2.2. Trends in Legal, Policy and Institutional Reform

two-thirds of appointed management positions, effectively driving up female representation in decision-making positions.803 The Constitution of Comoros under its Article 34, “recognizes and guarantees the youth and women the right to access political instances of local and national representation.”804 The Constitution of Madagascar stipulates that, “the law favours the equal access and the participation of women and men in public employment and to the functions in the domain of the political, economic and social life.”805

2.2.1. Legal Reforms

Throughout the past decade, the number of women in the region represented in national parliaments has increased, demonstrating the impact of including constitutional and legalbased reforms and quotas. A new law was enacted in Djibouti in 2018 stating that at least 25% of the National Assembly must be composed of women. This law also asserts that political parties must ensure at least 25% representation by each sex. This law mirrors another enacted in 2003, requiring 10% representation of women in the national Parliament.806 On a larger scale, the Eritrean Proclamation on the Establishment of Local Government (No. 86/1996) states that 30% of seats in the Regional Assembly should be reserved for women and that they can compete for the remaining 70% of the seats.807 Mauritius, similarly, has amended its Local Government Act 2012 to detail that any electoral group with more than two candidates should ensure that they are not all from the same sex.808

Such legal reforms aimed at driving up women’s representation have been successful in Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar and Mauritius. After the enactment of the 10% minimum quota for women’s representation, Djibouti elected its first female parliamentarian in 2003.809 In the two decades that followed, the country recorded one of the highest increases in women’s representation in Parliament in the region, at 26.2%.810 Since the 2018 law enacted to increase female representation in the National Assembly and political parties, women have taken 65 seats in the National Assembly, and they accounted for a quarter of candidates in the 2018 election.811 Much like Djibouti, Ethiopia has registered high growth in the representation of women in the lower and single houses of Parliament, at 38.8%.812 Comoros’ national Parliament has seen women’s representation double to 6% from 3% recorded in 2016.813

Women in politics may not be the sole benchmark to use in assessing women’s progress, but it is a foundational change upon which both women and men can further progress in reforms. The percentage of women in national parliaments has steadily increased in Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. Numbers of women in the national Parliament of Seychelles fluctuated throughout the Decade, going from 23.5% of women in 2010 to 43.7% of women in 2015 but then decreasing to 21.2% of women in 2019.814 This could be a result of the country not having a gender-based quota in its Constitution, nor a minimum number of seats to be held by women. Rwanda passed a law in 2013 further prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in political parties.815 In 2012, women made up 14% of Parliament, and although they currently hold almost 25% of seats, their representation has yet to reach 30%.816 The lower house of Somalia’s Parliament has approved a bill to include a 30% quota for women but this has yet to be ratified (as of June 2020).817 In Tanzania, women in the national Parliament have kept about the same share, going from 36% in 2011 to 36.8% in 2019.818 Meanwhile the number of women in ministerial positions has fluctuated, rising from 26.9% in 2010 to 36.7% in 2014 and then falling to 20% in 2016.819