Politics in Africa by Poku Nana K.; Mdee Anna;

Author:Poku, Nana K.; Mdee, Anna;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1275417
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: 2013-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

The substance of Goal 3 is premised in targets that seek to achieve not only equality of access to education, but also access to waged employment and political representation. The Millenium Development Goals Report (United Nations 2008) shows that some progress has been made in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with 89 girls in primary school for every 100 boys (rising from 83 in 1990). In 2005, 80 girls were attending secondary school for every 100 boys in SSA (but this is a small decline from 82 in 2000). This figure also disguises the fact that access to secondary school is highly constrained for both genders across the continent. Lloyd and Hewett (2009) argue that the picture across Africa is very diverse, with many countries having already achieved gender parity in education enrolment at the primary level, but with others, such as Niger, lagging behind. They also argue that completion rather than enrolment is a better measure of impact, and Africa has the lowest levels of primary school completion in the world, with great underlying diversity. Eight per cent of girls and 19 per cent of boys in Niger complete primary school in comparison with 90 per cent of girls and 86 per cent of boys completing in South Africa. Significantly, in a number of countries (including Tanzania and Zambia), the completion rates for boys have fallen. In relation to employment, 31 per cent of women in SSA are in waged (non-agricultural) employment (as compared to 25 per cent in 1990). However, studies show that a significant majority of such jobs are insecure and low paid.

Political representation of women has increased from 7.2 per cent in 1990 to 17.3 per cent in 2008, with Rwanda leading the world (ahead of Sweden) with 48.8 per cent of political representatives being female. Such gains have been achieved largely by quota systems, and later in this chapter we will discuss the politics of representation. So, the picture in SSA in relation to these measures is generally positive. It is likely that the continent as a whole will soon reach gender parity in access to and completion of primary school, and a number of pioneers led the way in the formal political representation of women. Shifting persistent structural inequalities takes generations, but perhaps such changes offer the possibility of a different future in relation to gender.

However, the picture for health, and in particular maternal mortality, is less positive. Maternal mortality in SSA has declined from 920 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 900 in 2006, and the UN admits that progress on this goal is ‘negligible’. Access to skilled medical assistance remains low in SSA (47 per cent of births in 2005 from 42 per cent in 1990), while progress is also slow in reducing adolescent pregnancies (118 per 1,000 women in 2005, from 130 in 1990) and in decreasing an unmet need for contraception (24 per cent in 2005, from 26 per cent in 1990). Clearly 2015 targets are unlikely to be reached (United Nations 2008).

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