the rest of the nations can borrow the leaf form in order to move the needle in women’s empowerment. Rwanda is ranked among the leaders in the region, owning to the progress the country has made in empowering women in political positions, businesses and setting the right policies and laws for them to thrive.
