24 Apr Puntland Women; Trends and Statistics
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This survey is intended to discussion the status of women in Puntland by focusing on five major
areas: education, health, governance and leadership, GBV and lastly their role in the
economy. This survey is based on secondary data and has the following five specific objectives:
1) To describe the current education and health conditions of women in Puntland
2) To assess the prevalence and understanding gender based violence and outlining the major
GBV forms that exist
3) To describe roles of women in Puntland’s governance structure and elaborate women in
different branches in the government
4) To discover the economic status of women and impacts of poverty by examining their
participation in the private sector and the levels of unemployment among female’
population.
5) To suggest policy recommendations based on the survey findings and possible executing
and/or supporting institutions and agencies.
FINDINGS:
Puntland is primarily a male dominated society with limited women participation in all spheres
of life. The first chapter of the study examines demographic profile of Puntland’s population.
Chapter two presents finding on education and how women perform in this sector. Figures
show that tremendous improvements took place in Puntland’s educational domain and the
access of girls to education have greatly expanded and enriched.
Chapter three displays female access to basic health. Findings show there is only one hospital
for each of the nine regions while some districts have no functioning hospitals or clinics. More
alarmingly, only 23% of Puntland’ population have access to safe and clean drinking water.
Chapter four summarizes the scale and the major GBV forms that exist in Puntland. The survey
establishes that 68%weremarried before the age of 19. As a result over 40% drop out schools.
On reporting GBV cases, findings show that 25.9% of communities believe it should be reported
to the community elder, 24% said it should be reported to fathers, 22.3% said cases should be
reported to both parents, 17.2% said religious leaders, 7.6% said they will report to their
mothers while unfortunately only 3% said such cases should be reported to the law
enforcement agencies.
Chapter five discuses women political participation, putting special emphasis on executive,
legislative and judiciary branches of the government. Findings show that women in the
parliament currently underperform more than any previous time as there are only two
female sout of 66 parliamentarians, making only three percent of the total seats.
Chapter six presents women and their participation in economic, it gives particular insight to
women and poverty, unemployment among women population, and lastly entrepreneurship. In
Puntland women make up 60% of micro-businesses while unemployment is much higher than
men by 75% and only 40% are engaged in wage employment. Findings reveal that agriculture is
the leading sector for Puntland’ economy, however, only 14% of women own farms and only
28% own livestock in their families. In the private sector, women continue to underperform as
only 1% of women are meaningfully engaged in the private sector.