South Caucasus countries in World Bank’s report on women entrepreneurship opportunities
On 23 February, the World Bank group published their “Women, Business and the Law” report for the year 2021, measuring the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The report covers categories such as movement in the community to the challenges of working, parenting, and retiring, the data offer objective and measurable benchmarks for global progress toward gender equality.
Armenia’s score in this year’s edition of the report was 82.5 out of 100. The overall score for Armenia is lower than the regional average observed across Europe & Central Asia (83.4). The report emphasised that when it comes to constraints on freedom of movement, constraints related to marriage, gender differences in property and inheritance, and laws affecting the size of a woman’s pension, Armenia gets a perfect score. However, the report added when it comes to laws affecting women's decisions to work, women's pay, women's work after having children, and constraints on women's starting and running a business, Armenia could consider reforms to improve legal equality for women.
Azerbaijan’s score was 78.8 out of 100. The report stressed that when it comes to constraints on freedom of movement, laws affecting women's decisions to work, constraints related to marriage, women starting and running a business, and gender differences in property and inheritance, Azerbaijan gets a perfect score. However, when it comes to laws affecting women’s pay, women’s work after having children, and the size of a woman’s pension, Azerbaijan could consider reforms to improve legal equality for women.
Georgia’s score was 85.6 out of 100, which was above the average for the countries of Europe and Central Asia. The report highlighted that when it comes to constraints on freedom of movement, laws affecting women's decisions to work, constraints related to marriage, women starting and running a business, and gender differences in property and inheritance, Georgia gets a perfect score. However, when it comes to laws affecting women’s pay, women’s work after having children, and laws affecting the size of a woman’s pension, Georgia could consider reforms to improve legal equality for women.