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| What We Do - Gender |
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Gender issues and the improvement of the status of women are becoming increasingly important in the context of international development cooperation and specifically also within the Italian Development Cooperation. Thus aligning itself with international strategies and trying to strengthen its efforts towards gender equality, Italy has decided, in the finalization of the new bilateral program of cooperation for the period 2013-2015 between the Italian Government and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, to include gender as a cross-cutting issue to be adopted in all new initiatives according to the approach of gender mainstreaming. This is a confirmation of the attention that the Italian Development Cooperation has always reserved to gender issues – e.g. with regards to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) where Italy has played a crucial role in the process that led to the recent adoption of the General Assembly Resolution to ban FGM worldwide - but at the same time is an innovation in terms of approach of the Italian Cooperation in its field. The goal is to make equality and gender equity a cross-cutting issue (within each initiative) and to included it in all the new initiatives of the Italian Cooperation in the design as well as implementation phase, rather than limiting the issue to women focused initiatives separated from the rest of the interventions. The activities of the Italian Cooperation in Ethiopia on gender are aligned with the main policies on development of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Growth and Transformation plan 2010/11-2014/2015, National action plan for gender equality (NAP- GE) 2006–2010, Sector Development Plan for Women and Children 2010/11-2027/28) and with the recommendations of the last CEDAW report (Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of discrimination against women). Ethiopia is at the 173rd place out of 187 countries according to the Human Development Index (HDI) of 2012 (value of 0.396), and looking at the inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI), its value drops to 0.269, with a loss therefore equal to 31.9% (loss in terms of potential human development due to inequality and measured by the difference of the HDI and IDHI). According to the latest Global Gender Gap Report (2013) of the World Economic Forum Ethiopia stands at the 118th place out of 136 countries, showing a remarkable discrimination in terms of economic and political participation of women. Italy is ranked 71st place, preceded by Romania (70th place), Mozambique (26th) and Iceland which happens to be the best country for a woman to live in. Considering the OECD SIGI index (social institution and gender index) that intends to capture the discrimination not in terms of outcomes (education and employment ), but in terms of social institutions (early marriage, hereditary practices, gender-based violence, limited access to public space or land and credit), Ethiopia is the 64th place out of 86 countries . Women in Ethiopia: Formal Institutional context: The Ethiopian constitution (1995) formally establishes the equality between men and women in the economic, social and political spheres and includes the possibility of temporarily adopting positive measures to improve the current status of women. Current legislation prohibits gender discrimination and imposes egalitarian practices in the work environment. The revision of the Criminal Code made illegal the Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) and domestic violence, rape, trafficking, etc… were taken into consideration. The problem still persists in the law enforcement. A Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs (MoWCYA) has been created and some policies specifically geared to gender equality have been formulated (National Action Plan for Gender Equality (NAP- GE) 2006-2010, National strategy and action plan on harmful traditional practices (HTPs) against women and children in Ethiopia…) and women economic empowerment has obtained a specific significance in the major government development plans (Growth and Transformation plan 2010/11-2014/2015, Sector development Plan for Women and Children (2010/ 11 to 2027/28). Ethiopia also adheres to the CEDAW. Political Participation: Women account for 27.79% (152 out of 547 members) of the national Parliament but have only 3 of 31 ministerial posts. Italy is at the 57th place (out of 153 countries) in the presence of women in the Parliament and the 40th (out of 96 countries) in the presence of women in ministerial roles, according to the UN Women in Politics Report 2012. Education: There is a significant gender gap in education (38% literate women versus 56% men) particularly in rural areas (where only 10% of women are literate). Primary education has improved (80 % girls, 85 % boys) and is close to parity (0.94 ). Enrollment rates and gender equality decline at the higher school levels (0.66 at secondary and 0.31 at tertiary level). Workforce: Women represent about half of the labor force but are mostly employed part-time, seasonally, in the informal sector or are unpaid. Only 14 % of women are employed outside their families. On average, women earn, on equal terms, 69% of men's wages . Agriculture and access to land: 83% of the population lives in rural areas, where agriculture constitutes to 85% of employment. Women own only 18.7% of the lands and 20.1 % are heads of poor rural households. The farming activities continue to be divided into very specific gender roles, and women receive only 38.22 % of the benefits of agricultural extension services (training, credit). Family: In 2004, a new Family Code was reformed with major changes: legal marriage age set to 18 years and equality in marriage contracts. However, not in all regions the new Family Code is applied. In certain geographical areas early marriage, abduction (estimated 8 % of marriages) , polygamy (11% of marriages ), are still an issue, especially for illiterate women, poor and living in rural areas. Health: The mother mortality rate is still very high (673/100,000) and the birth rate is 4.8 children per woman. 12% of women aged 15-19 years are pregnant or are already mothers. The figure on assistance at delivery from an health professional varies depending on the sources of information: the government says 18.4 % of births , other sources claim 6-10% . The children and infant mortality rate are respectively 59 and 88 per 1,000 births. About a million and a half people have HIV/AIDS with an infection rate higher for women (5 % versus 3.8 % for men). Gender-based violence (GBV) : A law on violence against women has been approved and efforts have been made in the training of judges and police officials. The Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs) are widespread and in particular FGM/C is practiced on 23% of girls aged 0-14 years and on 62.1 % of girls aged 15-19 years. In a sample of 8000 women (in 2009), 70% had been mutilated for FGM/C with a higher incidence in Afar (95 %) and SNNPR (91%). Many campaigns have been implemented and some communities have declared themselves FGM free. FGM/C has been however declared illegal by the Government. 49% of Ethiopian women, throughout their lives, have experienced physical violence and 59% of sexual violence by an intimate partner. Access to services: 41% of households in rural and 52% urban ones have access to a source of drinking water. In particular, women living in rural areas have to walk an average of an hour before reaching a health center and two hours to reach a hospital. Migration: 53.6% of Ethiopian migrants women (out of a sample of 229)* have an age between 19-25 years. Most people migrate to improve their standard of living or that of the family, to seek a better life and a better job, or as a result of importance, as a result of the disappointment for school failure. In 2011, about 80 thousand people (30-40% of the number of Ethiopians who wish to leave the country for the Middle East) have applied to emigrate for work. The remaining 60-70% of the migrant population turns to traffickers and illegal agents. In the Resource Center you can find interesting publications to better analyze the topic. *Trafficking in Persons Overseas for Labour Purposes, The Case of Ethiopian Domestic Workers ILO. |
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