3.2 Trends in Legal, Policy and Institutional Reform

3.2.1. Legal Reforms

Concerning legal reforms, nearly all North African countries have adopted legal frameworks to promote women’s economic empowerment.

In Libya, the 2010 Labour Relations Law guarantees equal job opportunities for men and women in both private and public sectors608 and promotes equal pay by barring gender-related discrimination for equal work.609

All countries, except Sahrawi Republic (no data found), in the North African region have legislation on maternity leave. Of these, Algeria, Libya and Mauritania offer 14 weeks of maternity leave. Act No. 12 of 2010 establishes that women in Libya have not only the right to 14 weeks of paid maternity leave610 but also equal remuneration for equal work. Two countries (Algeria and Tunisia) also provide for paid paternity leave. Algeria provides for three days of paid paternity leave but in Tunisia fathers are entitled to only one day. During the AWD, all countries, except for Libya, Mauritania and Sahrawi Republic, adopted legislation proscribing sexual harassment in employment, and imposed criminal penalties.

Two countries (Egypt and Morocco) introduced legislative reform concerning GRB. Egypt’s Prime Minister’s Decision No. 1167 calls for a committee to follow up on the system of plans, programmes and performance budgets in ministries.611 In 2014, Morocco adopted a new Organic Law of Finance, which institutionalises gender equality in the budget process. This also explicitly states that gender equality must be considered in the definition of objectives, results and indicators of performance and institutionalises the Gender Report as “an official document that is part of the annual Finance Bill.”612

3.2.2. Policy and Institutional Reforms

North African governments also adopted policy reforms that address women’s economic empowerment and poverty in general or in specific terms. Most commonly, countries laid out their plans for addressing these issues in national strategies. For example, in 2017, the Egyptian government introduced the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030. This aims to implement the commitment outlined in the 2014 Constitution of Egypt, as well as international agreements, with a particular focus on vulnerable women, such as rural women, women living in poverty and elderly and disabled women. It seeks to do so through capacity development, entrepreneurship and creating equal opportunities for women in all sectors.613 Mauritania’s National Strategy on Developing the Private Sector 2015–2019 aimed to reduce disparities between women and men. It also established funding for many programmes to finance the economic development of women and a programme to promote enterprises associated with women.

In 2018, the Council of Ministers of Tunisia approved the National Action Plan for the Integration and Institutionalisation of the Gender Perspective. The Plan seeks to integrate a gender perspective in planning, programming and budgeting “with a view to eliminate all forms of discrimination and achieve equality in terms of development, rights and duties among citizens by the year 2020.”614

All North African countries, except for Libya and Sahrawi Republic, have implemented institutional reforms to promote the economic empowerment of women. To support the financing of women-led enterprises, Morocco’s Central Guarantee Fund, together with the Ministry of Economic and Finance, has launched a guarantee tool that covers 80% of bank loans up to MAD 1 million ($111,938.21) that are given to women.615 Morocco’s Your Guarantee’s Fund in 2013 made loans to finance 236 new enterprises set up by one or more women. The Government of Morocco also established two national programmes, the Government Plan for Equality 1 (2012–2016) and 2 (2017–2021) to empower women and strengthen their opportunities.616

Figure 6 North Africa: Firms with female participation in ownership (% of firms)

Mauritania 15.0%

Algeria 15.0%

Egypt 17.8%

Morocco 31.3%

Tunisia 49.5%

No data available for Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and Libya. Source: World Bank, Gender Statistics DataBank.