Botswana features in Africa’s equality gains
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday November 9, 2026 09:39
According to the report, released in October, Women's Equality is the second-most improved governance sub-category, recording a 4.9-point increase across 42 African countries representing 63.9% of the continent's population. The findings highlight progress in advancing women's rights and equality, although significant disparities persist across the continent. In particular, 12 countries recorded deteriorating performance, with declines accelerating since 2021 in 10 of them. These include the Central African Republic, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe. At the continental level, Cabo Verde emerged as the leading performer in 2025, scoring 81.7 points, followed by Mauritius at 80.9, and Ghana at 80.0.
Meanwhile, Gabon recorded the biggest improvement over the decade, gaining 17.3 points, whilst Chad and Djibouti followed closely, each improving by 16.1 points. Conversely, Somalia, Sudan and Libya recorded the lowest scores in 2025, at 15.5, 17.6 and 28.6 respectively. Niger experienced the steepest decade-long decline, losing 8.8 points, followed by Rwanda at 4.4 points and the Central African Republic at 2.8 points.
The report also identifies legislation addressing violence against women as a significant area of progress. The indicator, Laws on Violence against Women, improved by 14.8 points over the decade, making it the second most improved among the IIAG's 96 indicators. Notably, no African country recorded deterioration in this indicator over the period. Instead, 22 countries registered improvements, whilst 32 recorded no change. Of the 32 countries that registered no change, 23 maintained relatively high scores of between 80.0 and 100.0. However, Mauritania and Sudan remained at the lowest possible score of zero throughout the decade, highlighting persistent gaps in legal protections.
By 2025, 42 African countries had scores ranging between 80.0 and 100.0, reflecting progress in adopting legislation aimed at protecting women. Nevertheless, the report highlights a significant limitation in measuring progress, noting that Laws on Violence against Women are amongst the IIAG's few input-based indicators. This is largely due to the lack of internationally comparable data measuring the actual prevalence and extent of violence against women across African countries. Drawing on the World Bank's Women, Business and the Law dataset, the indicator assesses legal protections relating to sexual harassment in the workplace, criminal penalties, and civil remedies for workplace harassment, laws requiring wives to obey their husbands, domestic violence legislation, and access to divorce judgments.