Improving the Status of Women

The lack of gender equality in Africa affects the ability of women to use contraception and other reproductive health services and increases their risk of unwanted pregnancy and AIDS and other STDs. The most effective long-term strategy to empower women is to encourage parents to send their daughters to school‹and keep them enrolled‹while simultaneously expanding economic opportunities for women.

Governments need to strengthen efforts to raise school enrollment for girls.

Governments must apply a broad range of interventions to address the complex reasons that prevent girls from entering and completing school. Governments need to find ways to use existing facilities more efficiently and shift spending from higher education to primary and secondary education. Priorities include lowering the direct and indirect costs of attending school for girls and their families, and recruiting more women teachers. Increasing enrollments will also support the desire of many young women to delay marriage and childbearing, with important consequences for future population size in the region.

Countries must eliminate institutional and legal barriers that prevent women from becoming equal partners in development.

Governments can help empower women by ensuring that women‹who do the bulk of farming‹obtain better access to farm technology and credit. Through efforts to reduce employment discrimination, governments can also improve the chances of formal sector employment for women and give parents further motivation to keep their daughters in school. Government should also ensure that legal systems promote equal rights for men and women, especially in matters such as inheritance and property rights within marriage.

Efforts to halt the practice of female genital mutilation must focus on community education and involve health professionals.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) affects half of all women in sub-Saharan Africa and contributes to women¹s reproductive health problems. African societies must bear the primary responsibility for efforts to end FGM, although the support of the international community remains important. Health professionals should expand their involvement in efforts to educate men and women about health problems associated with the practice and recognizing and treating complications of FGM. Ultimately, both formal and informal education is likely to be key to ending this deep-rooted cultural tradition.