Source: Morocco World News
While Morocco lags behind worldwide in terms of creating an enabling business and legal environment for women, the country remains a top performer at a regional level.
According to a new publication from the World Bank (WB), Morocco currently holds the most enabling business and legal environment for women in North Africa. The country scored 75.6 out of 100 in providing accommodating business and legal environments that would allow women equal opportunities in the labor market, the report shows.
With this score, Morocco is ahead of regional peers such as Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, which scored 64.4, 57.5, and 50.6 respectively, data from the WB report indicate.
Titled “Women, Business and the Law 2023,” the publication evaluates a range of laws that affect women’s access to economic opportunities across 190 countries.
The scores assigned to countries comprise data on eight categories of legislation that affect women as they progress in their lives and careers, including mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pension.
Regarding legislation governing mobility, workplace, and entrepreneurship, WB data showed that Morocco reached full gender equity, scoring 100 in all three categories. However, Morocco's legal environment is less enabling in terms of pay, marriage, assets, pension, and parenthood: the country scored respectively 50, 60, 40, 75, and 80 on these four metrics.
Noting the overall performance of North Africa and the Middle East (MENA) region, the WB report indicates that while the region has passed significant reforms over the past years, it is still at the bottom worldwide, with an average score per country equivalent to a mere 53 out of 100.