East African Business Week

ARUSHA, TANZANIA: Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are among the seven economies in sub-Saharan Africa that have made reforms aimed at achieving gender equality that results into smart economics.
The seven economies include Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Mauritania, South Africa with Kenya being the only country with the highest number of reforms.
Smart Economics means that African nations have eliminated gender disparities that result into boosting productivity and economic growth.
According to the World Development Report 2012," Gender Equality and Development" removing barriers preventing women working in certain jobs would cut the productivity gap between male and female workers by a 30-50 per cent, and raise output per worker by 3 to 25 per cent in some countries. Kenya is among the only 10 African countries that have no legal gender differentiation regarding the usage of property and basic legal transactions such as signing a contract or getting a passport.
The report adds that Kenya is also a top reformer following the promulgation of its new Constitution which included a number of positive measures for women while Botswana also introduced small claims court that is often used by women to collect child maintenance.
"There are also new credit bureaus in Uganda, Ghana and Mauritania that cut the minimum loan amount for inclusion in the credit bureau by half while Rwanda has introduced paternity leave," says the report.
 It says that in many low-income countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, poor women and girls continue to face severe disadvantages and a particular concern is that of excess female mortality, or 'missing women.
Severe droughts and poor methods of farming coupled with a high rate of illiteracy are blamed for such scenarios.