Gender Equality Policy
- Sets a twenty-year horizon, 2014 to 2034, with six orientations and eighteen strategic objectives, so the policy outlives the administration that adopted it.
- Records women as the majority in low-qualified occupations while holding 43.9 percent of intellectual and scientific professions, 36.5 percent of intermediate professions and 32.3 percent of another category, which is a segmentation finding rather than an exclusion one.
- Puts female illiteracy at 42.0 percent, and girls at 43 percent of secondary enrolment, with one cited female share as low as 12 percent.
- Records maternal mortality at 350 per 100,000, fallen over the previous four years but still high against the fifth Millennium Development Goal and against the Caribbean regional level.
- Finds antenatal care split between providers, 50 percent of women consulting a doctor and 38 percent a nurse, with a significant number of unassisted deliveries and postnatal consultation still very low at 52 percent across practically all zones.
- Records women as 80 percent of one workforce category and notes that nurses (67 percent) and another cadre (75 percent) are counted in the same passage, so the health system's dependence on female staff is quantified.
- Notes fertility and birth rates still high at 25 percent in urban and 30 percent in rural areas, and that one form of union is not recognized by legislation, which is a legal barrier rather than a behavioral one.
- Was drafted by a named multidisciplinary team including UN Women's gender financing coordinator in Haiti and the Quebec government's gender-based analysis lead, with MCFDF staff, which is why it carries a differentiated analysis method rather than only objectives.
Haiti's gender equality policy for 2014 to 2034, drafted by a named multidisciplinary team including UN Women's gender financing coordinator in Haiti, the Quebec government's lead on gender-based analysis and staff of the women's ministry. Its twenty-year horizon and its six orientations with eighteen strategic objectives are what make it a policy rather than a programme.
The diagnosis is quantified across the sectors the policy has to move. In employment, women are the majority in low-qualified occupations while accounting for 43.9 percent of intellectual and scientific professions, 36.5 percent of intermediate professions and 32.3 percent of another category, with an income penalty of 7 percent per person recorded. In education, 42.0 percent of women are illiterate and girls make up 43 percent of secondary enrolment. In health, maternal mortality stands at 350 per 100,000, down over the previous four years but still high against the fifth Millennium Development Goal and the Caribbean regional level; 50 percent of women consult a doctor antenatally and 38 percent a nurse; postnatal consultation remains very low at 52 percent in practically every zone.
Two findings sit outside the usual list and are worth keeping. The health system's dependence on female staff is quantified rather than asserted, with nurses at 67 percent and another cadre at 75 percent. And one form of union is recorded as not recognized by legislation, which makes part of the gap a legal question rather than a behavioural one.
How to cite
Office of Management and Human Resources (OMRH), 2014, Gender Equality Policy, https://omrh.gouv.ht/Media/Others/6-Notes/Politique%20EFH_FINAL-imprimable.pdf