Islamabad, November 12th: The World Economic Forum released the Global Gender Gap report 2008 today through the Competitiveness Support Fund, which is its partner institute in Pakistan.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2008 (GGGR), published each year by the World Economic Forum, the social and economic empowerment of women is still very low and they are still struggling for their livelihood and survival.

Pakistan ranked 127 out of 130 countries in this year’s Global Gender Gap rankings. The report provides a comprehensive framework for assessing and comparing global gender gaps in 92 per cent of the world’s population this year. There are three basic underlying concepts of the GGG Report; it ranks countries according to gender equality rather than women empowerment; focuses on measuring gaps rather than levels and measuring those gaps in outcome variables rather than input variables.

There are fourteen Gender Gap indices which focus on economic participation and opportunity available to women, educational attainment, health and survival as well as political empowerment. Pakistan has ranked poorly in almost all categories. However it has fared well in empowering women politically as it ranks 50th out of 130 countries.

Norway leads the world in closing the gender gap, followed by Finland, Sweden and Iceland. Germany (11), United Kingdom (13) and Spain (17) slipped down the ranking, but remained in the top 20 slot. Many countries like Netherlands (9), Latvia (10), and Sri Lanka (12) and France (15) made significant gains.

The report identifies gaps in most socio-economic areas of the country. Pakistan ranks 117th, in both women’s literacy rate and workforce population; in healthy life expectancy, it ranked 115th; enrollment in primary education it ranked 110th, in wage equality for similar work it ranked 60th, while in years of female head of state, it ranked at number 5.

The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) is a joint initiative of the United Stes Agency for International Trade and Development (USAID), and the Government of Pakistan Ministry of Finance, established to reposition Pakistan’s economy in a more globally competitive footing.

USAID’s support for CSF is part of the $2.8 billion aid that the U.S. Government has provided to Pakistan since 2002 to improve economic growth, education, health, and governance and to reconstruct the earthquake-affected areas.

Click here to download Pakistan's Gender GAP Index 2008