Brunei Darussalam dropped nine places in the 2024 Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to 105th out of 146 countries, with a score of 0.684 compared to 96th place last year with a score of 0.693.
The Sultanate’s best position is in education attainment at 47th place (with first place globally in primary and tertiary education enrolment) and economic participation and opportunity at 60th place (with first place in professional and technical workers).
Brunei was 13th in East Asia and the Pacific region, according to the WEF report released on Wednesday. The index grades four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
The next best performers in the region are Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, with rankings of 48th, 65th, and 72nd.
Rankings for the rest of the region were Timor-Leste (86th), Laos (89th), Indonesia (100th), Cambodia (102nd), Brunei (105th), and Malaysia (114th). Myanmar was not included in the study.
Eastern Asia and the Pacific ranked fourth, with an overall gender parity score of 69.2 per cent. While there’s been a positive shift of +3.1 percentage points overall since 2006, only New Zealand and the Philippines have made the global top 10 since then.
The economic participation and opportunity score for the region is 71.7 per cent, showing progress since 2023 but revealing significant disparities between countries in labour-force participation rates and workforce representation.
The region’s educational attainment gender parity score stands at 95.1 per cent, reflecting gender gaps in literacy and enrolment levels.
Health and survival, despite a slight improvement, ranks last, at 95 per cent, with some countries still lagging in healthy life expectancy and sex birth ratio parity.
Political empowerment has improved overall since 2006 (+3.4 percentage points), but its 2024 score of 14.5 per cent ranks it third from the bottom against other regions.
The WEF estimated that the world needs at least 134 years, or five generations, to close the gender gap.
“In many countries, women’s workforce participation has still not recovered since the COVID-19 pandemic. The current economic context, coupled with technological and climate change, risks causing further regression,” it said in a statement.
The World Bank estimates that global gross domestic product could rise by 20 per cent once gender gaps in politics and work close.
The 2024 Global Gender Gap report is in its 18th edition. It benchmarks gender-based gaps in economic participation, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
