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Governance Observer

Monthly newsletter that brings in best practice on governance with a focus on Arab and African countries experiences

Vol. 1, Issue 10, March 2014

In this issue Gender Equality

Gender equality and women‟s empowerment are human rights that are Page 1 - Gender Equality critical to sustainable development and achieving the Millennium - Mark Your Calendar! Development Goals (MDGs). Despite progress in recent years, women and account for six out of 10 of the world‟s poorest and two thirds of the Page 2 - Legislative Updates world‟s illiterate people. Only 19 percent of the world‟s parliamentarians are - Facts & Figures women and one third of all women are subjected to violence whether in times of armed conflict or behind closed doors at home. This is why UNDP Page 3 - Rwanda: A Revolution in integrates gender equality and women‟s empowerment into its four focus Rights for Women areas: poverty reduction, democratic governance, crisis prevention and - Women Empowerment: recovery, and environment and sustainable development… Union for the Mediterranean Conference When women and men have equal opportunities and rights, economic Held to Determine Priority growth accelerates and poverty rates drop more rapidly for everyone. Projects Reducing inequalities between women and men is critical to cutting in half Page 4 - Regulatory Policy and the number of people living in absolute poverty by 2015... Behavioural Economics The world‟s poorest and most vulnerable people are dependent on their Page 5 - Tender Opportunities natural environment to earn a living and feed their families. When natural Page 6 - Gender Equality at the resources are depleted, or the impacts of climate change hit, poor women Heart of Africa‟s use knowledge of the environment to survive and adapt, know-how that Transformation: A Vision should be harnessed to shape inclusive national environmental policies… and a Strategy continued on Page 5

Mark Your Calendar! “Gender Equality and the Global Jobs Challenge: 6th Annual Women's Empowerment Principles (WEP) Event”, 5-6 March 2014, United Nations Headquarters, New York City, US.

“OECD Integrity Week 2014”: OECD, 17-21 March 2014, Paris, France.

Vol. 1, Issue 10, March 2014

Legislative Updates

Libya votes to make sharia law "serial offenders" and where a and non-agricultural workers in basis of all legislation minor is involved. Life Madagascar. The wage takes into imprisonment replaced death account the minimum living Libya‟s national assembly voted penalty originally proposed in wage, i.e. a wage that gives in December 2013 in favor of 2009. The Law also decrees workers a sufficient purchasing making sharia law the source of years in prison for anyone who power. The Decree sets the all legislation in the county. This counsels or reaches out to minimum wage on sector basis. will necessitate review of all laws homosexuals. However, the bill For lowest grade (M1) minimum and regulations (including was blocked by the president, wage has been set at 108019 banking, criminal and financial who refused to sign it, as he Ariary per month for non- regulations) by a special argued that the government was agricultural workers and at committee to make sure they are not given enough time to study 109520 Ariary per month for compliant with Islamic sharia the law and there are other ways agricultural workers. Minimum law. to deal with “abnormal” people. wages are set in Madagascar after Uganda: Anti-gay Bill consulting the National Labour Madagascar: Minimum Wage Council and they are revised Uganda‟s parliament passed a Decree No. 2013-476 periodically according to the bill, in December 2013, which country‟s balance sheet, the punishes homosexuals with life Decree No. 2013-476, issued on economic situation and consumer imprisonment in some cases. 3 July and in force retroactively price index (according to Article Such offences include where one since 1 March 2013, set the 55 of the Labor Code). person is infected with HIV, minimum wage for agricultural

Facts & Figures

- Despite the disproportionate magnitude and scope of gender- impact of conflict on women, based disparities in 4 areas, fewer than 3% signatories to namely: economic, political, peace agreements are women. education and health. - Women perform 66% of the - In Tunisia, women are entitled are illiterate while 1 in 6 world‟s work, produce 50% of to 30 days maternity leave at Lebanese women are illiterate. the food, but earn only 10% of 67% of full wages. - 53% of girls finish primary the income and own only one - Only 17% of women in school in Yemen. percent of the property. Palestinian Territories are - Although Africa is rising at a - Only 19% of national employed despite a literacy rate predicted 6% growth in 2014, parliamentarians are female. of 93%. the United Nations - Iceland topped the annual - 69% of women in Development Programme Gender Gap Index 2013 are victims of FGM, while the (UNDP) has reported a 61% (developed by the World percentage is as high as 91%, loss in development due to Economic Forum) out of 134 93% and 98% in Egypt, Djibouti gender inequality. countries, while Yemen came & Somalia respectively. - Only 20% of last. The Index captures the - 34% of adult have bank accounts.

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Rwanda: A Revolution in Rights for Women

With women making up 56% of MPs in the Rwandan parliament life is changing fast for women. What is happening for women in Rwanda is little short of revolutionary. Women occupy some of the most important government ministries and make up 56% of the country's parliamentarians, including the speaker.

Rwanda's women express astonishment at Britain's low strength, enthusiasm and skill. female representation. By law in their country they must “In modern times they are happy. We see fathers have at least 30% of the seats in government, including encouraging their daughters to do engineering and get out local government. of nursing. We have quite a number in the army and police And it is not window dressing. “There used to be a lot of force,” added Kantengwa. rapes, wife beating, male domination of women, boys sent There are still issues. "Domestic violence is still prevalent – to school and not girls,” said Daphrose Nyirasafali, when [women] get more money than the man, there is that national programme officer for UNFPA, the UN's family threat. And the majority of women who go into politics planning and reproductive health organisation. “That has early don't get married – very few men make passes at all changed, even in the countryside.” them. But we have made great strides." Women now have the right to own land and property. Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda's foreign minister, said no When they marry they can choose to pool their assets with one should imagine Rwanda's women parliamentarians their husband or they can keep them separate. were a sign of “window dressing”. There are eight women The divorce rate is increasing as a consequence of these ministers. “We have a lot of influence,” Mushikiwabo said. changes. Inheritance laws have been passed so that a “The president is present most of the time in our cabinet man's property is split equally between his wife and both meetings. He encourages us to think out of the box and female and male children. initiate policy. It's a very open forum. That's where all the major decisions for the country are made.” Rape has been acknowledged as a very serious offence; there is a free police hotline and there are heavy jail Rwanda's progress on women is admired elsewhere. This sentences for perpetrators. Contraception has been made month the government convened an international forum on widely available. Women who want to stop having babies the role of leadership in gender equality and 's but whose husbands object are told it is their right to empowerment, attracting women ministers, MPs and choose. Some attend clinics in secret for three-monthly dignitaries from all over Africa and beyond, including the injections. Tanzanian UN deputy secretary general, Asha-Rose Migiro. “I salute you for bringing gender and equality to Traditionally in Rwanda men and women had different the heart of the political process,” she told the forum in the roles, and separate domains, said Juliana Kantengwa, who Rwandan parliament. trained as a vet, in exile in Uganda, and who is now a member of Rwanda's senate. “There were no-go areas, like (Boseley, Sarah, “Rwanda: A Revolution in Rights for Women,” drumming,” she said. That was a male preserve. During The Guardian, Friday 28 May 2010, available at: opening ceremonies, teams of girls now drum with http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/28/womens-rights-rwanda)

Women Empowerment: Union for the Mediterranean Conference Held to Determine Priority Projects The Union for the Mediterranean organizes a conference to guide projects on 26-27 March 2014 at its headquarters in Barcelona entitled “Empowerment of Women Socially and Economically: Projects for Progress” in order to promote the implementation of projects and initiatives in this area. The two-day international conference, which involves several stakeholders, will bring together about 200 participants from governments, international development agencies, and international organizations that deal with issues of women empowerment and gender equity, and the private sector and civil society, as well as promoters of existing and potential future projects of the Union for the Mediterranean. The conference seeks to: identify initiatives and priority programs in the field of social and economic empowerment of women in the Euro-Mediterranean region; help develop greater synergy and coherence among the major stakeholders in the Euro-Mediterranean region and to provide institutional and financial support for specific projects that seek to promote empowerment of women; and encourage the submission of proposals for projects with a regional dimension to the secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean. This meeting comes after the third Ministerial Conference of the Union for the Mediterranean on “Strengthening the Role of Women in Society”, which was held in Paris on 11 September 2013. The Ministers expressed their support to the development of women empowerment, and encouraged the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean to identify, promote and facilitate the financing of regional projects. (http://www.enpi-info.eu/list_type_med.php?year=0&id_type=1&page=3)

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Regulatory Policy and Behavioural Economics If tomorrow there was a heat wave would you prefer to have an ice cream or an ice lolly? This may seem a trivial question but getting the question right could make the difference between profit or loss for a business. It may be assumed that as ice cream is popular across all groups of consumers that most people will prefer ice cream. Research by the supermarket chain Tescos in the UK shows how people actually behave. It shows that indeed sales of ice cream increase as it gets hot. But if in the south of the UK then at 25 degrees Celsius, the sales of ice creams actually plateau. And above this temperature the demand for frozen ice lollies increases. However in Scotland this change in behaviour happens at 19 degrees Celsius. This information of how people behave assists the sophisticated stocking of products on supermarket shelves and enhances profits. Knowing how people actually behave is critical for businesses, but it is even more critical for governments. Behavioural approach in regulatory governance use of warnings on cigarette packets. In the United States, The use of behavioural economics by governments to it was found that alcohol purchases were reduced more by regulate is a growing trend globally. There is an increase a tax made salient on the price tag than by an equivalent in the application of the inductive scientific method to tax being levied at the till (Chetty, Looney and Kroft, the study of economic activity that is helping OECD 2009). The delivery of the policy to levy a tax on alcohol countries to shape regulatory policies based on the can be more successful if it is made more salient and takes actual, and not assumed, behaviour of people. Most into consideration people‟s actual behaviour. notably the United States and United Kingdom have been introducing behaviourally informed policies. The influential work of Thaler and Sunstein, made prominent through their book “Nudge” (2008), demonstrated a form of intervention that applies behavioural economics they termed “libertarian paternalism”. Nudging is one type of intervention using behavioural economics but there are others. Types of behavioural informed interventions Behavioural economics is relevant throughout the cycle of regulating. In the design of regulations, a number of behavioural informed policies have simplified information Implementing behavioural economics and choices with clearer presentation of information for There are a number of challenges for implementing better outcomes. The US Consumer and Financial behavioural economics in the regulatory cycle, not least Protection Bureau simplified information disclosure for the ethical debate which continues of whether mortgages, credit cards and student loans so that people governments and regulators should be influencing people‟s can “know before you owe”. behaviour in this manner. Nonetheless its application is Defaults and convenience are another type of behavioural suggesting a compliment and tendency to a more empirical informed intervention where, for instance, the choice to and evidence based way of designing policies and opt out of a scheme is provided rather than the choice to implementing them effectively. The UK‟s Behavioural opt in, thereby changing the default option. One of the Insights Team, the European Commission‟s Behavioural most notable examples is in New Zealand where the Economics Taskforce and a host of other countries “Kiwisaver” auto-enrolment in 2007 led to a 50% (including Australia, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and pension coverage increase by making the default choice Sweden), are introducing and institutionalising the of pension to be enrolled and being allowed to opt out, discipline in addition to regulatory agencies such as in rather than the other way around. Columbia and Italy. The current publication Regulatory Debiasing policies seek to improve the quality of Policy and Behavioural Economics (Lunn, 2014) cites over 60 decisions and counteract individual‟s tendencies to make behavioural informed policies. Given the current sub-optimal decisions. The regulation by the US application of behavioural economics in regulatory policy, Environmental Protection Agency to have gallons per there will be more in the near future. 100 miles and annual fuel cost labels in addition to miles Read this report on OECD iLibrary (www.oecd-ilibrary.org/) per gallon (MPG) information addressed the For more information contact Faisal Naru ([email protected]), misunderstanding of consumers in relation to the actual Senior Economic Advisor, Regulatory Policy Division, GOV and visit the website www.oecd.org/gov/regulatory-policy/ relevance of the MPG statistic to fuel efficiency. In other words, the MPG figure is not linear and does not reflect Sources: the actual running costs of the vehicle for most Chetty, R., A. Looney and K. Kroft (2009), “Salience and Taxation: individuals. (Larrick and Soll, 2008) Theory and Evidence”, American Economic Review, 99: 1145-1177. The behavioural approach is also relevant in the delivery Larrick, R.P. and J.B. Soll (2008), “The MPG Illusion”, Science, 320: of regulations as well, such as in the use of salience. The 1593-1594. need to get the attention of people for behavioural Thaler, R. H. and C. R. Sunstein (2008), Nudge: Improving Decisions About changes has been long understood such as through the Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Yale University Press.

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continued from Page 1 agro-enterprises that are mechanizing laborious tasks Gender Equity and UNDP like grinding grain and providing electricity for light. The participation of women in politics is a human right As a result, women in Burkina Faso are spending two and a development goal. UNDP strives to ensure that to six hours less per day on domestic chores. The women have a real voice in all governance institutions, average literacy rate has also increased from 29 percent from the judiciary to the civil service, as well as in the to 39 percent in 14 villages. private sector and civil society, so they can participate  UNDP‟s electoral support in Burundi has led to a new equally with men in public dialogue and decision-making gender quota system for more equal representation in and influence the decisions that will determine the future parliaments. Following the 2010 election, Burundi now of their families and countries… has 46.3 percent of women in the senate, the highest UNDP in action percentage in the world of women in an upper house.  A UNDP Gender Assessment Tool was used in  In Darfur, UNDP is providing legal aid services to national budgeting and planning processes in over 20 survivors of sexual violence. UNDP has helped countries. In Kenya this led to energy subsidies for establish a network of lawyers that has handled hundreds of cases since 2006. Rape cases constitute women and in Dominican Republic it guided nearly 19 percent of the total criminal caseload, increases in health and education budgets. including some cases where the government lifted  UNDP is partnering with UNEP and 40 other immunity of law enforcement and military personnel. organizations in the Global Gender and Climate  In Colombia, UNDP supports a network of 385 local Alliance, which has trained hundreds of government women‟s organizations from 97 municipalities to assist delegates and civil society. This is contributing to women survivors of conflict. As a result, policy more gender-responsive climate change policies, proposals now include women‟s issues in truth and from national adaptation programs to the reconciliation efforts and psychosocial and international negotiations. socioeconomic activities.  In partnership with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNDP is working in Burkina Faso, (Excerpts from, “Fast Facts: Gender Equity and UNDP,” available Mali and Senegal to roll out 600 sustainable, rural at: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/fast-facts/english/FF-Gender-Equality-and-UNDP.pdf)

Tender Opportunities

Evaluation of the Danish Engagement USAID Partnership for Education: Independent Review and in Palestine M&E Support Services in the Recommendation of Revised Best Education Sector in Ghana Practice of the PTA Bank‟s Anti-Money The overall objective of the Danish Laundering (AML) Policies and engagement is to contribute to USAID/Ghana‟s Office of Education Procedures in Kenya realisation of a two-state solution to solicits proposals for a Basic Ordering The Eastern and Southern African the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Agreement (BOA) for technical Trade and Development Bank (PTA encompassing the State of Israel and assistance and institutional capacity Bank) has received financing from the an independent, democratic, sovereign support to Ghana„s education sector French Development Agency (AFD) and contiguous State of Palestine, for the 5-year program “USAID and intends to apply part of the living side by side in peace and Partnership for Education: proceeds for review of existing (AML) security. The purpose of this Monitoring and Evaluating Support”. framework, including AML policies evaluation is to assess the contribution Major areas of support shall include: and procedures, and implementation of of Denmark to the establishment of a 1) Operationalizing the education recommendations. The services include viable democratic sovereign M&E system, including implementing a 6-week consultancy to support PTA Palestinian state as part of a a research agenda linked with the Bank to review and implement a negotiated two-state-solution. The Government of Ghana Education revised AML framework. The broad evaluation should document concrete Strategic Plan; 2) Strengthening objectives of the consultancy are to: (i) results achieved at the policy level as capacity and enhancing competencies, ensure that appropriate and adequate well as on the ground in Gaza and the knowledge and skills in efficient M&E measures are in place to protect the West Bank, and provide learning & practices of pertinent personnel in PTA Bank against risks related to recommendations for the future Ministry of Education, Ghana money laundering and the financing of programming of assistance to Education Service and local terrorism; (ii) review the design of the Palestine. organizations and institutions to PTA Bank‟s AML program and ensure promote evidence-based decision Expression of interest deadline: 13 that it is robust and effectively processes; 3) Supporting USAID/ implemented; and (iii) analyze the March 2014 Ghana Education Office performance PTA Bank‟s products, services, management and evaluation system. locations and customers, which will Proposal deadline: 13 March 2014 allow it to maintain effective policies and procedures.

Expression of interest deadline: 24 March 2014 5 Vol. 1, Issue 10, March 2014

Gender Equality at the Heart of Africa‟s Transformation: A Vision and a Strategy The quest to establish genuinely equal opportunity for men and women – in both their contribution to and their benefits from Africa‟s economic transformation – took a further step forward on Wednesday, January 22, 2014, when the Board of the African Development Bank Group approved its new Gender Strategy for the period 2014-2018. This represents a major milestone for the Bank, and it puts in place one of the critical foundations for realizing the „Africa at 50‟ and „post-2015‟ development agendas,” said Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the Bank‟s newly appointed Special Envoy on Gender. “What is new in this Strategy is not just the recognition that gender equality is a human right, but that development will not happen unless women are fully included in the process. It will take our work to a new level.” The Gender Strategy is closely aligned with the Bank’s overarching 2013-2022 Strategy, „At the center of Africa‟s transformation‟, and its core objective of promoting inclusive growth which will broaden the opportunities for both women and men. Promoting gender equality sits alongside two other „areas of special emphasis‟ in the Bank Strategy: supporting fragile states, and supporting agriculture and food security. The Gender Strategy itself therefore sets out how it will engage in these two areas. It is built around three mutually reinforcing pillars which were identified as being key to addressing the underlying causes of gender inequalities in Africa. These are: strengthening women‟s legal and property rights; promoting women‟s economic empowerment; and enhancing knowledge management and capacity building on gender equality. To date, the Bank has been mainstreaming gender equality work in its five operational priorities: infrastructure development, regional integration, private sector development, governance and accountability, and skills and technology. In July 2013, it received a US Treasury Development Impact Honors Award for a project focused on restoring social services and reducing gender-based violence in post-conflict Côte d‟Ivoire. Going forward under the new Strategy, the Bank commits itself to greater and better integration of gender equality in all its programmes. Much of this work will revolve around strengthening the capacity of African countries to put into practice their own commitments to gender equality. The Strategy also stresses the Bank‟s need to lead by example, as it works to support its member countries in Africa to promote gender equality. It commits to transforming the Bank‟s own organisational culture regarding gender equality, in its staffing and in its working culture. It proposes the strengthening of the Bank‟s gender expertise in its field operations, and the appointment of „champions‟ of the cause of gender equality, inside and outside the Bank. In Ms. Fraser-Moleketi‟s words: “We must make gender the business of all staff at the Bank. We want to create a Bank that lives and breathes gender equality, and this Strategy gives us the vision – and the nuts and bolts – of how we will do it. And that work must and will be measurable, in line with Bank-wide processes of monitoring and evaluation.” “It is a stark fact that half of Africa’s people bear considerably more than half of its problems”, said Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank Group. “Real growth has to be for women as much as for men, for younger people as for older, for rural communities as much as urban. And we know that economic growth alone does not suffice to create gender equality: it requires political and practical will to drive the gender agenda forward.” (http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/gender-equality-at-the-heart-of-africas-transformation-a-vision-and-a-strategy-12761/)

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