Saturday, October 26, 2013

Progress in reducing gender inequality

Nepal has made consistent progress in reducing gender inequality, according to Global Gender Gap Report 2013. However, much more needs to be done in moving up the ranking. This necessitates further improvements in economic participation, education attainment, health and survival and political empowerment.

Below is a chart that shows the rank and score of Nepal in global gender gap index, which provides insights into access to resources and opportunities (note that it does not give insights into the actual levels of the available resources and opportunities).


The index is aggregated based on scores in the following four indicators:

  • Economic participation and opportunity – salaries, participation and highly skilled employment
  • Educational attainment – access to basic and higher levels of education
  • Political empowerment – representation in decision-making structures
  • Health and survival – life expectancy and sex ratio
Overall, Nepal ranks 12th in labor force participation; 1st in sex ratio at birth (female/male); 22nd in women in parliament; 115th in estimated earned income (PPP US$); 125th in literacy rate; 126th in enrollment in primary education; and 110 in professional and technical workers.