A Snapshot of Gender Equality, Women's Empowerment, and Women's Economic Empowerment in Selected African Countries using the Women's Empowerment Index (WEI) and the Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI)

Gender equality and women's empowerment are pivotal in ensuring that the rights, freedoms, and potential of women and girls are secured. Meeting these goals is important for women and girls to be accorded their apt status in the economy and wider society as a whole. Slow progress in gender equality means that it is unlikely to be attained by 2030. Results from the Women Empowerment Index (WEI) for 30 African countries show that there are only three countries that have at least 60% of women who are empowered and eleven countries where at least 50% of women are empowered. Scores for the Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI) for thirty African countries indicate that only three countries have small gender gaps of between 14% and 17%, whereas gender gaps of between 40% and 60% are found in ten countries. Gender equality and women's empowerment should ultimately aid the economic empowerment of women to generate economic growth and reduce poverty levels. Thus, the economic growth and poverty reduction spinoffs that emanate from the economic empowerment of women underpin the attainment of the other SDGs.