March 14, 2022 Global Indicators Briefs No. 4 Reforms to Enhance Gender Equality in the Democratic Republic of Congo: From Advocacy to Implementation Julia Constanze Braunmiller and Marie Dry T his Brief examines two successful gender equality reforms in the Democratic Republic of Congo: the introduction of the Law on Parity in 2015 and an amendment to the Family Code in 2016. These two examples highlight three success factors: gender champions across local civil society groups; government and international actors making the economic case for reforming discriminatory provisions; and international obligations that allowed the reforms to pass. These legal reforms have had demonstrably positive effects on the lives of Congolese women and society. Yet, challenges remain for the Democratic Republic of Congo to achieve full gender equality in law and practice. For women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, starting throughout the country commonly asked for a husband’s a job or running a business was, for decades, a very di erent permission to hire his wife. Further, most lenders required a proposition than for men. e process was regulated by the husband’s co-signature when opening a bank account for Congolese Family Code of 1987, which was based on Belgian women or granting them loans. us, women who owned colonial legislation mixed with prevailing customs. is Family formalized businesses and informal shops alike encountered an Code required a married woman to obtain explicit permission array of hurdles when starting and developing their businesses from her husband to register her business and to complete any (Hyland, Islam, and Muzi 2020). a liated legal task, such as opening a bank account or applying for a loan. A husband could also withdraw his permission for his A series of reforms undertaken in the 2010s, however, made wife’s work at any point. Such withdrawals were taken seriously it easier for Congolese women to participate in economic life. In by employers; for example, one women’s rights organization 2015 the Law on Parity granted women in the Democratic reported the story of a female employee who worked at a local Republic of Congo more rights to economic and social bank before her husband suddenly decided that he did not like participation, bringing the country closer to formal gender her long work hours. After the husband called her employer equality in the law. In addition, an amendment to the Family explaining that he wanted his wife back at home, the bank let Code in 2016 established that women in the Democratic her go. is was not an isolated incident, as employers Republic of Congo no longer need to obtain their husband’s Box 1 The impact of family law reform on the lives of Congolese women and society La Dynamique des Femmes Juristes is a civil society She came to the legal clinic in the hope that lawyers could reason organization in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic with her husband. Our sta explained to him what the new of Congo working to enhance women’s access to their rights Family Code entails and that he no longer had the right to and justice. Lawyers working for the organization witness prevent his wife from working. We stressed that her going to work how powerfully the law is changing women’s lives: would bring real bene ts, notably nancially, to the household. “Recently, a woman came to our law clinic in Goma [a city in After giving it much thought, the husband came back a few the eastern part of the country] for advice. She had secured a weeks later to the law clinic to say that he now understood how job, but her husband was opposed to it as he did not think important it was for his wife to leave the house and have an that it was important that his wife worked. In his mind, work income. She currently is working outside the home and there are for women was dangerous and of no benefit for the family. no more problems in their household.” Affiliations: World Bank, Development Economics, Women, Business and the Law. For correspondence: jbraunmiller@worldbank.org; mdry@worldbank.org. Acknowledgements: This Brief is a part of a series focusing on reforms in seven economies, as documented by the Women, Business and the Law team. Support for the series is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This Brief would not be possible without the generous contributions of Tazeen Hasan, Milaine Rossanaly, Greta Bull, Lisette Khonde, Verena Phipps, Catherine Odimba, Clementine Sangana, Espérance Mawanzo, Mamie Kalonda Kapenga, Alexis Mangala, Annie Nkenda, Ezra Kambale, Bernadette Mununu, and Claudine Tsongo. The team would also like to thank Norman Loayza, Tea Trumbic, and David Francis for comments and guiding the publication process. Nancy Morrison and Jacob Bathanti provided excellent editorial assistance. Objective and disclaimer: This series of Global Indicators Briefs synthesizes existing research and data to shed light on a useful and interesting question for policy debate. Data for this Brief are extracted from the WBL database and supplemented by interviews conducted over the spring and summer of 2021 with women’s rights experts from local civil society organizations, the public and private sectors, and international organizations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This Brief builds on the information collected during these interviews to reconstruct the development of the legal reforms and the success factors that allowed the reforms to pass. These Briefs carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank Group, its Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. All Briefs in the series can be accessed via: https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/brief/global-indicators-briefs-series. https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/brief/global-indicators-briefs-series. DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 4 authorization to sign a legally binding contract or to provide a entrepreneurial, but they remain in informal and formal letter of permission when starting a job or registering a low-productivity sectors such as agriculture, informal trade and business (Box 1). As the head of a microfinance organization services, and small-scale mining (Hyland, Islam, and Muzi operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo, puts it: “ e 2020). us, reforms in family law are fundamental to change in the law has lifted a real barrier for women.” empowering women throughout the country. Despite such positive steps, women in the Democratic is Brief describes how these reforms were carried out and Republic of Congo remain underrepresented in the political provides insights on this process for other economies that may sphere and in the private sector. Only 12.8 percent of wish to implement similar reforms in the future. e Brief parliamentarians in the National Assembly are female (IPU highlights three success factors that together enabled the Parline—Global Data on National Parliaments). While women successful passage of the legal reforms studied here. make up 48.5 per cent of the total labor force, they work disproportionately in agriculture, vulnerable (non-wage and First, gender champions who worked across di erent non-salary) jobs, and self-employment compared to men groups of actors proved instrumental in the reform process. (World Development Indicators). Local women’s groups and women entrepreneurs’ associations had been pushing for reforms for many years. e support of e World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law the international community and gender champions in the (WBL) project examines laws and regulations a ecting women’s political leadership helped transform the demands into a reality. prospects as entrepreneurs and employees across 190 Partnerships were formed within the government, beyond the economies. Its goal is to inform discussions on the importance Ministry of Gender, and across di erent ministries to get their of removing legal restrictions and to inspire policy makers to buy-in. Gender champions were instrumental in explaining the pursue legal reforms that promote women’s economic bene ts of the reform to more hesitant ministries, while the inclusion. international community provided logistical support and helped amplify the message. Gender activists stayed engaged e Democratic Republic of Congo scores 78.8 out of 100 and ensured continuity of lobbying during a politically unstable on the WBL 2022 index. In 1971, the rst year covered by the period with high turnover among government o cials and WBL index, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s score was international partners. only 23.1. e improvement in score is due to several reforms increasing women’s rights that the country has enacted since Second, making the economic case for gender equality 1971, most notably the adoption of its rst Family Code in gathered positive support for the passing of the reforms. 1987 and the rst Labor Code in 2002. Women’s groups stressed the link between legal and actual constraints on female entrepreneurs and made a strong e country experienced two internal armed con icts economic case for changing the law to convince sceptics that the between 1996 and 2003, with devastating consequences that legal reform did not symbolize a cultural shift but rather continue to shape Congolese politics. Following the o cial end stemmed from an economic necessity. of the second Congo War in July 2003, the country embarked ird, international commitments that the Democratic on new democratic processes for peacebuilding and Republic of Congo had made by signing international reconstructing the country. Weakened political institutions agreements, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All were given the task of building a stable peace, including e orts Forms of Discrimination against Women, moved women’s to combat the widespread use of gender-based violence. As part rights to the top of the reform agenda and pointed out the of these e orts, a new Constitution was adopted in 2006 that discriminatory provisions to be abolished. enshrines the principles of gender equality and equal representation. Furthermore, several local and international Gender champions, collaboration, and persistence civil society organizations (CSOs) worked together to bring the in the face of setbacks government’s attention to the unpunished crimes of sexual violence committed during the armed con icts (De Vos 2017). e legal reform of the Family Code gained momentum As a result of their advocacy on behalf of survivors of sexual from a collaborative e ort between local women’s groups that violence, a law was passed on July 20, 2006 that criminalizes had been pushing for reform since the adoption of the rst acts of sexual violence and protects victims (Breton-Le Go version of the Code; champions within the Democratic 2013). is law also strengthened existing legislation Republic of Congo’s political leadership; and the international prohibiting sexual harassment in the Democratic Republic of community, which supported this agenda by facilitating the Congo. dialogue. Resilience and continued e orts by CSOs over almost 20 years and gender champions among political decision is Brief focuses on deconstructing successful gender makers—female leaders within the government and male equality reforms in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the supporters in government and civil society—were key to areas of equal participation and family law. Both reforms creating this successful coalition. International partners constitute necessary steppingstones for women to enter the provided key support, in the form of nancial and technical formal workforce and the political arena. Family law forms the assistance for intergovernmental meetings and workshops. fundamental basis of any society, shaping women’s roles and behaviors with a far-reaching impact on their freedom to take International actors that supported the reform include UN on a profession or trade. While labor rights are extremely Women, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the important to strengthen women’s roles as employees and can United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United help dismantle barriers to equal pay, fewer women are subject to Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World these laws in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as only 10.5 Bank Group (WBG), as well as bilateral aid organizations from percent of women work in wage and salaried employment countries including Canada, France, Sweden, and the United (World Development Indicators). Accordingly, reforms of Kingdom. In particular, when preparing an Investment Climate family law play an important role in empowering women in the Strategy for the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012, World household. Congolese women are often regarded as Bank Group sta noticed that the restrictive law requiring 2 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 4 marital authorization hindered women’s work (Simavi, Manuel, economic bene ts and cost of no action for the government and and Blackden 2011; World Bank 2011). Congolese people. To address this obstacle, international partners collaborated Second, local civil society advocates explained the need to with local advocates to organize workshops, while also bringing abolish the marital authorization requirement by showing how key political decision-makers into these discussions. Gender it limited women’s economic participation in practice. e champions who pushed the discussion forward included the power that a husband had over his wife could lead to di culties President of the Senate, Léon Kengo wa Dondo, a strong male in situations of separation, as a woman would lose nancial supporter of women’s rights, as well as church and community stability without being able to work if the husband refused to leaders. Notable champions in the government included the give his permission. Minister of Justice (Wivine Mumba Matipa, 2012–16) and the Minister of Gender, Family and Children (Geneviève Inagosi, ird, advocates outlined the economic bene ts for 2012–14)—both female politicians who supported the cause of families and children when women contributed nancially to gender equality. e Ministry of Gender, Family and Children the household and participated in household decision-making. coordinated the reform process across the various sectors of ey argued that the country’s competitiveness would improve government and the territory (JICA 2017). by giving economic opportunities to women, who would start e 2015 Law on Parity emerged from the demands of gaining an income and paying taxes. is economic argument local civil society activists for better representation of women in helped convince traditionalists as it showed that the legal reform political spheres in adherence to national obligations. e 2006 was not predicated on a cultural shift toward gender equality Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Congo establishes but on economic necessity. Local CSOs also made the point equality before the law for all citizens and contains several that the prevailing Family Code was imported from Belgium mandates to promote women’s rights, one of them being the and not an authentic local law. “right to an equitable representation within the national, provincial and local institutions.” To ful l this constitutional e use of economic arguments proved successful, but the mandate, the country embarked on a nine-year legislative debate eventually led to dropping certain provisions and going process to increase public representation of women (Rien sans forward with others. Advocates found that they could win les femmes 2017). e rst bill of the Law on Parity was drafted support for removing the marital authorization, but opposition in 2011 but was held unconstitutional by the Constitutional was strong when it came to equalizing who could be designated Court in 2013. e debate largely revolved around the head of household. e understanding of the man as leader of de nition of “parity” and whether or not the Constitution the family is deeply engrained in Congolese society and required strict 50 percent numerical gender representation. e advocates of this idea supported it with religious arguments. Law on Parity was nally enacted in 2015 and opted for an us, women’s groups and gender champions decided not to “equitable” female representation in public institutions instead push for this reform to avoid jeopardizing other hard-fought of a strict parity requirement. It contains an ambitious agenda gains on women’s equality. on the promotion of women’s economic, social, and political participation. Besides political rights, the Law on Parity also On the other hand, a strong victory for women’s rights was addresses social rights, women’s health, education, and raising the legal age of marriage to 18 for both girls and boys, economic participation. In particular, it mandates despite some parliamentarians expressing fears that such change nondiscrimination in access to credit, setting the Democratic would be detrimental to girls’ chances of getting married. is Republic of Congo apart from its neighboring countries. Less meant overcoming some lawmakers’ reluctance to change than 20 percent of economies in Sub-Saharan Africa prohibit long-standing practices of allowing earlier marriage—which was gender discrimination when accessing nance. not a particularly easy task. As one local o cial noted: “ e culture is ingrained in the minds of the parliamentarians The economic case for gender equality themselves. Legal reforms are being done rst at the level of parliament, so if the men there aren’t ready to change, then the Advocates for reforms to the laws of the Democratic law will not change.” Republic of Congo had to face strong opposition from within parliament. Both parliamentary chambers of the National Assembly had overwhelmingly male representation, and men International obligations to reform discriminatory from rural areas were particularly likely to hold views opposed laws to several of the suggested changes. To convince parliamentarians, advocates focused on the economic case for e rst Family Code of the Democratic Republic of gender equality, and used examples of neighboring countries. Congo was enacted in 1987. It aimed to harmonize Belgian colonial law and customary laws and re ect the Congolese First, local groups identi ed key arguments, with the reality—which was assessed in preparation of the drafting of a support of data provided by the international community, to new Code in a sociological study conducted across all of the convince political decision-makers. ey presented evidence on country’s provinces. On the one hand, this rst Code granted how the Democratic Republic of Congo lagged other countries some important rights to women: inheritance rights for in the region that had reformed their laws and had seen surviving spouses and children regardless of gender became bene cial outcomes for the community without negative equal under the 1987 Family Code. is was not necessarily the repercussions on family life and social cohesion. For example, case in neighboring countries at the time. Indeed, it was only in Togo’s 1980 Code of Persons and the Family removed the 1999 that Rwanda equalized inheritance rights for both sons marital authorization requirement by stipulating that marriage and daughters and male and female surviving spouses, while does not undermine the legal capacity of spouses. Burkina Burundi has yet to enact a law on the matter to grant women Faso’s Family Law of 1989 mandated that each spouse has the and girls equal rights in inheritance. right to open a bank account without the consent of the other. Benin’s 2004 Code of Persons and the Family granted both On the other hand, the 1987 Family Code largely kept spouses equal rights to work in a profession of their choice and traditional restrictions on a married woman’s freedom of to direct the family together. Advocates focused on the movement. Notably, the Code upheld the concept of “marital 3 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 4 Box 2 Legal restrictions on married women in the 1987 Family Code • A married woman is obliged to live with her husband where he chooses to reside (Art. 454).* • The wife must obtain the authorization of her husband for all legal acts in which she commits herself to a service that she performs in person (Art. 448).* • The husband is the head of household (Art. 444). • The husband administers all marital property, including the wife’s (Art. 490). • A wife is obliged to obey her husband (Art. 444).* * Restriction was removed with the 2016 reform of the Family Code. power,” which designates married women as legal minors (Box World Bank, in the form of legal reviews and advocacy 2). is meant that a woman needed a “marital authorization” workshops. is long-awaited amendment to the Family Code (her husband’s permission) to sign any legally binding contract, came into e ect on July 15, 2016. including to work, register a business, or open a bank account. Positive impact on women’s economic participation e Democratic Republic of Congo government had and remaining challenges rati ed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on October 6, 1985, without A key result of the Family Code reform was the elimination reservations. And the Committee on the Elimination of of the marital authorization for women to access bank accounts Discrimination Against Women noted in each review of the and loans and to enter the workforce in general. Changes in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s obligations under the law prompted private actors to adjust. For example, following Convention that the Family Code needed to be amended, the enactment of the law, the Federation of Enterprises of “particularly the requirement of the husband’s authorization of Congo, through its legal monitoring publication of March a wife’s paid employment” (CEDAW Committee 2000, 2006, 2017, advised all employers in the Democratic Republic of 2013). Congo to adapt their human resources policies to take into account the new legal status of married women granting them e rst reform bill was drafted in 2013 and presented for full legal capacity without spousal authorization (FEC 2017). parliamentary debates. While the Senate was mostly supportive, Banks and nancial institutions changed their bylaws to conservative deputies in the National Assembly put up more conform to the new law as well. For example, the micro nance resistance. Broad support among government o cials, local organization FINCA made it clear that the husband’s CSOs, and legal experts led to carefully crafted arguments that permission was no longer needed for female clients to obtain a ultimately convinced the parliament to pass the draft law. e loan and to hire women as agents. For all FINCA loans, before process was rmly backed by development partners led by the the legal change, the husband had to sign the loan agreement, Women’s representation in parliament has increased slowly since a quota was established Figure 1 with the 2015 Parity Law 50 45 40 Percent of female members 35 30 25 21% 20 15 13% 10% 10 8% 9% 5% 5 0 2007 2011 2019 National Assembly Senate Source: IPU Parline—Global Data on National Parliaments, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2021, Geneva,https://data.ipu.org/node/47/basic-information?chamber_id=13569. https://data.ipu.org/node/47/basic- https://data.ipu.org/node/47/basic-information?chamber_id=13569. information?chamber_id=13569. 4 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 4 even for an individual loan issued to his wife. With these new organizations, particularly for its failure to achieve political bene ts, women—particularly in urban areas—are more parity (Rien sans les femmes 2017). Similarly, no redress empowered to ask for a civil, registered marriage, which gives mechanism is available when a woman’s right to equal access to them more rights than a customary marriage would. credit is violated. Moreover, the law does not address the prevalence of informal credit. Most women access nance Problems remain regarding compliance with the law. For through cooperatives instead of the formal credit system. Only example, even though it is now illegal to ask for a marital 24 percent of women own an account at a nancial institution authorization, banks sometimes nd their way around this or with a mobile-money-service provider (Global Findex prohibition and ask for a husband’s countersignature when Database). In order to e ectively guarantee women’s access to opening an account for a woman. credit, an institutional shift is needed, expanding the formal credit sector, shifting away from traditional collateral Women’s representation after the establishment of the requirements that rely on the husband’s co-signature, and quota with the 2015 Parity Law has barely increased ( gure 1). overcoming a negative bias toward women lenders (MADRE Labor force participation in the country has been declining and SOFEPADI 2018). Potential solutions are the expansion of overall since 2006, dropping 8.2 percentage points for women agent banking with a large rural network and employment of compared to 5.8 percentage points for men (World female agents, as well as the establishment of gender desks that Development Indicators). Women’s work continues to be can address women’s claims. concentrated in the informal and agricultural sectors. Nonetheless, female employment in wage and salaried work has ird, the lack of female representation in all areas of doubled within a decade to reach 10.5 percent of female society hinders women’s economic participation through a lack employment in 2019. e legal change o ers new opportunities of role models, insu cient support for policy changes, and for women and is key to integrating them into formal limited nancial and other de facto support measures for female employment as the private sector in the country is being business owners. Low literacy and education levels create developed (World Bank Group 2017; Hyland, Islam, and Muzi tremendous barriers to entry into formal jobs (World 2020). Development Indicators). e gender gap in literacy is 22 percent. Only 49.9 percent for women have completed primary A number of challenges remain on the road for women to school and 36.7 percent have completed secondary school, fully enjoy their rights granted by the two reforms from 2015 compared to 78.4 percent and 65.8 percent of men. and 2016 ( gure 2). First, the new laws are still being Furthermore, for women to participate more in the public and disseminated. Laws in the Democratic Republic of Congo are professional spheres, a redistribution of domestic work needs to made available through publication in the O cial Gazette, but take place to free up some time for women to allow them to are only published in the o cial language, French, without pursue other economic interests (Box 3). being translated into the other four recognized national languages (Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili, and Tshiluba). Due to Fourth, the slippage between the law on the books and the lack of resources, very little training of civil servants or private lived experiences of women is in part explained by social and organizations has been conducted to make sure the law is cultural norms. Gendered norms appear to still be deeply implemented across sectors and across the breadth of the ingrained in Congolese society, assigning men the role of the national territory. It usually has been left to CSOs to educate primary breadwinner, while women are expected to earn less their own sta and bene ciaries of the new law. Such training and take on all care-giving tasks. An interviewee commented on can be highly e ective to disseminate the law. For example, the pervasiveness of such attitudes, saying “I am from the marriage registrars who are at the forefront of the application of western region where we have the matrilineal system, and even the provisions of the new Family Code can educate newlywed there the role of the leader is assigned to a man: the maternal couples on their mutual rights and duties. Employees of uncle.” A 2018 study also found that an overwhelming majority nancial institutions can emphasize to prospective female of young women and men interviewed agreed with the clients that there is no longer a need for the marital statements “A woman’s most important role is to take care of authorization. An ongoing WBG project on small and medium her home and cook for her family” and “A man should have the enterprise (SME) development and growth is supporting the nal word about decisions in his home” (Lusey et al. 2018). is dissemination of the new law as the need is evident for more can a ect women’s economic participation in a myriad of ways. resources to increase knowledge and build capacity in both rural Most women-led businesses remain informal and in and urban areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (World low-productivity sectors such as services and commerce. Bank 2018). Anecdotal evidence suggests that female business owners surrender their shops to their husband when the businesses start Second, challenges remain in the letter of the laws growing and thriving. is pattern illustrates how both men themselves. Enforcement mechanisms that would make the and women often continue to view entrepreneurial activities as rights actionable are lacking. While the Law on Parity the domain of men. establishes that political parties should consider gender parity on candidate lists presented for elections, it fails to establish Last, women and men often lack awareness of the passage concrete measures when this objective is not obtained. As such, of the two new laws and their consequences for women’s rights, this law continues to be heavily critiqued by women’s rights particularly in rural areas of the country. Communication and Box 3 The importance of awareness raising to implement change A male bene ciary of an awareness-raising program chores can be done by the man or the woman. Today I drew questioning gender norms on masculinity to end water at home, I arranged the house, I lit the re, I prepared gender-based violence testi ed: porridge for the children before they went to school. I want all men everywhere to be like me. I do the housework at home “We have been trained and made aware that household without fear of anyone.” 5 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 4 Figure 2 Remaining challenges Lack of resources for dissemination of the law: e new law is only available in French but not the other four national languages. More resources are needed to disseminate the law and build capacity among rights holders and public o cials. Limited awareness of the law: Practitioners, public o cials (e. g. civil registrars), and bene ciaries alike are not aware of the new rights granted to women, particularly in rural areas. Weak implementation of the law: Institutions are needed to implement the law, such as focal points and gender desks that can address women’s claims. Lack of female representation in all areas of society: ere is a need to encourage girls and young women to participate more in the public and professional sphere. High illiteracy rate and gender education gaps contribute to low participation. Prevailing gendered norms: While the law is progressive, society still sees men as the primary breadwinner and does not approve of women working outside the home. training around these laws is concentrated within urban centers new laws is the persistent belief that the now abolished marital and fails to reach more remote areas. And even within urban authorization is still in force. e director of a Bukavu-based centers, it is only educated individuals who are aware of their CSO recalls one incident: “We met a man only a few years ago new rights and obligations under the 2016 amendment of the who told us: ‘My wife needs my permission to work’—that is Family Code. A striking example of the lack of awareness on the when we had to tell him that this time is over.” References Breton-Le Go , Gaëlle. 2013. “Aux con ns du droit JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). 2017. 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