AFGHANISTAN: Pervasive gender gaps need urgent addressing, says World Bank

©  IRIN Opportunities for Afghan women remain low by world standards

KABUL, 26 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - A new World Bank report has warned that reconstruction and development in post-conflict Afghanistan will be severely affected unless pervasive gender gaps are addressed.

In the report, National Reconstruction and Poverty Reduction (NRPR): The Role of Women in Afghanistan's Future, issued on Wednesday, the bank called for legal reforms to remove gender inequities within family law in the country.

It said that opportunities available to Afghan women in the areas of health, education, employment, legal and political rights were extremely low by world standards.

"With around 36 percent of women participating in the labour force, Afghan women contribute in large measure to the economic development of Afghanistan," said Jean Mazurelle, the World Bank's Country Manager for Afghanistan. "But a lot needs to be done to reduce maternal mortality, to increase literacy, to provide livelihood and employment possibilities, to protect rights and to ensure women have influence over their own lives."

Wednesday's report says two decades of conflict have not only led to a breakdown of infrastructure and delivery of services in Afghanistan, but have also contributed to the downward trend of women's rights. According to the United Nations' National Human Development Report (2004), only Niger and Burkina Faso are placed lower on the Gender Development Index.

Health indicators for women are among the worst in the world, particularly in the areas of child health and women's reproductive health. Almost half of all deaths among women of reproductive age are a result of pregnancy and childbirth; more than 75 percent of these deaths are preventable, the report said.

On education, Afghanistan has achieved a significant leap in school enrollment over the last couple of years. Half of all school-age children in the country now go to school and one-third of them are girls. However, these figures hide dramatic disparities, with girls representing less than 15 percent of the total enrollment in nine provinces in the east and south, according to the report.

The traditional role of women in Afghanistan is a constraint to more equitable participation in economic activities, the report suggests. The wage rates of the women who do work are normally half those of men. Their involvement in the formal sector is mainly in the health and education sectors. Currently, close to only one-third of all teachers are female. An estimated 40 percent of all basic health facilities lack female staff. Although women play an important role in many aspects of handicraft, agricultural, livestock and dairy production, most of their labour is non-monetised.

The report has suggested legal reforms to remove gender inequities within family Law, in terms of marriage, marriage age, divorce and inheritance.

It calls for a series of actions, including creation of an appropriate institutional framework to support women's training; market linkages; access to credit and childcare facilities; schooling infrastructure, including incentives designed to reduce the dropout rate for girls; and maternal healthcare facilities to be spread out into remote rural areas.

"Given the magnitude of gender disparities, the direct and indirect benefits of policy actions to address these priority areas are much greater than the costs," said Asta Olesen, Senior Social Development Specialist and lead author of the report. "The challenge now is to formulate policies, develop and implement reforms, in partnership between the government of Afghanistan and donors, to provide practical and effective programmes that will enable women to participate fully in the rebuilding of Afghanistan."

Despite some progress following the collapse of hardline Taliban regime in 2001, women are still suffering from an array of problems. In a survey carried out by the NGO Terre des Hommes (TDH) in 2003 through their Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programme, covering around 400 mothers, domestic violence occurred in 95 percent of all surveyed households in post-conflict Afghanistan.

The World Bank has contributed over US $900 million to post-war Afghanistan since 2002, with the major component being soft loans.

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