Maldives

Gender Equality Diagnostic of Selected Sectors

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• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9789292546830
• eBook ISBN:
  9789292546847
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

For the past decade, the Maldives has experienced economic growth, mostly driven by tourism. As an archipelago comprised of small islands, the land area is limited and the resource base narrow, with low potential for agriculture and other industries and high vulnerability to climate change. Its small population is dispersed and fragmented, making delivery of services costly and difficult. With resources and services concentrated in the capital city of Malé, the atolls are underdeveloped. Progress has been notable in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, improving maternal health, and reducing child mortality. However, challenges remain in gender equality and women's empowerment (with low female-to-male ratio in tertiary qualifications), limited share of female employment, and low participation of women in political development and decision making. This publication intends to support the Government of the Maldives in its attempt to tackle persisting gender inequalities and gaps through a multisector approach across policies, programs, and projects. It provides insights into gender issues in energy; fisheries; micro, small, and medium enterprises; transport; tourism; and water and sanitation and suggestions for strengthening gender mainstreaming in project design, implementation, and monitoring.

Part I

Gender Mainstreaming Context in the Maldives

Country Context

The Government’s highest priority is to empower women economically and financially. The most vital instrument for women’s empowerment is education. It is the Government’s policy to provide education to all children, and exclude no one. Let us heed the international call to promote women’s rights, provide equal educational opportunities for girls, and let women’s voices be heard in the lawmaking process.

—Paraphrased from the Speech of President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, 15 May 2014

The Maldives is an archipelago that consists of 1,192 islands, of which only 196 (16%) are inhabited. Another 101 islands are used as resorts and 14 as sites for industrial plants. Only 10% of the estimated total land area of 300 square kilometers is suitable for agriculture. The Maldives has 26 natural atolls, which have been grouped into 20 administrative atolls. As of the 2006 census, the population was almost 300,000 (49.3% women).¹ According to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, about 80,000 expatriate workers also inhabit the islands, most of them in resort islands.

The capital, Malé, has an area of about 2 square kilometers, and accommodates one-third of the country’s population, making Malé one of the most congested places in the world.² The only other city is the newly declared city of Addu in the southernmost part of the country.

For the past decade, the Maldivian economy has been driven by tourism, which in 2012 accounted for 28.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) and about 29% of government revenue.³ The fishing industry’s contribution to GDP decreased from 6.0% in 2010 to 1.5% in 2012.⁴ Continuous economic growth over the past decade at an annual rate of 6%–8% has improved individual incomes—gross national income per capita continued to increase from $6,530 (adjusted to purchasing power parity) in 2011 to $9,400 in 2012.⁵

Notwithstanding the economic growth that the country has been enjoying in the past decade, the economy remains vulnerable to external shocks and climate change. For example, economic recession followed the 2004 tsunami. GDP shrank by 5% following the global financial crisis in 2007.⁶ As an archipelago composed mostly of very small islands, land area is limited and the resource base is narrow, with low potential for agriculture and other industries. Its small population is extremely dispersed and fragmented, making delivery of services to many sparsely populated islands costly and difficult. With resources and services concentrated in the capital Malé, the atolls are underdeveloped and in need of assistance, rendering the economy and the people vulnerable to environmental and external market forces.

Despite its vulnerabilities, the Maldives has achieved five out of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—ahead of the 2015 deadline—making it South Asia’s only “MDG+” country.⁷ Progress has been substantial in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger (MDG1); achieving universal primary education (MDG2); reducing child mortality (MDG4); improving maternal health (MDG5); and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases (MDG6). The Maldives’ Human Development Index value also increased from 0.529 in 1995 to 0.688 in 2012, a 30.0% increase or an average annual increase of about 1.6%. Mean years of schooling increased by 2.3 years, while life expectancy at birth has increased by 11.9 years for the same period.⁸ However, progress has been relatively slower toward achieving three MDGs: promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment (MDG3), ensuring environmental sustainability (MDG7), and developing a global partnership for development (MDG8). Achieving these three MDGs and maintaining the achieved status in other MDGs remain difficult due to persistent inequalities between Malé and the atolls.

The current Government reiterates its commitment to the Women’s Empowerment Policy and calls on all agencies to ensure that their programs contribute to women’s economic and political empowerment. More specifically, the Government is committed to (i) enhance women’s economic empowerment, and (ii) ensure zero violence against women or any form of harassment or women. Other priorities set out by the Government include (i) eliminating barriers for woment to join the work force, (ii) opening opportunities for women’s greater participation in the political sphere, (iii) protecting families from the negative impacts of divorce, and (iv) ensuring equal distribution of matrimonial property after divorce.

As a country that is described in its constitution as a “sovereign, independent, democratic state based on the principles of Islam,”⁹ the Maldives has deeply ensconced Islam in the very fabric of daily life, especially in matters related to the family. Shari’ah law forms the basis of the Family Act, which sets the rules on marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance, and property rights according to Islamic teachings.

Key Gender Equality Issues

Following Islamic tradition, men are charged with the “protection and care” of their wives and children, and are considered the heads of households and principal decision makers. Cultural norms link men with activities outside the home that would enable them to earn and support their families, such as fishing, construction, engineering, and mechanical jobs, as well as dealing with tourists and outsiders, among others. On the other hand, reproductive tasks such as child care and household chores are seen as women’s responsibilities. The burden of performing these reproductive tasks is significant, as the average household has 6.2 members (7.0 in the atolls and 5.9 in Malé in 2009–2010).¹⁰ Time-consuming reproductive responsibilities can inhibit women’s involvement in productive (paid) work, unless such activities are extensions of their reproductive roles, such as small-scale preparation and cooking of “short eats”, which they sell to their immediate communities.

The notion of “appropriate gender roles” and the gender division of labor influences access to resources and opportunities by Maldivian men and women, which in turn gives rise to gender issues in the following areas:

Employment

Gender disparity in labor force participation rate and unemployment rate

Women’s share of wage employment in the non-agriculture sector is at a low 30%. While women’s labor force participation rate has gone up in the past few years, it is still considerably lower than that of men (59% compared with 79%). Women’s unemployment rate of 39% is twice the men’s unemployment rate of 19%.¹¹ Box 1 shows that the major reason given by both women and men for being unemployed was that they were unable to find suitable employment. But 22% of women cited household chores as a reason, and another 3% objection from family members—thus, family factors affect a significant number of women but none of the men surveyed.

Box 1: Reasons for Being Unemployed, by Sex, 2009–2010 (%)
	Women	Men
Unable to find suitable employment	40	51
Due to household chores	22	0
Due to lack of opportunities	12	15
Currently at school	8	10
Due to health conditions	5	7
Objection to work by family members	3	0
Income from other sources	2	1
Others	8	16
Total	100	100
Source: Department of National Planning (Statistics Division). 2012. Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2009–2010. Malé. p. 45.

Gender differences, including gender income gaps, in employment by industry

As shown in Box 2, more males than females are employed in industries such as fishing; quarrying; electricity, gas, and water; construction; wholesale and retail trade; hotel and restaurants; transport, storage, and communication; and public administration and defense. On the other hand, more women than men are employed in agriculture and forestry; manufacturing; education; and health and social work. Women’s average monthly earnings are less than those of men in all industries, even in industries where women highly predominate.¹² This is more pronounced in agriculture and forestry where the largest gender income gap exists, with men earning 77.79% more than women. It is only in real estate type of business activities where...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Boxes
• Message
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Currency Equivalents
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I. Gender Mainstreaming Context in the Maldives
• Part II. Gender Mainstreaming in Selected Sectors
• Back cover