The Global Gender Gap Report 2008 released by the World Economic Forum ranked Qatar’s Educational Attainment Index top in the GCC and 41st at the global level. The report ranked the educational attainment of UAE at 46. Kuwait ranked 74; Bahrain 66; Saudi Arabia 85; and Oman 89. The report, however, showed that Qatar slipped from its third position in the GCC to fourth in the overall performance.
When compared to 2007, Qatar fell on both scores and ranks in all the indices except Education. The country fell eight points in Economic Participation and Opportunity. It also scored low in Health and Survival index against the previous year. For the third consecutive year, Kuwait, that ranked 101 in the latest global report, stood first in the GCC by a higher-than-average performance on economic participation and education attainment, relative to the region. Kuwait is followed in the rankings by the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The global report ranked Qatar 119 in the Gender Gap Index 2008 showing that the country has fell by ten points compared to the last year.
“While most MENA region countries continue to perform far below the global average, countries such as Tunisia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Oman, Egypt, Morocco and Yemen have all shown improvements in scores. On the other hand, countries such as Syria, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have deteriorated”, the report said.
Saudi Arabia, after making gains in scores last year, fell on both scores and ranks in 2008, due to a correction to the data on the percentage of women among legislators, senior officials and managers, and losses on wage equality for similar work.
These are only partially offset by gain in literacy rates.
