1. This briefer is a part of a series of summaries providing a Ghanaian context of recently released data. Normally focused on international sources, these briefers
provide a snapshot of the state of Ghana and provides context against other nations. For more information on the briefer contact Whitney Dubinsky, Mission
Economist, USAID/Ghana wdubinsky@usaid.gov
What the Data Shows: Women & the Economy Dashboard
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Access to Capital
Access to Markets
Innovation & Technology
Leadership, Voice, &
Agency
Skills, Capacity-Building,
& Health
Ghana
Ghana Average of ECOWAS index Average of LMI index
Average Pillar score (0-5, higher is better)
Produced by the Economic Analysis and Data Services (EADS) team
Why the data matters to USAID and
USAID/Ghana
International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day
celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political
achievements of women.
The day also marks a call
to action for accelerating
gender parity. In the area
of gender equality and
women’s empowerment,
data illuminates the extent
to which men and women
experience their shared
environments differently,
and how those differences
translate into gaps in
economic opportunity,
participation, and
empowerment. Without
numbers that substantiate
their case, advocates of
gender equality often face skepticism and disbelief when they
try to explain how, especially in the economic sphere, women
face far more legal, institutional, and cultural constraints than
those experienced by men.
The Data
The purpose of this brief is to look at the state of women’s
economic empowerment based on an internationally endorsed
framework.
International
organizations and
bodies have begun
internal discussions
on the true
barriers for women
in the economy. In
an effort to be
thought leaders in
this initiative, the
Asia-Pacific
Economic
Cooperation
(APEC) forum asked for international leaders to endorse the
use of key indicators to track economic issues that inhibit
women’s participation in the economy. The result was an
internationally sanctioned list of 75 indicators based on 5
pillars and 26 contributing factors that allow policy makers and
donor organizations to understand the state of a country and
look for targeted capacity building to advance women’s
participation. This brief uses
the dashboard to analyze the
state of women’s issues
against that of ECOWAS for
a geographic perspective and
Lower-Middle Income (LMI)
countries (as defined by the
World Bank) as an
aspirational target.
Access to Capital
Access to credit remains a
key constraint to growth in
Ghana and is the backbone
for key USAID initiatives like
the Partnership for Growth.
The dashboard looks at two
types of indicators in this
section, the laws that govern credit and the utilization thereof.
Ghana scores well in the World Bank business in the law
indicators that signals women’s access to credit, especially in
regards to the existence of laws on property and inheritance
rights. Note, however, these indicators do not signal practice
or implementation but the mere existences of laws that ensure
equality of inheritance rights between husbands and wives,
sons and daughters,
married women
and married men
and unmarried
women and
unmarried men
have equal rights to
property.
Surprisingly, in
terms of Access to
Capital specifically
to women, Ghana
out scores both the
ECOWAS average for all contributing factors and scores
higher than LMI countries on Labor Market Participation and
Property Rights. The high scores can be attributed to an
increasing ratio of commercial banks to individuals, a higher

2. women’s savings rates than ECOWAS, and a higher than
average equity in property rights.
Access to Markets
The Access to Markets pillar demonstrates the ability for
women to access business markets domestically and
internationally and also measures fair practices of the
marketplace itself. Ghana scores incredibly well in the Non-
Discrimination in Employment Access, Opportunity and
Conditions section. However, underperforms in the
Infrastructure and Access to International Trade sections.
Infrastructure is a stand out issue for Ghana in the Access to
Markets section. There is increasing evidence that poor
infrastructure impacts women entrepreneurs’ ability to grow
their businesses. Though this data is not sex disaggregated, it
demonstrates the enabling environment is not developed
enough to promote market entry and access. The below
scores demonstrate noticeable lags in key indicators that relate
back to even basic health issues. Ghana lags considerably in use
of improved sanitation facilities in urban and rural areas, as
well as paved roads.
The new deficiency to this year’s index is the decreased score
in Access to International Trade. The dashboard looks at,
access of domestic companies to international markets score
published by the Heritage Foundation. In 2011/2012, Ghana’s
had a score of 68 and in 2015 the number reduced to 63. This
is the reverse of the trend being seen in Sub Saharan Africa
and ECOWAS nations (scores in West Africa include Togo
71.2, Cote d’Ivoire 71.8, Liberia 72.8).
Innovation and Technology
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is
cornerstone of economic growth and human development.
ICT increases the productivity and efficiency of businesses of
all sizes, opens new markets domestically and abroad, and
creates high-quality jobs. ICT can also improve access to
education and healthcare, increase civic engagement, and drive
new innovations that transform the way people interact and
do business.
Ghana well out performs ECOWAS’s average in nearly all the
ICT indicators. Ghana performs well in the enabling
environment for internet and mobile technology (sex
disaggregated data unavailable), though the percentage of
population who are internet users falls below the LMI average.
In addition, the impact of ICTs and use of virtual social media
scores higher than the average, and in the case of virtual media
higher than the median score for all nations. This section also
includes indicators related to green awareness where Ghana
scores well. In fact, Ghana sizably outperforms the region in
areas such as pesticides regulation and wastewater treatment.
Ghana lags considerably, however, with regards to Women in
STEM on employment and education. According to UNESCO,
18 percent of graduates from tertiary education graduating
from Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction are female,
where the regional value for ECOWAS is 20 and LMI is 27.
Though, important to note this indicator has improved
steadily.
In addition the percentage
of female graduates from
tertiary education
graduating from Science is
27 percent, with a
regional value for
ECOWAS at 28 and LMI
at 26. This flags an issue
in tertiary education for
STEM in Ghana. The
situation for STEM
employment is marginally
better with the
percentage of R&D
personnel who are female
on par with the region;
however, the percentage
of female researchers is
three percentage points
lower.
2.5
1.4
4.0
5.0
3.3
2.9
2.6
4.4
3.9
2.0
1.0
1.8
3.0
1.6
1.4
3.1
1.9
0.6
2.8
4.6
3.4
3.0
1.8
0 1 2 3 4 5
Building Credit
Financial Services
Labor Market Participation
Property & Inheritance Rights
Access to International Trade
Competitive Access for Entrepreneurs
Infrastructure
Non-Discrimination, Opportunity, & Conditions
Vulnerable Employment
"Green" Awareness & Activity
Internet Use
Mobile Technology
Networked Readiness
Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics
Care Economy: Time spent on unpaid work
Conditions for Career Advancement
Positions of Influence: Media; Judiciary; Academia
Private Sector Leadership
Public Leadership
Educational Achievement
Educational Attainment
Health & Safety
SME Training & Incubation
Technical Vocational Education & Training
Accessto
capital
Accessto
Markets
Innovationand
Technology
Leadership,
Voice,and
Agency
Skills,
Capacity-
Building,and
Health
Produced by the Economic Analysis and Data Services (EADS) team
Ghana - Contributing Factor Scores, (0-5, higher is better)
Ghana Average of ECOWAS Average of LMI

3. Skills, Capacity Building and Health
Where women are healthier and better educated, their
chances of economic success dramatically improve. The
contributing factors selected for this priority include both
widely maintained education and health data, aggregated by
international institutions, along with a number of targeted
indicators which aim to capture aspects of health and
education that correlate with women’s economic participation
and success. Women’s health and safety indicators in Ghana
paint a positive picture. Attended births, hospital beds and HIV
rates perform better as compared to regional averages. In
addition, maternal mortality rates are well below the region
and contraceptive use is higher than the average for
ECOWAS. Ghana also currently has in place legislation that
specifically addresses domestic violence and a specialized court
or procedure for cases of domestic violence.
Ghana scores incredibly well against ECOWAS for most of the
contributing factors in this pillar. The educational achievement
score for achieving parity with men in literacy; net primary
school enrollment; net secondary school enrollment; and gross
tertiary enrollment is .9 (with 1.0 being perfect parity)
compared to .75 average for ECOWAS. However, Ghana
appears to be lacking in the percentage of female secondary
education vocational pupils. The average percentage for
ECOWAS was 46 percent; however the 2014 value for Ghana
was only 29 percent. The other concern is the speed this
number is decreasing. As recent as 2009, Ghana’s percentage
of TVETs who were female was above 45 percent. This value
has slowly decreased over the last five years, as opposed to
ECOWAS, which on average, continues to increase.
Leadership Voice and Agency
Women’s opportunities for leadership, voice, and agency may
depend not only on their gender, but also on their economic
status, education, local culture, and other factors. Accordingly,
the contributing factors set forth under this priority aim to
capture opportunities for women across all types of
communities– beginning with whether the births of girls, along
with other key life events, are formally registered, followed by
the extent to which women provide unpaid care to their
households and family. The contributing factors then seek to
show how women may progress in their respective
workplaces and achieve leadership and influential professional
positions. This section also addresses the vital issue of
women’s leadership in public spaces.
Similar to Access to Credit and Markets, LVA looks at the
legal environment for women’s ability to advance in the
workplace. However, unlike those other sections, this is a
place legislatively Ghana underperforms. Ghana does have in
place paid or unpaid maternity legislation and has laws in place
penalizing or preventing the dismissal of pregnant women.
However, Ghana lacks legislation that 1) ensures employers
must give employees an equivalent position when they return
from maternity leave; 2) prevents an employer to ask about
family status during a job interview; 3) makes childcare
expenses tax deductible; 4) mandates equal remuneration for
men and women for work of equal value; or 5) mandates paid
or unpaid parental leave. These laws allow women to feel
confident in their ability to advance in an economic
environment.
Another definite gap for Ghanaian women is their role in
political decision making. The World Economic Forum’s
gender parity index for political empowerment measures the
gap between men and women at the highest level of political
decision-making through the ratio of women to men in
minister-level positions and the ratio of women to men in
parliamentary positions. Ghana scores a .11 and ECOWAS
averaged .15 with 1.0 being a perfect ratio between men and
women. This represents a world ranking of 97th
for Ghana.
The ranking for the sub score of women in parliament shows
the ratio to be 11:89 and women in ministerial positions 23:77.
It is important to note, however, scores for Ghana have
shown a positive upward trend in the last five years.
Additionally, the number of women in media positions also
underperforms against ECOWAS, though marginally.
Sadly, similar to public sector leadership, the percentage of
firms that report female participation in ownership falls lower
than ECOWAS and LMI nations, at 32%. Only 15 percent of
firms report female participation in top management compared
to 17 percent across ECOWAS and 21 percent in LMI
countries. This also has a large effect on the overall health of
the Ghanaian economy.
Resources
 http://www.internationalwomensday.com
 APEC Women in the Economy Dashboard
 What the Data Shows: Women Business and the Law
 Gender Dashboard Paper: Ghana 2015