IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/chinre/v15y2022i3d10.1007_s12187-021-09889-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A robust statistical tool to measure African governments’ commitment to girls’ rights: The Girl-Friendliness Index

Author

Listed:
  • Negussie Dejene Woldekidan

    (African Child Policy Forum (ACPF))

  • Yehualashet Mekonen Abegaz

    (African Child Policy Forum (ACPF))

Abstract

The Girl-Friendliness Index (GFI) is a statistical tool developed to comprehensively assess the performance of African governments in realising the rights and wellbeing of girls. The framework is composed of three central pillars of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) which deal with girls’ rights to: Protection, Provision and Participation. The construction of the index follows standard procedures. Detailed statistical analysis was also carried out to test and evaluate the strength and reliability of the tool. The analysis confirmed that the GFI is a strong statistical tool to measure and rank governments’ friendliness towards girls in Africa. The GFI was calculated for 52 African countries using the most recent comparable data available and the results were cross-analysed with other variables such as national income and state of good governance. According to the GFI results, Mauritius, Tunisia, South Africa, Seychelles, and Algeria were the five top ranking countries, relative to the others, that scored a minimum of 74% each. On the other hand, the five countries at the bottom of the ranking were: South Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Niger. These countries scored low (15.9%, 17%, 25%, 27.2%, and 27.7% percent, respectively). Key conclusion drawn from the paper is that top performing countries were countries that have put in place comprehensive laws and policies to protect girls from abuse and exploitation and have also allocated higher shares of their income to improve girls’ wellbeing. Poorly performing countries, conversely, were those which have failed to put in place gender-sensitive laws and policies, fell short of allocating adequate budgets, and essentially are ineffective in enforcing laws and policies in place. Another interesting aspect of the analysis is the assessment of the degree of correlation between GFI and other well-known and related indices such as the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG). The results have shown that the GFI has a strong positive correlation with both indices. These positive correlations show the linkages of performance in realizing girls’ rights with human development and good governance such that the more the government fulfilled the rights of girls the more it contributes to good governance and development.

Suggested Citation

  • Negussie Dejene Woldekidan & Yehualashet Mekonen Abegaz, 2022. "A robust statistical tool to measure African governments’ commitment to girls’ rights: The Girl-Friendliness Index," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(3), pages 703-729, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:15:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s12187-021-09889-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s12187-021-09889-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12187-021-09889-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12187-021-09889-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Saisana & A. Saltelli & S. Tarantola, 2005. "Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis techniques as tools for the quality assessment of composite indicators," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 168(2), pages 307-323, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthias Firgo & Fabian Gabelberger & Andreas Reinstaller & Yvonne Wolfmayr, 2024. "Assessing Regional Production Potential to Strengthen the Security of Supply in Strategic Products," WIFO Working Papers 670, WIFO.
    2. Andrea Saltelli, 2007. "Composite Indicators between Analysis and Advocacy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 65-77, March.
    3. Rajko Tomaš, 2022. "Measurement of the Concentration of Potential Quality of Life in Local Communities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 79-109, August.
    4. Aleksandra Maksimovska & Aleksandar Stojkov, 2019. "Composite Indicator of Social Responsiveness of Local Governments: An Empirical Mapping of the Networked Community Governance Paradigm," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 669-706, July.
    5. Cherchye, Laurens & Knox Lovell, C.A. & Moesen, Wim & Van Puyenbroeck, Tom, 2007. "One market, one number? A composite indicator assessment of EU internal market dynamics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 749-779, April.
    6. Janina Isabel Steinert & Lucie Dale Cluver & G. J. Melendez-Torres & Sebastian Vollmer, 2018. "One Size Fits All? The Validity of a Composite Poverty Index Across Urban and Rural Households in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 51-72, February.
    7. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Tasiou, Menelaos & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2018. "σ-µ efficiency analysis: A new methodology for evaluating units through composite indices," MPRA Paper 83569, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Marco Marozzi & Mario Bolzan, 2018. "An Index of Household Accessibility to Basic Services: A Study of Italian Regions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 1237-1250, April.
    9. Di Zio, Simone & Bolzan, Mario & Marozzi, Marco, 2021. "Classification of Delphi outputs through robust ranking and fuzzy clustering for Delphi-based scenarios," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    10. Drago, Carlo & Gatto, Andrea, 2022. "Policy, regulation effectiveness, and sustainability in the energy sector: A worldwide interval-based composite indicator," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    11. M. Benito & R. Romera, 2011. "Improving quality assessment of composite indicators in university rankings: a case study of French and German universities of excellence," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 89(1), pages 153-176, October.
    12. Rosalia Castellano & Antonella Rocca, 2017. "The dynamic of the gender gap in the European labour market in the years of economic crisis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 1337-1357, May.
    13. Brad Carter & Claus Rinner, 2014. "Locally weighted linear combination in a vector geographic information system," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 343-361, July.
    14. Paola Costantini & Marielle Linting & Giovanni C. Porzio, 2010. "Mining performance data through nonlinear PCA with optimal scaling," Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 85-101, January.
    15. Carmen García-Peña & Moneyba González-Medina & Jose Manuel Diaz-Sarachaga, 2021. "Assessment of the Governance Dimension in the Frame of the 2030 Agenda: Evidence from 100 Spanish Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-21, May.
    16. Qingyun Du & Yanxia Wang & Fu Ren & Zhiyuan Zhao & Hongqiang Liu & Chao Wu & Langjiao Li & Yiran Shen, 2014. "Measuring and Analysis of Urban Competitiveness of Chinese Provincial Capitals in 2010 under the Constraints of Major Function-Oriented Zoning Utilizing Spatial Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(6), pages 1-26, May.
    17. Laurens CHERCHYE & Willem MOESEN & Nicky ROGGE & Tom VAN PUYENBROECK, 2009. "Constructing a knowledge economy composite indicator with imprecise data," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces09.15, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    18. Rachel M. Gisselquist, 2013. "Evaluating Governance Indexes: Critical and Less Critical Questions," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-068, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Nuno Boavida, 2011. "How composite indicators of innovation can influence technology policy decision?," IET Working Papers Series 03/2011, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, IET/CICS.NOVA-Interdisciplinary Centre on Social Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology.
    20. Francis Kuriakose, 2022. "Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility in India: A Composite Indicator Model," Indian Journal of Corporate Governance, , vol. 15(2), pages 295-320, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:15:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s12187-021-09889-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.