Daily Times

The Global Gender Gap report 2017 is out and Pakistan continues to rank second worst country with the rank of 143 out of 144 countries, with a score of 0.546 on a scale where zero denotes gender imparity and one represents parity. However, before we go into the specifics of findings, there is need to take stock of the larger framework of efforts to promote gender equality.

Pakistan continues to rank among the bottom most countries by Global Gender Gap report for many years since its inception in 2006. One can discuss specifics year after year and there has been some improvement in some indicators, yet the overall scenario remains unchanged.

There are three main stakeholders working to promote gender equality: the government of Pakistan, international donors and civil society. All of them need to hold themselves accountable and show results that bear improvement in gender equality status in Pakistan.

One does not want to discount the fact that drivers of gender inequality are structural. For example, according to report, Pakistan ranks 143 out of 144 countries in economic participation and opportunity with a score of 0.309, while the average cumulative score of all countries is 0.585. There are structural and cultural barriers to women’s economic participation in Pakistan; yet these dynamics are also changing due to increasing urbanisation and women’s largely undocumented role in agriculture and informal economy.

Pakistan ranks better in educational attainment with a rank of 136 out of 144 countries and a score of 0.802, while the average score is 0.953. Enrolment in primary and tertiary education rank high. Female to male ratio in primary education is 0.86 and in tertiary 0.87. However, an obvious shortcoming is methodologies based on enrolment is that they do not capture retention and graduation in educational levels post-enrolment and miss out on hugely important factor of drop-out ratios.

There are three main stakeholders working to promote gender equality: the government of Pakistan, international donors and civil society. All of them need to hold themselves accountable and show results that bear improvement in gender equality status in Pakistan

In health and survival, Pakistan ranks 140 out of 144 countries with a score of 0.948, while the average score is 0.956. In terms of sex ratio at birth, Pakistan ranks 139 with a score of 0.920. The sex ratio numbers for Pakistan are abysmal. Yet, in terms of absolute numbers, Pakistan’s score in health and survival shows it to be closer to the parity end. However, in comparative terms, other countries rank better than Pakistan.

The category that gets Pakistan the highest rank of 95 out of 144 countries is political participation. Pakistan’s score is 0.127, while the average score is 0.227. Again in absolute terms, both Pakistan’s score and world average are very low. However, Pakistan ranks much better in political participation than other categories discussed above largely due to women being in the Parliament on reserved seats and Benazir being the head of state for a few years in Pakistan’s last fifty years of history. Pakistan ranks really low in terms of women in ministerial positions with the rank of 139 out of 144 countries.

However, there is need to go beyond the numbers and take stock of the main actors’ performance in the promotion of gender equality. As far as government is concerned, a flurry of pro-women legislation has been passed in the recent past. The real bottleneck is weak implementation, capacity and political will to translate the legislation into drivers of gender equality. In terms of government commissions, the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women is doing some path-breaking work.

Although international donors are accountable to their host countries and their taxpayers whose resources are spent on promoting gender equality in Pakistan, there is a dire need for the donor community to take stock of its efforts. Despite donor funding, Pakistan continues to rank amongst the worst countries in terms of gender parity year after year. The donor funding is too segmented and everyone is busy showing activities to their host countries despite working in silos.

Given the structural and cultural factors in a patriarchal society, it is not easy to achieve outcomes in short-term horizons. Donors need to set a long-term collaborative agenda in partnership with the government of Pakistan that cuts through agency distinctions. Donors are also increasing working through middle layer of international contractors that adds another tier to gender machinery and often deprives or makes it difficult for small civil society organisations to tap funds or perform to scales that could manifest real change. Government, international donors and civil society need to learn and reformulate the way they work, if we want the Global Gender Gap to be any different for 2018.

The writer has a social science background and can be reached on twitter @FoqiaKhan

Published in Daily Times, November 7^th 2017.