Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Indian Ocean Rim: Progress and Challenges

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, released this report on December 16, 2020. It is a follow-up on the 2015 UN Women baseline report, Enabling Women’s Contributions to the Indian Ocean Rim Economies. Drawing on social economist Naila Kabeer’s work on women’s overall and economic empowerment, the report uses three markers – resources, agency and achievements – to examine women’s participation in labour markets, politics and leadership. It uses publicly available data to highlight case studies, good practices and recommendations for the 22 member states of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to effectively address gender gaps. The report explains women’s economic empowerment along the definition provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA): “the process which increases women’s real power over economic decisions that influence their lives and priorities in society.” The report finds an increase in women’s labour participation and business ownership since 2000. However, it also highlights that such changes depend considerably on their countries, education and skill levels, prevalent gender norms, and policies enforced in the public and private sectors.The 91-page report has six sections: Introduction (Section 1); Women in the economy (Section 2); Resources (Section 3); Agency (Section 4); Measuring achievements (Section 5); and Conclusion and recommendations (Section 6). The report also contains five Annexes.