September 17, 2022 Global Indicators Briefs No. 12 Reforming Discriminatory Laws to Empower Women in Togo Nelsy Affoum and Marie Dry T his Brief examines two reforms, enacted between 2012 and 2014, that lifted previous restrictions to women’s rights in Togo. Speci cally, these limitations prevented women from choosing where to live, from getting a job without their husband’s permission, and from being named head of household in the same manner as men. e reforms to the Persons and Family Code were driven by women’s civil society organizations engaging a wide variety of stakeholders, including the government and the international community. Together, these actors identi ed strategic agencies and stakeholders sympathetic to the overarching goal of gender equality in order to make greater gender equality a reality. is Brief explores this process, while also indicating the remaining barriers to women’s full equality in Togo. e notion of equality for all Togolese nationals is embedded in and Family Code restricted women’s bargaining power and rights in the country’s 1992 Constitution, which states: “All human beings are the household by not granting a woman an equal right to choose equal in dignity and in right. e man and the woman are equal before where to live, to get a job without the permission of her husband, and the law. No one may be favored or disadvantaged for reason of their to be named head of household. Two reforms were then passed in familial, ethnic, or regional origin, of their economic or social 2012 and 2014 abolishing these restrictions in the Persons and Family situation, of their political, religious, philosophical or other Code. ese reforms have led to other advances, and as of 2022, Togo convictions” (Art. 2). Despite this clear constitutional guarantee to scores 81.9 on the WBL index. e improvement in score symbolizes equality dating from the early 1990s, for more than a decade after the the progress these reforms have made in guaranteeing women’s legal adoption of the constitution, Togo was slow to push forward women’s rights and their positive impact on women’s access to formal empowerment on the political agenda. However, in the early 2000s, employment and entrepreneurship in Togo. once political will coalesced, in tandem with advocacy from local groups and the international community, Togo made tremendous Togo is cited as one of the ve most-improved countries in the improvements with respect to gender equality. Lately, women’s World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Gender Gap Report in its representation has also improved remarkably through the overall index, having narrowed the gender gap by 6.8 percentage appointment of female leaders at strategic government positions. points since 2020. is means that in one year, Togo has made Notably, in January 2019, Mrs. Yawa Djigbodi Tségan was appointed progress toward closing gender-based gaps in economic participation president of the National Assembly and in September 2020, Mrs. and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and Victoire Sidémého Tomegah Dogbé was appointed prime minister. political empowerment (World Economic Forum 2021). However, more work is needed in Togo to achieve full gender equality. Togo Progress toward gender equality for Togo has advanced but has still ranks 91st out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap 2022 been only partial. Since 1970—the rst year covered by the Women, Report (World Economic Forum 2022). Further, the Women, Business, and the Law (WBL) index, capturing the state of women’s Business and the Law 2022 report recorded a negative reform for legal rights and access to economic opportunities in countries around Togo in 2021 with the enactment of a new Labor Code that no the world—Togo has enacted reforms under all eight indicators in longer broadly prohibits the dismissal of pregnant workers (World the index. As of 1970, Togo scored only 25.6 out of 100, where 100 Bank Group 2022). is step backward demonstrates that progress represents the absence of legal barriers for women in areas covered by remains tenuous, and that setbacks are possible. the eight indicators. According to the index, Togo did not register substantial reforms until the enactment of the 2006 Labor Code. is Brief focuses on two important family law reforms enacted With this new Labor Code, Togo prohibited the dismissal of in 2012 and 2014. e Brief focuses on family law for three reasons. pregnant workers, mandated equal remuneration for work of equal First, most jobs (90.1 percent) in Togo are informal, which means value, and prohibited gender discrimination in employment. e that labor law reforms a ect a smaller share of the population country also enacted legislation protecting women from sexual compared to family law reforms, which apply to all women across the harassment in employment by providing civil remedies. country. Second, interviews with women’s rights experts in Togo revealed that family law reforms were better known by activists and However, women’s rights were not a strong priority on the presented a more interesting case of cooperation to strengthen political agenda before the 2010s. Notably, until 2012, the Persons advocacy e orts. ird, according to the Women, Business and the Affiliations: World Bank, Development Economics, Women, Business and the Law (WBL). For correspondence: naffoum@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. Previous Briefs in the series include case studies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, and South Africa. 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 Honorine Aféfa, Michelle Aguey, Afi Aokou, Emilie Azibli, Lagrange Fidèle, Mayi Françoise Gnofam, Anne Kpedji, Patrick Malarkey, Claire Quénum, Princess Sabi, Paula Tavares, Mama-Raouf Tchagnao, Nouhoum Tchathedre, and Hawa Cissé Wagué. The team would also like to thank Daniel Kirkwood, Claire Quénum, and Paula Tavares for helpful peer review, 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 synthesize 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 Togo. This Brief builds on the information collected during these interviews to trace the development of the legal reforms and identify 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. DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 12 Law database, one-third of economies in the Sub-Saharan Africa renounced custom for common law to be applied. Under customary region still restrict a woman’s right to be named head of household law in Togo, women do not have the right to own land. e in the same way as men. Dissecting how these reforms came about in inequalities that resulted triggered women’s rights groups to argue Togo can thus provide an interesting example for other economies to for reforms because inheritance matters handled under customary follow. e two reforms discussed in this Brief are the 2012 law too often left widows and orphans without property upon the amendment to the Persons and Family Code—which allowed death of the husband or father. women to choose where to live in the same way as a man and to get a job without the authorization of their husband—and the 2014 e advocacy e orts led by local CSOs such as Women in Law amendment to the same law—which allowed women to become and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) Togo, the Groupe de head of household in the same way as a man. ré exion et d’action Femme, Démocratie et Développement (GF2D), and other members of the WiLDAF Pan-African network Analyzing the political and legal processes behind the passage of of organizations on women’s rights continued over the years. ey these gender equality reforms and the challenges that remain in studied the Persons and Family Code to pinpoint all instances where implementing the newly acquired rights reveals four key lessons. First, it enshrined unequal rights for women and men. A call for reform, the early involvement of local civil society organizations (CSOs), which started with a focus on inheritance rights, thus grew to become raising the alarm on the persistence of discriminatory provisions in the a wider denunciation of several other discriminatory provisions of the laws of the country, proved crucial in advocating for changes. Local Persons and Family Code, including those regarding women’s CSOs were able to make their demands heard within a wide coalition unequal rights within marriage. However, several subsequent reform of stakeholders. Second, the involvement of the international attempts were unsuccessful because CSOs lacked broad governmental community further directed the government’s attention to the support as well as external support from international partners. To discriminatory aspects of the Code and strengthened the government’s strengthen their call for reform, local CSOs, in collaboration with the will to promote gender equality. ird, dissemination and Ministry of Social Action, Women, and Literacy, collected data implementation of such reforms is crucial; this has proved challenging through a sociological study to demonstrate that the Persons and in Togo, and thus the impact of the new laws remains limited. Lastly, Family Code was obsolete: its discriminatory provisions no longer building on legislative momentum, more positive reforms are needed re ected the reality of the Togolese society. to guarantee women equal rights and opportunities. In the years leading to the reforms of the Persons and Family The initial impetus for reform: the call for equal Code, the advocacy e orts led by women’s rights groups proceeded through meetings and workshops with a variety of stakeholders. inheritance rights by women’s rights groups Other organizations such as the National Bar Association of Togo e 1980 version of the Persons and Family Code of Togo lobbied alongside women CSOs for the abolition of the contained discriminatory provisions and restrictions that kept discriminatory provisions in the Persons and Family Code. Local women from enjoying the same rights as men (Table 1). One CSOs organized speci c work sessions with the Caucus of Togolese activist recalls: “ ese laws contained provisions that Parliamentary Women, which became another pivotal ally. A discriminated against women and did not ensure their protection, women’s rights advocate from WiLDAF Togo recalls, “ e development, and equality with men.” e observation of this Women’s Parliamentary Caucus was always willing to listen to us, to injustice acted as a starting point for women’s rights groups in Togo advise us, and to accompany us.” Some CSO representatives were to initiate what would become a successful, but lengthy, advocacy even invited to take part in the Committee meetings where the process. Around 1987 and 1988, local CSOs raised their voices for amendments were discussed and subsequently drafted. In sum, the rst time to denounce the inequalities contained in the Persons magistrates, lawyers, and civil society organizations were heard in the and Family Code. eir call for reform rst focused on the issue of process, along with women victims of discrimination. Indeed, a inheritance rights. Before the recent reforms to the Persons and government-named committee was given the task of surveying Family Code in Togo, women did not enjoy the same protections of women who su ered from discrimination to bring their testimonials their rights to inheritance as men. Article 391 mandated then that back to Parliamentarians and include that testimony in a report of customary law applied by default: a spouse thus needed to have the Parliamentary Commission. Table 1 Reforming discriminatory provisions in the laws of Togo WBL index questions Before reforms After reforms Can a woman choose Art. 104 of the 1980 Persons and Family Art. 102 of the amended Persons and Family where to live in the Code mandated that the decision on where Code mandates that the residence of the same way as a man? the family lives should be made by both spouses, family is a place that the spouses choose by mutual and in case of disagreement the husband would agreement. In the event of disagreement, a judge have the last word, and the wife should follow him. will decide in the interest of the family. Can a woman get a Art. 109 of the 1980 Persons and Family Art. 107 of the amended Persons and Family job in the same way Code mandated that the wife could pursue a Code mandates that each spouse may freely as a man? separate profession from her husband’s unless he pursue a profession of his or her choice unless the was opposed to it. other spouse objects by court order in the interest of the family. Can a woman be Art. 100 of the 1980 Persons and Family Art. 107 of the amended Persons and Family "head of household" Code designated the husband as the head of Code mandates that both spouses are or "head of family" in household. responsible for the management of the family and the same way as a man? assume moral and nancial responsibility in the best interest of the children and the household. Source: Women, Business and the Law (WBL) database. 2 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 12 A government willing to reform and abide to Development Bank, and the World Bank Group—helped CSOs international commitments direct the attention of the government to the issue of gender inequalities in the country’s Persons and Family Code. As a Togolese In addition to CSOs, two other key groups contributed to researcher puts it: " e international community and civil society reforming the family laws of Togo. First, political will from the spoke with one voice to pass these reforms." highest levels of government to promote gender equality allowed the advocacy campaign to gain steam. Togo was cut o from Further, international and regional treaties on gender equality international aid between 1993 and 2008, following violent played a role. Togo rati ed the Convention on the Elimination of All incidents in response to protests from 1990 to 1993 advocating Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1983 and democracy and political pluralism. After his accession to power in the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) in 2005. As 2005, President Faure Gnassingbé, hoping to restore multilateralism a result, lawmakers sought to align national laws with international and secure better development outcomes for the country, promised standards and the country’s constitutional protection on gender gender parity, signi cant funding to promote women’s equality. e 2012 reform of the Persons and Family Code took into entrepreneurship, and improvements in the status of women in consideration some but not all issues raised by the CEDAW general. is clear political intent to advance gender equality helped Committee. Indeed, in 2012, the CEDAW Committee establish the institutional framework necessary for reforms and recommended “that the State party: (a) Withdraw the discriminatory enabled the grievances of women’s rights groups to be heard. provisions of the 2012 Code of Persons and Family that […] place Further, the Ministry of Social Action, Women and Literacy played the responsibilities of the households mainly on the husband (article a crucial role in the passing of the family law reforms, notably as it 100)” (CEDAW Committee 2012b). Two years after the initial 2012 formulated recommendations for the ensuing reforms and worked reform process to the family law—and despite pushback—the on disseminating the new provisions. CEDAW Committee’s recommendation contributed to making the Second, the international community played an important role in 2014 reform a reality for Togolese women (Box 1). Men in Togo are drawing the government’s attention to the issues local CSOs had been no longer named by default to be the head of household: they now denouncing for years. e ties between Togo and the international must share these responsibilities with their spouse. community were cut for 15 years, between 1993 and 2008. In 2008, dialogue and diplomacy slowly resumed (Figure 1). e government The impact of the family law reforms and their then faced pressure to reform its discriminatory laws and take actions limitations for women’s empowerment so that international funding could be reinstituted. e international community—particularly the Agence e main consequence of these legal reforms has been the Française de Développement, the European Union, the African securing of new rights for women in Togo. After the 2012 and 2014 Ties between Togo and the international community regarding the rights of women have grown Figure 1 after a 15-year hiatus 2012 2005 Togo enacts the reforms 1983 Togo ratifies the to the Persons and Togo ratifies the Protocol to the African Family Code; the Convention on the Charter on Human and CEDAW Committee Elimination of All Peoples' Rights on the calls for the abolition of Forms of Rights of Women in the husband's sole Discrimination Against Africa (the Maputo designation as head of Women (CEDAW) Protocol) household 1990–93 2008 2014 Violent protests erupt Dialogue and Togo revises the as Togolese citizens diplomacy resume with provision of the demand a the international Persons and Family constitutional community Code on the head of referendum household 1993–2008 The international community suspends its collaboration with Togo Source: Women, Business, and the Law (WBL) database. Note: Timeline is not to scale. Box 1 Controversies concerning inheritance rights and the head of household During the debates on the reforms of the Persons and Family reform was necessary to pass the amendment. is disposition was Code, controversies arose. e proposed changes to inheritance heavily debated and remains di cult to implement. As a CSO rules, previously governed by customary law excluding women and representative commented: “It is not yet integrated in the daily life orphans from receiving any property, led to heated debates. of Togolese women. Legally speaking, when you go to the civil e proposal of co-management of the household by both status o ce to get married, these provisions will be read and spouses also sparked additional discussions and a second round of explained to you, but in the daily life of women it is not a reality.” 3 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 12 reforms, according to the law, women could no longer be prevented entrepreneurial activities increased as they were informed that their from getting a job and could share responsibilities to make nancial husband’s authorization was no longer essential. decisions for the household. Consequently, according to CSO representatives, women were advancing toward emancipation from However, women’s rights advocates in the country characterize marital constraints. is improved their access to contraceptives, these dissemination e orts as insu cient. As one stated: “Laws are which they could obtain from then on without authorization from a voted, passed, and then shelved. ey can be found on the government’s website but not all Togolese have access to the Internet husband or guardian, and their access to credit to start or strengthen to stay informed of reforms.” For these advocates, government’s their income-generating activities. As the country moved toward involvement and initiative has not been strong enough to ensure that greater gender equality in its laws, other policies, and initiatives—in the entire population is made aware of their rights. Additionally, part inspired by this favorable legislative context—have emerged while CSOs worked to disseminate information about the reforms, a (Box 2). Government e orts to make the public aware of the reforms lack of nancial resources rendered their e orts insu cient to reach also improved the climate for further advances. Public civil servants every single rights holder. A proper dissemination strategy designed in prefectures received training about the new provisions of the laws to reach all women, regardless of their geographic location, spoken to inform women of their rights. As a result of dissemination e orts, language, and literacy level is still needed. For example, most women CSO leaders recall a shift in women’s awareness regarding their who reside in remote parts of Togo do not speak French. us, it is socioeconomic rights. For example, women demanded more important for the amendments to be translated into all languages information concerning their right to inheritance and land property, spoken in the various regions of the country. Additionally, in contrast with their previous focus mainly on child custody issues. dissemination through local media, and in particular, through rural Furthermore, as noted by a representative from the Association radio can help spread awareness. However, even when fully aware of of Women Lawyers of Togo, women’s willingness to engage in the new legal provisions, women still face barriers to accessing their Box 2 Gender equality reforms sparked other changes As a result of the government’s willingness to promote signi cantly, from 15.1 percent to 37.6 percent, between 2014 and women’s rights in Togo and more gender-equal legislation, other 2017, although the gender gap persists (World Bank, Global initiatives have focused on women in the economic and political Financial Inclusion Database, Findex). spheres and have resulted in positive outcomes for women. National policies now strive to integrate a gender lens and At the national level, the Support Fund for Youth Economic increase women’s representation, notably in politics. A growing Initiatives (FAIEJ), created in 2006 and made fully operational in number of women have occupied high-level government positions, 2013, and the National Fund for Inclusive Finance (FNFI), initiated by the Ministry of Grassroots Development, Crafts, Youth including in the Prime Minister’s O ce, the National Assembly, and Youth Employment in 2014, support women entrepreneurs in and the Ministry of Defense. e number of seats held by women in their economic activity. Between 2014 and 2020, the share of the National Assembly has nearly doubled since the 2007 elections, women business owners grew from 22 percent to 32 percent (World from 9 women (representing 11.1 percent of elected members) to 17 Bank, Entrepreneurship Database). Further, women’s access to women (representing 18.7 percent of total members) after the 2018 nancial institutions or mobile-money services increased elections (IPU—Parline Global Data on National Parliaments). Figure B2.1. The inclusion of Togolese women in political life and financial activities has increased 40 38% 35 32% 30 Percent of females 25 22% 19% 20 15% 15 11% 10 5 0 2007 2018 2014 2017 2014 2020 Elected members of Parliament Access to financial institutions or mobile-money-service Business owners Source: IPU–Parline Global Data on National Parliaments, Togo, 2021; Global Financial Inclusion (Findex) Database, 2021, World Bank; Entrepreneurship Database, 2020, World Bank. 4 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 12 rights. Notably, a strong stigma persists against women who try to gender-based violence, and domestic violence in particular. In 2012, enforce their rights by going to court. Familial matters are still largely women were given the right to work without their spouse’s believed to be best handled within the family or the community. authorization, but in reality “a woman who works against her husband’s wishes can be a source of violence in the home,” explains a Despite their limited resources, local CSOs continue e orts to women’s rights advocate. Intimate partner violence and gender-based disseminate gender equality reforms. For example, the GF2D has violence in general remain a pressing issue not adequately addressed distributed booklets and yers, worked with communities and in Togo. Recognizing this fact, the Togolese government adopted the leaders to spread awareness, and has trained civil registrars who are at Politique Nationale de l’Equité et de l’Egalité de Genre du Togo in the frontline of informing couples of their rights within marriage. 2011, a policy to establish an institutional, sociocultural, legal, and However, dissemination e orts have been slow and di cult. A economic environment favorable to the achievement of gender equity campaign initiated by the Association of Women Lawyers of Togo, which consisted of distributing hard copies of the Persons and and equality in Togo; and to address forms of violence against women Family Code quickly proved to be unsuccessful, given that almost (Government of Togo 2011). half of adult women in Togo cannot read. e female literacy rate is Nonetheless, sensitization programs to educate boys, girls, men, only 55 percent for adult women, according to data for the and women on the consequences of domestic violence on women and Sustainable Development Goals collected by the United Nations society in general are lacking (Moore 2008). A government study Educational, Scienti c and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). showed that more than 20 percent of the population believes that it is Togo’s traditions and customs continue to enforce patriarchal acceptable for a man to beat his wife, with reasons ranging from her beliefs designating men as the “incarnation of authority” and drinking alcohol, to talking back to their husbands, to having an women’s role as limited to “being a wife and mother responsible for unknown visitor, to being negligent toward the children, to going out all domestic chores” (United Nations Department of Public without permission (Government of Togo 2014). e Women, Information 2006). As of 2014, after the reforms, only 29.4 percent Business and the Law index nds that Togo is one of thirty economies of women participated in three major decisions in the household: around the globe without a legal framework speci cally addressing namely, their own health care, major household purchases, and domestic violence and one of sixteen in Sub-Saharan Africa. visiting family (World Development Indicators). e division of Legal frameworks to protect women from domestic violence caretaking work, which would leave women more time to pursue and provide survivors with appropriate resources are crucial for formal economic activities, is still uneven. As of 2016, women women’s safety and access to economic opportunities. Such laws entrepreneurs in Togo spent 19.3 hours per week on care work have positive consequences most notably in the way they mandate compared to 8.8 for male entrepreneurs (World Bank 2016). e 2012 and 2014 reforms therefore directly challenge the status quo for reparations. Speci c legislation on domestic violence can and societal norms in Togo (Millennium Challenge Corporation empower women to seek justice for the violence they su ered. For 2017). More work needs to be done to change the hearts and minds example, in the past few years, several Sub-Saharan African of people about women’s roles and to eradicate gender-based countries, including Gabon, Liberia, and Madagascar, have discrimination (Box 3). promulgated legislation addressing domestic violence. In 2021, Gabon adopted a comprehensive law on the elimination of violence against women, protecting women from domestic violence as well as Remaining gaps in the legislation criminalizing the o ence. e law includes a procedure for survivors Despite tremendous improvements for women’s rights in Togo to obtain protection orders from abusers and provides access to in the past decade, some inequalities persist. Four main areas for support services mandated by the state to facilitate women’s recovery reform toward gender equality are evident from the analysis of the (World Bank Group 2022). Such reforms are particularly important Women, Business and the Law data and interviews with local experts. in contexts, such as Togo, where domestic violence is rampant and First, there is a need for additional legal protections against might be justi ed by patriarchal beliefs. Box 3 Advocacy to challenge gender roles Awareness raising in the public is an e cient way to challenge entrenched gender roles. e Groupe de ré exion et d’action Femme, Démocratie et Développement (GF2D), for instance, is a civil society organization working to improve gender equality and strengthen the rights of women and girls throughout Togo. Its work focuses on dismantling rigid gender norms that perpetuate gender inequalities, notably through awareness-raising campaigns. e advocacy poster shown here represents a woman undertaking “a thousand activities,” symbolizing women’s burden of unpaid care work. e inequality of distribution of household chores denounced by the GF2D has been found to prevent girls from accessing education and adult women from participating in the economy in the same way as boys and men (Efroymson, FitzGerald, and Jones 2010). In addition to advocacy campaigns, a study conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo presents evidence that holding gender norms discussion groups with couples can increase the share of domestic tasks and childcare that men take on (Vaillant et al. 2020). Source: : Groupe de réflexion et d’action Femme, Démocratie et Développement (GF2D), http://www.gf2dcriff.net/. 5 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 12 Second, women in Togo currently do not have equal right to men Organization Maternity Protection Convention 183, maternity to remarry. e Persons and Family Code, as last reformed in 2014, bene ts are only partially covered by the National Social Security imposes a waiting period of nearly one year (300 days) before women Fund. is means that employers must cover a portion of the can remarry; men do not have to wait. Such gender di erences, which maternity leave bene ts, which puts women of childbearing age at a are found in family laws around the world, were rst intended to avoid disadvantage when accessing the job market. Such a burden on a potential con ict of paternity between a woman’s previous husband employers may discourage them from hiring women because of their and future husband based on the assumption that the father of a child perceived higher cost in comparison to men. A female lawyer from the is the man a woman is married to when she gives birth. However, due Association des Femmes Juristes du Togo cited a case she worked on to scienti c advancements, a legally prescribed waiting period is no that illustrates the issue posed by the current legislation. An employer longer necessary to establish the paternity of a child. It is a form of red a female employee after her third pregnancy in ve years because discriminatory legislation that can harm women, for example, when he did not want to incur the costs of the maternity bene ts. Removing they hope to enter a new marriage to improve their nancial security. provisions that potentially discriminate against women—or leave In addition to enabling women to establish income stability, it has also women more vulnerable in the labor market—could improve been shown that the opportunity to remarry allows women to escape women’s access to formal employment. One such example is the 2016 unequal or oppressive relationships and enter into more egalitarian reform of the Social Security Law in the Democratic Republic of marriages with a more favorable division of labor and decision-making Congo, which established at Art. 43 that maternity bene ts should be powers (Yefet 2019). fully administered and disbursed by the government. Since this law was passed, employers have no longer been responsible for paying for ird, in addition to eliminating discriminatory provisions a portion of the maternity bene ts of their employees. from its laws, women’s rights advocates in Togo suggest that the country should consider introducing positive obligations for greater To conclude, the two family law reforms from 2012 and 2014 inclusion of women in the country’s economic life. Such positive assessed in this study illustrate the successful gender equality reform obligations could, for example, be related to women’s limited access process undertaken in Togo and highlight the remaining gaps in the to ownership rights over land and their lower wages, which hinder legislation and its implementation. e early involvement of local their access to formal nancial products (CEDAW Committee CSOs proved instrumental in pointing out the discriminatory 2012a). An explicit prohibition of discrimination on the basis of provisions and proving that such provisions were not adequate for gender in access to credit—similar to the one in the Code of Togolese society. Indeed, women in Togo have long been Conduct for Credit and Financial Institutions of entrepreneurial and have contributed immensely to the informal Mozambique—could boost women’s nancial inclusion. Indeed, economy. ese reforms formally granted rights for women to studies have found that such an explicit prohibition has been continue to prosper and grow their businesses in Togo. Further, the positively associated with female business ownership (Islam, Muzi, international community’s involvement helped draw the and Amin 2017) and with female ownership of accounts at nancial government’s attention to the matter. Without the political institutions and debit cards (World Bank Group 2018). commitment to improving gender equality in the country, these reforms for women’s economic empowerment would not have Fourth, provisions related to protection of pregnant women and passed. e current impact of such reforms is limited due to women with young children are still insu cient to ensure women’s insu cient dissemination and implementation of the law, and some full participation in the labor force. In 2021, Togo enacted a new of the remaining gaps in the laws of the country. More e orts are Labor Code that no longer broadly prohibits the dismissal of pregnant needed to fully disseminate the current laws and pass future reforms workers. While the country grants 14 weeks of paid leave for mothers, to implement a stronger legal apparatus protecting and empowering in line with the standard set out by the International Labor women in Togo. 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