World Bank has released its annual ranking of the Best Countries for Women.
Over the last 50 years, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa has seen a record gain in their average scores of more than 30 points.
According to World Bank’s latest annual rankings, Mauritius is once against the best African country for women to live in.
The Women, Business and the Law 2021 report is the seventh in a series of annual studies measuring the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The project presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they move through their careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension.
Here are the 10 best African countries to live in if you’re a woman, ranked in ascending order.
10. Kenya/Rwanda – 80.6
9. Tanzania – 81.3
8. Mozambique – 82.5
7. Côte d’Ivoire – 83.1
6. Liberia 83.8
5. Togo – 84.4
4. Namibia – 86.3
3. Zimbabwe – 86.9
2. South Africa – 88.1
1. Mauritius – 91.9
Key findings from the report include
On average, women have just three-quarters of the legal rights afforded to men.
Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Sweden all topped the list—scoring 100 on the Women, Business and the Law index.
Since 2019, 27 economies from all regions have enacted reforms increasing gender equality.
Most reforms introduced or amended laws affecting pay and parenthood. There were no reforms addressing gender differences in property and inheritance as measured by the Assets indicator.
The Middle East and North Africa and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) high-income economies improved their laws the most in 2019/20.
Over the last 50 years, three regions—OECD high income, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa—have seen a record gain in their average scores of more than 30 points.
