As Madagascar undergoes a demographic transition and expects significant growth in the share of its working-age population by 2050, focusing investments to ensure the health, education, and empowerment of adolescent girls is a particularly important strategy that will likely result in long-term gains for economic growth and sustainable development.
Yet, women and girls face significant challenges in their educational, professional, and family trajectories. A World Bank study on gender disparities in Madagascar highlights these and offers four strategic directions to address them: Unlocking the Potential of Women and Adolescent Girls - Challenges and Opportunities for Greater Empowerment of Women and Adolescent Girls in Madagascar.
This mixed-method study aimed to generate knowledge and deepen understanding of gender inequalities and their drivers in Madagascar with a focus on adolescence. The study builds on the most recent survey data as well as qualitative data collected in three regions of the country Analamanga, Atsimo-Atsinanana, and Sofia, and involved focus group discussions and in-depth individual interviews with young women, parents of adolescent girls, and key informants.
The report identifies four strategic directions to narrow existing gender gaps and unlock girls' and women's potential in Madagascar which include a set of actions to improve and strengthen the legal environment:
- Assist girls and young women in completing schooling.
- Improve women’s and girls’ access to professional health care.
- Enhance women’s economic opportunities.
- Improve women’s and girls’ voice and agency and eliminate all forms of gender-based violence.
In light of the multidimensional aspects of gender equality—and the existing disparities across endowments, economic opportunities, and agency—it will be crucial to initiate comprehensive, multisector efforts to address existing gender gaps. This is important for women and girls in Madagascar. While gender equality matters in its own right, investments in the social and economic empowerment of women and adolescent girls have the potential to translate into long-lasting economic growth and overall development for Madagascar.
What challenges do Malagasy girls and women face?
Malagasy women and girls continue to have low potential to accumulate their human capital in education. A significant share of adult women ages 15–49 is illiterate, reaching a striking 55.8% in the region of Menabe versus 26.9% among men. And still today only 30.8% of girls and 27.6 % of boys ages 11–17 attend secondary school. Participation in farming and other labor activities interrupt the school trajectories of many adolescents. Girls’ chances to complete secondary education are further lowered by high involvement in domestic chores, gender-based violence in schools, limited agency, and—above all—child marriage and early pregnancy.
Malagasy women and girls also face challenges in access to maternal, sexual, and reproductive health services, as seen by a low share of professionally assisted births (45.8 %) and a high unmet need for contraception (14.6 %). The scarcity of health centers and prohibitive costs of consultations limit women’s and girls’ access to health services in general and they are further constrained by the lack of reliable sources of information on sexual and reproductive health, the absence of quality youth-friendly clinics, and social norms that discourage the use of family planning services among unmarried women/ women without children. All those barriers contribute to a high share of teenage pregnancies (31.1 % of girls ages 15–19 have begun childbearing), which is associated with numerous risks for girls’ well-being, with potential long-term adverse effects on their education, health, employment opportunities, and vulnerability to poverty.
Lack of investment in human capital strongly affects women’s potential to participate actively and productively in economic opportunities. Malagasy women are less likely than men to participate in the labor market (71.3 % versus 82.4 % respectively) and have limited access to better-quality jobs, with fewer women being wage employees (24 % of working women against 35 % of working men), and more women are contributing family workers (14 % vs. 5 % of male workers) and engaged in subsistence farming (32 % vs. 23 % respectively). Besides a general scarcity of jobs, women face discrimination in the recruitment process and are constrained as they lack the required skills and competencies, knowledge, a clear vision, and instruments on how to translate their job aspirations into action.
Malagasy women’s limitation in their agency and decision-making power is manifested in high rates of intimate partner violence (41 % of ever-partnered women have experienced at least one of its forms) and child marriage (38.8 % of women ages 20–24 were married by age 18). For many poor girls and their families, the decision to start a family at a very early age is driven by the lack of means and aspirations to escape poverty at home. In addition, widespread negative attitudes toward unmarried women and out-of-wedlock pregnancies often drive adolescent girls and their families to pursue marriage early, partly to comply with social norms and expected patterns of behavior.