With a score of 96.9%, North America ranks 5th out of eight regions on the Health and Survival subindex. The region has seen a 1 percentage- point decline in parity in health since 2013. For example, parity for healthy life expectancy, at 1.03, is more than just Middle East and North Africa and Southern Asia. Women’s healthy life expectancy has declined more than that of men since 2013 in both Canada and the United States, further contributing to the reduction in parity on this subindex. The decline in the overall regional gender parity score can be partially attributed to the 7.7 percentage-point decline on the Political Empowerment subindex, which currently stands at 26.1%. Both the United States and Canada have increased the share of parliamentary positions held by women. However, the measured share of women ministers has dropped significantly – particularly in the United States, where the share declined from 46.2% to 33.3% – which has affected the overall regional score on this subindex. This is partly explained by a stricter definition of what qualifies as a ministerial position being applied in the source database produced by UN Women. See Appendix B for more detail. Southern Asia Southern Asia has achieved 63.4% gender parity, the second-lowest score of the eight regions. The score has risen by 1.1 percentage points since the last edition on the basis of the constant sample of countries covered since 2006, which can be partially attributed to the rise in scores of populous countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Along with Bhutan, these are the countries in this region that have seen an improvement of 0.5 percentage points or more in their scores since the last edition. On the other hand, parity has backslid by 0.5 percentage points or more in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Nepal. Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka are the best- performing countries in the region, while Pakistan and Afghanistan are at the bottom of both the regional and global ranking tables. At the current rate of progress, full parity will be achieved in 149 years. Compared to other regions, Southern Asia remains the furthest away from parity on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, having closed 37.2% of the gap. However, based on the constant sample of countries covered since 2006, there has been an improvement of 1.4 percentage points since the last edition. This can be partially attributed to the progress of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. All three have advanced towards parity on the labour-force participation rate and estimated earned income indicators. On the other hand, parity has receded in the Maldives and Nepal. Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives have the region’s highest parity scores on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, while Pakistan and Afghanistan are the countries that lag the most behind.Ranking fifth out of eight regions, Southern Asia has closed 96% of the gender gap on the Educational Attainment subindex. India, Sri Lanka and Maldives have the highest regional parity scores, while. Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan have achieved less than 95% parity. Afghanistan is a negative outlier, having closed only 48.1% of the gender gap. Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and India are either at parity or close to parity in enrolment in secondary education. On enrolment in tertiary education – barring Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan – all countries are at full parity, though levels are low for both men and women. Southern Asia has the second-lowest regional parity score on the Health and Survival subindex, at 95.3%. Based on the constant sample of countries covered by the index since 2006, that is a 1.1 percentage-point improvement since the last edition. Pakistan, India, the Maldives and Nepal have improved by varying degrees. All four countries have bettered their sex ratios at birth, with Pakistan and India making the most improvement. No country except Sri Lanka has attained full parity in healthy life expectancy. Similar to other regions, the widest gender gap on the index is on the Political Empowerment subindex. Behind Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America, Southern Asia’s is the fourth-highest score among the eight regions, at 25.1% parity. Based on the constant sample of countries, this is the only subindex for this region that has experienced a setback: there has been a 1% reduction in parity since the last edition. Only the Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal improved their scores. Parity has backslid in Iran, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, as the share of ministerial positions held by women has dropped in these countries since 2022. Further, Nepal and Afghanistan have seen negative changes in parity in parliamentary positions, while other countries have not seen much change. Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa’s parity score is the sixth- highest among the eight regions at 68.2%, ranking above Southern Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. Progress in the region has been uneven. Namibia, Rwanda and South Africa, along with 13 other countries, have closed more than 70% of the overall gender gap. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and Chad are the lowest-performing countries, with scores below 62%. And while there has been progress of 0.5 percentage points or more in 17 out of 36 countries, scores for 17 countries have seen decline of 0.5 percentage points or more since the last edition. Based on the constant sample, this marks a marginal improvement of 0.1 percentage points. At the current rate of progress, it will take 102 years to close the gender gap in Sub-Saharan Africa. Global Gender Gap Report 2023 24

GGGR 2023