Nigeria fails to close widening gender gap even in 2017

princess abumere

November 2, 2017 4:23 PM

Nigeria comes in at 122 out of 144 countries in the 2017 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum.

While Nigeria is focuses on diversifying from oil, fighting against corruption and showcasing our talent to the world, it appears we are lagging behind in closing the parity gap between men and women in their contributions to society.

According to data released in the Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Nigeria comes in at 122 out of 144 countries. The report explored and ranked the progress of gender-based disparities in different countries particularly in Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.

“The rankings are designed to create global awareness of the challenges posed by gender gaps and the opportunities created by reducing them,” the World Economic Forum posted on its website.

However since the WEF started tracking this ten years ago, the international organisation revealed that for the first time things didn’t look so good.

“A bad year in a good decade: the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2017 finds the parity gap across health, education, politics and the workplace widening for the first time since records began in 2006”, it shared in a press release today November 2, 2017.

“A total of 68% of the world’s gender gap is now closed, with the reversal driven by declining gender equality in the workplace and political representation”.

Former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesil

“WE have to prepare ourselves RAPIDLY for Post-Oil Nigeria & BEST way is to EMPOWER, ACTIVATE & UNLEASH the TALENTS of ALL our GIRLS & WOMEN”, she tweeted.

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The education and contribution of women is important for the growth of any economy.

“We are moving from the era of capitalism into the era of talentism. Competitiveness on a national and on a business level will be decided more than ever before by the innovative capacity of a country or a company. Those will succeed best, who understand to integrate women as an important force into their talent pool,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum.

In the list of top 10 countries who’ve been able close the gap, Rwanda is the only African country which makes an appearance. Namibia and South Africa make it in the list of top 20 countries.

“Sub-Saharan Africa displays a wider range of gender gap outcomes than any other region, with three countries; Rwanda (4), Namibia (13) and South Africa (19) in the global top 20, as well as many of the lowest-ranked countries in the Index, such as Mali (139) and Chad (141). Of the 30 countries from the region covered by the Index this year, 13 countries have increased their overall score compared to last year, while 17 have seen it decrease”, the reports regional analysis revealed.

princess abumere