18.Since there was not major reorganization of the government institutions during the reporting period, there took place no significant changes in the composition of males and females in senior government positions. The most notable change occurred in the community courts which are locally elected posts. Women occupied 37.7%. Generally, women occupy 26.7% of the reserved and unreserved senior government post.

Article 8: Representation at the International Level

Table 2

Women and Men in International Affairs

	Year 2009		Year 2012
Post	Total	Females	% Females	Total	Females	% Females
Minister	1	0	0	1	0	0
Director General	7	2	28.6	7	2	22.2
Director	12	3	25.0	17	4	23.5
Head of unit	25	4	16.0	16	4	25.0
Ambassador	30	0	0	29	0	0
Consul General	14	0	0	10	0	0
1st Secretary	30	3	10.0	28	2	7.1
2nd Secretary	24	0	0	20	1	5.0
3rd secretary	4	2	50.0	8	1	12.5
Attaches	2	0	0	1	0	0
Total	149	14	9. 39	13 7	1 4	10. 2 1

19.Like in the other high government posts, women’s representation in the international affairs remained more or less the same in 2012 as in 2008. This indicates that there were no major changes in the assignment of posts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Article 9: Nationality/Citizenship

20.The Government of the State of Eritrea refers to the fourth periodic report where the legal and practical aspects of the Nationality/Citizenship issues were extensively discussed. There was nothing new to report concerning these matters (Article 9), except that the elaborated legal rights continued to be implemented smoothly during the reported period.

Part III

Article 10: Education

21.The Ministry of Education has been seized with the task of improving the quality of education, as well as expanding the access of the various sections of the population to education. A new programme to enhance access to education in remote and difficult places to reach is contributing to easing up access to education by females, the disabled and generally children living in terrain geographic areas.

22.This effort was demonstrated by the opening up of new elementary, middle and secondary level schools across the country. Bringing schools closer to home of the students in the various grades is contributing to the decrease in the dropout rates of students. Moreover, mobile schools in the nomadic areas have enabled nomadic male and female children to enrol in schools.

23.The data provided in the following tables shows the progress made from 2009/10 to 2011/12 in pre-school, elementary, middle and secondary level of schools, according to the survey carried out by the Statistics and Evaluation Office in 2010.

Table 3

Pre-primary level: net enrolment ratio by year 2009/2010-2011/2012

	Population age group 5-6		Net Enrolment		Net Enrolment ratio
Year	Total	M	F	Total	M	F	Total	M	F
2009/10	133 259	69 838	63 526	27 163	14 071	13 092	20.4	20.1	20.6
2010/11	133 756	69 925	63 829	29 990	15 404	14 586	22.4	22.0	22.9
2011/12	145 775	75 847	69 928	28 952	14 801	14 151	19.9	19.5	20.2

24.As table 4 shows in the pre-primary level of education there was no particular trend in the net enrolment ratio of females to males during 2009/10 to 2011/12 academic years. Initially female enrolment rate rose by 2.3% from 2009/10 to 2010/11 and then dropped by 2.7% the following year.

Table 4

Elementary level: Gross and Net enrolment ratio by year and sex 2009/10-2011/12

	GER		NER
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
2009/10	69.50	62.30	66.10	51.40	47.60	49.60
2010/11	97.30	86.70	92.30	73.10	67.50	70.40
2011/12	104.20	93.00	99.00	79.70	73.40	76.80

25.The net enrolment rate of females in the elementary level showed a steady rise during the four year period from 2009/10 to 2011/12 academic year. Female net enrolment ratio grew by 21.4% during the three year period in review. The increment is encouraging though there is still a 6.3% disparity of net enrolment ratio in favour of males.

Table 5

Middle level: Net enrolment ratio by year and sex 2009/2011/12

	GER		NER
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
2009/10	52.40	44.40	48.50	30.00	28.00	29.20
2010/11	66.72	56.23	61.62	33.10	30.80	32.00
2011/12	72.30	62.10	67.30	39.70	36.80	38.30

26.The overall net enrolment rate grew by 4.6% from 2009/10 to 2011/12. The net enrolment ratio also increased by 1.2% during the same period. Whereas the net enrolment ratio of males grew by 0.6% the net enrolment ratio of females grew by 1.8%. Due to the above, the net enrolment ration gap between males and females narrowed down from 4.1% in 2009/10 to 2.9% in 2011/12.

Table 6

Secondary level: Net enrolment ratio by year and sex 2009/2011/12

	GER		NER
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
2009/10	27.00	19.60	23.40	17.70	13.60	15.70
2010/11	39.51	29.51	34.52	27.95	22.42	25.19
2011/12	36.30	27.00	31.70	24.40	19.80	22.10

27.The Net enrolment ratio of females in the secondary level of education grew from 13.4% in 2008/09 to 22.4% in 2010/11, but declined to 19.8% in 2011/12. The disparity between males and females remains almost constant at about 5.5%. Note that the number of male and female net enrolment decreased in 2011/12 compared to the preceding academic year.

28.The overall net enrolment figures and net enrolment ratio during the three years period went up and down. This applied both for males and females. The net enrolment ratio difference between males and females in the secondary school narrowed down from 6.5% to 4.6% during the three year period under consideration.

Table 7

Participation Rate in Technical and Vocational Education by sex and year

Advanced/Intermediate
Year	F	Total	Female %
2009/10	591	1 304	45.3
2010/11	713	1 992	36.6
2011/12	1 128	2 520	44.8

29.The participation of females in the vocational and technical schools has shown improvements reaching 44.8% in 2011/2012.

30.Although there is female and male participation in all fields of studies in the National Vocational Training Centre, there are certain trades such as accounting, material management, soil and water conservation and plant science where females are dominant. On the other hand, males dominate in other fields, including building construction, drafting, electricity, carpentry, plumbing, and heavy duty machinery operations. The overall enrolment of females in the National Vocational Training Centre during 2009/2012 academic year was 43%.

Special Needs Education

Table 8

Special Needs Education Enrolment by Sex & Year

	School
	School for the Blind		School for the Deaf
Academic Year	Total	Female	Female %	Total	Female	Female %
2009/10	54	12	22.2	175	63	36
2010/11	48	11	22.9	136	69	50.7
2011/12	52	15	28.8	124	61	49.2

31.Whereas the female enrolment in the school for the blind remains very low the female enrolment ratio in the school for the deaf has reached almost the stage of parity with that of the males. The participation of females in the school for the blind is stuck at close to one fourth ratio.

Adult Education

Table 9

Adult Literacy: Enrolment & Completion by Sex & Year

	Participants Enrolled		Participants Completed	Female % Completed
Academic Year	Female	Male	Total	Female	Male	Total
2008/09	42 749	4 081	46 830	33 087	2 750	35 837	92.3
2009/10	36 639	3 550	40 189	28 736	2 661	31 397	91.5
2010/11	40 828	5 297	46 125	31 292	3 793	35 085	89.2
2011/12	47 449	4 255	51 704	37 043	2 737	39 780	93.1

32.The overall enrolment in the adult literacy programme has generally fallen during the reporting period due to the increment of literate population. It is encouraging that the female enrolment and completion ratios have persistently been above 90% with males comprising about 10%. In this programme female by far excel male participation, thereby compensating the disadvantage in the formal/regular education.

33.The literacy rate is much higher for younger women than older women. In 2010 about 77% of women age 15-19 years were literate compared with about 90% of men with the same age to be literate. For women age 45-49 years the literacy rate was about 30% while for men of the same age it was about 64% [NSO, 2010]. Younger women and men are more likely to be literate and to reach higher levels of education than older women while the percent of men that are literate is higher than women. Adult education programs have focused on the elimination of illiteracy and it is found that an increasing number of women are participants in the program.

Table 10Adult Education programs (Continuing Education & Rehabilitation Centers)

	Enrolled		Completed
Academic Year	Female	Total	Female % of total	Female	Total	Female % of total
2009/10	1 111	2 626	42.3	979	2 190	44.7
2010/11	2 425	5 989	40.5	1 934	3 977	48.6
2011/12	1 742	5 803	30.0	1 425	4 448	32.0

34.The number of females and males enrolled in the continuing education programme for adults has generally increased. The absolute number of those completing the programme has also steadily increased during the past three years. Unlike in the adult literacy programme, the female enrolment and completion ratio fluctuated and remained below that of the male.

Table 11

Enrolment at Eritrean Institute of Technology (EIT) by sex

	Education		Engineering		Science
Year	Total	F	F%	Total	F	%F	Total	F	% F
2009/10	528	233	44.1	2 262	349	15.4	1 094	370	33.8
2010/11	1 569	421	26.8	2 544	459	18.0	1 677	700	41.7
2011/12	980	247	25.2	2 681	492	18.4	1 694	697	41.1

35.The number of males and females enrolling at the Eritrean Institute of Technology (EIT) has been increasing. The percent of females enrolled in the engineering faculty has been generally on a pattern of steady rise, while of the faculty of education is generally in a declining trend. The enrolment rate of females in the sciences goes up and down.

Table 12

Enrolment at the College of Marine Sciences and Technology

		Female
Year	Total	Number	%
2009/10	550	73	13.3
2010/11	641	90	14.0
2011/12	580	102	17.6

36.The female participation in the College of Marine Sciences and Technology grew in absolute and relative terms during the past four years (between 2009/10 and 2012/13).

Table 13

Enrolment at College of Agriculture by sex

		Female
Year	Total	Number	%
2009/10	1 142	366	32.0
2010/11	1 377	434	31.5
2011/12	1 574	584	37.1

37.The enrolment rate of females at the College of Agriculture has gradually attained 38.4% from as low as 32% four years ago.

Table 14

Enrolment at College of Business and Economics by sex

		Female
Year	Total	Number	%
2009/10	1 439	412	28.6
2010/11	1 226	369	30.1
2011/12	1 389	459	33.0

38.Likewise, the enrolment of females in the college of Business and Economics is gradually but steadily rising.

Table 15

Enrolment at Collage of Arts and Social science (Adi Keih) by sex

		Female
Year	Total	Number	%
2009/10	658	150	22.8
2010/11	774	203	26.2
2011/12	740	184	24.9

39.Female enrolment in the College of Arts and Social Sciences rose from 22.8% in 2009/10 to 40.5% in 2011/12.

Table 16

Enrolment at Orotta School of Medicine

		Female
Year	Total	Number	%
2009/10	259	57	22.0
2010/11	302	73	24.2
2011/12	320	83	25.9

40.The enrolment of females at the Orotta School of Medicine showed a small but steady growth during the past four years (2009/10 to 2011/12).

Table 17

Enrolment at college of Health Sciences

		Female
Year	Total	Number	%
2009/10	1 158	317	27.4
2010/11	1 259	401	31.9
2011/12	1 394	497	35.7

41.Enrolment ratio of females at the college of Health Sciences rose from 27.4% to 35.7% in the course of the past three years. The rapid positive trend of female participation in the diverse health sciences which includes degrees in pharmacy, medical laboratory, nursing, anaesthesia, radiology, etc. is quite encouraging.

Article 11: Employment

42.The Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare, in collaboration with the private and public sectors, strives to reduce and eliminate unemployment in Eritrea and to create sustainable livelihoods for the socially disadvantaged by, inter alia, creating job opportunities for the most vulnerable people, with special attention being given to persons with disabilities, disadvantaged women with a particular weight to martyrs family.

43.During the reporting period, the Ministry made efforts to find job placements for job seekers in the various economic and social sectors. The Ministry provided trainings and micro credit supports to the economically disadvantaged women with the aim of assisting them to attain self-employment and generate incomes.

44.As shown in table 24 below, from 2010 up to 2012, the Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare in collaborations with the International Labour Organization (ILO), Ministry of Trade and Industry, UNICEF and the Global Fund, has provided training for disadvantaged 259 women, i.e., in weaving (239), in ceramics (02), in fish net making and mending (18) to enhance women.

T able 18

Skill training provided to women by the Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare and National Union of Eritrean Women

Type of training	MOLHW	NUEW	Total
Weaving	239	563	802
Ceramics	20	15	35
Hand crafts	na	1 760	1 760
Total	259	2 338	2 597

Source: Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare.

45.Besides to the training given by the MOLHW, there are various short and medium term trainings given by the local governments and ministries. These include the manufacturing of firewood conserving ovens, weaving and agriculture.

Female and Male Labour Force Participation

46.Efforts have been underway to study the participation of male and female labour forces in the various sectors of the country’s economy. But this has not yet been easy, as there has not been a population census and employment registrations. The majority of the labour force is engaged in the rural agricultural sector and the informal sector. Hence this makes it difficult to get an accurate sex disaggregated data.

47.The following table 25 provides an estimate of the labour force in the formal sector establishments. Females constituted 45.7% of the labour force in establishments during 2012. However, it has to be noted that the majority of female workers are in the non-skilled and low-paying types of jobs.

Table 19

Employment ratio by year

	Per cent
Year	Males	Females
2009
201 0
2011	55.0	45.0
2012	54.3	45.7

S ource: Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare.

48.The employment ratio of women is slowly moving towards parity with that of males. There are growing numbers of women getting out of their home stead working in various commercial and industrial establishments.

Table 20

Percentage of women in the labour force by age

	Age in years
Sex	18-25	26-39	40-59	60 plus
Male	44.5	46.7	60.2	90
Female	55.5	53.3	38.8	10
Total	100	100	100	100

49.The high female ratio in the lower age bracket (18-25 years) signifies a big number of female new entrants into the employment market. The proportion of women is lower in the advanced age group showing that men have longer been in employment than women. The proportion of women employees in the above 60 years of age is very low.

Female and male unemployment rates

50.As depicted in Table 21, out of the total registered job seekers (2009-2012), females have the highest share with 59.3% and males 40.7%. On the other hand, out of the total placed job-seekers, the share of females was lower, accounting to only 44.9%.

Table 21

Registered and placed job seekers by sex and year

	Registered Job Seekers 2009-2013
Sex	2009	2010	2011	2012	Count	Per cent
Male	1 386	950	894	748	3 978	40.7
Female	2 420	1 192	1 203	993	5 808	59.3
Total	5 815	4 152	4 108	3 753	9 786	100
	Placed Job Seekers
Male	667	408	830	348	2 253	55.1
Female	382	330	673	404	1 789	44.9
Total	1 049	738	1 503	752	4 042	100

Source: Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare.

Percentage of women of overseas migrant workers

51.The data from the Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare indicates in the four years period (2009-2012), a total of only 2646 labour force migrated officially to work abroad. Out of this total migrant labour force, women constituted 74.6%. Relatively speaking, the average annual labour out migration of 520 male and female workers is statistically insignificant.

Percentage of women and men workers in Trade Unions

52.The National Confederation of Eritrean Workers (NCEW) has 21,245 workers registered members. Out of this, 12,669 (59.6%) are men workers and 8,576 (40.4%) are women workers. Union membership of all men and women workers in general has risen by 24.6% in 2012 compared to 2005.

Gender Based violence

53.All forms of violence are condemnable act by the society and there is sensitization campaign to address it wherever it takes place. No gender-based workplace violence was reported during the period under consideration. However, this cannot be assumed that there is no sexual harassment or sex motivated abuse in work places.

Article 12: Health

54.As in education, the delivery of both preventive and curative health services has broadened in coverage and improved in quality. The health of the general public has witnessed unprecedented advancement due to the improvement in the standard of living conditions and quality of social services being provided.

55.The various health quantitative indicators depict that the country has made extraordinary progress in the elimination or prevention of mortality and morbidity resulting from communicable diseases such as malaria, polio, measles, etc. The outbreak of any epidemic disease has become a history of the past.

56.Besides the general provision of health services to the public at large, the Ministry of Health has given special attention to the health and welfare of mother and children. As shown in the following table, various mother and child health programmes have been put in place and delivering impressive results.

Quantitative Indicators

Table 22

ANCE Coverage 2010-2012

Year	Number	Percentage
2010	85 718	57.2
2011	90 904	59.0
2012	83 199	52.6
2013	91 178	58.0

57.The ANCE coverage during the past four years stood at close to 60%. Considering the geographic barriers and levels of economic development of the diverse regions and ethnic groups in the country, this ANCE coverage is an achievement.

Table 23

Family Planning visit 2009 - 2012

	Year
	2010		2011		2012
Activity	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
New visit	36 019	4.8	26 759	3.5	27 081	3.4
Re-visit	49 738		52 214		53 802
Total	85 757		78 973		80 883

58.As shown in table 31 the new family planning visits have been consistently dropping during the past four years (2009-2012). The combined new visits and revisits stood at around 80,000.

59.Table 24 depicts that the post partum care in the health facilities showed drastic rise from 2009 to, 2012 and maintained at about 65% during 2009/ 2012. Conversely, the rate of 6 hours postpartum care at home remained at 10% and below. On the other hand, the rate of the 6 days at home postpartum care was irregular in pattern during the four years. Generally, the picture indicates that the delivery of children in health facilities has steadily grown while there are less and less women delivering at home.

Table 24

Postpartum care 2010-2012

	Year
	2010		2011		2012
Activity	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
PPC 6 hrs at h ealth facility	1 427	4.4	22 077	60.6	24 258	65.2
PPC 6 days at health facility	317	1.0	3 422	9.4	3 359	9.0
PPC 6 hrs at home	76	0.2	2 842	7.8	3 767	10.1
PPC 6 days at home	605	18.5	10 475	28.8	11 877	32

Table 25

National delivery service coverage 2010-2012

	Year
	2010		2011		2012
Activity	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Total delivery	32 074	28.5	36 901	31.5	37 912	31
Live births	31 851	99.3	35 880	97.2	56 853	97.2
Fresh still births	199	0.6	596	1.6	582	1.6
Macerated still births	24	0.07	425	1.2	477	1.3
Total fresh and macerated	223	0.67	1 021	2.8	1 059	2.9
LBW	2 476	7.7	2 637	7.2	2 747	7.4
Total C/S	1 851	4.8	2 187	3.5	2 256	3.4
Maternal death at health facilities	60	0.19	58	0.16	60	0.16
Neonatal deaths at health facilities	111	0.4	126	0.4	215	0.6

60.Table 25 gives the status of the deliveries in the health facilities. The absolute number and percentage of deliveries taking place in health facilities at a national level has been constantly rising, showing an increase by 8,766 deliveries in 2012 compared to 2010.

61.Concerning live and still births, the table shows that the rate of combined fresh and macerated still births has been growing during the four year period (from as low as 0.67% in 2010 to as high as 3.3% in 2012). Fresh still births account for the majority of the still births in the health facilities.

62.Maternal mortality rate in health facilities has had a declining trend during the fours period (decline from 0.19% in 2010 to 0.15% in 2012). Neonatal mortalities at health facilities has also decreased, except for the year 2012 which showed an almost doubling of the cases compared to the years before and after.

Table 26

Women in the health profession 2012

S.N	Position	Number Of Staff Members	% Female
Female	Male	Total
1	Minister	1	0	1	100
2	DG	0	2	2	0
3	Director	3	14	17	17.6
4	Unit Head	9	47	56	16.1
5	Specialists	11	42	53	20.8
6	Doctors	18	90	108	16.7
7	Technicians (Diploma Level)	152	409	561	27.1
8	BSc (CLS, PHO, Pharmacy)	60	255	315	19
9	Nurses (Diploma And Degree)	561	755	1 316	42.6
10	Associate Nurse	1 948	1 053	3 001	64.9
	Total	2 763	2 667	5 430	50.9

Women participate at all levels of the health profession, except as Director General. The Minister of Health is a female and women constitute 50.9% of the total staff in the ministry. Yet table 26 shows that the majority of female employees are in the nursing profession, accounting for 90.8% of the total number of women in the ministry. The representation of women as doctors stands at 16.7% and of the specialists at 20.8%.

63.The government has been making relentless efforts at improving the quality and access to health services by the citizens throughout the country. Besides the expansion of the health service giving facilities, the work force engaged in the health sector has been growing annually. This is done by the production of the various professionals domestically and by hiring expatriate professionals from abroad.

64.The top most three causes of infant mortality (under 1 year) in 2010 were severe pneumonia, septicaemia and malnutrition. In 2013, severe pneumonia and septicaemia continued to be the leading two causes and neonatal sepsis taking the third place.

65.Nonetheless, except for the intermittent changes in ranking of some causes from one year to the other, the ten leading causes of mortality among under one year children in health facilities remained the same, namely severe pneumonia, septicaemia, neonatal sepsis, diarrhoea and dehydration, malnutrition, low weight at birth and intrauterine hypoxia/asphyxia.

66.In 2010 severe pneumonia and septicaemia accounted for 43% of the deaths of under 1 year old children. The same two diseases accounted for 36.2% deaths in 2012. Generally speaking, the number of deaths in under 1 year old children was lower in 2012 than in 2010.

67.In the under 5 year old children, severe pneumonia and malnutrition were the top two causes of deaths both in 2010 and 2012. In both years both the causes accounted for 30% of the deaths in the under five year old.

68.The other causes of death in the under five year old were marasmus, diarrhoea and kwashiorkor. Unlike the death in the under one year, malnutrition related diseases are dominant in the under five year old death.

69.The overall prevalence of the different methods of contraceptives indicates a downward trend from 2010 to 2012. Compared with 2010, there was a drop by 44.5% in the prevalence of contraceptives in 2012.

70.The most significant drop in the prevalence of contraceptives was seen in the male condoms. The prevalence in male condoms consistently dropped from as high as 15,136 in the year 2010 to as low as 5,858 in 2012. On the other hand, the use of injection is on the high side. The reason for this trend is not explicable, but it may be due to an attitude of relaxation emanating from the decline in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country.

71.According to the Eritrea Population and Health Survey (EPHS 2010) the use of any means of contraceptive among all women age 15-49 was 5.5%, with 4.7% using modern methods. The use of any contraceptive method amongst married women was 8.0%. Nearly one third (31.6%) of sexually active unmarried women use some form of contraceptive methods.

Table 27

Prevalence Distribution of cancer among women by type of cancer

Subject	2010	2011	2012	Total
Malignant Neoplasm of breast	232	235	219	686
Malignant Neoplasm of cervix uteri	94	108	111	313
Malignant Neoplasm of other uterus parts	45	32	16	93
Benign neoplasm of breast	174	164	161	499
Leiomyoma of uterus	522	699	631	1 852

72.Malignant neoplasm of breast was the dominant type of cancer in women throughout the period 2010-2012. Second in rank was malignant neoplasm of cervix, followed by malignant neoplasm of other uterus parts and leiomyoma of uterus respectively. The total annual prevalence of cancer among women during the stated period has been declining, with the lowest recorded cases of 352 in 2012. The Ministry of Health is actively engaged to curtail this deadly disease and is in the process of establishing a Cancer Treatment Center in the country.

Table 28

Abortion related cases

Subject	2010	2011	2012	Total
Spontaneous abortion non - complicated	1 077	1 328	1 233	3 638
Threatened abortion	1 615	1 629	1 342	1 342
Spontaneous complicated Abortion with infection	2 806	3 179	2 968	2 968
Abortion care who receive contraceptive	5	278	325	608
Medical abortion	93	35	36	164
Other pregnancy with abortive outcome	793	740	532	2 065
Total	8 399	9 200	8 448	26 047

73.As shown in table 39, the annual abortion related cases in the health services has also been declining, especially since 2011. The biggest type of abortion throughout the period was spontaneous complicated abortion with infection, followed by threatened abortion.

74.As has been previously reported, abortion is not permissible under the Eritrean laws, except for justified health reasons, incest, rape and underage pregnancy. Therefore, the above cases were medical cases that attended the health facilities.

Table 29

Prevalence rate of HIV & STI in ANC Sentinel Site Surveillance Survey Eritrea

Years	HIV/AIDS	STIs
2009	1.31	0.62
2010	0	0
2011	0.89	0.24
2012	0	0

Source: ANC Sentinel Site Surveillance Survey, 2007, 2009, 2011.

Note that the prevalence rate is evaluated every two years.

75.The prevalence rate of HIV/AID in Eritrea has fallen from 1.31% in 2009 to 0.89% in 2011. Since the HIV/AID prevalence is evaluated every two years, it must have further declined by 2013. But as indicated above, the evaluation process has not been completed. The overall progress made in reducing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Eritrea is gratifying.

76.As for the sexually transmitted infections (STI), the annual cases stand between 4000 and 5000. It has not shown any trend either way. But, still the prevailing number is manageable and efforts are being exerted to erase it, if not to reduce it to the bare minimum level.

Table 30

HIV positivity rate in Pregnant women attending ANC

Years	Pregnant women tested for HIV	Number HIV positive	Per cent HIV/AIDS positive
2009	48 437	320	0.66
2010	52 205	318	0.61
2011	66 986	295	0.44
2012	61 874	297	0.48

Source: National AIDS Control Program Reports.

77.HIV positivity rate in pregnant women remained below 1% over the last 5 years. Those who were found to be positive are receiving ART regardless of CD4 count free of charge in order to eliminate Maternal HIV transmission. This is quite encouraging and attests to the steady campaign being waged by the government against the epidemic. Out of more than 60,000 pregnant women tested for HIV annually, only around 300 cases are found HIV positive.

Table 31

HIV positivity rate in VCT Attendees

Years	Total visits to VCT	HIV/ AIDS positive	Percentage
2009	86 285	1 941	2.25%
2010	73 685	1 488	2.02%
2011	77 008	1 353	1 . 77%
2012	76 292	1 060	1.39%

Source: National AIDS Control Program Reports.

78.Here again we notice that the visits to the VCT has generally increased during the reporting period. The prevalence rate of HIV positivity rates among those who tested fell from 2.02% in 2009 to 1.39% (under 1%) in 2012, the trend is consistently on the decline. The achievement in the combat against HIV/AIDS is great.

Female Circumcision

79.The findings of the EPHS 2010 show that 91% of the Eritrean women have heard of the proclamation prohibiting female circumcision. 77% of Eritrean women and 82% of men believe that there is no benefit from female circumcision.

80.The practice of FGM is believed to have drastically declined in recent years. In 2002, 9 out of 10 women (89%) have been circumcised which slightly declined compared to 95% in 1995. In 2010 the prevalence of female circumcision among the young women age 15-19 was around 68.8% while 93.1% of those women aged 45-49 were circumcised which shows that overtime there is a decline in FGM prevalence rate among the young girl population.

81.The percentage of women that have heard about FGM proclamation is slightly lower among the young aged 15-19 which is 86.3% while it is above 90% for all women aged 20-49 years. The percent of women that reported activities against circumcision in the area is higher for women 45-49 years of age (64.6%) while it was lower for the young girls aged 15-19 years (51.3%)

82.The Anti FGM Campaigns by NUEW and other partners which culminated in 2007 in the enactment of law banning FGM and in the introduction of innovative mechanism to enforce the government’s proclamation. A community based enforcement committee has in the last four years took 144 perpetuators to court.

83.By far the largest health service providing organization in the country is the Ministry of Health (MOH) accounting for 87.8 of all the health professionals. Private organizations rank second with 5%, followed by the ECS and IND, respectively scoring 3.2% and 2.3%.

84.There are a total of 143 qualified medical and surgical doctors. Taking an estimated population figure of 3.2 million, on the average there is one doctor for every 22,377 people. Despite rapid improvements this is still a big burden. The Government has earnestly been working in building the capacity in local institutions whereby medical doctors are educated to meet the country’s needs. At the end of 2012 alone some 56 medical doctors graduated from the Orotta School of Medicine in Asmara. The College of Health Science is engaged in the production of the various health professionals.

Article 13: Economic and Social Life

85.The Government of the State of Eritrea refers to its presentation in the previous reports on matters concerning the constitutional, policy and legal rights accorded to women in economic and social life as part of the overall strategy to alleviate poverty of women. Thus progress made in the pertinent subjects of this Article will only be provided in this report.

86.The provision of credit by the Saving and Micro Credit Programme implemented by the government in the six administrative regions gives special focus to assist women to establish small and medium enterprises and thus improve their economic conditions and that of their families. The participation of women in the scheme has been encouraging.

87.Besides there are other micro credit programmes implemented by various institutions, and these are specifically targeting women. This includes the programme of the NUEW, the Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare (MoLHW), the National Confederation of Eritrean Workers (NCEW) and some local governments in some regions. Table 32 provides an instance of such programmes in the Southern administrative region.

Table 32

Southern Zone Saving and Microcredit Scheme

Year	Female clients	Male clients	Total c lients	Female % of total
2010	14 642	10 535	25 177	58.1
2011	12 717	8 910	21 627	58.8
2012	12 448	8 531	20 979	59.3
Total	52 435	36 466	88 901	59.0

88.As table 45 shows the majority of the beneficiaries of the saving and microcredit scheme in the Southern region are women. Their rate of participation has been growing during the past four years.

Recreational Activities

89.The participation of females in sports and other recreational cultural activities has been progressively on the rise. There is no sports activity in which females do not actively take part. Women do not only participate in all sports activities, but they are also represented in the senior management bodies such as federations and committees. Table 46 shows the participation of females in the Eritrean national football federation.

90.Each sports federation has seven executive officers and one seat is reserved for females, while they can also compete in the remaining six seats. Moreover, there is a women’s committee seated in the national sports commission. The purpose is to study and encourage women’s participation in sports activities. There is also a women member in the Olympic Committee.

91.Table 33 below shows the participation of women in the various teams of sports. Whereas as the overwhelming majority participate in football which is the most popular sport in the country, they are actually taking part in all sports without exception. A few years ago, this was unthinkable, and attests to the fact that women are making progress in all spheres of life.

Table 33

Women’s participation in various sports activities

No.	Type of sports	Number of females	Total	% Female
1.	Football	7 580	47 754	15.9%
2.	Athletics	250	1 325	18.9%
3.	Cycling	254	1 778	14.3%
4 .	Basketball	200	940	21.3%
5 .	Volleyball	205	1 148	17.9%
6.	Ground tennis	50	310	16.1%
7.	Badminton	190	585	48.1%
8.	Table tennis	300	2 175	13.8%
	Total	9 029	56 015	16.1%

Fine Arts

92.Although data on women’s participation in the different fine arts activities is scattered and scanty, women are taking part in all fields of fine arts. These fields include handicrafts, designing of dress, music, drama, painting, film making and directing.

Article 14: Women in Rural Areas

93.The livelihood of women in the rural areas is constantly improving due to several interventions taking place across the country. Traditionally, rural women were socially and economically disadvantaged and forced to endure dreadful lives. The roads, health services, education, water supply, electric supply, flour mills and other basic services being established extensively in all geographic areas is bringing drastic changes in the quality of life of rural women and their families.

94.The Credit facilities provided by the various institutions already mentioned above are empowering women economically and socially. They are venturing out of the routine reproductive engagements into participating in diverse economic activities including trade, horticulture, dairy farming, animal fattening, and many other small enterprises. It has to be known that the majority of credit schemes target rural women.

95.The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) has, during the past four years (2009-2012), been extensively training women in the construction of energy efficient stoves. Some 39,709 rural women were trained in the techniques of building their fuel saving stoves. The construction of the stoves is contributing to lesser time and energy spent by women to fetch firewood, improving their health by reducing their exposure to smoke and reducing the environmental degradation.

96.Besides, the MOA has provided rural women with trainings in crop production, horticulture, soil and water conservation, livestock rearing and home economics so as to help them better manage their agriculture and domestic activities. Women farmers’ cooperatives in horticulture production are springing up in many villages.

Table 34

Rural women trained in various skills vis-à-vis male

No .	Type of training	2010	2011	2012	Total
1.	Making of Energy Saving Smokeless Stove (Adhanet)	10 484	7 017	10 708	28 209
2.	Crop Production & Protection	921	254	459	1 634
3.	Horticulture	102	152	105	359
4.	Soil and Water Conservation	350	461	670	1 481
5.	Live-Stock	1 241	713	320	2 274
6.	Home economics	459	395	450	1 304
7.	Total	15 567	11 003	14 724	35 361

Source: MOA report, 2013.

Table 35

MOA employees by sex and academic qualification

SN	Academic qualification	Total	Female	Female %
1.	PhD	1	0	0.00
2.	MSc	55	2	3.64
3.	DVM	11	1	9.09
4.	BA/BSc	553	55	9.95
5.	Diploma	964	239	24.79
6.	Certificate	2 351	1 180	50.19
	Total	3 935	1 477	37.5

As table 35 shows, women form 37.5% of the overall employees of the MOA. However, the majority of the women employees in the MOA are in the lower echelons of academic qualifications, namely certificate and below. The higher qualifications are still dominated by males.

Table 36

Training for MoA staff by sex

				2010		2011		2012
No .	Type of training	2009	M	F	M	F	M	F
1.	Animal Resource		195	72	NA	NA	1	0
2.	Plant Science		189	33	NA	NA	1	32
3.	Natural Resource Mgt		260	76	NA	NA	1	23
4.	Extension service		78	19	NA	NA	0	0
5.	Community Devt.		0	0	NA	NA	0	0
6.	Admin. & Fina.		35	4	NA	NA	39	60
7.	Total		757	204	NA	NA	42	115
8.	%			21.2				73.2

97.The MOA has also been providing training to its employees in order to upgrade their competence in the profession. As table 50 indicates, there is a growing attention that the ministry is providing to upgrade the skills of its female staff. From as low as 21.2% ration in 2010, the enrolment of female staff in trainings rose to 73.2% in 2012. Since the available data is intermittent, however, the sustainability of this level of participation of females in training is questionable.

Water Supply

98.According tom EPHS 2010, the rural piped public tap usage has doubled since EDHS 2002. More than one-third of households in rural areas have access to public tap wells and 23% use surface water. Overall, nearly six in ten of the households in Eritrea have access to improved water source with corresponding figures for urban and rural areas of 73 and 50 percent, respectively.

In 2012, access to clean water supply in rural areas is 71% compared to 88.8% in urban areas. This shows that due to the high attention given by the government to the development of the rural areas, the supply of clean and safe water in rural areas is close to that of the urban centres. This has significantly contributed to the improvement of the health of the rural population.

Access to Household Solar Light

99.The Ministry of Energy and Mines (MOEM) has been striving to promote the use of renewable energy in Eritrea. It has been engaged in expanding the ongoing initiatives of establishing solar and wind energy for various household purposes, including lighting, and pumping of water.

100.The Ministry of Energy and Mines in collaboration with local and international partners erected and distributed some 91,000 less smoke emitting energy efficient stoves in the rural areas of Eritrea during 2009 and 2012. This is not only contributing to the improved living conditions of the rural women, but also improving the health and wellbeing of the entire households. The distribution of this oven has had big impacts in the reduction of bio-mass fuel consumption and conservation of the heavily degraded vegetation cover of the country.

Rural Women and Access to Land

Table 37

Land distributed to male and female heads of households 2009-2012

S. No .	Land category	Females	Males	Total	Female %
1.	Housing land (tiesa)	5 320	10 540	15 860	33.5
2.	Commercial agriculture	75	376	451	16.6
3.	Commercial enterprises	305	1 068	1 373	28.6
	Total	5 700	11 984	17 684	32.2

101.Women heads of households have 32.2% access to land distributed for various purposes during the four years period. Comparatively speaking the lowest rate in terms of accessing land by women was for commercial agriculture purposes. This is dependent on the entrepreneur capacity of women to invest in commercial agriculture.

Support to Orphans

Table 38

Number of Orphans and Host Families Supported by IGA

	No . of Orphans reunited with host families		No . of host families assisted by IGA	Amount of ERN disbursed
Year	Female	Male	Total	Female	Male	Total
2010	755	838	1 593	425	139	564	11 341 302.00
2011	288	327	615	162	60	222	4 420 150.00
2012	635	680	1 315	396	46	442	9 117 750.00
Total	1 678	1 845	3 523	983	245	1 228	24 879 202 .00

Source: MOLHW.

102.The Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare (MOLHW) which is the responsible government institution for the welfare and social security of the Eritrean people has been implementing several programmes directed at supporting the disadvantaged sections such as the orphans and the disabled. In its efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate the orphans, the Ministry has fully supported 5,426 orphans to be united with host families during the past four years (2009-2012). Out of this, 48.3% (2,621 orphans) are females. The majority of the host families (79.5%) that were assisted were female headed families.

Table 39

No. of Disadvantaged and Street Children Supported with School Materials by Sex

	No . of disadvantaged and street children supported
Year	Female	Male	Total
2010	1 785	1 886	3 671
2011	1 778	2 021	3 799
2012	1 711	2 022	3 733
Total	5 274	5 929	11 203

Source: MOLHW.

103.Along the same humanitarian responsibilities, the MOLHW enabled on the average some 3,650 disadvantaged and street children to pursue their education through the provision of school materials. Table 40 shows that 47.0% of the disadvantaged children assisted by the ministry with the provision of educational materials were females.

Table 40

Disadvantaged and Street Children given Cash for School Uniforms and Reference Books

	No . of children assisted
Year	Female	Male	Total	Expenses in ERN
2010	1 374	2 038	3 412	1 018 960.00
2011	2 828	3 110	5 938	1 728 870.00
2 012	1 388	1 642	3 030	999 900.00
Total	5 590	6 790	12 380	3 747 730 .00

Source: MOLHW.

104.In addition to the provision of in-kind school materials, the MOLHW has been supporting disadvantaged children with the provision of cash assistance to enable them buy school uniforms and text books.

105.The MOLHW encourages the participation of the communities in all aspects of the welfare programmes and operates its programmes in collaboration with community based volunteer agents. They are mainly based in the rural areas. There are 2,749 volunteers out of which 26.1% are female.

106.The MOLHW fully supports 5457 persons with diverse disabilities through either the provision of cash living allowance or catering in institutionalized centres. About 83.5% (4,557) of the assisted persons with disabilities are females.

Table 41

Disabled Persons Provided with Orthopedic Appliances

	Sex
Year	Female	Male	Total
2010	341	1 719	2 060
2011	591	1 100	1 691
2012	630	1 020	1 650
Total	1 562	3 839	5 401

Source: MOLHW, 2014.

107.In order to enhance the mobility of the disabled persons, the ministry runs orthopedic workshops where appliances and prosthesis are manufactured and freely granted to those in need. Besides, the Ministry also imports wheel chairs, crutches and other supportive materials. As table 41 shows 70.6% of the beneficiaries were females.

108.In order to assist the diverse disadvantaged groups of the population to become economically self-supporting, the MOLHW has been issuing loans for investment in small and medium enterprises. In the course of the last four years (2009-2012), the ministry gave ERN 137.5 million in the form of loans/credit. Women beneficiaries of the loan constituted 24.2%.

Article 15: Legal capacity in civil matters

109.The Government of the State of Eritrea refers to its previous submission concerning the equal legal rights provided to females and males. Women have the capacity to defend themselves in civil and criminal matters.

110.There was 302 cases in the last four years that women were capable of filing charges or complaints in courts against sexual assaults they encountered during 2009-2012. The cases brought to the court included rape, sexual outrage and seduction, adultery and bigamy. The biggest case by type was bigamy. Around 4,000 women visited NUEW counselling office for advice on family legal issues, such as alimony and children maintenance.