(Togo First) – Togo is one of the best-ranked countries in the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2020 report.
The report measures how laws affect women, professionally mostly, in 190 countries. It also looks at reforms undertaken by businesses between June 2017 and September 2019, across eight areas that are associated with women’s economic empowerment.
According to the World Bank report, Togolese women enjoy 84% as much rights as men benefit from. This is above the average in sub-Saharan Africa. However, while more reforms to enhance gender equality have emerged in the region, in recent years, women still suffer a lack of political will in this regard.
In Togo, women and men enjoy the same rights, relative to freedom of movement, employment, wages, and retirement pensions.
In regards to property and inheritance however, women in this West African country only have 80% of the rights men have.
The gap is far wider for marriage, maternity, and entrepreneurship. Legal constraints regarding the first have increased over the period reviewed. For the second – maternity – the World Bank reports that many laws keep impacting, negatively, the work-life of mothers.
In the area of entrepreneurship, there are still barriers impeding business creation and management by women. According to data from the Togolese center for business formalities (CFE), women held only 27% of businesses created in 2019. This is slightly above what was recorded the year before; In spite of the government’s promise to set aside 25% (up from 20% previously) of procurements for youths and women.
At the regional and global levels, laws enhancing women’s economic empowerment have improved in the past two years, the Bretton Woods body notes.
In Africa, Togo is behind Mauritius, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Sao Tomé and Principe, and Tanzania.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
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Publish date : 2020-01-17 08:00:00
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Publish date : 2024-10-19 06:09:49
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