Kingdom of Bahrain Portal for Sustainable Development Goals

Goal Five: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

While the world has achieved progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment under the Millennium Development Goals (including equal access to primary education between girls and boys), women and girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence in every part of the world. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large.

Overview of some indicators

Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments

15%

Proportion of Bahraini women in executive positions in public sectors

46%

Proportion of women who make their own informed decisions regarding sexual & reproductive health & reproductive rights

86.5%

Indicators

Target 5.1: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.
- Indicator 5.1.1: Whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex
Target 5.2: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
- Indicator 5.2.1: Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by form of violence and by age (Excel, 0.11MB, 1 Sheet)
- Indicator 5.2.2: Proportion of women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to sexual violence by persons other than an intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by age and place of occurrence
Target 5.3: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
- Indicator 5.3.1: Proportion of women aged 20-24 who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18 (Excel, 0.11MB, 1 Sheet)
- Indicator 5.3.2: Proportion of girls and women aged 15-49 years who have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting, by age (Excel, 0.01MB, 1 Sheet)
Target 5.4: Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
- Indicator 5.4.1: Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location
Target 5.5: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.
- Indicator 5.5.1: Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments and local governments (Excel, 0.11MB, 1 Sheet)
- Indicator 5.5.2: Proportion of women in managerial positions (Excel, 0.01MB, 1 Sheet)
Target 5.6: Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.
- Indicator 5.6.1: Proportion of women aged 15-49 who make their own informed decisions regarding sexual relations, contraceptive use and reproductive health care (Excel, 0.01MB, 1 Sheet)
- Indicator 5.6.2: Number of countries with laws and regulations that guarantee women aged 15-49 access to sexual and reproductive health care, information and education
Target 5.a: Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws.
- Indicator 5.a.1: (a) Proportion of total agricultural population with ownership or secure rights over agricultural land, by sex; and (b) share of women among owners or rights-bearers of agricultural land, by type of tenure
- Indicator 5.a.2: Proportion of countries where the legal framework (including customary law) guarantees women's equal rights to land ownership and/or control
Target 5.b: Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women.
- Indicator 5.b.1: Proportion of individuals who own a mobile telephone, by sex (Excel, 0.01MB, 1 Sheet)
Target 5.c: Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels.
- Indicator 5.c.1: Proportion of countries with systems to track and make public allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment

Other Indicators

Policies & initiatives support the goal

Ministry of Labour and Social Development has adopted a package of current and future projects and initiatives aimed at increasing the integration rates of Bahraini women into the labor market and increasing their participation in the private sector by providing suitable job opportunities and improving the working environment and conditions to suit the specificity of women. The Public Sector Labour Law explicitly provides for the prohibition of discrimination between the sexes.
The Supreme Council for Women was also established under the leadership of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the wife of the King of Bahrain, to complete the efforts of the Kingdom of Bahrain to empower women. The council is composed of sixteen female public figures who have experience in women's affairs.
The government bodies have formed equal opportunities committees, which aim at integrating the needs of women in the framework of equal opportunities in all fields of work and working to achieve the principle of equal opportunities among all employees and beneficiaries and services provided by that body in coordination with the Supreme Council for Women . Such a committee will express its opinion on the issues relating to the integration of women's needs within the framework of equal opportunities. The governmental sector institutions have formed forty-five equal opportunity committees following the issuance of the instructions of Civil Service Bureau No. (4) of 2014 on the establishment of equal opportunities committees in the government sector.

National Plan for the Advancement of Bahraini Women (independent advancement)
The National Plan for the Advancement of Bahraini Women (independent advancement) (2013 - 2022) includes five aspects that seek to ensure family stability in the context of family cohesion, and enable them to contribute competitively to development track, which is based on the principle of equal opportunities and integrating the needs of women in development, with a vision that is built on equal partnership to build a sustainable competitive community.

The Ministry of Labour & Social Development has also applied a set of other projects in contribution to this field as follows:

Licensing the institution of nurseries to natural or legal persons: Women are now motivated to engage in labour markets and to withstand the lack of intriguing motivating conditions including the availability of nurseries in their workplaces, an educated and married woman with children usually prefers to have their workplace near a nursery for her child. In this context, a Resolution No. (46) of 2014 has been issued to amend Article (7) of Resolution No. (11) of 2014 regarding the institution of nurseries. According to Article (1) with regard to nurseries licensed to legal persons such educational institutions and others, the Ministry can exclude some of the terms and conditions specified for licensing nurseries in accordance with the provisions of this resolution. However, nurseries licensed to legal persons must abide by Resolution No. 11 of 2014 as well as the standards, specifications and requirements stipulated by law in terms of their institutions and jobs with exception to some of these requirements and specifications and their additions for these nurseries.

(Khatwa) Program for Home-based Projects: Women constitute the largest segment benefiting from the services of the integrated Step Program (Khatwa) that aims to empower the Bahraini citizen economically and increase the size of the economic returns for him through encouraging household business. The program also shares in enhancing the productive and administrative capabilities of citizens through the centres of specialized productive families established in all governorates of the Kingdom. It is worth noting that the percentage of female beneficiaries of these services reaches %77. Step Program also provides initial and professional training and contributes to the opening of production units equipped with all the requirements needed for running production and marketing products locally and internationally through the exhibitions continuously hold as well as other local sales outlets for marketing and distribution of products such as the Capital Mall for Bahraini Handmade Products and Sitra Centre for Productive Families. Such centres represent specialized fully-integrated foundations for manufacturing free services of long-term packed foodstuff under strict health supervision to be introduced to citizens.