Gender Equality: A Push Further?

Women’s representation in parliament increased in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2023, when compared to previous years, according to a report conducted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on the progress of women’s representation in elective positions. 

The 28-page report titled “Women in Parliament in 2023”, highlighted elections were held for 18 parliamentarians in 13 countries, and 19.1% of those elected were women — an increase of 3.9 percentage points.

Progress was made in Eswatini, Benin, and Sierra Leone. While women's representation fell in Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, and Nigeria.  “In four chambers, women’s representation remained the same (or changed by 1 percentage point or less).”

According to the report,  Zimbabwe and Eswatini recorded the highest number of women elected to parliament in 2023.  

“By contrast, Nigeria elected the least gender-representative parliament in the region, with women making up only 2.8% of MPs in the upper chamber and 3.9% of MPs in the lower chamber following the 2023 polls.”

“At the beginning of 2024, the share of women in parliaments across sub-Saharan Africa was 27.3%, a 0.8-percentage-point increase relative to 12 months previously and the third highest among all regions in the world.”

The report highlighted the appointment of Manuela Roka Botey,  Equatorial Guinea’s first female prime minister.  Not only the forest prime minister, Botey became the first woman to hold this position in the entire West African region. 

Another significant development was the election of Kandia Kamissoko Camara as the Speaker of the Senate of Côte d’Ivoire (the upper chamber) — the first time a woman had ever held this position.

What happened in Sierra Leone and Benin

Sierra Leone’s Gender Equality and Empowerment Act is enhancing gender equality. Introduced in 2023, Sierra Leone, the Act mandates a 30 percent quota for women in elections.

After the 2023 elections in Freetown, 41 women returned to Parliament across the 135 seats, representing 30.4% of directly elected Members of Parliament.

“In addition, only one woman was elected among the 14 indirectly elected paramount chiefs in 2023. As a result, women accounted for 28.2% of the final 149 MPs – an increase of 15.9 percentage points versus the share of women elected in the previous polls held before the introduction of the new,” says the report.  

On the other hand, in Benin, 28 women were elected to parliament, “a historic high for the country.” Together, they accounted for over one quarter (25.7%) of all MPs, a jump of 18.5 percentage points versus the situation following the previous polls.”

According to the “Women in Parliament in 2023 report, this significant increase was the product of a constitutional amendment and the subsequent introduction of a new electoral code in 2019, which added 24 reserved seats for women in parliament.

“As a result of this reform, which followed IPU-supported dialogue between parliament’s leadership and relevant stakeholders, women made up 26.3% of electoral candidates in 2023 – up from 8.4% at the previous election. At the beginning of 2023, Benin ranked 169th in the world in terms of women’s parliamentary representation. By the end of the year, it had moved up to 87th position.”

Has Nigeria Failed to Promote Gender Equality? 

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union report, women’s representation in the Nigerian House of Senate “which was already very low, shrank further by 3.7 percentage points in 2023.”

“Only three women were elected in 2023, together representing just 2.8% of the total membership of the chamber. Women also remained vastly underrepresented in the House of Representatives (the lower chamber): in 2023, just 14 women were elected to the 358-seat chamber, accounting for 3.9% of all MPs – marginally higher than the 3.4% share recorded following the previous election.”

Sadly, in 2023, women comprised 8.4% of candidates running for the Senate and 9.2% of those standing for the House of Representatives.

“In fact, in 5 of the 36 states of Nigeria, there were no women candidates for the Senate. The likelihood of women standing for major political parties was even smaller, and analysis shows that 90% of women candidates in the 2023 elections across different political levels represented small parties.”

Research commissioned by the IPU has identified a range of institutional and sociocultural factors that prevent women in Nigeria from being able to participate in politics on an equal footing, according to the report.

“These include gatekeeping by political parties, high candidate registration fees, the inconvenient scheduling of political meetings, the high cost of electoral campaigns, political violence and sexual harassment, clientelism (and, therefore, dependence on narrow networks of men), a ban on independent candidacies, and patriarchal social norms.” 

“Since 2020, the IPU has supported the National Assembly of Nigeria in identifying and considering the best means to promote more equal and inclusive representation of women in parliament. However, none of the measures envisaged, such as the introduction of an electoral gender quota, had been adopted ahead of the 2023 elections.”