Introducing AGTRC

About AGTRC

These figures show the level of injustice perpetrated against girls and women in Africa, and why gender justice is an urgent issue in Africa.

The UN estimated that there are about 200 million cases of female genital mutilation around the world, and 80% of these cases are in Africa. It was recently reported that sexual and gender-based violence increased by 300% during covid-19 lockdown in Kenya. The World Health Organization as of 2019 reports that Africa has the highest rate of abortion-related deaths in the world, pegging the rate at 185 maternal deaths per 100,000 abortions.

As at 2020, according to a gender disaggregated population data of the world bank, the percentage share of the female sex of Equatorial Guinea is the least on the continent, 44.4 percent. Except for Eritrea where the last data collected was nine years away from 2020 report, the percentage distributions of male and female sexes in various African countries were reported until 2020. On the average, the percentage of the female population of the Sub-Saharan Africa is 50.1 percent and 49.5 percent in North Africa.

For instance, women constitute about 25 percent of parliaments in Africa as at 2019 according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and there are eight women, as at 2022, in the ranks of heads of state and government in Africa. As at 2018, according to the Africa CEO Forum, “only 5% of the CEOs of major groups are women”. In education, in Nigeria for instance, as 2021 there were only eleven incumbent female vice chancellors of universities out of the 202 universities in the country.

However, apart from the natural and man-made factors equaling the number of female and male sexes on the continent, a quick glance at the number distribution of female to male in the governance of socio-economic and political sectors on the continent shows disproportionality in terms of representation, opportunity and access.

Why African Gender Tracker
and Research Center?

We transpose information by gender and make them datapoints to bring about evidence, education and awareness that would aid gender equality and justice.

We envision an Africa where all genders are represented equally in all spaces, have equal values as humans and where there is justice for all in line with the aspiration 6 of Agenda 2063 of the African Union and goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals in line with the Planet 50/50 by 2030 of the United Nations.

Unarguably, deducing form the above gender status in Africa, comprehensive tracking of gender governance across spaces such as politics, business, and education and gender justice to reflect the status of health, socio-economic and political development of Africa would help in shaping policies and campaigns that are pertinent to Africa’s development.

Hence, African Gender Tracker and Research Center, a research hub with the primary aim of promoting gender equality and justice in Africa by tracking gender equality and justice, is committed to the political, economic, and social growth and development of Africa.

Through our survey, tracker, anonymous stories, gender perspectives, we intend to centralise views, discourses and discussions about gender equality and justice around Africa and make meaningful trends out of them.

What Does African Gender Tracker
and Research Center Do?

At African Gender Tracker and Research Center, we separate equality and justice as both are usually fused in one, or at critical abstraction level equality is equated with equity.

For the gender governance index, we weigh the actions of the government and civil society aiding the attainment of equal representation to arrive at the input performance score of a country. The outcome performance of countries is based on the number of men to women leaders in politics, businesses and higher institutions of learning (universities). The gender justice index is also based on the input-output model, whereby we weigh the actions of the government and civil society that aid justice. The outcome is based on the fair share of the genders in the health and socio-economic status and/or resources of the state. We do our tracking by conducting expert survey and extracting data from other relevant sources (from government to nongovernmental databases). We equally conduct extensive research on matters of gender justice and equality for our policy briefs and scientific papers.

In same vein, we conduct opinion survey on the website to track opinions on the composite indicators of the indexes as a semi-formal means of tracking.

Hence, we use equality for representation across spaces. Justice applies to the treatment one gets on the basis of one’s gender. We invariably derived two indexes to capture both equality and justice: gender governance index and gender justice index.

In addition, we informalize discussions and promote divergent views of people across the continent through our easily accessible platform for opinion-based articles on issues of gender equality and justice.

To educate and further the discussion of gender equality and justice among the youth, we have prize-winning theme- and issue-based essay competitions, debates, training and the likes across the continent.

While the former can be regarded as a plan to educate the public on divergent views about gender equality and justice on the continent, our education scheme is broader.

Lastly, the African Gender Tracker and Research Center is a gender research hub, where gender justice policy briefs based on scientific and/or empirical approach will be periodically made available for public, government and experts’ consumption.