Global Gender Gap Index 2022 – Assessing Nepal’s Progress

As the world grapples with a multitude of challenges and risks, innovation and interventions across sectors has improved way of life and economic processes, however, developments in gender parity have stayed sluggish. Women and girls across the world encounter challenge in accessing and availing opportunities, that has stunted the progress on filling the gender gap. According to the Gender Gap Report, published every year since 2006 by the World Economic Forum, it would take 132 years more to close the global gender gap. The report assesses the progress on gender equality across four critical aspects – Economic Participation and Opportunity; Educational Attainment; Health and Survival; and Political Empowerment. The index is a tool for policy leaders, researchers, development practitioners, and the civil society. It acts as a catalyst for greater awareness and better dialogue between policymakers by offering a coherent framework to realize the importance of incorporating gender parity as the core of policy and practice.

According to the Global Gender Gap Index 2022, among other regions of the world, South Asia ranks the lowest in improving its gender gap. In the South Asian region, Nepal and Bangladesh lead with nearly 69% and 71% of respective gender gaps filled. Additionally, the 2022 report significantly highlights the impacts of the pandemic on women. Globally, women were impacted by the pandemic much more than men, which resulted in worsening of existing gaps in women’s prospects in education, income generation and employment.

Economy and Gender Parity

For countries to move towards sustainable development and inclusive growth, improvement in policies impacting women needs to be encouraged. Advancement in gender equality creates opportunities for the formation of human capital, improved labor productivity, creation of new jobs, reduction in poverty, and holistic development of socio-economic aspects. Access to opportunities and investing in human capital for boosting women’s empowerment positively impacts GDP. In the past decade, Nepal has committed to multiple international pacts focussing on equality, social justice, and non-discrimination, however the pace has been slow in bringing change in increasing participation and representation of women in politics, economy and education .

Figure 1. Nepal’s gender gap compared to GDP (2012-2022)

Source: World Bank

Working towards narrowing the gender gap has direct impact on creating a sustainable and growing economy. Gender gap index and GDP are both correlated and causal in nature. Steady growth in GDP shows steady growth in Gender Gap Index for Nepal and vice versa (Figure 1), which concludes that Nepal’s focus on policies related to female labor participation, reducing gaps in human capital establishments and increased education among women leads to GDP growth. Consequently, improved economic landscapes tend to create better and more accessible opportunities for women to enter the political, social, and economic space.

According to the International Labor Organization, the pandemic resulted in the loss of 1.6 to 2 million Female Nepali workers because of total loss of job or reduced working hours, resulting in lower income. According to a study conducted in 2021 by the Asia Foundation, in Nepal, 37% of companies imposed a wage drop in their female employees’ salary, with 58% imposing a 50% compensation reduction. Moreover, 5% of organizations gave their female employees a wage decreases of 100%.

Nepal’s performance in gender gap index dimensions

In the Gender Gap Index 2022, Nepal scored a 0.692 for gender parity (figure 2). The country performed best in the political empowerment dimension with a score of 58 out of 146. In terms of Economic Participation and Opportunity, the country ranks 98 and 125 in Educational Attainment. In the Health and Survival aspect, Nepal ranked 109 among 146 countries.

Figure 2. Gender Gap Index Dimensions

Nepal ranks highest among other South Asian countries in the Political Empowerment dimension due to a concerted effort to promote women’s participation in governance processes. Nepal’s transition to a federal government gave women a remarkable opportunity to actively engage in diverse sectors. In fact, women were elected to 41% of the local government posts in the 2017 elections. This achievement may be partly attributed to the 2015 Constitution’s explicit inclusion of the principles of equity, participation, equality, and non-discrimination, as well as regulations enforced by the Election Commission, which required 40% of nominees in the 2017 election to be women. Nepal has also displayed an increased support in including women in labor force participation. During 2018-19, Nepal mandated equal remuneration for work of equal value and removed restrictions on women’s ability to work at night. With regard to Health and Survival, Nepal has not made much progress, but when compared to other countries in the south Asian region, it has been performing consistently. Additionally, even though Nepal has achieved substantial gender parity in elementary school enrollment and arresting the issue of females drop out, particularly in the upper grades, living in distant locations, coming from low-income households, cases of early marriage, gender-based violence, and inadequate learning settings are all factors that continue to widen the gap across the four dimensions.

Conclusion

From the recent index, it is evident that Nepal has improved across dimensions in creating accessible opportunities, however, women continue to be the disadvantaged community of the population. According to a study conducted in 2016, despite economic prosperity, Nepali women continue to face more barriers to economic opportunities than women elsewhere in the globe. A substantial portion of these variations in women’s economic activity can be attributed to deeply embedded cultural standards, notably those controlling household allocations.

In 2022, the following measures can be considered to address the gender gap in Nepal that can assist in reducing gender disparities. One of them is enacting legislation to ensure that women have equal rights to own property and access credit. Gender empowerment must be enhanced through equal access to health care, such as publicly financed maternity and paternity leave, increased childcare, and elder care providers. As for the economic dimension, opportunities in the formal labor force should be enlarged and made conducive for women. Coordinated efforts across government bodies and civil society to propel agency and resilience through human capital and economic empowerment should be the priority.