Ivory Coast, African champion of gender equality, a controversial title

The note was well worth celebrating. On Friday 13 September, in front of an audience of associations, government officials and journalists gathered at the Sofitel in Abidjan, the Ivorian Prime Minister, Robert Beugré Mambé, could not help but have a moment of official satisfaction.

The reason? According to the 2023 “Social Institutions and Gender Equality” (SIGI) indicator established by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Côte d’Ivoire is the best student on the African continent in the fight against discrimination against women. Its score is 17.3 (compared to 42.8 in 2019), when the world average is 29 (with 0 being the best score and 100 the worst). “We are entering the elite of the 55 best-ranked countries on the world stage.” The head of government was delighted. Ivory Coast has now surpassed Rwanda (19), South Africa (23) and even Canada (17.5).

The report is based on four categories: discrimination within the home, access to financial resources, attacks on physical integrity and restriction of civil liberties. The criteria for evaluating the existence of laws that aim to guarantee equality between men and women and protect them, the prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) and the perception of the role and rights of women within the population.

“Feeling of impunity”

According to the Ivorian Ministry of Women, this clear progress is the result of strengthening women’s economic capacities through support funds, recent laws promoting their rights and progress made in the fight against gender-based violence (marital mutilation, genital mutilation, etc.). “Our uniqueness is combining gender issues with economic and sustainable development issues”sums up Euphrasie Kouassi Yao, advisor to the Prime Minister responsible for gender and chair of the technical advisory group that collaborated with the OECD for the country assessment.

However, within feminist circles in Côte d’Ivoire, the assessment is more mixed. Two days before this announcement, on September 11, the lifeless and dismembered body of a 19-year-old influencer, Emmanuella Y., was found in a residence in the commune of Cocody, in Abidjan. The first elements of the investigation focus on the guilt of her partner. “This is the fourth femicide we have recorded since the beginning of the month”recalls Bénédicte Otokoré, deputy secretary general of the Ivorian League for Women’s Rights.

For the activist, the OECD report focuses on the existence of laws and not on their effective implementation. “Good laws have been passed to protect women, but ignorance of these texts reinforces the feeling of impunity. We are seeing a trivialization of sexist discourse and femicides continue,” She said. Furthermore, femicides are not among the six types of gender-based violence that the Ivorian Ministry of Women takes into account. Therefore, there are no official statistics to quantify them, “which leads to an unrealistic assessment of the situation,” says Bénédicte Otokoré.

Faced with the increase in cases of femicide, the Ivorian League for Women’s Rights sent a statement to the public authorities on September 18 to demand judicial reform to recognize and combat this phenomenon. An approach supported by journalist and feminist activist Nesmon de Laure, founder of the NGO Opinion Illuminated, who also questions the score obtained: “Laws are raising the bill in Ivory Coast. But what about government action to combat patriarchy in social norms?”

Awareness campaigns

In recent years, the adoption of several laws has allowed the legal framework in Côte d’Ivoire to evolve. The 2019 reform of the Family Code harmonised the legal age of marriage for women and men at 18. The text grants the mother the same parental authority as the father and authorises the wife to enter the order of succession of her husband. The same year, a minimum quota of 30% women in elected assemblies was approved. In 2021, a law on domestic violence and rape guaranteed more protective measures for victims of gender-based violence. And since 2016, the proliferation of gender-based complaint offices within police stations aims to encourage women to speak out.

Lawyer Ferela Soro, head of advocacy at the Organization for Feminist Reflection and Action (ORAF), welcomes these legal tools, but hopes that the justice system will apply them with “deterrent sanctions” and the government fights “more frontally” sexist acts. “Until we speed up the formation of public opinion and the application of sanctions, the culture of violence against women will continue” She believes. And to cite as an example genital mutilation, banned since 1988 but which still affects 37% of Ivorian women, according to an OECD assessment.

The Ministry of Women recognizes that “the persistence of cultural stereotypes” hinders progress. To address this, she explains creating awareness campaigns, collaborating with influencers to reach young people through social media or even cooperating with community leaders to positively influence perceptions about the role of women.

While the OECD supports Côte d’Ivoire in its strategy, it also invites it to strengthen its action to curb gender-based violence and promote reproductive autonomy. In addition, it is necessary to improve law enforcement, she said. A prerequisite if the country wants to achieve its ambitious goal of ending all forms of discrimination and violence against its citizens by 2030, in line with the sustainable development goals defined by the UN.