Tracking Progress towards Gender Equality

#### **Chapter 1**

## Introductory Chapter: Where the World Stands in Gender Equality?

*Feyza Bhatti*

#### **1. Introduction**

The last two decades marked with substantial improvements in gender equality across the world. There have been important advances in closing gender gaps, particularly in education and health, yet the progress in closing gender gaps in economic and political participation has been very slow. Based on the progress between 2006 and 2023, it is estimated that the gender parity in political participation and economic participation will be reached after 162 and 169 years, respectively [1].

There is no country in the world that has achieved gender equality. Gender inequalities persist in all countries and regions of the world, but the nature and level of inequalities vary. The gender differences in economic and political participation, access to opportunities and decision-making power and social norms and expectations with regard to the gender roles continue to make the world unequal for genders.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasise the need to 'achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls' by 2030. SDG5 calls for elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against women, ensuring equal opportunities in leadership and full and effective participation of women and pledges for the recognition of unpaid care work.

Halfway to the SDGs 2030 agenda, this introductory chapter aims at providing a snapshot of the progress in gender equality by the regions of the world.

#### **2. Gender inequalities in education: access to opportunities**

The last decade has delivered considerable improvements in education. Since 2010, the gaps in adult literacy rates closed by two percentage points. The women's literacy rate increased from 80% in 2010 to 83.8% in 2022, and for men, adult literacy rate increased from 88.4% to 90.3% (**Figure 1**).

While the gaps in literacy are almost closed in Europe and Central Asia, North America and Latin America and Caribbean, they persist in Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and in South Asia (**Figure 2**).

The gender gaps in access to education have been closed. Girls once have access to schooling have higher rates of completion at primary, lower secondary and upper secondary levels globally (**Table 1**). Yet in sub-Saharan Africa, only one in every four girls can complete upper secondary schooling and half of the girls in Central and Southern Asia cannot complete secondary school. These two regions are also the ones where girls are less likely to complete upper secondary school as compared to boys.

**Figure 1.** *Adult literacy rate by sex, 2010–2022. Source: World Bank [2] Gender statistics.*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Adult literacy rate by sex and region, 2022. Source: World Bank [2] Gender statistics.*


#### **Table 1.**

*Completion rate by sex and education level, 2022 (%).*

*Introductory Chapter: Where the World Stands in Gender Equality? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114813*

Despite closing gender gaps in formal education, in 2019, there were 257 million boys who were out of school. In addition, in 2022, the proportion of young women (aged 15–24) who were not in school, employment or training was 31.2% as compared to 15.4% among young men, reflecting the uneven chances of young women and men in building their skills. These gaps were highest in Central and Southern Asia (W48.7%, M15.4%), followed by Northern Africa and Western Asia (W40.2%, M17.9%) [4].

#### **3. Women's health**

Maternal mortality ratio has declined steadily for two decades from 339 to 223 deaths per 100,000 births between 2000 and 2020. Inadequate health systems, socioeconomic inequalities and obstructive gender norms continue to halt the progress in maternal mortality, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where nine out of ten maternal deaths occur. Women in sub-Saharan Africa area 130 more likely to die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth as compared to women in North America or Europe (**Figure 3**) [5].

The births attended by skilled health personnel indicate the capacity of healthcare systems in providing sufficient care during birth. Globally, almost nine in every ten births (86.2%) were attended by a health personnel in 2022. While most of the regions of the world have reached almost universal skilled care at birth, sub-Saharan Africa, the region with highest maternal mortality ratios, three out of ten women do not have access to skilled personnel during childbirth (**Figure 4**). Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South Asia also have the highest rate of pregnant women (aged 15–39) with anaemia by 46.2%.

In 2023, 648.2 million girls were married before the age of 18 globally; 18.7% of the women aged 20–24 years were married before the age of 18, and 4.2% married before the age of 15. The child marriages were most common in sub-Saharan Africa (32.4%), followed by Central and Southern Asia (24.9%) (**Figure 5**). With the current trends, the world is 300 years away from ending child marriages [5].

#### **Figure 3.**

*Maternal mortality ratio (modelled estimate, per 100,000 live births). Source: World Bank [2] Gender statistics.*

#### **Figure 4.**

*Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel %. Source: UNICEF and WHO [6] Joint global database on skilled attendance at birth.*

#### **Figure 5.**

*Proportion of women aged 20–24 years who were married or in a union before age 18 and 15 (%). Source: UNICEF [7] The child marriage data portal.*

As compared to 2010, more women and girls have access to sexual and reproductive services. Globally, there has been two percentage increase in the proportion of women of reproductive age who have their family planning satisfied with modern methods (**Figure 6**). Despite a significant leap forward from 45.9% in 2010 to 57.4% in 2023, sub-Saharan Africa remains behind all the other regions

*Introductory Chapter: Where the World Stands in Gender Equality? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114813*

#### **Figure 6.**

*Proportion of women of reproductive age who have their need for family planning satisfied with modern methods (% of women aged 15–49 years). Source: United Nations Population Division [8] Estimates and projections of family planning indicators 2022.*

of the world, followed by North Africa and West Asia (64%) and Central and South Asia (75%).

#### **4. Women's position in the labour market: chronic inequalities and little progress**

Attaining gender equality in the labour market remains as the main challenge among all. While women's position in the labour market varies greatly across the countries and the regions of the world, women continue to remain underrepresented in the labour market in all countries and regions. Compared to men, women are less likely to participate in the labour market, work full-time, more likely to be employed in the informal and lower-paid jobs and less likely to be represented at the higherlevel positions, which results in gender pay gaps and higher risks of women to live in poverty. Tackling the inequalities in the labour market, thus is particularly important to improve women's lives.

Women's economic participation, which can be observed through labour force participation rates (LFPR), have been varying between 47 and 49% over the last decade. In 2022, globally the LFPR of women was 47.3% as compared to men 72.5%; there were 65 women participating in the labour market per 100 (**Figure 7**).

While gender parity was not attained in any of regions of the world, the gender gaps in LFPR were highest in Middle East and North Africa (W18.8%, M70.9%) and South Asia (W25.6%, M74.7%) (**Figure 8**).

While the variations across regions echo differences in levels of economic and human development, social norms, education levels, fertility rates and access to care

**Figure 8.**

*LFPR by sex and region, 2022. Source: World Bank [2] Gender statistics.*

#### **Figure 9.**

*Time spend on unpaid care work by sex, minutes per day, latest available year. Source: OECD [10] Data explorer.*

and other supportive services, the detrimental role of gender differences in unpaid care work and gender role norms cannot be denied.

Gender inequality in unpaid care work, which is also entrenched in the traditional gender norms and stereotypes, has been seen as the missing link for analysing the gender gaps in labour outcomes [9]. Women continue to bear the unequal burden of unpaid care work irrespective of the level of development of their countries. Unequal burden of unpaid care work is one of the manifestations of gender inequalities as well as the causes that perpetuate gender inequalities that result from discriminatory social institutions and gender roles. Globally women spend 2.8 hours more than men on unpaid care and domestic work [5]. In all countries for which the data is available, the unequal burden of unpaid care work is quite noticeable (**Figure 9**).

#### **5. Women in decision-making**

Women's presence in decision-making positions is a central requirement for achieving gender equality. Women's participation in political decision-making is a means of ensuring better accountability to women that can lead to better genderresponsive reforms and policies. Despite improvements during the last decade, women are still underrepresented in political and economic decision-making positions. On the average women account, only 27% of the national parliaments, and 35% of deliberative bodies of local governments. Similarly, the proportion of women in managerial positions was only 28% in 2021, with almost no improvement for the last decade. The representation of women in political and economic decision-making positions varied significantly across the regions of the world, with moderate improvements (**Table 2**).


#### **Table 2.**

*Women at decision-making positions by regions.*


#### **Table 3.**

*Legal frameworks that promote, enforce and monitor gender equality (percentage of achievement, 0 – 100), 2022.*

#### **6. Availability of legal frameworks for gender equality**

In order to reach the gender equality, legal frameworks that are in place to enforce gender equality in all countries are vital. **Table 3** shows the extent to which countries have legislative frameworks in place for gender equality in four areas. With some variations across regions, globally the legislation that is in place for gender equality varies between 70.2% in Area 1 to 80% in Area 4. It is estimated that it will take another 286 years to close gaps in legal protection and remove existing discriminatory laws [5].

#### **7. Conclusions**

This introductory chapter provides a snapshot of gender (in)equalities at global and regional levels and highlights that gender equality remains as an unfinished business across the world. The slow and incremental progress that has been made over the last decade indicates that change is possible. This change would require various but interdependent strategies, including strengthening legal reforms, transformations of traditional gender roles, scaling up gender-responsive public service delivery, quotas for women in representation and other global, national or local level strategies that have the potential to transform the lives of women for the better.

*Introductory Chapter: Where the World Stands in Gender Equality? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114813*

#### **Author details**

Feyza Bhatti Faculty of Business, Girne American University Kyrenia, North Cyprus

\*Address all correspondence to: feyzabhatti@gau.edu.tr

© 2024 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

### **References**

[1] World Economic Forum. Global gender gap report 2023. 2023. Available from: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/ WEF\_GGGR\_2023.pdf

[2] World Bank. Gender statistics. 2024. Available from: https://databank. worldbank.org/source/gender-statistics

[3] UNESCO Institute of Statistics. Data for the sustainable development goals. 2024. Available from: https://uis.unesco.org/

[4] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. SDG global database. 2024. Available from: https:// unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal

[5] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The progress on the sustainable development goals: The gender snapshot 2023. 2023. Available from: https://unstats. un.org/sdgs/gender-snapshot/2023/ GenderSnapshot.pdf

[6] UNICEF and WHO. Joint database on skilled attendant at birth. 2023. Available from: http://www.who.int/whosis/ whostat/en/

[7] UNICEF. The child marriage data portal. 2024. Available from: https:// childmarriagedata.org/

[8] United Nations Population Division. Family planning indicators. 2022. Available from: https://www. un.org/development/desa/pd/data/ family-planning-indicators

[9] Ferrant G, Pesando LM, Nowacka K. Unpaid care work: The missing link in the analysis of gender gaps in labour outcomes. 2014. Available from: https:// www.oecd.org/dev/development-gender/ Unpaid:care\_work.pdf

[10] OECD. OECD data explorer. 2024. Available from: https://data-explorer. oecd.org/

[11] UN Women. Women count SDG indicator dashboard. 2024. Available from: https://data.unwomen.org/

#### **Chapter 2**

## Gender Inequality in South Asia: Tracing Impediments to SDG 5 of UN Sustainable Development Goals

*Ziya Hasan*

#### **Abstract**

The Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030) of the United Nations are the blueprints for a prosperous and sustainable future for the whole world. The SDG 5, entitled, 'to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls', is one of its important goals. In South Asia, women have always been ostracized and remained underprivileged in accessing their rights due to gender inequality. Therefore, the study traces the entrenched problems and impediments to gender equality and explores the extent, range, and accessibility of women's rights in the South Asian region, which supports the quest for women's gender equality in achieving the United Nations SDGs. Qualitatively, findings reveal the abysmal position of South Asian region typifying low echelons for gender equality in every sphere. Hence, it focuses on suggesting efficacious measures such as improving the social and political rights of women and their full and effective inclusion in the mainstream that can help in women's advancement and to curb gender inequalities that give significant impetus for the sustainable development of the region.

**Keywords:** gender inequality, South Asia, sustainable development, SDG 5, women's rights

#### **1. Introduction**

Gender inequality is an inexorable problem in many parts of the world, including South Asian region. In South Asia, gender inequality is caustically entrenched in the customs and cultures of the societies that affect all aspects of women's lives. In many parts of the region, women are sternly subjected to discriminatory practices and norms that limit their access to social life, i.e., education, healthcare, and economic opportunities and including political participation. This has significant repercussions on women's health, well-being, and decision-making power. According to the Global Gender Gap Index (2022), *'South Asia ranks the lowest, with only 62.3% of the gender gap closed in 2022. This lack of progress since the last edition extends the wait to close the gender gap to 197 years, due to a broad stagnation in gender parity scores across most countries in* 

*the region'.* [1]: p. 61 Despite the significant progress in gender perspectives through equality made in recent years over the world, women in the South Asian region still face significant challenges in accessing their rights and realizing gender equality. In this respect, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030) provide a prominent framework to address this issue and promote gender equality globally. SDG 5, in particular, focuses on achieving 'gender equality and empowering all women and girls'. However, accomplishing this goal requires a deeper understanding of the challenges and impediments women face in the region. This study is a review article based on qualitative method studies to provide an overview of gender inequality in South Asia by reviewing the current status of accessibility of women's rights through gaging secondary data including existing empirical studies on South Asia. It also seeks to identify strategies for promoting gender equality and providing policymakers with useful information on the key legal gaps and inconsistencies that have undermined efforts to address gender inequality, particularly in light of the constitutional guarantees, for developing efficacious policy measures to reduce gender disparity in achieving SDG 5.

Since the twenty-first century, the notion of 'gender equality' is strongly emphasized in the area of development. The process of development of any country cannot be imagined without adopting the principle of gender equality. Ignoring about half of the population in the mainstreaming process is an injustice to them. 'Gender Equality' as defined by United Nations Population Fund, is 'Equality between men and women exists when both sexes are able to share equally in the distribution of power and influence; have equal opportunities for financial independence through work or through setting up businesses; enjoy equal access to education and the opportunity to develop personal ambitions, interests and talents; share responsibility for the home and children and are completely free from coercion, intimidation and gender-based violence both at work and at home' [2].

Several retrospective studies [3–10] proved gender equality is a key to development. Gender equality and development have a symbiotic bond. If a country improves its gender equality indicator, it progresses in every development sphere. Therefore, it is evident that a constructive relationship between development and gender equality, e.g., reducing poverty, improving access to good health, decision-making, and education, creates enormous opportunities for women. Gender inequality has been regarded as one of the leading barriers to the sustainable development of a society, country, or region at large. Discrimination based on gender can have a negative influence on the health, education, social, and economic prospects of the next generation. When gender norms are first internalized during childhood and adolescence, gender disparity first manifests.

#### **2. Gender inequality in South Asia: problems and impediments**

South Asia is strategically a significant geographic unit and sub-region in the Asian continent, covering a land area of about 5.13 million km2 [11]. It is a region of diverse people, cultures, traditions, beliefs, and religions that results in a complex social structure which further plays a major role in defining women's roles. It consists

<sup>1</sup> The Global Gender Gap Index scales the current state and evolution of gender parity transversely these four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.

#### *Gender Inequality in South Asia: Tracing Impediments to SDG 5 of UN Sustainable… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112617*

of eight countries viz.: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Maldives, and Sri Lanka. The total population of South Asia is 1.94 billion, with women constituting about 48.8% and males constituting 51% approximately [11]. The Global Gender Gap Index (2022) placed Bangladesh at 71st rank out of 153 countries with an overall score of 0.714 and 1st in the South Asian region, followed by Nepal, which stands at 96th rank with a 0.692 score, Sri Lanka stands at 110th rank with a 0.0670 score, Maldives stands at 117th rank with a 0.648 score, Bhutan stands at 126th with a 0.637 score, India stands at 135th rank with a 0.629, Pakistan stands at 145th rank with a 0.564 score, and Afghanistan stands with 146th rank with 0.435 [1]. The status of women in this region is extremely subordinated to men. Gender inequality remains pervasive in South Asia, with women facing discrimination and exclusion from economic, social, and political opportunities. The root causes of gender inequality impeding equality in the region are complex and multifaceted, including cultural norms, patriarchal attitudes, and social and economic structures that perpetuate gender-based discrimination and exclusion. Patriarchal social standards make it harder for women, especially adolescent girls, to participate in family and community decision-making. The cultural and social norms often limit women's mobility and autonomy and restrict their access to decision-making and leadership roles. Their capacity to seek the realization of their rights to health, education, and public and economic participation is diminished as a result. They are extremely dependent on men in all spheres, whether socio-economic or political.

Women in the South Asian region are severely underrepresented in political and public life. As depicted in **Table 1**, only Nepal provides a significant share of women in political participation, whilst India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka show lower participation of women in political sphere. During the previous government in Afghanistan, women's participation was relatively better, whilst it has now restricted women's participation in public life. Further, the report 'Women in Politics: 2023' [12] explicates dismal political representation, with women holding only 19% of parliamentary seats in South Asia. Only Maldives stands out in the top fifty positions, which ranked 42nd


*Source: The World Bank, See: https://www.worldbank.org/en/home.\*As of year 2021.*

*\*\*Information is for different years as available on World Bank Data.*

#### **Table 1.**

*Significant indicators to measure gender inequality in South Asia.*

with 33.3% women having cabinet seats with significant participation of women, followed by Nepal at 120th with 15.8% women, Bhutan at 156th with 10% women, Bangladesh at 158th with 10% women, Pakistan at 161st with 9.4% women, India at 171st with 6.7% women, and Sri Lanka at 182nd with 0% women cabinet. The nations are positioned on low ranks, which is a matter of great international concern and can be attributed to gender disparity, due to which women face major challenges and lower levels of political participation. It also reveals no country can be credited for having Women Speaker in Parliament, and only India and Nepal have women as heads of the state in the whole region.

Moreover, women in South Asia face a range of barriers to their rights and high rates of gender-based violence and discrimination in social life. Across South Asia, more than 37% of women have experienced intimate relationship violence during the recent worldwide coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, there are claims of an increase in sexual harassment and assault against women, both online and offline, as well as an increase in girl-child marriage in some cases [13]. In Sri Lanka, where women experience sexual harassment in busses and trains is reportedly 90% [14]. In South Asia, there is massive gender inequality in the home, institutions, and society that affects young girls and women. Unlike Bhutan and Nepal, most nations do not have laws against marital rape.

Further, high adolescent pregnancy rates and poor reproductive health for girls continue to be significant problems in this region, especially in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan, where the need for contraception is frequently unfulfilled. In Afghanistan, Nepal, and Pakistan (**Table 1**), maternal mortality is exceptionally high. Teenage girls are more prone to high maternal mortality in the region. By virtue of having the largest government health spending in the region, Maldives, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka have the good financial protection indicators. In Bhutan and Maldives, government is responsible for providing over 70% and 43% in Sri Lanka of the funding for health care whilst other parts of the region are still burdened with health care spending out-of-pocket or directly paid by households. Afghanistan and Bangladesh have notably high out-of-pocket spending percentages at 77% and 72%, respectively. This demonstrates how expensive health care is for households in these parts due to the inadequate government provision of healthcare services [15]. Evidence suggests that poverty, illiteracy, and social inequity support high rates of poor maternal and child health as vital factors in South Asia [16]. This elucidates the grave condition of maternal and child care in the region, which needs extra attention usually.

In the domain of education, access is frequently hampered by the interaction of gender and class for girls and women. Women and girls frequently experience the negative effects of inequality more acutely than do men and boys. Undeniably, due to lower-income countries, South Asian nations provide less governmental funding for education except for Bhutan, Nepal, and Maldives. According to a report, 3.37% of GDP is typically allocated to education in South Asian nations, the lowest proportion of any region and yet less than the global average of 4.8% [15]. This makes it more difficult for families and students to afford their education. As the facts reveal, females' education is sometimes viewed as a less valuable investment than that of males. The family would lose out financially if girls continued their studies in addition to having to pay school fees and other expenses. This gender disparity is probably caused by significant divergent gender roles that assign men and women to paid and unpaid domestic and care duties, respectively. Women have a greater burden of household chores in the whole region [17]. Some families see girls' education, especially education beyond

#### *Gender Inequality in South Asia: Tracing Impediments to SDG 5 of UN Sustainable… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112617*

high school, as a sunk expense because many girls are expected to marry and prioritize raising children rather than entering the workforce. However, in some nations, e.g., Sri Lanka and Maldives, the gender gap in familial investment is significantly less pronounced. Maldives has some of the best outcomes in the region, with a nearly 100% literacy rate and primary school enrolment. The literacy rate of the South Asian region is 65% for females (age 15 and above) in which Afghanistan is the lowest, standing at 17%, followed by Pakistan with 46%, Bhutan with 57%, Nepal with 60%, India with 66%, Bangladesh with 72%, Sri Lanka with 92%, and Maldives with 98% [18].

Notwithstanding, girls are less likely to get secondary and higher education in the whole region, whilst Afghanistan does not allow girls to get an education after primary level since 2021 under Taliban rule. Hitherto, from 2001 to 2018, girls' enrolment at the primary level improved from zero to four out of ten students, reminiscently, the female literacy rate also increased from 17 to 30% in Afghanistan [19]. This is highly an abysmal situation for women in Afghanistan, where they are banned from getting their basic fundamental right to education.

In the economic sphere, women's labour force participation rates (LFPR) fell from 35 to 30% between 1990 and 2013, creating a gender participation gap in the workforce of 50%. As shown in **Table 1**, Afghanistan, India, Maldives, and Pakistan have lower echelons for LFPR according to recent statistics. South Asia's declining LFPR for women is primarily attributable to decreased participation rates in India as a result of younger women continuing their education and a general lack of employment prospects for women. Further, there is a 33% gender wage discrepancy (compared to a global 24% imbalance). The wage discrepancies between men and women are more extensive in urban than rural areas: urban women made 42% less than men, compared to 28% less in rural areas. Rural areas have lower-than-average incomes for both men and women, and rural women are at the bottom of the earnings scale in absolute terms. In South Asia, agriculture continues to be the primary industry for employment, with 71% of women and 47% of men employed in it. Almost all employment in the agriculture sector is informal. In the whole region, female health and care workers are frequently paid less than the minimum wage or are even hired on a voluntary basis, as is the case with Anganwadi childcare workers in India. Analytically, women in South Asia report doing unpaid care and household work at rates ten times greater than those of men in Pakistan, close to seven times greater in India, and close to three times greater in Bangladesh [20]. In Bhutan, overall unemployment has significantly decreased by 0.2%, whilst women's unemployment has increased by 0.1% during 2021 [21]. Hence, women in South Asia are less likely than men to take part in the labour force, and when they do, they are often relegated to low-paying and insecure jobs.

#### **3. Legal rights of women in South Asia**

Constitutionally, South Asian nations follow the principle of equality and nondiscrimination2 . Women are comprehensively provided with several rights to access all spheres of life without being discriminated. The Constitutions of South Asian States explicitly guarantee women's rights as a fundamental right, and reaffirm the

<sup>2</sup> See: Article 7, Constitution of Bhutan, 2008; Article 27, 28, Constitution of Bangladesh 1972; Article 14, 15 The Constitution of India, 1950; Article 16, 20, Constitution of Maldives 2008; Constituent Assembly Secretariat, Preamble, Constitution of Nepal, 2015, Article 25 to 27 Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,1973; Article 12, Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka,1978.

education, health, employment, equal pay for equal work, right to safe motherhood and reproductive rights, social security and property rights, and the inclusive sharing of women in all walks of life. Unambiguously guaranteeing women equal rights, the Constitutions also give the state the authority to enact effective policies that optimistically empower women in the socio-economic and public spheres3 .

Undeniably, women are given the right to vote and contest elections at local and national levels to ensure political participation. Bangladesh guarantees 14% of parliamentary seats for women [22, 23]. Pakistan is also one of those nations that have benefitted women by giving certain electoral reservations to women at both local and national parliamentary levels [24, 25]. It provides 17% and 15% of seats to the lower house and Senate to be reserved for women, respectively [23, 25]. The new Constitution of Nepal guarantees imperatively 33% of seats for women at the national and state levels and about 40% at local government, strengthening the reliability of women's political life at all levels of the three-tier government system under Article 176 (9), 215 (4), and 216 (4) of the Constitution of Nepal] [23, 26, 27]. Since India has only guaranteed 33% reservation for women at the local level, i.e., Panchayat Raj Institutions through the 73rd and 74th Amendment Act 1993 and also, some Indian states empower women with 50% reservation at the local panchayat level. Lately, on September 29, 2023, the Indian government also assented to the Women Reservation Bill that was pending before the parliament for a prolonged period, which may now grab 33% of reservations for women in parliamentary seats in upcoming elections.

Notwithstanding, Bhutan, Maldives, and Sri Lanka behold no quota system for women's political representation at any level [23]. Further, in Afghanistan, women had equal rights to men under the Constitution of 2004. Even there was a significant reservation for women in national political representation under Article 84 that ensured reservation of 27% of seats in the Lower House and 50% of seats in the House of Elders for women [23, 28]. However, since August 2021, after seizing power again, the Taliban rule has utterly constricted women from enjoying public life [29].

In addition, several laws, development strategies, plans, and programmes have also been implemented to promote women empowerment and protect women from various kinds of gender-based violence against women in various spheres within the adequate framework of a democratic polity, e.g., National Gender Equality Policy (NGEP) 2020 in Bhutan [21], Joyeeta Onneshone Bangladesh in Bangladesh [30], Beti Bachao Beti Padhao in India [31], 2063 Amendment of Muluki Ain in Nepal (Marital rape law) [32], Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill in Pakistan [25], National Policy on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (2023) in Sri Lanka [33], etc. Formally, legislative provisions and policies by abolishing inequalities, prohibiting gender discrimination, and introducing system of reservations for women to some extent, small but gains have been grasped; a slight percentage of women have been benefited from educational opportunities, become wealthier, and risen to high government positions. However, these legal initiatives are not well enough to change society based on a patriarchal structure. Indeed, gender inequality remains a significant challenge in South Asia, and efforts to address this problem require an all-encompassing strategy that considers the intricate social, economic, and cultural factors perpetuating gender-based discrimination and exclusion.

<sup>3</sup> See: Article 19, Constitution of Bangladesh, 1972; Article 15, 16, 19, 21, 39(a), 39(d), Constitution of India, 1950; Article 18, 38, 42, Constitution of Nepal,2015; Article 32, 34 Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,1973; Article 27, Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka,1978.

*Gender Inequality in South Asia: Tracing Impediments to SDG 5 of UN Sustainable… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112617*

#### **4. SDG 5 of the united nations sustainable development goals**

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a 2030 Agenda of the United Nations. It is a crucial step en route for gender equality as the successor of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The UN General Assembly approved the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on September 25, 2015, as a further 15 years extension of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 2000 and came into force on January 1, 2016. The SDGs have 17 goals and 169 targets, with a plan to achieve its aims by 2030. South Asia is a committed member of this comprehensive plan and very firm in accomplishing the objectives mentioned in the 2030 Plan for Sustainable Development. The Sustainable Development Goals assimilate 'gender equality and women empowerment' as one of their significant seventeen goals under SDG 5. It is an instrumental goal rather than an intrinsic, peremptorily, without achieving SDG 5 other goals will not be accomplished [31].

Furthermore, SDG 5 aims to realize and ensure the end of 'discrimination' against women and girls universally. Making an end to all forms of discrimination against women and girls is not just a rudimentary step to human rights, instead, it is optimistically necessary for the virtuous future of societies and humanity. Communities in the world will benefit as a whole if half of the humans get access to education, reasonable health care, and active inclusion in the social, economic, and political spheres. Gender equality is ubiquitously important to achieving the Agenda (2030) for Sustainable Development. Therefore, SDG 5 aims to ensure women's inclusion in the mainstream and end all forms of discrimination against women everywhere. It envisions the creation of a world where every single woman and girl could be able to access full enjoyment of their socio-economic and political empowerment and the equality of sex and where the universal respect of human dignity and human rights could be realized, is a great step for the betterment of women development.

Following are the targets implicated under Goal 5:



#### **Table 2.**

*Status of South Asia for SDG 5.*

• Target C: Adopt and reinforce sensible laws and policies to promote gender parity and women's and girls' empowerment at all levels [34].

With these nine targets, South Asia has also identified vital implied indicators to monitor progress in achieving this goal.

The Sustainable Development Report 2022 [35], which provides countries with progress information towards accomplishing the Agenda 2030 and embosses the conspicuous spheres that need significant attention, has revealed the despondent condition of South Asia concerning SDG 5. Most countries have been stagnant towards Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (2030), which shows their inefficaciousness in making 'gender equality' an uppermost priority of the nation's development. By contrast, Bhutan and Nepal, where the status is improving comparatively to other nations of South Asia, however, have also been facing challenges like women poverty, abuse, violence, trafficking, maternal health, sanitation, and hygiene, women and girls in vulnerable situations, etc., to accomplish the SDGs' Goal 5. Countries like Maldives and Sri Lanka, as demonstrated in **Table 2**, are far better than others in gaining upper ranks for overall Sustainable Development Goals, notwithstanding lackadaisical in mitigating gender inequality and endeavoring to make women equal and empowered people as guaranteed by the law. Hence, South Asia is still tackling to transpire itself towards gender equality and eradicate the evil social practice of gender inequality entrenched in the roots of South Asian society that has affected all spheres of life of girls and women.

#### **5. Conclusion**

The Constitutions of South Asian nations outline their aspiration to establish an inclusive and equitable society constructed on the principles of equality and non-discrimination with the exception of the current Afghanistan rule. Recognizing the status and role of women in nation building, South Asian nations have taken several legal and policy measures for gender equality as the underlying cause of women's rights. South Asia is also a signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 1979, whose sole purpose of coming into

#### *Gender Inequality in South Asia: Tracing Impediments to SDG 5 of UN Sustainable… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112617*

existence is to 'end discrimination' against women globally. Unequivocally, their commitment to women's rights is enshrined in the laws of the land. The general principles regarding protecting women from all forms of discrimination and promoting their equal participation are notably appraisable in the region. Over the years, there has been a conspicuous development in legal frameworks for women's equal participation in all spheres and their empowerment due to the consistent improvement in pertinent legal and policy backing along with political commitments in the region, however, in actual ground implementation, is inconsequential to accomplish the goal of SDG 5 at global echelons. Hence, gender perspective must be included in every aspect of South Asia's development to advance women's value and empowerment.

Despite making significant contributions to global economies through various activities, women in South Asia remain amongst the world's most economically disadvantaged groups. They are often disproportionately discriminated against in the labour market, contending with low-skilled and informal jobs. They remained outside the ambit of financial inclusion, ensuing in poor access to formal banking systems and credit. Predominantly, women in India and Pakistan who are abridged by social and cultural barriers that force them to bear the brunt of unpaid work, preventing them from investing in their own well-being, and inhibiting their pursuit of economic opportunities, must be given prime importance at ground level. Further, governments must strongly emphasize the topographies of gender equality to escalate pro-poor growth strategies regarding women, as poverty delineates an obstruction to women coming into the mainstream. Women's participation in economic activity should be advanced that generally depends on maintaining education, training, health, and enabling socio-economic environment. South Asia has observed significant but not sufficient changes, such as in Nepal, Maldives, over the years in relation to socio-economic condition of women. Efficacious strategies and efforts are still needed to improve women economic participation in India and Pakistan. Government must include a more effective and inclusive approach whilst adopting economic policies to increase gender parity in economic sphere. Giving women equal rights on land and property, access to technology and internet is also vital to their inclusive development.

Explicitly, women health also needs significant acceleration in efforts to cope with gender inequality in the South Asian region. Moreover, the region is severely prone to women insecurity and gender-based violence that also intersect to other spheres of advancement. Hence women's protection from all kind of insecurity, crimes against women, socially evil practices should be addressed adequately and effectively. To address the discriminatory behavior towards women, accountability in current laws is required for the protection of women's rights. Awareness and encouragement must be given at family level so that they support their girl and women to participate in economic sphere in the whole South Asian region.

India took a long way to guarantee the reservation of one-third of seats for females in legislative assemblies and Lok Sabha due to the apathetic attitude of the major parties represented in the parliament. However, it still failed to provide quota to the women of all marginalised sections in the newly enacted Women Reservation Act 2023, i.e., OBCs and minority women, which has left women of these sections effectively unrepresented in the national politics. In Bhutan and Sri Lanka, there is necessity to minimize the experience of gender inequality that is significantly affecting women's political sharing. Conspicuously, Afghanistan is positioned to the region's and even world's lowest echelon of gender parity, hence, it should scrap

discriminatory provisions against women and adopt women-inclusive legal measures and policies to enhance their participation in the country's development. In addition, civil society organizations in the region must also be given strong support from the governments that can play a critical role in advocating for women's rights and promoting gender equality. South Asia must embrace affirmative and optimistic elements for the mainstreaming of women in all domains, making it more advanced and progressive to fully realize SDG 5.

### **Author details**

Ziya Hasan Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, UP, India

\*Address all correspondence to: hasanziya9@gmail.com

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Gender Inequality in South Asia: Tracing Impediments to SDG 5 of UN Sustainable… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112617*

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#### **Chapter 3**

## Whose SDGs and Who's Making Them Happen?: Insights from Women in Uganda

*Shelley Jones*

#### **Abstract**

This Feminist Participatory Action Research project with a cohort of women in Uganda explored how they understood the SDGs in relationship to their lived realities. A postcolonial feminist lens was used to engage with critical ethnographic policy theoretical perspective to consider the research questions: 1) Which SDGs are the most important to you? 2) What do unrealized SDGs look like in your context? 3) What would realize goals look like and what would it take to achieve them?; 4) Who is responsible for achieving the SDGs? Participants had had no prior knowledge of the SDGs but once introduced to them the participants ranked SDG1: No Poverty and SDG4: Quality Education as the highest in importance to them, followed by SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG: 10: Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. Participants expressed the implications of unrealized SDGs in their lives as well as the transformative change realized SDGs would bring. They also shared their thoughts on how the SDGs could be achieved in their context. The study recommends that those who are meant to benefit most from the SDGs be consulted on how to achieve them.

**Keywords:** sustainable development goals, Uganda, feminist participatory action research, women's empowerment, ethnographic policy research, longitudinal study

#### **1. Introduction**

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are meant to *"…*[end] poverty and other deprivations …[through] strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth*"* [1]. Presumably, those who are most impacted by poverty, inequality, and injustices should be prioritized within all elements—including development, implementation, accountability, assessment, and revised strategies—of the SDGs. However, are the people whose quality of life and opportunities would be most improved by the SDGs even aware they exist? Have they been consulted on what achievement of the goals might look like for them and how they might be achieved? Have they experienced positive changes they can attribute to the SDGs? What do they perceive as obstacles towards achieving the SDGs?

Drawing upon stages four (2018) and six (2022–2023)—of a longitudinal study (2004) with a cohort of women in Uganda who attended secondary school together, this chapter discusses which SDGs they believed to be unrealized, what the realization of these goals would look like, what they believe is required to move from unrealized to realized goals, and who they believe is responsible for working towards the realization of the goals. The research questions were: (1) Which SDGs are the most important to you? (2) What do unrealized goals look like in your context? (3) What would realize goals look like and what would it take to achieve them?; (4) Who is responsible for working towards the realization of these goals?

#### **2. The SDGs**

The SDGs are intended to unite nations of the world in a collaborative undertaking to

*end poverty and hunger everywhere; to combat inequalities within and among countries; to build peaceful, just, and inclusive societies; to protect human rights and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources. We resolve also to create conditions for sustainable, inclusive and sustained economic growth, shared prosperity, and decent work for all, taking into account different levels of national development and capacities (Agenda 2030, p. 3)*

Given that the goals seek to *achieve* equality, social justice, and a healthy planet, the Agenda is responding to the reality that serious, deprivations and inequalities exist throughout the world.

Many of these deprivations (such as lack of adequate food, shelter, clean water, protection, education, and health care) are not simply "unfortunate circumstances", but in fact constitute violations of basic human rights. Thus, it would seem to be the priority focus of the goals, demanding prioritized, and collaborative action for their immediate remediation. However, problematically, the SDGs have been conceived as "development goals" as opposed to human rights goals:

*[there is a] deep tension between presenting moral ambitions in the language of (human) rights and presenting them in the language of (development) goals. The development goals discourse invites an incremental approach to overcome deprivations: we have a certain distance to traverse, and so we set off towards our destination and approach it step-by-step. The human rights discourse, by contrast, suggests that deprivations must be ended right away. ([2], p. 2)*

The kind of ambitious transformation necessary to achieve the SDGs and respond to human rights violations would require a radical shift in global power structures – economic and political – and a redistribution of wealth so that the rights of all human beings could be met [3–5]. Yet, consideration and confrontation of historical as well as extant phenomena, practices, and attitudes – such as colonialism, unfair trade, exploitation by multinationals of labour and resources of poorer countries, "tied aid", problematic and rapacious development programs, and crippling debt-servicing by developing countries – that have contributed to and/or caused extreme poverty, destruction of culture, and desecration of the environment in some countries whilst privileging globally dominant cultures, languages, knowledges, and over others are absent from Agenda 2030 and the SDGs. Instead, the "…big countries, international financial institutions, transnational corporations and even international NGOSs that

*Whose SDGs and Who's Making Them Happen?: Insights from Women in Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113382*

have produced and reproduced inequalities in income, wealth and power at national an global levels [are] cause the very problems the SDGs are trying to solve" ([5], p. 19; see also [6]). As Esquivel [3] states, "…power relations are the big elephant in the room of Agenda 2030" ([3], p. 12).

Furthermore, despite claiming to be a "supremely ambitious and transformational vision" for the world, The Agenda and the SDGs have no teeth. The Agenda is a nonbinding intergovernmental agreement reliant upon the voluntary implementation of the SDGs. The "how" and "who" with respect to responsibility for implementation, resourcing, and accountability are glaringly absent [2–5]. Without a clear designation of responsibilities for fulfilling specific actions on the path to achieving the SDGs, they are bound to flounder. Unsurprisingly, the recent assessment of progress towards the SDGs is lamentable, as conveyed by the UN Secretary of State in the SDG Progress Report Special Edition (May 2023):

*It's time to sound the alarm. At the mid-way point on our way to 2030, the SDGs are in deep trouble. A preliminary assessment of the roughly 140 targets with data shows only about 12% are on track; close to half, though showing progress, are moderately or severely off track and some 30% have either seen no movement or regressed below the 2015 baseline ([7], p. 2).*

Lack of accountability suggests that dominant actors within the neoliberal, global capitalist economic system that perpetuate and exacerbate global inequality eschew concessions of their power and privilege that would be necessary in order to realize the vision of Agenda 2030.

Another criticism of the goals is the lack of attention that has been given to genderspecific issues that render women and girls disproportionately disadvantaged, oppressed, and marginalized. The causes, nature of, and consequences of poverty for girls and women and the particular ways in which poverty intersects with opportunities, status, societal participation, education, and power and has been shaped by colonial histories as well as traditional, patriarchal cultures have not been addressed in the SDGs [3, 5]. Although SDG 5: Gender Equality speaks broadly to the need for gender justice, it does not openly articulate ways in which common themes of gender inequality prevalent throughout the world need to be addressed. Furthermore, even though there is a reference to the need for "'women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life" (Target 5.5):

*there is a clear problem with this target which mean it will prove to be empty rhetoric. Women's full and effective participation and leadership are not only dependent on women's own effort and interest in coming to the national and international negotiating tables and having equal opportunities to men to participate…but also on access to the resources that act as preconditions for participation (money, time, confidence, and education among them), and on the existence of concrete mechanisms for promoting women's participation [3, 8].*

#### **3. The Ugandan context**

Uganda shares a poverty pattern of colonialism, indebtedness to international financial institutions (e.g., the International Monetary Fund (IMF)), Structural Adjustment Programs (conditions placed by IMF and the World Bank on countries with outstanding loans to liberalize the economy, privatize, and reduce the role of the state in the economy, across sectors, including healthcare and education [9–14]), aid-dependency and "tied aid" which "can increase the costs of a development project by as much as 15 to 30 percent" [15], and multinational "plundering" of resources [16, 17] as well as committing human rights and environmental crimes [18] that are shared by so many other LICs.

Uganda was a British Protectorate from 1894 to 1962. After "gaining independence" in 1962, Uganda accrued enormous debt from loans through the IMF and due to global market upheavals during the 1980s [13] was forced to adhere to spending priorities and cuts (in such areas as health, education, and other social programs) through Structural Adjustment Programs to try and repay them. Although, like many other African and Low-Income Countries (LICs) throughout the world. Uganda is rich in resources such as gold, oil, tungsten, tin, copper, limestone, and iron [19], and it is considered the "bread basket of Africa" because of its fertile lands and good growing climate for crops, yet it remains a LIC and is one the 39 Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) [20]. As of March 2023, Uganda's Outstanding Purchases and Loans (SDR) amounted to 812.25 million USD [21]. These globally-centred economic issues as well as state governance issues (ref) have contributed enormously to the persistent poverty experienced by the majority of Uganda's citizens:

*Poverty is a significant challenge in Uganda, and natural resource use and exploitation has a significant impact on the densely populated country. A majority of the population still face a lack of education, health services, and poor living standards ([22], n.p.)*

Amidst these various challenges and lingering legacies, Uganda adopted the SDGs in 2015 and has purportedly been "steadfast in its efforts to realize the aspirations of her people" [23]. Aligned with the "human rights" foundation of the Agenda, Uganda is a signatory to many international documents committed to upholding human rights such as: The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ratified in 1987), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ratified in 1995), and The Convention on the Rights of the Child (ratified in 1990). As stated in the Government of Uganda White Paper [24]: "…the provision of shelter, clothing, education, health care, freedom of expression and communication, the citizens' right to property and to control adequately and benefit from the products of their labour…and rule of law for all citizens" as basic human rights for all Ugandan citizens (p. 6) and in the Uganda Vision 2040: "Ugandans aspire to live and work in a peaceful, secure, harmonious and stable country, and at peace with its neighbors, where the rule of law prevails and respect for fundamental human rights is observed" ([25], p. 9).

As part of its commitment to human rights, Uganda has also made explicit commitments to gender equality: it is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (ratified in 1985), has a Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, and has developed policies such as the National Gender Policy (2007), and the Gender in Education Sector Policy (2016). Yet, gender inequality remains hugely problematic in Uganda in multifarious areas – girls and women suffer from a lack of the same opportunities for education, employment, wages, and freedom of movement, as well as from domestic violence, sexual abuse, child marriage and pregnancy, and poverty. With respect to SDG monitoring processes for SDG 5: Gender Equality, "As of [D]ecember 2020, only 42.6% of

*Whose SDGs and Who's Making Them Happen?: Insights from Women in Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113382*

indicators needed to monitor the SDGs from a gender perspective were available, with gaps in key areas…" [26].

As Ugandan economist Dr. John Ddumba-Ssentamu [27] remarked, "One of the more underappreciated aspects of any sustainable development agenda is the nation's collective mindset. It's individuals, communities, and institutions who build the necessary confidence to pursue complex and challenging solutions to their problems" (n.p.).

#### **4. Theoretical framework**

Although Agenda 2030 and the SDGs constitute a "shared blueprint" and "plan of action" [1] and are not policies per se, this study used a postcolonial feminist lens to engage with critical ethnographic policy theoretical perspectives to explore how the participants read and understood the SDGs in relationship to their lived realities. This theoretical approach is germane to understanding the impact of the SDGs and the Agenda with respect to the lives of those who are meant to benefit from them.

Postcolonial feminism acknowledges the diverse, multiple, and heterogeneous contexts and experiences of gender inequality (and all inequality) constructed and situated within cultural, economic, historical and geopolitical realms, and identifies, exposes, and challenges the colonial and patriarchal structures of power and dominance that have caused and perpetuate inequality [5, 28–31]. Postcolonial feminism insists that researchers and scholars – especially white, Western, and feminist researchers and scholars – acknowledge their own relational positionality with respect to intersections of power and privilege and commit to authentic representation of the participants' voices as well as the limitations that arise when representing the voices whose positionalities are fundamentally different – historically, geographically, economically, socially, culturally, and politically – than theirs. With this attention and commitment to positionality, there is the potential to support a global feminist project that unites the interests of feminists worldwide to work towards equality and wellbeing for all: "Feminist solidarity becomes possible when First World feminists can use the experiences and perspectives of the poorest women in the world to envision, and collaborate with them in producing, a just society" ([31], pp. 235–244).

A critical ethnographic approach to policy research seeks to gain understanding into the intersectional complexities of individuals' lives as well as possible shared experiences and how/if policies effectively respond to them in order to help individuals overcome and remove barriers and expose power differentials that perpetuate injustices: "…[there is] emphasis on relations of power, on cultural practices that affect policy interpretations, and on sustained engagement with residents in a local setting" ([32], p. 175). Ethnographic policy research is also highly participatory and oriented around the lived experiences of individuals [32]: "Ethnography can bring a 'critical' contribution to policy studies, not only by furnishing information that cannot be obtained with other methods, but also by challenging the taken-for-grantedness at work in, and (re)produced by, public policies" ([33], p. 463).

Combined, research that combines postcolonial, feminist and critical ethnographic approaches to policy analysis considers policies (or similar documents/ directives) by exploring how they have or have not impacted the lives of those they are primarily intended to benefit and if they have merit and are well-aligned to real situations [33, 34].

#### **5. Methodology**

This longitudinal study employs an ethnographical, postcolonial Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) methodological approach. Ethnographic inquiry investigates the complex layers of lived experiences of participants where their contextualized "emic" (insider) knowledge informs that of "etic" (outsider) researcher to inform understanding of relevance, effectiveness, and evaluation of policy [35]. Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) methodology, which is a de-colonizing approach that positions participants as experts of their own contexts and acknowledges their experiences and insights as essential to explore and address the issue under investigation [36–38] and taking action to bring about positive change in their lives [39, 40].

An ethnographic, postcolonial, feminist methodology seeks out and contemplates complex intersections of social, economic, cultural, and political factors and influences – locally, regionally, and globally – both to acknowledge divergent knowledges and experiences as well as to identify patterns and themes that prevail within and across diverse contexts [5]. Aligned with Mohanty's [41] assertion that there is an "…urgent political necessity of forming strategic coalitions across class, race, and national boundaries" (p. 61), an ethnographical, postcolonial FPAR methodology offers fruitful, respectful, collaborative, and meaningful ways that researchers and participants can work together collaboratively to understand topics under consideration. An ethnographic, postcolonial, FPAR research approach requires, foremost, a relationship of trust and reciprocity and acknowledgement of positionality (and what that means in terms of power, privilege, vulnerability, and incentive). Through reflection and discussion of challenges and injustices, opportunities arise for imagining ways to reconstruct the nature of systemic oppression and inequality and work towards a more just society [42].

#### **6. Positionality**

As a white, female researcher from a High-Income Country (Canada), I acknowledge, reflect upon, and seek to understand myriad ways in which neoliberal and colonial systems and ideologies have both benefited me whilst disadvantaging others. Intersections of race (whiteness), privilege, and social location position me with the potential to have more power, voice, influence, and opportunities than women whose positionalities are impacted by intersections of, for example, racialization, extreme poverty, exploitation, discrimination, and oppression. I acknowledge my "etic" position with respect to the Ugandan women with whom I work live within conditions of extreme financial hardship as well as multiple forms of contextual gender-based disadvantage that I have not experienced. I cannot "know" what they know and have experienced; I can only relay as accurately as I can what they have shared with me, so that it can be shared more broadly. Their reflections upon, and insights into the realities of daily life in a low income, previously colonized, aiddependent country within a neoliberal global economy need to be more broadly understood throughout the world if authentic transformative change, such as achievement of the SDGs., is going to happen. I understand this as my role as a researcher: contributing to a global, postcolonial, feminist project that is concerned with the promotion of global gender justice.

#### **6.1 Ethical considerations**

Ethics approval pertaining to the stages of the longitudinal study considered in this chapter was obtained from Royal Roads University in Canada and Makerere University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda. Research permits were obtained from the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology. The study was explained to the participants in both English and Luganda, and the participants were made aware that they were free to decline to participate, and that they were able to withdraw from the study at any time. All individuals who were contacted about the study agreed to participate and signed consent forms.

#### **6.2 The study**

This chapter reports on findings from stages 4 (2018), 5 (2022), and 6 (2023) of a longitudinal which focuses on education and its impact on the lives of girls and women over time. This longitudinal case study began in 2004 as my doctoral research that examined challenges and opportunities for girls related to secondary schooling in a rural Ugandan context, as well as the ways in which education impacted their emerging identities (AUTHOR). The 15 girls who participated in the study were at that time 15 to 18 years old. The fourth stage of the study, conducted in May 2018, involved 13 of the original 15 participants and explored the participants' perceptions of the role of post-secondary education has played in their lives as well as how they interpreted the SDGs in relation to their lives. The sixth stage of the study (2022– 2023) explored their understandings and experiences of, and strategies for resiliency and empowerment, particularly in times of crisis. During this study, we also revisited the SDGs to reflect upon whether, in their opinion, any progress had been made towards achieving them as relevant to their lives.

#### **7. Methods**

An ethnographic, multimodal [43, 44] approach was used to generate data that captured multiple facets and complexities of the broad social context, as well as the unique aspects of the participants' lives and provide for triangulated analysis. Ethnographic methods included video-captured Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), participant observation, and multimodal activities. Multimodality conceives of meaning-making through a wide range of semiotic modes such as images, gestures, and sounds [43]. As an approach to research, multimodality enables and encourages participants to share their ideas in creative and interactive ways in response to prompts, such as questions. What is produced – the "signs" – by those communicating meaning- the "signmakers" – generates opportunities for others to consider and interact with the meaning expressed by the signs [43, 45]. Signs offer communicative opportunities beyond the typically dominant forms of text and speech (especially in formal settings) and thus open up space of discourse to include voices that are often excluded.

#### **8. Processes**

In Stage 4 (2018) the participants participated in a two-day workshop, documented through photographs, video-recorded FGDs, and visual representations of responses

to questions. During the first day of the workshop, I introduced the 17 SDGs to the participants. Each participant was provided with the UN SDG poster and we discussed the main targets of each (**Figures 1** and **2**).

Following this, the participants formed three teams (two with four members, and one with five members) and each team determined the three SDGs that were most important to them. The members of each team then collaborated on drawings that depicted: 1) what these goals looked like as unrealized; 2) what a realization of these goals would look like; and 3) what would be necessary to achieve these goals. The teams presented their drawings to each other (**Figures 3** and **4**).

On Day 2 of the workshop, we reviewed the SDGs, as well as the teams' drawings. We then engaged in in-depth discussions about the goals they had selected, which

**Figure 1.**

*United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs).*

**Figure 2.** *Participants discussing SDGs of most importance to them.*

*Whose SDGs and Who's Making Them Happen?: Insights from Women in Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113382*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Participants' drawings and ideas about, in their context, what unrealized SDGs look like, what participants think it would take to achieve the SDGs, and SDGs realized.*

**Figure 4.** *Participants' reflections on SDGs.*

are reported on in the Findings section below. During Stage 6 of the study, six of the participants from Stage 4 of the study participated in a focus group discussion during which we reviewed the SDGs and discussed additional thoughts they had on them 5 years later. This discussion was videorecorded for transcription purposes.

#### **9. Analysis**

I approached analysis using interpretive policy analysis [34, 35, 46], constructivist grounded theory [47], and triangulation [48]. The research questions constituted thematic parameters within which data was processed. Data from the workshop – drawings, presentations, and group discussions – were documented through video recordings, photographs, and observational notes and then coded and categorized. Individual interviews and questionnaires were similarly coded and categorized to explore intersections of triangulation. From the coded and categorized data, key themes emerged. The findings were member-checked with the participants as a further element of validation.

#### **10. Findings**

#### **10.1 Stage 4 (2018)**

The SDGs that the participants identified as most important to them are depicted in the table below. SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being, and SDG 4: Quality Education received the most emphasis, followed by SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production (**Table 1**).

I will discuss the three SDGs (1, 3, and 4) selected by two teams in more detail below, and then briefly summarize key points of the 3 SDGs (8, 10, and 12) that were selected once (**Table 2**).

The participants all identified poverty as the key factor that thwarted their aspirations, as well as their ability to simply live their lives without perpetual stress and anxiety about how to meet the basic needs of their families. Eleven of the 14 participants had employment, two were between jobs, and one worked on the family farm. Of the 11 earning incomes, six had formal, four had informal employment, and one had both formal and informal work. The incomes of these 11 participants were in the general range of 200–300 Ugandan shillings per month (approximately \$65–100 US/month). Based on a 40-hour work week (although most worked far more than 40 hours per week), this amounted to about \$.40–.65 US/hour, or about \$3.20–5.20 US/day. Extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank [49], was \$1.90 US per person per day. At first glance, it might seem as if these young women had at least risen above extreme poverty, but considering their various financial outlays and responsibilities, this was generally not the case.


#### **Table 1.**

*SDGs of importance to participants.*


#### **Table 2.** *SDG 1: No poverty.*

#### *Whose SDGs and Who's Making Them Happen?: Insights from Women in Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113382*

Twelve of the 13 participants were mothers, with numbers of children ranging from one to four, ages infant to 10 years old. Eight of the 14 women were sole heads of households, seven of them single mothers; five received no financial support at all from the children's fathers, and two received very minimal (and erratic) support. The women were thus responsible for meeting all, or almost all, of the financial demands related to their children. One income of approximately \$3–10 US/day, divided among one participant and two dependent children would equal \$1–3.35 US/day per person, and with three dependents would equal \$.75–2.50 US/day each. As such, the participants lacked financial resources for adequate and nutritious food, clean water, adequate medical treatment, rent; and other basic necessities such as clothing, firewood (for cooking), and school-related costs.

The participants envisioned the achieved goal of SDG 1 as having sufficient food and water, a nice home (and even a car), free/affordable quality education for their children, and free/affordable quality medical care. The thought SDG 1 could be achieved by investment in the government in education, medical care, better markets for their products (for those who had shops or sold food grown on their land), lessening of the extreme financial divide between the rich and poor in Uganda, decreased taxes (for the few who had formal employment with taxes deducted from their pay), and more investment in agriculture. Contributing factors to poverty for the participants included: lack of reasonable employment income; lack of child support from absentee fathers; school fees and related expenses for their children; and expensive transportation (**Table 3**).

The participants shared many thoughts about the importance of SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being. As per the discussion of SDG 1: No Poverty, they conveyed their frustration with the lack of free/affordable, quality medical care and their unaffordability of medication for themselves and/or their children. They also stated that they self-diagnosed and purchased drugs (that would require a prescription in, for example, North America) over the counter for themselves and their children. They talked about the fact that there was inadequate ante- and post-natal care and


#### **Table 3.** *SDG 3: Good health and well-being.*

women were still at high risk during pregnancy and childbirth, and some relayed difficult experiences of miscarriages, traumatic births and post-natal complications, and inadequate medical attention. They also had to pay for medicine and treatment, which was costly. Tracy, for example, discussed the expense of providing specialized food for her disabled child:

*Tracy: I pay for his medication. He has a special formula for food cuz he's not able to chew …it is so expensive…80,000 for only one week.*

*Shelley: So, you spend about 80,000 on food? And then you have medicine. How much does medicine cost?*

*Tracy: It depends on which condition [he] has……For example, if he has malaria, it depends on the dose the doctors give him. So, you can find yourself you bought a dose of 100,000 per month.*

Poor sanitation was another major concern for the participants. None had indoor plumbing in their homes; they and their families used outdoor latrines, which they did not consider to be sanitary. Diseases related to poor sanitation include cholera and dysentery, as well as typhoid, intestinal worm infections, and polio, and these are common in Uganda (ref). Neither did any of the participants have running water easily accessible; most had to walk a distance to collect water in jerry cans to take back to their homes for cooking, drinking, washing clothes, and cleaning. Often the sources of water were contaminated or at risk of being so, and many Ugandans suffer from related diseases including cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio [50].

The participants also experienced the affliction of hunger and inability to access a healthy diet. The participants, especially the single mothers, said that they did not have the money they required to buy sources of protein, dairy, or even fresh vegetables, and often their meals consisted primarily of posho (a maize flour porridge) which has little nutritious content, but it is filling. As a result, they and their children often suffer from hunger/nutrient deficiency diseases and conditions such as extreme fatigue, compromised immune systems, susceptibility to colds and flus, and heightened susceptibility to malaria and anemia all of which are a heavy burden on the country's medical system. Many children in Uganda die of hunger/malnutrition [51]. The participants also discussed the problem of intense and sustained fatigue. In addition to employment (or farming), caring for children and often parents and younger siblings, cooking and cleaning, they had to make long and arduous walks to collect water, firewood, and access markets because they could not afford to hire a boda-boda (motorcycle) to take them and there is no public transportation outside of the major cities and towns. In addition, the roads in the village areas are generally in poor condition, unpaved, and they are hard and dangerous to negotiate because of the traffic as well as the slippery conditions when it rains.

Aside from these many challenges to the participants and their children's physical health, these hardships took a severe toll on their mental health. They shared feelings of perpetual stress about whether or not they would be able to afford school fees for their children for the coming term; stress about accessing medical care for their children and themselves, and often their parents and siblings, as well; the anxiety that came with caring for sick – and in one case severely disabled – children; the constant pressure to provide sufficient food for their families. They felt that there was seldom any reprieve

#### *Whose SDGs and Who's Making Them Happen?: Insights from Women in Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113382*

from the demands on them to provide the basic survival necessities for their households, caring for children and family (and community) members, paid work, domestic work, and myriad other obligations. Several of the participants expressed feeling depressed because there did not seem to be a way out of poverty and exhaustion.

The participants also expressed feelings of loneliness. Even though they all experienced deep and unrelenting stress related to poverty (including the physical health of their children, themselves, and other family members) in the group discussion on Day 2, they said that they did not talk much about their feelings, except with their friends in the research group. For example, Tracy discussed not telling most people in the community about the existence of her severely disabled child because of the stigma and discrimination that they – and her other child – could face but feeling comfortable and supported when confiding with the other participants. They had little, if any access to mental health services (e.g., counseling) even during times of intense crisis. Tracy discussed the birth of her severely disabled child and the "counseling" with which she was provided before being discharged to go home and learn how to care for the child on her own:

*Tracy: It is a hard thing to give birth to a kid with cerebral palsy…The husband said "I don't want that kid"…so he went away…I was in the hospital... I was still on oxygen. I didn't have a normal birth. It was surgery…I was weak. My husband had left. The kid is weak.*

When I asked Tracy about any counseling or support that she may have received before returning home with her severely disabled newborn, she relayed that a nurse had spoken to her for a few minutes about the need to be strong because the child would require a great deal of care. And then she and her baby were sent home. Subsequently, she occasionally was able to talk with "those people who counsel people with HIV AIDS…So I kept going there for counseling, going there for information". After a few months, however, that ceased: "…they thought that maybe it was time that I can do that alone, that it was okay, …And I am strong… [crying]".

With respect to reaching SDG 3, the participants stated that they needed access to decent, quality employment that paid them enough to buy nutritious food, shelter, and medical care and reduce the perpetual stress related to worrying about their ability to pay for their children's school fees. Access to quality free/affordable health facilities – clinics and hospitals – as well as medical care (especially for individuals with complex and expensive health care requirements) were also deemed necessary. The participants also noted the importance of good roads and means of transport to access medical care when necessary. Also deemed of enormous importance was infrastructure that supported good sanitation (e.g., sewage systems) and easy access to clean water. The participants also noted that for their improved socioemotional well-being they needed an easing of burdens in order to have sufficient rest, to be able to relax and "have some fun". In addition, they believed that it was important to have opportunities to make new friends, as well as spend quality time with existing friends. Several times the participants stated that this research group had helped them to share their feelings and that they had learned from, listened to, encouraged, and supported each other (**Table 4**).

The participants identified many issues related to SDG 4: Quality Education as unrealized. They were unwaveringly committed to ensuring their children received a reasonable education and school fees and related expenses generally constituted the highest household expense, up to two-thirds of their income [52]. Although Uganda has government schools that offer "free" education (although in practice they still


#### **Table 4.** *SDG 4: Quality education.*

solicit funds from parents for maintenance, new buildings, furniture, and school supplies and equipment), these schools are plagued by issues such as untenably large class sizes (often with hundreds of children), lack of classrooms and furniture, teacher absenteeism, lack of textbooks and other school materials, and poor teaching and learning outcomes [53–55]. The participants stated that only "desperate" parents, or parents who "did not care about their children's education" sent their children to government schools. Even so, the private schools their children attended were often only of marginally better quality than the government schools: class sizes were often large, many teachers were not fully qualified, and the schools were severely underresourced with respect to textbooks and other educational materials. In addition, the schools were often a long distance from the participants' homes, so their children required fees for room and board, as well as school uniforms and other supplies. Depending on the boarding fees, children often lacked satisfactorily nutritious meals.

Participants described SDG 4 would be realized if there were a sufficient number of schools with proper classrooms; adequate teaching and learning resources; no "extra" or "hidden" fees; a cap on a number of children per class; qualified teachers; accountability of teachers and administrators; and equal treatment of girls and boys. To move from unrealized to realized, participants identified the following: investing in well-constructed schools with adequate furniture; ensuring teachers were qualified; free education; and providing notebooks, pencils, and other necessary supplies for all children.

The three additional SDGs identified by the participants in their "top 3" were SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 12: Responsible Production and Consumption. With respect to SDG 8, participants associated this goal unrealized with informal labour, undignified work, poor incomes, and no benefits. Further discussion around this topic exposed additional concerns such as the precarious nature of employment, poor working conditions, lack of consistency with work hours (and pay), lack of benefits, and lack of recourse for bullying, intimidation, sexual harassment, aggression, and assault. Furthermore, there was little, if any, support from employers for mothers who were forced to miss

#### *Whose SDGs and Who's Making Them Happen?: Insights from Women in Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113382*

work to tend to their children when they were severely ill. Formal employment, with good working conditions, "liveable wage", benefits, and being treated with "dignity" were all markers of SDG 8 achieved. The participants believed that in order to go from unrealized to realized required quality education so that workers would be prepared to undertake decent work opportunities, for workers to "work harder to improve our daily lives", "proper health so we can improve on our income", and "proper savings [groups' so we can improve on our income".

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities was also selected by one team as one of their top 3 SDGs. They described SDG 10 unrealized as characterized by: "extreme rich refus[ing] to help extreme poor"; unfair taxation, where high-income earners were not proportionately taxed to support infrastructure to benefit society at large; discrimination against the "weak, vulnerable, and disabled" especially with respect to education and employment; and gender discrimination "girls/women not treated equally to boys/men." The participants' vision of SDG 10 achieved included: decent homes for all families; free, accessible, and quality for all children; "good infrastructure for everyone – including electricity and running water"; families have sufficient, nutritious food (including their own gardens and livestock); and families have access to good transportation. The participants believed that moving from unrealized to realized would require: adult education (to compensate for education that individuals may not have had as children, as well as upgrading of skills and knowledge and qualifications); "work so hard"; "make good friends" (i.e., friends who are influential and able to support others financially or otherwise); "make women's groups/savings"; "good policies"; "investments"; and "being creative and innovative".

SDG 12: Responsible Production and Consumption was chosen by one group to be one of their top three SDGs. They characterized SDG 12 unrealized as only a small segment of the population – the wealthy – as engaging in lavish and excessive consumption while most people lived in crowded homes, and lacked basic needs such as adequate food, clothing, clean water, electricity, transportation, and sanitation. SDG 12 realized would involve *all* people having access to adequate food, housing, clothing, transportation, medical care, and sanitation.

#### **10.2 Stage 6 (2023)**

In the FGD during Stage 6 of the longitudinal study, 5 years after Stage 4, five of the women discussed their thoughts on the SDGs. SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, and SDG remained of top concern, followed by SDG 5: Gender Equality (which had not been identified as a top-three priority for any of the groups in Stage 4), and 4: Quality Education. The participants felt that very little, if any, progress has been made towards the achievement of these goals.

With respect to SDG 1: No Poverty, the participants stated that – in their experience – poverty levels were even worse than 5 years before (Stage 4 of the research), as inflation had made many basic necessities unaffordable. The COVID-19 pandemic created a crisis situation for several participants and their families who experienced extreme food shortages. One of the participants who had long-term, formal employment at a local clothing manufacturing company had been terminated because she had to care for her seriously ill child, which made it almost impossible for her to fund the tests for diagnosis – sickle cell disease – and the treatment child required. Two others who worked at the same company were living in fear of losing their jobs because the company was much less profitable post-pandemic; they were already experiencing greatly reduced work hours and had to find ways to supplement their

incomes. One of the participants who had her own business in selling matooke (plantain) wholesale, said her sales had dropped dramatically, and additionally, she had been defrauded of an enormous amount of money by another wholesaler. When asked who they thought was responsible for fulfilling SDG 1, Doreen said, − "The Ugandan government is responsible…[it should be]…managing inflation". When asked if anyone else was responsible, Doreen suggested, "Even me".

With respect to SDG 4: Quality Education, the participants believed that the situation same, in some ways even worse because as children grew older, they required more funding for education. In addition, during the pandemic, Uganda had one of the strictest lock-down policies in the world and children missed two full years of schooling. The divide between the rich and poor was exacerbated as families with higher incomes were able to afford technology that enabled their children to continue learning, whilst those with minimal incomes could not afford to do so.

There was consensus among the participants that no progress had been made towards SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being. If anything, health care seemed to be worse. Tracy continued to struggle to provide the highly specialized treatment required for her disabled son and was anxious about an operation he required which would cost three and a half million Ugandan shillings (close to 1000 USD), which would be impossible for her to save. Even unexceptional medical treatment was hard to access and expensive, as is evident in this exchange between Tracy and Gelly:

*Tracy: We can go to health centres and reach there and not even get paracetamol.*

*Gelly: You can't get anything. Even if you need the injection, you have to go outside [the government hospital] and buy the syringe. When you do not buy, they will not care for you.*

*Tracy: Sometimes you go to the hospital because they tell you need to get medicine and you find that there is no medicine.*

*Gelly: From what I see. In the hospitals, the medicine reaches there, but those doctors, just pick them and put them aside. So, when you go there, there are some people, they have money and some who do not have it. When you go there, they say the medicine is not around. But if you bring someone aside and say you have [money] immediately they bring the medicine. Which means the medicine is there. They just hide it.*

SDG 5: Gender Equality, emerged as an identified priority in Stage 6, where it had not in Stage 4. Interestingly, the participants connect gender inequality with poverty. Tracy remarked, "There are few people on the ground who do not know about gender equality, but because of poverty there is little done about it". When asked to elaborate on the connection between poverty and gender inequality, Gelly said: "…up to this time there is the men who do not allow the women to go to work…[and] if she is not working, she cannot avoid poverty". Tracy also added that poverty curtailed opportunities for justice that might ameliorate poverty, such as demanding child support from absentee fathers: "You can take a gender-related case to the police and because you do not have money, your case is not considered". Ireen also discussed how in cases of theft, for example, legal processes weighed against poor women as it had in her case when another, wealthier, businesswoman stole a significant amount of money from her: "As an example, the lady who stole my money, she was in jail, she was in prison, but the moment I left the place, the lady gave them [police] money. And she was out of jail…." Ireen claimed that the

#### *Whose SDGs and Who's Making Them Happen?: Insights from Women in Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113382*

money the woman had stolen from Ireen had likely been used to bribe the police and Ireen was convinced that she would not receive the legal support to recover her money or to ensure that the culprit was appropriately charged, tried, and sentenced for her crime. Additionally, Yudaya discussed how she had been severely bullied at work (a job she had had for 9 years) by a new male supervisor, to the point that she felt she could no longer endure working at the company. Yudaya had since opened a small retail shop in the trading centre after leaving the company, but it provides precarious and minimal income.

Not only had Yudaya's financial stability been decimated by bullying from a male co-worker, but her socioemotional well-being had been deeply impacted:

*My love [for the company] was so strong, we've [the company] come very far together and I never thought such thing would ever happen, but I was totally wrong and that one month I worked with him…made me think and decided to leave the company I love. It was very painful and difficult but for the good of my future plans and life I had to strongly decide and move on even though am still hunting for a job but I don't regret my resignation coz now I feel like I'm out of bars. It's unbelievable!*

Gelly had also experienced more overt and violent threats to her health and well-being. Gelly's ex-husband, who had been an absentee father for 5 years and had provided no child support for their children, had threatened to take the children unless she paid him money as he claimed she had been preventing him from seeing the children (which she had not).

*He said he was going to put a fire on the house where I sleep with the kids….from there he went to Airtel and blocked my account…I was washing clothes and [someone] came to tell me that the chairman [of the village] was calling for me…I went there and found that man [the ex-husband] with the papers to arrest me from the police…*

Ultimately, the chairman heard both sides of the complaint (from Gelly's exhusband) and sided with Gelly, and a male friend was able to accompany Gelly to the police station to report the situation. The police did not pursue charges against the ex-husband's threats, but they did warn the man that he was in arrears with child support payments, and thus the situation subsided. However, Gelly did not receive any financial support from the father of the children.

During Stage 6, I posed a question that was not asked in Stage 4: Who do you think is responsible for fulfilling the SDGs? Interestingly, the participants looked first at themselves. For example, Linda said, "We, as human beings…Even me". Secondly, they noted the Ugandan government. Tracy said, "It starts with me and then I go to the government". When asked if they thought there was any responsibility beyond the Ugandan government, they had no response. I pushed the question a bit further: "But the SDGs are a United Nations commitment. The UN is saying we as a world need to eliminate poverty throughout the whole world…If all the countries in the world say we are going to get rid of poverty, everywhere, who is responsible for doing that"? Again, there was silence. Eventually, Tracy ventured a response:

*Tracy: It's possible that Uganda is party to other countries, but the help is minimal.*

*Shelley: But this is United Nations – the UN is saying we need to eliminate poverty throughout the whole world…If all the countries the world say we are going to get rid of poverty, everywhere, who is responsible for doing that?*

*Tracy: Once they have made the goals, they [looking and raising her hands up to the ceiling] have to make a plan. They up there. They must come down with not only goals, but actions. And those actions should come down to me. I'm looking at myself as the last person.*

#### **11. Discussion**

Unsurprising, but profoundly discouraging and unsatisfactory, is the fact that none of the participants had ever heard of the SDGs prior to this study. When introduced to the SDGs, the women seemed to regard them as a "wish list" [4] rather than goals that had any likelihood of being achieved, at least for them in their contexts. When asked about responsibility for fulfilling the SDGs they looked first to themselves, then to the Ugandan government: it did not occur to them that this responsibility may rest with the world as a whole that has signed onto them as a UN initiative. Tracy's comment "… those actions should come down to me. I'm looking at myself as the last person" speaks volumes to the fact in order to achieve "'women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life" (Target 5.5) barriers must be identified and removed to provide women with "…access to the resources that act as preconditions for participation (money, time, confidence, and education among them), and on the existence of concrete mechanisms for promoting women's participation [56]" [3]. The participants had no difficulty identifying and depicting what both unrealized and realized SDGs would be for them as well as suggesting ways by which the SDGs could be achieved. Yet, there is little evidence that voices like theirs have been included in formal deliberations about the SDGs.

Poverty was the central and intersecting factor for the lack of achievement, or even progress towards the SDGs. Lack of education and medical care that was affordable and free, or at least affordable, access to reasonable sanitation, and the inability to be able to provide adequately nutritious food for their families (particularly during times of crisis, such as the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic) can and should be considered human rights violations [57]. These things are not "nice to have" but most fundamental requirements to meet the basic criteria for well-being: "When engaging the issue of poverty…there are two rights of particular importance…the right to life, and freedom from discrimination. When speaking of the former, the concern should not merely be with the fact that the individual is alive as opposed to dead. It is also related to the status or condition of that individual's life" ([57], p. 26). As commented by Pogge and Sengupta [4] "When severe deprivations constitute unfulfilled human rights – and, given their social origins, even human rights violations – then they categorically require immediate and top-priority remedial attention. We must spare no effort to realize human rights as fast and fully as we can" (p. 2).

Additionally, the particular ways in which poverty impacts women must be acknowledged ([57], p. 27). The participants' experiences of inadequate wages and working conditions, lack of enforcement of child support, gender violence, failure of public services and infrastructure, lack of leisure time, and overburden of work and care for others all speak to this gendered face of poverty. The participants did not seem to think that their rights should be available to them as a matter of course. Instead, as Gelly stated, "We have to fight hard for our rights, …fight for your voice, this is key". Why, in addition to all the other demands made upon them, should these women (like so many other women in the world) also be expected to "fight for" what are, according to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (Preamble),

#### *Whose SDGs and Who's Making Them Happen?: Insights from Women in Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113382*

are "equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family" to which they belong? As long as there is little accountability and responsibility for fulfilling the SDGs, and as long as the "hegemonic project" [58] of neoliberalism continues unabated in its "shift of power and wealth back to the already rich and powerful ([58], p. 721), and as long a human rights violations are not acted upon, the SDGs would be more aptly described as the "Sustainable Development Wishes" [59]. And women will continue to suffer disproportionately.

However, this study did reveal a glimmer of hope beyond a wish with respect to the participants' growing awareness of their rights and the global commitments embedded in the SDGs, meant to realize and uphold them. The participants' critical consideration of the SDGs, through critical ethnographic policy analysis approach, elicited some revelatory discussions in which they voiced frustrations with systems and institutions – legal, medical, educational, political, economic, and social – that failed them. They communicated how the discussions we had during this study had expanded their awareness of these issues and, importantly, enabled them to connect their personal experiences with broader patterns and shared realities of other women. Some of their comments included: "I learned [that we can] advise and learn from each other"; "I learned not to hide my own problems but stand up and push forward"; "As women, we need to stand firm, participate in politics, and not stay back, and when you try to go through and represent others…"; "we are able to be here, we are able to talk, we are able to come together". This is arguably the most critical element in bringing about women's empowerment. Women need to know about their rights and the commitments – such as the SDGs - made to uphold them, and then demand that responsibility be delegated, and accountability be undertaken to ensure this happens: "New forms of consciousness arise out of women's newly acquired access to the intangible resources of analytical skills, social networks, organizational strength, solidarity and sense of not being alone" ([60], p. 246).

#### **12. Conclusion**

Increasingly, global pathways of connection are multiplying and tightening, providing rich opportunities for global movements and solidarity to challenge and overcome oppressive systems that perpetuate inequalities, social injustices, and human rights violations, prioritizing the world's most oppressed, vulnerable, disadvantaged, disempowered, and marginalized, such as women living in poverty in LICs.

The SDGs, although laudably aspirational, and purportedly constituting a "supremely ambitious and transformational vision" for the world are "severely off track" [7] and even regressing especially with respect to the basic fulfillment of human rights, a universal reasonable standard of well-being, as well as participatory privilege and opportunities for empowerment. This study indicates that the needs of those the SDGs are meant to impact the most – such as women living in poverty in LICs – are not being met, even at a basic human rights level. Far from being included in, or involved in any discussions about (aside from this study) "this supremely ambitious and transformative vision", the participants had never even heard of the SDGs. Clearly, the SDGs had not heard from them either. Where are their voices? Who is listening? For truly transformative change to transpire, much greater attention to the voices and lived experiences of women who are so often excluded from the very policies, initiatives, and programs meant to benefit them is essential, as is knowing who is responsible for fulfilling them. At present, this is not the case and as such, the SDGs remain mere "wishes".

*Gender Inequality – Issues, Challenges and New Perspectives*

### **Author details**

Shelley Jones Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC, Canada

\*Address all correspondence to: shelley.12jones@royalroads.ca

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Whose SDGs and Who's Making Them Happen?: Insights from Women in Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113382*

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#### **Chapter 4**

## Getting There with Gender Equality in the Namibian Enterprises, but Questioning Empowerment

*Adalbertus Fortunatus Kamanzi and Judith Namabira*

#### **Abstract**

The chapter examines gender equality in Namibian enterprises. Using the secondary data of the World Bank Namibia Enterprise Data Survey of 2014/2015, the study measures equality due to women empowerment initiatives in access to land and finances, ICT use, and corruption exposure. With the chi-square test of independence, the findings reveal that of the 24 variables examined, only three show significant differences between female and male-led business organizations, leading to a conclusion that there is equality in the business organizations. Nonetheless, with the contestation of the gender equality concept, the study proposes the decoloniality of the women empowerment idea to get to gender empowerment based on *Ubuntu* thinking (the African concept of humanness or what it means to be human).

**Keywords:** empowerment, equality, land, finance, ICT, corruption, coloniality, decoloniality, women empowerment, gender empowerment, *Ubuntu*

#### **1. Introduction**

This chapter is about the examination of gender equality in Namibian enterprises. The examination is based on two premises. The first premise is that due to the women empowerment efforts that began before Namibia's independence in 1990, there should already be elements of equality in the society. The second premise is that due to the decoloniality perspective in knowledge generation, *Ubuntu* thinking addresses the issue of contested gender equality. The study is premised on the business sector, one of the most masculinized social spaces, and hence is suitable for examining this issue of equality.

The study is in Namibia, a country in the Southwest of Africa. It has a population of about 2.6 million people. In 2021, Namibia's GDP was N\$181.9 billion, and the GDP per capita was N\$71,341. In the December 2022 economic outlook, however, the GDP was foreseen to grow by 3.9% in 2022, 2.7% in 2023, and 2.4% in 2024 [1]. Namibia is a lower-middle-income country, and yet one with the most unequal income distributions with a Gini coefficient of 0.63. The Namibian economy

comprises a modern market sector based on capital-intensive industry and farming and a traditional subsistence farming sector. Exports and imports equate to more than 90% of GDP, with most raw material commodities exported unprocessed or semi-processed form and many consumer goods imported. Agriculture, which contributes around 5% to the GDP, employs about 30% of the total labor force, with the most significant contribution from large commercial farms; traditional subsistence farming supports about 70% of the population [2]. Business development is one of Namibia's pillars of the Strategic Plan (2017-2022) of the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade, and SME Development [3]. One of the missions of this strategic plan is business development: "to create and sustain a conducive business environment through value addition, market access, enterprise development, and investment promotion for the benefit of all." Vision 2030, Namibia's major development plan argues that "the government regards the development of small businesses as holding the key to employment and the economic empowerment of a large section of the population" [4]. An estimated 33,700 SMEs provide some form of employment and income to 160,000 Namibian citizens, about one-third of the nation's labor force [5].

This chapter is organized in the following way. Section 2 presents gender equality and women empowerment in Namibia, and Section 3 is a literature review on the issues of access to land and finances, use of ICT, and exposure to corruption in the businesses of Namibia. Section 4 presents the central issue to be addressed in this chapter and the methodological underpinnings. Section 5 presents the empirical findings, Section 6 deals with the discussion, and Section 7 presents the conclusion and proposition.

#### **2. Gender equality and women empowerment in Namibia**

Gender equality is kaleidoscopic because of its many dimensions linked to the many causes and manifestations of inequality, which arise from interactions between values, actions, and circumstances at individual, family, workplace, and societal scales [6] and also because of the shrinking and bending of it for policy purposes [7]. A much more comprehensive definition, whose operationalization is socially popular, refers to gender equality as a social condition, whereby women and men share equal rights and a balance of power, status, opportunities, and rewards; it means men and women have (a) equitable access and use of resources, (b) equitable participation in relationships, the household, the community, and political arenas, and (c) safety or freedom from violence [8].

Nonetheless, the concept of equality is not without contestation. In contesting this concept, it is shown how gender equality has a diversity of meanings across Europe not only based on the existence of different visions of gender equality (such as the visions of inclusion, reversal, and displacement) but also based on the geographical contexts in which the visions are located [9]. In a critique of Western norm entrepreneurs in constructing and promoting new norms to passive, generally non-western, norm takers, the contestation of the gender equality concept is shown by revealing the crucial role of women's organizations in subverting global gender equality norms and in promoting a local norm of gender justice as an alternative [10].

The contestation of gender equality in Africa is built upon the decoloniality ethos to deconstruct Western feminism. Decoloniality has to do with the practice of resistance and the intentional undoing of particularly Western-centric knowledge

*Getting There with Gender Equality in the Namibian Enterprises, but Questioning Empowerment DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112618*

and persistent positive action to create and build alternative spaces, networks, and ways of knowing [11] based on local practices and contextual epistemologies [12]; it is about deprovincializing Africa and provincializing Europe to gain epistemic freedom by reversing Africa's underrepresentation and Europe's dominance in knowledge production [13]. To decolonialize means rethinking thinking and unlearning learning, a struggle to reach epistemic freedom, dismantling power hierarchies in knowledge production, unlearning the colonial designs, and relearning by learning from those excluded [14]. With feminism, the decoloniality ethos deconstructs Western feminism and constructs African feminisms, including *Ubuntu* feminism [15].

*Ubuntu*, the African concept of humanness or what it means to be human, predates most indigenous African knowledge [16]. As a principle, *Ubuntu* is humanity to others or faith in a universal sharing bond that links all humanity; an individual's existence is merged in the "we" based on a proper self-assurance of belonging to others and others belonging in an individual [17]; it is the relational rationality at the base of regulating interactions at different levels of society [18]. The Zulu adage, *Umuntu ngomuntu ngabantu* (a person is a person because of other persons), captures this idea of relational rationality. *Ubuntu* has core values of compassion, forgiveness, responsibility, honesty, self-control, caring, love, and perseverance [16]. *Ubuntu* has relational rationality with human beings depending and interdepending on each other to attain the fullest humanness, which is the existential precondition of bondedness with others [19]. *Ubuntu's* three key dimensions include an autonomous human practice through which humans engender sharing, the human act of co-belonging without any preconditions of belonging, which leads to cooperation because they are attached, and a deliberative practice, whereby humans identify and address major societal issues and examine their implications with openness, acknowledgment of others, and engagement without being impeded by others' competencies [20]. Thus, according to *Ubuntu*, humans need to share, cooperate, and participate for the sole purpose of promoting harmony in society; nobody should have while others have (sharing), none should work alone because each extends to the others through generosity, hospitality, caring and compassionate action (cooperation), and nobody should be left out in providing a solution to the societal problems (participation). In the search for harmony, *Ubuntu* results in such practices as social responsibility, deliberative engagement, and attentiveness to others and otherness [21]. With *Ubuntu* thinking, therefore, "gender inequality and inequitable status of existence cannot be part of *Ubuntu*, as 'I am, because you are' or the meaning of *Ubuntu* cannot be fully experienced in such unbalanced circumstances." ([22], p. 1).

Gender equality has guided Namibian policies; the Constitution articles 10 and 23 ensure that "…all the people shall be equal before the law, and no persons may be discriminated against on the grounds of sex, race, color, ethnic group, creed, and social or economic status." Overall, there has been greater attention towards achieving "formal" gender equality, as also indicated by the implementation of the 50/50 gender representation and zebra-style project leading to an increase in the number of women occupying strategic positions in parliament, ministries, and other leadership positions in the country. As a result of the apparent attention to gender equality, Namibia's Global Gender Gap Index in 2018 was equal to 0.789, ranking Namibia 10th in the world [23]. However, the index does not focus on women's empowerment since it looks more at reducing gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities rather than the actual levels of the available resources and opportunities in

the country, and hence at women's empowerment. Gender equality in Namibia is a function of the empowerment initiatives over time.

From the 1990s onwards, power became a key analytical concept to explain the socioeconomic development dynamics in developing countries. The thrust was to address the power asymmetrical positions in society, particularly empowering the powerless beneficiaries of development. Powerlessness meant lack of power with, power within, and the power to, as a result of the dominant categories of people having the power over to use Rowland's [24] facets of power. Empowerment meant, and it still means, a process of challenging existing power relations and gaining greater control over the sources of power [25], people becoming conscious of their situation, and organizing themselves collectively to gain greater access to public services or the benefits of economic growth [26]. According to the Powercube [27], empowerment is about people participating in their development trajectories at all levels (local, national, and global), moving through the different spaces (closed, invited, and claimed), with all the forms of power (hidden, invisible, and visible). From the gender perspective, empowerment initiatives aimed at striking equality between men and women through the conscientization of women in the aspects of their self-worth and agency.

The empowerment efforts in Namibia are formidably enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia. The Constitution explicitly forbids discrimination on the grounds of sex. It authorizes the establishment of affirmative action "with regard to the fact that women in Namibia have traditionally suffered special discrimination and that they need to be encouraged and enabled to play a full, equal and effective role in the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the nation." Additionally, the Constitution guarantees that men and women of full age "shall be entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage, and at its dissolution." It is also important to note that much as the customary law continues to be recognized it is only to the extent to which it does not violate the Constitution.

The Government of the Republic of Namibia has been doing much to empower women. A Department of Women's Affairs (DWA) was established in the President's Office to facilitate liaison between women and the government and help identify action priorities. The DWA is essential as the government's commitment to gender issues. The DWA and the government's National Planning Commission also established an intermenstrual gender network to monitor gender issues in government policy. There have been efforts for affirmative action to improve women's presence in government, political positions, and education.

#### **3. Namibian businesses and (in)equalities**

There are two types of landholdings in Namibia: freehold and communal land. There is 42% commercial freehold tenure, 35% communal land, and 23% stateowned land [28]. Much as there has been the adoption of institutional frameworks that aim to promote gender equality [29], most women in Namibia have been disadvantaged in terms of land ownership and use, even if they make up slightly more than half of the country's population, with over 40% of rural households being headed by women [30]. Few women own farms, as such [31]. Women being in a more disadvantaged position compared to men in land access can be accounted for by the history of customary discriminatory practices against women in accessing land, rights

#### *Getting There with Gender Equality in the Namibian Enterprises, but Questioning Empowerment DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112618*

over land, and security of land tenure [32]. The question is the extent to which this inequality is institutionalized in the businesses in Namibia.

The financial system of Namibia rotates around five leading commercial banks, three of which are South African, one is Namibian, and one is a majority governmentowned SME Bank. These commercial banks hold more than 95% of assets and deposits. To address the financial gaps in consumer financial literacy and protection and access to financial services and products by SMEs, the government adopted a "Namibia Financial Sector Strategy 2011-2021: Toward Achieving Vision 2030". In 2014, 58% of Namibians had bank accounts, with 57% of women having one. Much as most loans come from Namibian commercial banks, most Namibians (57%) prefer to borrow from family and friends (57%) or someone in the community (10%) rather than banks (4%) because of lack of skills and systems to generate appropriate data and business plans, along with the lack of collateral and credit history [33]. There is almost no literature on gender and financial inclusion concerning male and femaleled business organizations. Literature commonly states that women-owned enterprises suffer from inadequate access to financial services. For example, it is said that over 70% of female-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have inadequate or no access to financial services [34]. Literature also asserts that equality in financial inclusion in enterprises leads to unlocking the potential for enterprises to grow, reducing exposure to income shocks, dynamizing growth, and promoting sustainable and equitable development [35]. So, if Namibia's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have high business discontinuation of four times higher than the rate of established business activity [36], could it be because of the financial exclusion issues? Namibia has 38% female-led business organizations [37].

Gender-equitable access to ICTs is central to sustainable development goal 4 (SDG4) by 2030 and Namibia's Vision 2030. In Namibia, 59% of the population has access to the Internet and mostly in urban areas, with rural communities left mainly behind [38]. Only 47% of Namibian women have access to the Internet. It is known that digital services have the potential to improve businesses' access to broader markets and increase their competitiveness; nonetheless, many businesses are not able to use digital services due to a lack of awareness of digital services, electricity, skills to navigate smart devices, high cost of both devices and mobile Internet and cybercrime [39]. Furthermore, when it comes to ICT education, there needs to be more training in ICT pedagogy, technical know-how in ICT applications, technical support, time to learn and incorporate ICT skills and tools into lessons, and insufficient budget allocation [40]. Not only is the literature on gender and ICT for Namibia very scarce but also there is a paucity of data on the question of the gender digital divide, making it difficult and impossible to make a case for the inclusion of gender issues in ICT policies, plans, and strategies to policymakers [41]. So, is there a significant difference between female and male-led business organizations using ICTs?

The definition of corruption is an illegal activity in terms of bribery, fraud, financial crimes, abuse, falsification, favoritism, nepotism, manipulation, and misrepresentation by public or private officials, domestically or internationally, in a social, business, or governmental context conducted through misuse of authority or power by government or firms officeholders for personal gain and benefit, financial or otherwise [42], seems to be comprehensive, touching upon the three characteristics of illegal activity, misuse of power or authority, and personal benefits, which most definitions refer to. Corruption happens in enterprises, but enterprises also play a

crucial role in much of the corruption that occurs in society, and they are also essential contexts for corruption themselves [43]. Some studies have linked gender and corruption, for instance, the perceptions about corruption by the female managers and owners of firms [44], the impact of corruption on applying for credit between female and male entrepreneurs [45], gender differences in enterprise-level bribery [46], women's moral standards and bribing [47], corruption in family SMEs and nonfamily SMEs [48], corrupt institutional environment and public subsidies for credit access by SMEs helmed by female entrepreneurs [49], the gendered effects of corruption on credit access and credit constraints [47], and gender and bribe paying [50]. As women form a considerable proportion of the informal sector, which is highly contaminated by corruption, there is a greater likelihood that they are under constant pressure to yield to corruption [51]. To what extent is it true that women are more exposed to corruption than men, particularly if female-led business organizations are more exposed to corruption than those led by males?

#### **4. The issue and methodology**

#### **4.1 The issue**

Joan [52, 53] argued for the gendered organizations in favor of men despite the closing gender gaps in educational attainment and workplace seniority; the persistence is built upon the preference to hire people with few distractions outside work, and hence excluding many women because of the likelihood that they hold primary care responsibilities for family members, and incidentally having a man as an ideal worker. Much as workplaces are still gendered in favor of men, do we still have pronounced inequalities despite the empowerment efforts and the women themselves who are an expression of empowered women in management and leadership positions? There is reason to doubt the presence of pronounced inequalities at this moment, even in masculinized entities, such as businesses.

In its examination of inequality, the study deals with the aspects of access to resources (land and finances), use of ICT, and exposure to corruption. Access refers to having or getting the opportunity to use the resource [54]. In the access model [55], every social entity and every member has a specific access profile to resources and tangible assets, depending on one's rights by tradition or law. The access profile differs per individual and entity and may also change over time. Women's access profile has been undermined because they are depicted as unable to manage property adequately, supposedly frail and weak, more vulnerable to the environment, and easily duped in transactions involving land [56].

On the other hand, it has been argued that due to the unequal gender relations in society, women are more exposed to corruption and its consequences [51]. Hence, there is a greater likelihood that they are under constant pressure to yield to corruption. So, is there still inequality in access and use of resources and the exposure to corruption in businesses?

#### **4.2 Methodology**

In order to test if there are still inequalities, a study was conducted on the business organizations in Namibia using the Namibian enterprise dataset. The World Bank

#### *Getting There with Gender Equality in the Namibian Enterprises, but Questioning Empowerment DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112618*

collected this dataset between 2014 and 2015.1 The Namibia enterprise survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of Namibia's private sector. Like other such surveys elsewhere, the survey aims to obtain feedback from enterprises on the state of the private sector, as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that makes it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. The survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators.

The study population comprised businesses in the nonagricultural private economy, namely the manufacturing, construction, services, transport, storage, and communications sectors. The financial intermediation, real estate and renting activities, IT, the public or utilities sectors, and companies with 100% government ownership were excluded. The sample of the respondents was selected using stratified random sampling. Two levels of stratification were used, namely industry and region. The industry was stratified into manufacturing and two services sectors (retail and other services). Regional stratification was defined in the three regions of Windhoek\ Okahandja, Walvis Bay\Swakopmund, and Oshakati\Ongwediva. A sample frame was built using data compiled from local and municipal business registries. The target sample size was 600 establishments, and 580 were reached.

The data were collected using face-to-face interviews. The World Bank used their manufacturing and services module questionnaires to gather data regarding the firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs and labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, businessgovernment relations, innovation and technology, performance measures, and opinions on the obstacles to the business growth and performance.

The variables of interest concerning access to land and finance, use of ICTs, and exposure to corruption were identified. A comparison was made between female-led and male-led business organizations, with a null hypothesis that there is no difference between the female and male-led business organizations in the access to resources' use of ICTs and exposure to corruption. The chi-square test is performed, and the results are presented by reading the p-value at an alpha level of 0.05. A p-value smaller or equal to 0.05 leads to the rejection of the null hypothesis and acceptance of the alternative hypothesis [57].

#### **5. Findings**

#### **5.1 Gender equality and access to land**

Concerning the extent to which inequality is institutionalized in the businesses in Namibia, testing the hypothesis that there are no differences between female and male-led business organizations in accessing land yields the following results, as summarized in **Table 1**.

<sup>1</sup> Dataset downloaded from https://login.enterprisesurveys.org/content/sites/financeandprivatesector/en/ library/library-detail.html/content/dam/wbgassetshare/enterprisesurveys/economy/namibia/Namibia-2014-full-data.dta [29th July 2021].


#### **Table 1.**

*Descriptive statistics of the variables of access to land.*


#### **Table 2.**

*Results of the chi-square test on access to land.*

**Table 1** shows the means of the different variables of access to land. Expenditure, the value of land and buildings, and the cost to repurchase the land and buildings are in Namibian Dollars (N\$). **Table 2** presents the results of the chi-square test to see if there is a significant difference between female and male-led business organizations in the different aspects of access to land.

From the results of the chi-square test, as presented in **Table 2**, it is concluded that there is no significant difference between female and male-led business organizations in accessing land.

#### **5.2 Gender equality and access to finance**

Testing the hypothesis that there are no differences between female and male-led business organizations in accessing finances yields the results summarized in **Table 3**.

**Table 4** reports the results of the chi-square test. For all the variables, except the percentage of working capital financed from external sources, no significant difference exists in the access to finances.

#### **5.3 Gender equality and use of ICTs**

**Table 5** shows the descriptive statistics of the variables of the use of ICTs by business organizations.

**Table 6** presents the chi-square test results to see if there is a significant difference between female and male-led business organizations using ICTs.

#### *Getting There with Gender Equality in the Namibian Enterprises, but Questioning Empowerment DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112618*


#### **Table 3.**

*Descriptive statistics of the variables of access to finance.*


#### **Table 4.**

*Results of a chi-square test on access to finance.*


#### **Table 5.**

*Descriptive statistics on the variables of the use of ICTs.*

Female and male-led business organizations are the same in communicating with emails and use of websites. However, there is a significant difference between female and male-led business organizations on how much telecommunications are an obstacle.

#### **5.4 Gender equality and exposure to corruption**

To what extent is it true that women are more exposed to corruption than men, mainly if female-led business organizations are more exposed to corruption than those led by males? **Table 7** presents the descriptive statistics of the variables used for exposure to corruption.


#### **Table 6.**

*Results of a chi-square test on the use of ICTs.*


#### **Table 7.**

*Descriptive statistics of the variables used for exposure to corruption.*


#### **Table 8.**

*Chi-square test results on exposure to corruption.*

As per the results in **Table 7**, it is essential to note that corruption is not an obstacle, with a mean of 2.04. **Table 8** shows the results after the chi-square test. As seen in **Table 8**, there is no significant difference between the female and male-led business organizations on all the aspects of exposure to corruption, except a bribe being expected or requested when applying for an import license.

*Getting There with Gender Equality in the Namibian Enterprises, but Questioning Empowerment DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112618*

#### **6. Discussion of the findings**

The empowerment initiatives are at the core of the equality achieved, built on the prototype of a *homo competitus*, a competing human being. Reacting to the interpretation of social organization as patriarchal, and hence the social male dominance, a mode of thinking and practice evolved to dislodge such dominance through Western feminism [15]. Theorization, policy implications, and implementation addressed the power of the males over everything, including the females. Empowerment, therefore, became a zero-sum game "with politically weak winners and powerful losers" ([58], p. 17). This realization does not align with the GAD principles of including and speaking of both genders [59]. Among the impact of this male-female competition is the disempowerment of the males that have come to the point of silently submitting to different types of violence in the private, as well as the public; any talk about the policies and practices about the men's empowerment or the plight of a boy child risks the interpretation of being a misogynist agenda and the distraction from the universalized agenda of the severity of disempowered women [60].

The women empowerment initiatives in Namibia are a function of coloniality, that is, the "long-standing patterns of power that emerged as a result of colonialism, but that define culture, labor, intersubjective relations, and knowledge production well beyond the strict limits of colonial administrations" [61] by purpose, motivation, leadership, and idealized woman. The initiatives aimed to insert a woman in modern society as viewed from a Western episteme; they enrolled women into the modern sociopolitical and economic women's rights regime. The initiatives were motivated by the Beijing Conference of 1985 and intensified with the armed struggle for liberation through the independence to the postindependence period [62]. The empowerment initiatives were and still are spearheaded by the elite who belonged to the national organizations, such as the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) Women's Council and the South West Africa National Union (SWANU) aimed at primarily mobilizing the women to support the armed struggle, and the local organizations, such as the Women's desk of the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN), Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), and the Namibia Women's Voice (NWV). In this promotion of an empowered woman, there was no theorization for knowledge generation whatsoever regarding the African gender dynamics, characterized by the complex processes towards marriage, in marriage itself, and after marriage. All that was done was value judgment of the existing gender dynamics, branding them as traditional or primitive and hence deserving abandonment.

#### **7. Conclusion and proposition**

The chapter aimed to examine gender equality in Namibian enterprises. The findings reveal that there is more equality in the business organizations regarding access to land and finances, use of ICTs, and exposure to corruption. Of the 24 variables that were examined, there are only three variables that show significant differences between female and male-led business organizations. The equality seen in this sector is a general reflection of the gains in equality elsewhere in the promotion of the livelihoods of the African people. Nonetheless, the gender equality achieved is a point of contestation because of the coloniality embedded in the competition-based idea of women's empowerment that was a frame to promote it.

We propose decoloniality of the women empowerment idea based on *Ubuntu.* The women empowerment idea is epistemologically Western-centric in its origin. Furthermore, we use *Ubuntu* because it is African. We do not suggest pouring the clean baby and dirty water out of the basin. We acknowledge the women empowerment initiatives and the resulting gender equality. Nonetheless, we argue that the initiatives are misplaced in the African context; they are based on competition between males and females, and this competition has resulted in contested gender equality. Instead, the empowerment initiatives are based on the search for harmony, a fundamental African trait based on *Ubuntu* thinking.

There has been an attempt to give steps to decolonialize. In a paper that suggested decolonializing livelihood research, three steps are suggested. The first step is a personal engagement to decolonialize knowledge; the personal engagement unleashes personal efforts to move towards encountering others' knowledge. The second step concerns the participatory engagements with the communities to generate decolonialized knowledge. The last step is to practice decolonialized knowledge by engaging in actions of resistance, intentional undoing, and positive action to create and build alternative spaces and ways of knowing [14]. This is a three-step itinerary engagement with the self, community, and making use of decolonialized knowledge. We suggest following these steps.

In the first step, which is about a personal engagement to decolonialize knowledge, we suggest changing the wording from women empowerment to gender empowerment. This step uses the *Ubuntu* principle of a bond that links all humanity because we depend and interdepend on each other. Changing the wording affirms the centrality of all genders, rather than only the women and men; each other's gender is merged in one's gender based on a self-assurance of belonging to others and others belonging to an individual. In the second step, which is about participatory engagements with the communities for decolonialized knowledge, *Ubuntu's* first and second dimensions are critical. These dimensions are about sharing and cooperation. In this second step, let the communities share their knowledge regarding gender empowerment and cooperate to bring out gender empowerment perspectives from the segments of their community. In the third step, where decolonialized knowledge is to be put into practice, the deliberative dimension of *Ubuntu* is critical; let the communities identify their gender empowerment issues and suggest how they can address them with openness, acknowledgment of others' opinions, and engagement without being impeded by others' competencies.

#### **Acknowledgements**

We acknowledge the instrumental and valuable inputs from Professor Leo de Haan (International Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands), Professor Robert Esuruku (Makerere University of Kampala, Uganda), Professor Emmanuel Nyankweli (Open University of Tanzania, Tanzania), and Dr. Josua Matati (UNAM, Namibia).

#### **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

*Getting There with Gender Equality in the Namibian Enterprises, but Questioning Empowerment DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112618*

#### **Author details**

Adalbertus Fortunatus Kamanzi1 \* and Judith Namabira<sup>2</sup>

1 Independent Researcher, Oshakati, Namibia

2 Independent Researcher, Dodoma, Tanzania

\*Address all correspondence to: akamanzi@unam.na

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Section 2
