Africa

Africa: Reasons to be proud

At senior levels Africa is a global leader in gender equality

In the private sector, Africa has more women in executive committee, CEO, and board roles in companies than the average worldwide.

At executive committee level, African women hold 23 percent of positions, compared with a global average of 20 percent. At CEO level, they hold 5 percent of positions, compared with 4 percent globally, making Africa the top-performing region alongside the United States.

In 11 African countries, women hold close to one-third of the seats in parliaments.

Rwanda has the highest proportion of women parliamentarians in the world. It is the first and only country in the world where more than half of parliamentarians are female

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest regional female entrepreneurial activity rate in the world, with nearly a third of businesses having some female ownership.

In African government the number of women parliamentarians has almost doubled over the past 15 years and the number of women in cabinet has grown fivefold in 35 years.

Women are more active as economic agents in Africa than anywhere else in the world. They perform the majority of agricultural activities, own a third of all firms and, in some countries, make up some 70% of employees.

Agriculture remains the backbone of Africa’s economy, employing 70% of the population. Women play a major role in the agricultural economy; they make up two-thirds of the agricultural labour force and produce the majority of Africa’s food.