Rwanda among top countries to be born a girl

Kigali: Rwanda has been ranked 10th among 54 Commonwealth countries as the best place to be born a girl in a new report published by the Royal Commonwealth Society and the children’s charity group Plan UK.

Rwanda comes as the second best country on the continent following Seychelles which was ranked fourth whilst Sierra Leone and Nigeria are among the worst. New Zealand tops the chart as the best place to be born a girl, closely followed by Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago as the third.The new study titled, Because You’re a Girl: Growing Up in the Commonwealth was published this Monday to mark the Commonwealth’s 2011 theme, ‘Women as Agents of Change’.The report compares how well girls/women are doing relative to boys/men in their country across eight indicators and the data on indicators reflect on various aspects of a girl’s life cycle ranging from survival to achievement.Country scores are graded on 'A' if they score above average, 'B' for average; and 'C' for below average.Rwanda scored highest in the female political participation which it tops globally, got ‘A’s for fertility rate of girls aged 15-19 years and the gender pay gap. As the Commonwealth’s newest member, Rwanda never participated in Commonwealth scholarships or fellowships and scored below average in sports.According to the report, Rwanda’s women are expected to live to an average age of 59, three years longer than men. The report also states that the number of underweight girls is slightly below that of the boys.In terms of education, the report says girls are staying longer than 10 years in school which does not guarantee an adequate education and that it has produced disappointing literacy rates. The report suggested that it was the political will – and not economic wealth – which is most important in advancing gender equality highlighting poor countries that did relatively well than some rich countries.“Our research shows that in those Commonwealth countries that have shown bold political will, there has been great progress towards realising girls’ rights, lifting them out of poverty. Said the Chief Executive of Plan UK, Marie Staunton.

RNA/ARI