Middle East / North Africa and the Millennium Development Goals ...

Middle East / North Africa and the Millennium Development Goals
2004 f.). All the same, the region is still far from any real gender equality
if the countries that make it up do not undertake substantial efforts to improve
the economic, political, and legal situation of women.
Education
A good number of MENA countries have already largely reached MDG3.
In some of them (Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, the
Palestinian Territories, Tunisia, and the UAE) girls are even in the majority
in primary and secondary schools. Algeria and Oman (possibly also
Iran, Morocco, and Mauritania) will follow suit by the next years. The
only countries in the region that are unlikely to have reached MDG3 until
2015 are Yemen, Iraq, and Sudan (see Figure 5 and Table A1, Annex).
The progress made by Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania
between 1990 and 2001 was particularly impressive. This is measured as
the ratio between school enrolment rates for girls and boys. 100 % means
that equally large percentages of girls and boys are enrolled in school – but
without taking into consideration how high these percentages in fact are.
In Egypt the ratio of the combined enrolment rates for girls and boys in
primary and secondary schools rose, between 1990 and 2001, from 78 to
94 %; the corresponding rises for other countries were: Algeria from 80 to
99 %; Morocco and Mauritania from 82 to 92 and 93 %, respectively; Tunisia
from 82 to 100 % (see Table A5, Annex).
At the same time Jordan, Syria, and the UAE have hardly made any progress.
According to UNDP (2003a), the primary enrolment percentages for
girls and boys have remained nearly unchanged at levels of roughly 95 %
(Jordan and Bahrain), 92 % (UAE), 88 % (Syria), and 80 % (Iraq).
UNESCO has found similar figures for secondary education in Iran.
The progress made in increasing school enrolment rates for girls has also
been reflected in declining illiteracy rates for women. If in 1990 the average
literacy rate for young women aged 15 to 25 was 75 % in the MENA
region as a whole, by 2002 the percentage had risen to 87 %. In Bahrain,
Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE the figure has now reached levels of
over 100 %; i.e. the proportion of illiterate women between the ages of
15 and 25 is lower than for men of the same age cohorts. In Qatar and the
UAE this even holds for the overall population (see Table A5, Annex).
German Development Institute 57