Sources: EPM 2005, EPM 2010 and ENSOMD 2012-2013 and authors’ calculations.

72.For the 15-24 year age group, according to results of the 2005 and 2010 Periodic Household Survey (EPM), the proportion of individuals who can read and write and count has improved, irrespective of gender and zone. The results of the National MDG monitoring survey (ENSOMD), at the end of 2012, showed that the female literacy rate in the same age group is higher than that of men in the rural zone.

73.In the sphere of formal education, the MEN is promoting a number of activities in favour of girls: “Girls Education”, a scholarship system to enable vulnerable girls to attend school and to raise parents’ awareness with a view to abandoning traditional practices that obstruct schooling for girls.

74.According to the results of the recent national EFA evaluation, these actions have had positive effects on girls’ schooling:

•The inclusion of national projections of the three to five-year old population for 2013 reports a gross pre-school attendance rate of 13.2% — 13.3% for girls and 13% for boys, giving a girl/boy parity index of 1.02.

•Between school years 2009-2010 and 2012-2013, on average girls dropped out and repeated less than boys — 16.9% of girls dropped out of school, compared to 17.2% of boys; and 21% of girls repeated grades, compared to 23% of boys.

Table 2 Trend of the repetition and dropout rates by gender

	2002-2003	2005-2006	2009-2010	2012-2013
Repetition rate
Girl	34.8%	19.2%	19.0%	21.2%
Boy	37.2%	20.6%	21.3%	23.8%
Dropout rate
Girl	8.2%	22.4%	18.7%	16.2%
Boy	8.1%	22.4%	18.8%	16.6%

Source: DPE_MEN statistical yearbooks and authors calculations.

75.The table below records higher achievement rates among girls, compared to boys, from 2011 to 2014.

Table 3 Trend of the primary school achievement rate

	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014
Achievement rate (boys plus girls)	74.3	71.9	70.0	69.5
Achievement rate (girls)	74.3	72.3	70.7	70.4
Achievement rate (boys)	74.3	71.5	69.3	68.5

Source: DPE_MEN statistical year books.

Sexual violence and harassment in school and the incorporation of sexual and reproductive rights and health in school programmes

76.In the area of sexual violence and harassment, a school superintendent was prosecuted for harassment and rape of a female student in May 2015.

77.In the school domain, courses adapted to the children’s age are given on sexual and reproductive law and health.

Employment

Disparities in pay and social benefits

78.No study has been done to highlight pay gaps between women and men. The 2016 Population Census to be conducted by the National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) could remedy this shortcoming.

79.Obtaining social coverage in the informal sector remains a problem despite the initiative by the National Social Provident Fund to expand its actions in this regard in the informal sector.

Criminalization of sexual harassment at the workplace

80.Sexual harassment is punished by article 333 bis of the Penal Code. This article is applicable to harassment at the workplace.

81.The number of cases of sexual harassment at work is not available, because the victims are ashamed, and avoid reporting the harassment of which they are victims to the court.

82.The insufficient number of employment inspectors is a handicap in detecting cases of sexual harassment at the workplace.

83.The Legal Education Service in the Ministry of Justice is endeavouring to raise public awareness of the existence of the law against this offence, so that the victims can press charges.

Prevention of all forms of violence against women

84.The new anti-trafficking law covers the prevention of trafficking related to prostitution, and all contemporary forms of slavery, involving women migrants and girls employed as domestic servants.

85.The jurisdiction of Malagasy courts extends to the protection of the rights of female migrants.

Health

(a)Roadmap and budgetary funding

86.The roadmap for 2015-2019 will be put into effect by the Ministry of Health, with the contribution of its technical and financial partners.

(b)Health-care access for rural women

87.Improving access to basic health care and essential obstetric care, particularly for women living in rural zones and in remote areas, by:

•Scaling up the SONUB centres, providing basic maternal and neonatal health care, and emergency obstetric and neonatal care;

•Institutionalizing the audit of maternal deaths and obstetric complications, with a view to improving care quality, in all Malagasy health structures carrying out deliveries.

•The provision of local services has been prioritized through advanced and mobile strategies such as the holding of the Biannual Mother and Child Health Week (SSME), which aims to strengthen the supply and use of basic health services by means of an integrated package of services including vaccination, malaria prevention, ante-natal check-ups and family planning. The SSME provides free services whether on a fixed, advanced, or mobile basis. This has made it possible to strengthen and integrate effective strategies to reach targets in the most remote areas, representing 40% of the population.

•Implementation of the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa throughout national territory, in the period 2014-2015. This campaign aims to obtain a commitment from decision-makers, including authorities from the highest to grass-roots levels, to exercise their leadership capacity to mobilize all live forces at the national level.

•The implementation of community activities to strengthen the referral system and community awareness of mother and newborn health issues, ante-natal check-ups, delivery in a health centre, postnatal check-ups, home care of the woman and newborn baby.

•The implementation of local strategies through community networks providing benefits, and follow-up to development actions in the mother and newborn survival programme (CPN package).

(c)High teenage pregnancy rates

88.Measures adopted to reduce the high rate of teenage pregnancy:

•In 2012, a document providing political guidance in reproductive health was adopted by the government.

•Strengthening of awareness raising on young people’s reproductive health, through a joint multisector approach of the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Youth and Leisure and the Ministry of National Education;

•Expansion of youth-friendly health centres, with the aim of providing integrated services on family planning – Adolescent and Young People’s Reproductive Health (SRA), the Fight against Sexually Transmissible Diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS;

•Expansion of youth-friendly services where sociocultural activities are included in their integrated services on FP-SRA-STD-HIV/AIDS

(d)Cases of vesicovaginal fistula

89.Measures adopted to reduce obstetric fistula rates:

•Strengthening of surgeon capacity at the National Referral Centre for Obstetric Fistula (OF), and at the referral annexes surgical units in the country, for surgical repair of OF.

•Free surgical and psychosocial care for OF patients;

•Strengthening of community activities such as:

•Strengthening of community awareness on OF prevention;

•Strengthening of the referral system and community awareness-raising on mother and newborn health (antenatal check-ups, delivery at a health centre, postnatal check-ups, prevention and care in respect of obstetric fistula, home care for the mother and newborn.

Reform, sexual and reproductive education

•The draft Family Planning Law is still at the preparation stage.

•Chapter III of this draft law concerns access by children (all human beings under 18 years of age) to contraceptive methods and products.

(a)Sex education

90.Treated in point 11.

(b)Use of modern contraceptive methods.

•Contraceptive use increased from 18% in 2003 to 29% in 2008 (Source: Demographic and Health Surveys– EDS IV).

•Abortion is illegal in Madagascar

(c)Prevalence of unsafe abortion disaggregated by region and the economic status of the women

91.No study has been conducted to identify abortions practised in unsafe conditions. Consequently data on this are not available.

(d)Number of women serving prison sentences having been convicted for abortion

92.In Madagascar as a whole, four women are serving prison terms as a result of a conviction for abortion. This represents 0.02% of all convicted prison inmates.

(e)Discrimination, stigmatization of women living with HIV/AIDS and mother-child transmission of HIV/AIDS

•Law 2005-040 of 20 February 2006 on combating, and protecting the rights of persons living with, HIV/AIDS, targets discrimination and stigmatization of women living with AIDS, among other things;

•Improved access for pregnant women to primary HIV/AIDS prevention through the updating of HIV screening and counselling sites;

•Free HIV/AIDS tests during antenatal check-ups;

•Free care for pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS and the newborn of pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS.

Economic empowerment of women, rural women and climate change

Poverty reduction and participation by rural women in development policies

93.National legislation recognizes women’s right to own real estate, to inherit property and to manage wealth on the same terms as men.

94.To assist women to become economically independent, enabling them to escape from trafficking and sexual exploitation and also to be able to keep their daughters in school beyond the age of puberty, women’s associations and groupings have been equipped by UNDP as part of the implementation of the programme for increased participation by women, by improving the exercise of their civil and economic rights.

95.Many womens’ associations and groupings who are beneficiaries of this support in the south-east and middle-west region have been able to obtain training, credit and agricultural or other materials to enable them to improve their production and consequently raise their living standards.

96.In addition, Madagascar has a national strategy on risk and catastrophe management, and a national contingency plan, to enable it to respond adequately, including the consequences of catastrophes and climate change.

97.The implementation of this plan makes it possible to take account of the climate- change component of development.

98.With support from UNDP to combat poverty including that of rural women, the challenges to be addressed consist of:

•raising domestic resources for rural development;

•addressing the problem of access to water;

•strengthening farmers’ capacities;

•improving risk and natural-catastrophe management capabilities;

•putting social protection policy in place to support the most deprived and most vulnerable;

•improving rural security;

•opening up localities to promote trade and offer new opportunities to peasant farmers.

Disadvantaged women’s groups

99.The International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities promotes the rights of such persons, paying special attention to handicapped women and children.

100.Madagascar ratified the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities through Law 2014-0 31, authorizing ratification, and Decree 2015-687, ratifying the Convention.

101.The National Plan for Handicap Inclusion (PNIH) is conceived for the period 2015-2019, with the aim of increasing social participation by men, women and children with disabilities and ensuring their rights are upheld. This plan is a programming tool and a frame of reference for interventions in the sphere of disability, and aims to facilitate effective implementation of the aforementioned Convention.

102.The implementation of this plan contributes to greater autonomy for persons with disabilities, a reduction in dependence on their family members and the community; combating poverty, so that they contribute to the country’s economic and sociocultural development.

Marriage and family relations

Measures adopted and envisaged to disseminate and ensure the full implementation of Law No. 2007-022 of 20 August 2007 , relating to marriage and matrimonial regimes:

Measures adopted :

•Public legal awareness-raising and dissemination sessions, dealing specially with family law, including marriage, as well as access to justice, have been organized in numerous communities and fokontany, to which mayors and their deputies as well as the fokontany chiefs have been constantly invited and have attended.

•Guides for mayors and fokontany chiefs have been prepared.

•Brochures on marriage and family law generally have been distributed to the legal clinics and to the population during these sessions.

•Broadcasts on the subject have been disseminated many times on national radio on the weekly programme “Zo sy Lalàna”, produced by the Ministry of Justice.

Future measures :

•For better knowledge and application of this law, it is intended to increase the number of legal dissemination sessions.

•After the municipal elections, the newly elected mayors and their deputies will receive appropriate training on this law, to bring them up to the same level of knowledge and competence.

•Television broadcasts for legal awareness-raising and dissemination will be produced alongside the radio broadcasts.

•Partnership with other sectors, public or private, affected by this domain, will be developed.

Details on the legal provisions relating to the division of property upon divorce:

103.The regime governing the sharing of spousal property differs according to whether the spouses have chosen the customary justice regime or they have signed a contract specifying the effects that their marriage will have on their assets.

In the case of the customary justice regime :

104.In the customary justice regime, the principle is “50-50” sharing, or “zara-mira”. Nonetheless, a distinction needs to be made between personal assets which are the property of the spouses, whether movable or immovable, that they own at the date of the marriage, or those that they acquired during marriage, as a result of succession, donation, or will, and the common assets acquired during their life together. Because each spouse retains full ownership of his or her personal assets, and is free to dispose of them, the property of the union are administered jointly by the spouses. Each spouse may apply to the court to annul acts undertaken by the other spouse which exceed his or her rights. The annulment action is open to the other spouse for three months from the day on which cognisance was taken of the act in question. Nonetheless such action may not be filed more than one year after the dissolution of the marriage; and it may not prejudice the rights of third parties. If one of the spouses is unfit, incapable or prevented, or if he or she voluntarily abandons the life in common, the other spouse may apply to the court to exercise alone all part of the powers of administration, beneficial use, or disposal of the common assets. If later, this measure is no longer justified, the court may restore rights to the spouse who has been deprived of them.

In the case of a marriage contract :

105.If the spouses entered into a marriage contract, which is drafted in the form of a notarized deed or authenticated in the presence, and with the consent, of the spouses, before the marriage, but only takes effect on the date of the marriage, the assets will be divided as provided for in the contract.

Traditional marriages:

106.Traditional marriages can be registered with the Civil Status Officer, following the well-specified provisions contained in Law 2007-022. Nonetheless, before the accomplishment of the traditional ceremonies, the Fokontany Chief must remind the future spouses that bigamy is prohibited and punished by law. The accomplishment of the traditional ceremonies is verified by the Fokontany Chief attending in person, on the day and at the time agreed upon in advance with the families. Following the ceremonies, their completion is recorded in a minute. This minute, a copy of which is sent to the spouses, also contains a signature of the spouses, the witnesses, and the Fokontany Chief who attended the ceremony. If they do not know how to sign, this is mentioned. The minute serves as evidence, until proven false. The Fokontany Chief must send a copy to the competent Civil Status Officer within 12 days, subject to the penalties indicated in Article 473 of the Penal Code. The Officer immediately prepares a marriage certificate in the light of the minute and the items provided to him. In the event of opposition presented in regular and appropriate manner, under the terms of Article 14, the minute will not be authorized.

The right of women to access property inheritance:

107.Under current legislation, women have the same inheritance rights as men. Nonetheless, it is specified that joint inheritors may agree that female inheritors can receive their share of the inheritance in the form of money in the light of an estimated inventory of all the property to be divided, and which will be verified by an authentic or authenticated deed.

Measures adopted and envisaged:

•Public awareness-raising and legal dissemination meetings;

•Brochures on family law generally and inheritance specifically, have been distributed to the legal clinics and the population during these meetings;

•National radio programmes on the subject have often been broadcast on the weekly programme “Zo sy Lalàna”, produced by the Ministry of Justice.

108.The Ministry of Justice is currently working on reforms and amendments to family law legislation, including the Nationality Code and, in the future, Law 2007-0 22, to make them more consistent with the conventions ratified by Madagascar.

109.As noted above, like the other provisions on marriage, the spouses are reminded of the provision on polygamy at the time of their marriage and during the dissemination and awareness-raising meetings.

Optional Protocol to the Convention

110.Following the submission of Madagascar’s report as part of the Universal Periodic Review in 2014, the Government accepted nearly all of the recommendations made, including ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

111.A plan for implementing these recommendations has been put in place.

112.The plan includes ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention, and the process relating thereto is under way.