KENYA: Kenya Rated Top on Gender Reforms

Kenya has been praised for passing laws and policies that promote gender equality.
A new World Bank report on gender says the country has plugged the gap in the last two years, with women being given more opportunities for self-fulfilment.

The report says high-income economies have fewer differences than middle- and low-income economies.
The Middle East and North Africa have the least opportunities for women's advancement, followed by South Asia and Africa. Kenya bucks the trend with the most gender-parity reforms between 2009 and 2011.
Regionally, the most improvements occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia.
The report says women still face legal and regulatory hurdles to fully participate in the economy.

Titled Women, Business and the Law 2012: Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion, it says while 36 economies reduced legal differences between men and women, 103 others imposed them on the basis of gender.

The report also identifies 41 law and regulatory reforms enacted between June 2009 and March 2011 that could enhance women's access to economic opportunities. (READ: Number of women in Kenyan judiciary praised)

Globally, women represent 49.6 per cent of the population, but only 40.8 per cent of the workforce in the formal sector.
Legal differences between men and women may explain this gap.

The report shows that economies with greater legal differentiation between men and women have, on average, lower female participation in the formal labour force.
“Competitiveness and productivity have much to do with the efficient allocation of resources, including human resources,” said Augusto Lopez-Claros from the World Bank Group.
“The economy suffers when half of the world's population is prevented from fully participating.
“It is certainly no surprise that the world's most competitive economies are those where the opportunity gap between women and men is the narrowest.”

The report measures such things as a woman's ability to sign a contract, travel abroad, manage property, and interact with public authorities and the private sector.