Progress Made, but More Reforms Needed

World Bank -Women, Business and the Law 2023 Report

By: Christian Conteh

Globally the pace of reforms toward equal treatment of women under the law has slumped to a 20-year low, constituting a potential impediment to economic growth at a critical time for the global economy the new World Bank report on Women, Business and the Law 2023 indicates (WBL2023).

“At a time when global economic growth is slowing, all countries need to mobilize their full productive capacity to confront the confluence of crises besetting them,” said Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.

Adding that “Governments can’t afford to sideline as much as half of their population. Denying equal rights to women across much of the world is not just unfair to women; it is a barrier to countries’ ability to promote green, resilient, and inclusive development.”

Back home, Sierra Leone has received a score of 72.5 out of 100. The index covers 190 economies and is structured around the life cycle of a working woman. In total, 35 questions are scored across eight indicators. Sierra Leone’s score is lower than the regional average observed across Sub-Saharan Africa (72.6), and the maximum score observed in the region is 95 (Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon).

According to the report, Sierra Leone’s strengths lie in the constraints on freedom of movement, constraints related to marriage, and constraints on women starting and running a business, for which it received a perfect score. However, the report also highlighted areas where the law does not provide equal treatment for women, including laws affecting women’s decisions to work, laws affecting women’s pay, laws affecting women’s work after having children, gender differences in property and inheritance, and laws affecting the size of a woman’s pension.

The report suggests that Sierra Leone could consider reforms to improve legal equality for women. For example, the WBL2023 Parenthood indicator, which measures laws affecting women’s work after having children, received one of the lowest scores for Sierra Leone. To improve on this indicator, Sierra Leone may wish to consider making paid leave of at least 14 weeks available to mothers, making the government administer 100% of maternity leave benefits, making paid leave available to fathers, making paid parental leave available, and prohibiting the dismissal of pregnant workers.

Despite these gaps, the report also notes that Sierra Leone has made some progress in advancing gender equality through legal reforms. For example, there are laws prohibiting discrimination in access to credit based on gender, and women have the same rights to inherit assets as men.

The report provides a useful summary of the legal rights and protections afforded to women in Sierra Leone and highlights areas where further reforms are needed to promote gender equality. While no reforms were observed during the past year (October 2nd, 2021 – October 1st, 2022), it is hoped that the government will take note of the report’s recommendations and work towards implementing necessary reforms.

It is important to note that there have been several recent reforms in the government’s quest to promote gender equality and empower women across the country. The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy which gave birth to the Gender Empowerment Act of 2021 and makes provision for reserved seats for women in public offices is one of the several available examples.