Equality For All Sexes Legal, Administrative Instruments Exist

Being aware of the special problems of women and anxious to improve their status, the government set up the Ministry of Women’s Affairs by Decree No. 97/205 of December 7, 1997. Working with main actors (the administration, the private sector and civil society) in the path of women’s advancement, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, today known as the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, made women’s issues a priority, prepared documents, ratified and adopted national and international laws relating to the respect of women’s rights and strengthening guarantees of gender equality in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres.
According to a source at the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, as far as the advancement of the status of women in the economic and socio-cultural areas is concerned, the policy declaration on the Integration of Women in Development, the Multisectoral Plan of Action on Women and Development, and the National Plan of Action on the Integration of Women in Development were drafted and approved by the Government in 1999. Within these instruments, the government provides all forms of assistance to deserving students of both sexes, abolished certain restrictive regulations, such as age limits, unfavourable to women in higher education, introduced a national functional literacy programme and an informal education programme for girls while adopting a declaration on the new educational policy to combat classroom exclusion, reduce regional inequalities and remove existing obstacles to education for girls.  
After the holding of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, women’s concerns were increasingly taken into account in the major reforms being undertaken in the country. Experts at the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment say the participatory approach adopted in connection with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) made it possible for 30 to 40 per cent of wome...