36.The Police Offices for GBV victims (GAV) are established in local Police Headquarters (Comandos), that exist in some cases at island level, in other cases at municipality level, as is the case of the Island of Santo Antão (one National Police Comando, one GAV, both covering 3 municipalities) and São Nicolau (one Comando and one GAV, covering 2 municipalities); the island of Santiago counts on 4 National Police Comandos and respective GAVs; the island of Sal counts on 2 GAV, one in each city of the municipality of Sal (Espargos and Santa Maria); the island of São counts on one GAV (one Comando for one municipality) (total of 9 GAVs). The islands that do not have GAVs presently are GBV Brava, Fogo, Maio and Boavista.

37.The following table shows the number of GBV cases received by the Public Attorney Offices at national level, as well as progress of proceedings, per legal year, from 2011 to 2017/2018.

	Legal Year
	2010/2011	2011/2012	2012/2013	2013/2014	2014/2015	2015/2016	2016/2017	2017/2018
Nº of GBV cases received at Attorney’s Offices	2 607	3 237	3 491	3 499	3 187	2 901	2 592	2 080
Nº of cases pending from the previous legal year	–	1 671	3 064	5 322	6 761	7 615	8 409	7 121
Total nº of solved cases	936	1 138	1 404	1 631	2 567	2 122	3 880	3 971
Nº of cases accused (going to court for trial)				1 047	1 304	939	862	584
Nº of cases closed				565	1 255	1 181	3 014	3 383
Nº of cases forwarded to other entities				19	8	2	4	4

Prepared based on Annual CSMP reports and data referred in the PNVBG

38.The decreasing trend of GBV cases received at Public Attorney’s Offices, over the last 4 years, can be confirmed from this data. The number of solved cases is increasing, with an impact on the number of pending cases from the previous legal year, which for the first time decreased in 2017/2018. However, this decrease is due mainly, over the last 2 years to the increase in closed cases.

39.In respect to the outcome of court trials, data on trial results (convictions, acquittals and compensation) is registered in each case file, individually, at the lever of each court, thus no summarized information is available.

40.The following table presents data from the National Police, from 2010 to 2018 (civil years versus legal years).

Year	Nº of GBV cases registered by the National police
2010	855
2011	1 505
2012	2 698
2013	3 079
2014	3 205
2015	3 002
2016	3 073
2017	2 516
2018	1 641

41.Data points to a significant decrease in the number of GBV registered by the National Police, especially in Praia, the capital. This decreasing trend is not limited to GBV cases: the number of overall incidents decreased 32.6% (corresponding to minus 7,664 incidents) during the three-year-period of 2016–2018, when compared to 2015. The decrease is especially notable for crimes against persons (such as bodily injury, threats, GBV, insult, sexual assault, sexual abuse of minors, child abuse, homicides). To be noted that proportionally GBV crimes remain very frequent: in 2018 they add up to 20.9% of all crimes against persons, meaning that 1 in every 5 crimes against persons is a GBV incident. The results from the GBV module of the DHS (IDSR III) will be key to better understand these trends and enable a comparison between the present situation and the baseline situation (IDSR II 2005), both in terms of GBV rates, and of its social acceptability and GBV related social representations.

42.Despite progresses, the number of women who are fatal victims of GBV is a preoccupation and is being closely monitored: 8 cases of femicide were registered in 2018. Over half of the victims were 21 to 30 years old (63%) and the femicide happens predominantly during separation from an ex-partner (63%). In half the cases (4) the femicide is followed by attempted suicide from the presumed perpetrator, consummated in 3 out of 4 cases. Most victims had no previous complaints: only 1 victim had an ongoing GBV complaint. A qualitative study is about to start to enable a better understanding of the characteristics of femicide in the country and underlying dynamics.

43.The entity responsible for the SIGO is the Internal Affairs General Directorate (DGAI), while the National Police is the owner of the software. The management and coordination of the use of SIGO in jointly made by the National Police – through its Directorate for Operations and Communication, and DGAI and complies with all the legal requirements for data protection. The privacy of GBV victims is ensured through the existing National Police operational procedures, especially in terms of differentiated levels of permissions and access to the information contained in the GBV module of the SIGO, which are granted to each intervening institution through the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The SIGO enables users to access data on GBV and perform analyses (on tendencies, produce reports) in a safe and anonymous manner, protecting the privacy of all involved and without access to the victims’ personal information.

Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution

44.Cabo Verde’s Penal Code criminalizes the prostitution of children as well as forced prostitution, independently of the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity. The revised Penal Code introduced the punishment of the resort to prostitution of minores: adults who practice sexual acts with a minor between the age of 14 and 18 years, either through payment or other compensation, are liable to a prison sentence of 2 to 8 years (and 4 to 12 years if there is sexual penetration) (article 145A). Article 148 on procuring was revised: whoever fosters, favours or facilitates the practice of prostitution or sexual acts of children under 16 years of age, or of persons with mental incapacity, incurs in a prison sentence of 4 to 10 years (previously the article considered children under 14 years of age and a prison sentence of 2 to 8 years), and with a sentence of 2 to 6 years if the victim is under 18 years of age (previously considered victims under 16 years of age); this sentence also applies if the victim is a person in extreme economic want and the perpetrator took advantage of this situation. Article 149, on enticement of minors for sexual acts abroad, was also revised: whoever entices, transports, accommodates or hosts a minor under the age of 16, or favours her/his practice, abroad, of sexual acts or prostitution, incurs in a prison sentence of 5 to 12 years (previously 2 to 8 years) and of 2 to 8 years if the victim is under 18 years of age (previously this age interval was not considered).

45.Prostitution is not criminalized in Cabo Verde.

46.Cabo Verde has for the first time a National Plan to combat Human Trafficking, PNCTP (2018 – 2021) (Resolution No. 40/2018, of May 9). It is organized around 5 strategic pillars, with 6 expected results: (i) Strengthening of legal and institutional legal mechanisms, recognizing that there is still a weak capacity of the judicial and police authorities to detect, investigate and prosecute cases; (ii) Creation and implementation of prevention mechanisms, including the creation of an Observatory for the monitoring and rapid identification of human trafficking (HT) situations, awareness-raising actions and training of local and regional authorities, NGOs, etc.; (iii) Implementation of institutional mechanisms for the protection and support of victims, including legal, medical and psychosocial support and creation of shelters and assistance to victims; (iv) Creation and implementation of institutional capacity for repression, accountability and social reintegration of perpetrators; (v) Design and implementation of an IEC strategy; (vi) Definition and implementation of the institutional framework and partnership mechanisms on HT. A training workshop was held in June 2018 on investigation, prosecution and trial of HT situations. A second workshop is scheduled, on protection and support to victims (psychosocial, reintegration and social inclusion), for magistrates, judicial and national police, NGOs and other staff.

47.In relation to the 5 cases reported, involving children (enticement and exploitation of minors for pornographic ends, reported as per Criminal Police data), additional information is available: data from the Public Attorney’s Office (legal year 2016/2017) shows 7 new cases of sexual exploitation of minors for pornographic ends, which have not be tried yet; 5 new cases of enticement for legal year 2017/2018, which added to pending cases form the previous legal year, amount to 20 cases, of which 1 has been charged and 2 closed. As for the 2 cases of human trafficking, they have both been tried and condemned.

48.At present the GBV Support Centres have the capacity to provide support services to women victims of HT and, in respect to sheltering, the shelters established for GBV victims and their minor dependents can also cater for HT victims, and have already done so in at least one case. Two GBV shelters are now in operation: one in the island of Fogo, established in partnership with the Town Hall and Franciscan Congregation, that has already sheltered 2 victims and 1 dependent; the other in Praia, established in a State provided facility, equipped with support from the US Embassy and counting on the support of the enterprise Cabo Verde Telecom for its operational costs (2 year protocol). In other islands, temporary shelter is ensured through funding of accommodation costs.

Participation in political and public life

49.The Parity Law proposal sets out the principle da parity between men and women (50/50), aimed at effective equality of rights and responsibilities and a more just, democratic and balanced society. It includes parity in political representation, both in national electoral processes (legislative elections) and local ones (municipal elections). Article 3, nº2 b) proposes the establishment, on a compulsory basis, of parity lists of candidates running for Parliament, Municipalities, and other elected seats; article 4º nº1 considers alternance, as a requirement, of men / women in candidate lists to collegiate bodies of political power, namely Parliament, Town Halls, Municipal Assemblies and others; nº2 of that same article establishes that candidate lists that are plurinominal cannot have same sex candidates successively; nº3 foresees that in the case of constituencies where 2 deputies are elected, political parties should alternate the head of lists between men and women, or women and men, in order to ensure parity of both sexes; and, lastly, nº4 determines that the head of Government, when composing the Government of the Republic of Cabo Verde, strives to apply the principle of parity.

50.Article 7 on the other hand establishes that the Board of Directors and other decision-making positions in Public Administration, Public Enterprises, State Participated Enterprises and Public Institutes, have parity in representation, through the alternance of men and women in the proposed lists for election or appointment.

51.Article 10 of the Parity Law proposal foresees that Parliament evaluates the impact of the Law on parity between men and women after 5 years of its entry into force and, article 9, the establishment of a Parity Observatory, constituted by the RMP-CV, ICIEG, women’s sections of political parties and other CSOs, for the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the Parity Law. In this context, progress reports are to be prepared, including all necessary consultations with political parties, central and municipal administration, and contacts with communities, to monitor and evaluate the law’s implementation and identify problems and constraints.

52.The Parity Law proposal is in its final stages of preparation and should be submitted to Parliament by the end of April 2019. Its appreciation in Parliamentary Specialized Commissions should be scheduled for May–June 2019, to be followed by its discussion in Parliament.

53.A proposal for the revision of the Electoral Code is available: it includes the principle of parity and penalties for non-compliance (in addition to the incentives that already existed). However, this proposal has not been submitted to Parliament yet, and the Parity Law proposal is expected to be submitted before the Electoral Code revision proposal. As for the Political Party Law, the revision process has not been finalized. Nonetheless, as informed in the Cabo Verde’s XIth CEDAW report (paragraph 82), the internal debate on parity has occurred within political parties, with an impact on women’s representation in party decision making bodies. Consensus has been achieved at the level of party leadership on the principle of parity and alternance in candidate lists.

54.Globally, there is political consensus and commitment over parity, both from the Government, and party leaderships. Nonetheless, some challenges exist, among which: (i) there is still resistance, especially at local level, including political party coordination and affiliated members and, as public debate on parity unfolds, some opinion makers express themselves against the proposals under discussion, some of which are parliamentarian; (ii) although the principle of alternance in candidate lists is understood (a male candidate followed by a female candidate, or vice-versa), consensus has not yet been achieved on the need to alternate heads of lists, although this is a necessary measure to reach parity in Cabo Verde: indeed, of the 13 existing constituencies for legislative elections, 7 elect only 2 deputies, and it is usual for the mandates to be divided between the two main parties (Cabo Verde is a bi-partisanship system), which does not favour the election of women in these constituencies, as the two main political parties tend to privilege men as heads of candidate lists; (iii) the revision of the Electoral Code requires 2/3 of votes, which is a challenges considering consensus achieved in on the inclusion of a chapter on parity, but not on the introduction of penalties for non-compliance with parity, with wide support for maintaining incentives and regulating their application.

Education

55.The implementation of the revised basic education curricula (1st to 8th grade) started in September 2017 and will continue in a phased way until academic year 2020/2021 (1st and 5th grade in 2017/2018; 2nd and 6th grade in 2018/2019; 3rd and 7th grade in 2019/2020; and 4th and 8th grade in 2020/2021). Several crosscutting themes were considered in pedagogical materials, among which gender equality, thus all materials (programs, manual and teacher guides) include contents on education for gender equality, as well as gender sensitive images and language. The revised secondary education curricula (9th to 12th grade) will be implemented starting 2021.

56.A Department of Inclusive Education and Promotion of Citizenship (SIEPC) was established within the Education National Directorate (DNE) (Decree-law nº 40/2018, June 20), taking into account the need for strengthened capacities to address several gender equality issues in education, as well as issues pertaining to inclusive education. This department is crosscutting to all educational subsystems (higher education excepted), and its mission is to ensure the inclusion and follow-up of school age children and youth, to strengthen individual learning processes, syllabus enrichment and socio-educational inclusion, in order to combat exclusion, failure and dropout. Among others, the department’s responsibilities include: preparing, in collaboration with multisectoral institutions, intervention plans to overcome issues related to the prevention of violence and school dropout, the promotion of gender equality and interventions with at risk children, adolescents and youth; as well as promoting capacity strengthening initiatives for teachers and other school staff on the prevention of violence and school dropout, as well as health promotion, sexuality, gender equality and school safety. At local level, crosscutting issues will be addressed through the Inclusive and Promotion of Citizenship Spaces, recently established in all school clusters, under the responsibility of the cluster’s Pedagogical Coordinator.

57.The introduction of sexual education in basic and secondary education, beyond the already existing contents in specific subjects, is being worked on with technical assistance from UNICEF. The technical work for the definition of curricula in underway.

58.The measures under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, in the context of the National Plan to Combat Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents (2017–2019), are being implemented. The inclusion of sexual education in pre-school, is underway and is already part of the Curriculum Activities Guide and Pedagogical Guidelines for Pre-school. Teachers from all educational levels were trained, in all municipalities, on the prevention of sexual violence. The theme for the civic week, at the beginning of this year’s school year, was the abolition of sexual abuse, and campaigns were conducted in all schools. Guidelines have been issued at the highest level of the Ministry for the compulsory notification of sexual abuse cases. Orientations on zero tolerance to sexual harassment from teachers have also been provided and teachers identified in such situations have had disciplinary proceedings opened and their situation notified to the Public Attorney’s Office.

59.The preliminary report of the Diagnostic Study on Violence in Schools is available: the study was conducted in all secondary public and semi-public schools (52), targeting students from the 7th to the 12th grade and the respective school community. The study is grounded in a holistic approach to school violence, including institutional violence which is usually legitimated by the unequal power relations implicit in pedagogical interaction. This approach will enable responses which focus, among others, on promoting positive and non-violent pedagogical relationships. The study considered physical, psychological, sexual, patrimonial and cybernetic violence. The study shows that, in terms of perception of violence, sexual violence is perceived as such by almost all teachers, although almost 1 in every 10 teachers does not perceive sexual harassment as a violent behaviour (9.7%). Student’s perception of what constitutes violence is different from teacher’s in many respects, but more homogenous among male and female students than among male and female teachers, except in the case of sexual violence: only 79.6% of students (as opposed to 95% of teachers) consider all sexual violence examples as violence and, even then, mainly female students (43.4% versus 36.4% of all male students).

60.The majority of students and teachers consider the secondary schools they study or work at safe (65.5% of students and 83.2% of teachers), but a significant proportion of students considers them insecure (29.5%) and 13.7% of teachers. There are substantial differences between schools and 18 out of the 52 schools can be considered safe, while the remaining can be considered insecure. The proportion of teachers that refer having been a victim of violence at school is 21.9%, going up to 44.2% in the case of students (over half are girls – 52.6% versus 47.2% boys). Male and female students tend to react differently when they are victimized: boys are more likely to fight back (60.1%), in particular 15–18 year olds, while girls tend to “report at home” (71%) and “tell their friends” (59.3%). Out of all students, only younger girls report violence to the class head teacher.

61.According to both teachers and students, physical and patrimonial violence are the most frequent type of violence, followed by psychological violence: in terms of physical violence, the most frequent behaviours are hitting, (kicking, slapping and punching) and pushing and fighting (versus attacking with a knife or using a gun), and for patrimonial violence stealing school materials, followed by vandalism. Psychological violence is considered less frequent, except for bullying. Comparatively, sexual violence is considered rare in schools: teachers highlight touching (64.1% considers it occurs in their school), harassment by students (26%), and more rarely forced to kiss and harassment by teacher. Although not frequent, force to have sex is nonetheless mentioned as occurring by 4.4% of teachers. For students, sexual violence behaviours are less referred on average: harassment by students is the most frequent one (44.5%), followed by forced to kiss (31.7%). To be noted that 29.1% of students refer the occurrence of harassment by teacher. Cybernetic violence is signalled mostly by students: 48% says insults through social media occurs regularly at their school; 47.3% launching rumours or lies through social media; 40.3% publish complicated photos and videos; and 37.2% threaten or pressure through social media.

62.The CIGEF is continuing its collaboration with the Ministry of Education for the elaboration of the Plan to Prevent and Combat Violence in Schools. As a more immediate response to the findings of the study, the SIEPC is planning trainings and peer to peer education for the teams of the Inclusive and Promotion of Citizenship Spaces Inclusion operating at school level. The training of 10 teachers (trainers of trainers) on urban violence has already taken place in 10 schools in Praia, the capital. The ICIEG is also supporting the DNE on the elaboration of a GBV Manual for secondary education teachers and a Guide for students.

63.No up-to-date information is available on teenagers that are pregnant or already mothers, as such the data from the 2000 and 2010 Census is presented (on teenagers that are already mothers), desegregated by in and out of school status:

Age (years)	Census 2000	Census 2010
School status	School status
In school	Out of school	Total	In school	Out of school	Total
12	0	4	4	0	0	0
13	2	5	7	0	0	0
14	1	7	8	1	6	7
15	16	54	70	23	46	69
16	47	129	176	59	190	249
17	61	404	465	160	390	550
Total	127	603	730	243	632	875

64.The preliminary data from the latest DHS (IDSR III 2018), disseminated end of February 2019, shows a continued downward trend in fertility: the synthetic fertility index dropped to 2.5 children, on average, per woman, when it was 2.9 in 2005; in 2018, 12% of teenagers 15–19 years already have at least one child (live births), against 15.2% in 2005. Health sector administrative data (2017) shows a small decrease, in relation to 2014, in the proportion of teenage pregnant girls in ante-natal consultations: in 2017 teenagers under 19 years of age represent 17.8% of all pregnant women, while in 2014 that proportion was 18.2%; for younger teenagers (under 17) the proportion continues the same (around 4%).

65.The ICIEG and DNE have started a pilot project in 4 secondary schools with high student pregnancy rates: a qualitative study will be conducted to gain better insight into the dynamics underlying teenage pregnancy and the difficulties pregnant students go through in school context. The results will be reflected in a Guide for teachers and schools.

66.The Road map for a Gender Equality Strategy in the Education-Vocational Training-Employment Sector, finalized end of 2017, identifies occupational segregation as a challenge and foresees measures to strengthen gender sensitive vocational orientation in Technical and Professional Training, namely through strengthened dissemination of course options without gender stereotypes and monitoring gender equality mainstreaming in vocational orientation services.

67.Measures underway to ensure opportunities for children and adolescents with Special Educational Needs (SEN), both girls and boys, in regular schools include: the DNE is developing the legal regime for Inclusive Education, which foresees a System to Identify Children and Youth with SEN, and on regulations for the Inclusive Education Multi-disciplinary Support Team; the Identification System is already being implemented, with the multi-disciplinary teams that have been established in all 22 municipalities, at the level of School Delegations; the capacities of both multi-disciplinary teams and teachers at different education levels (from pre-school to secondary) are being strengthened, through the presentation and discussion of the Identification System, training on the preparation of Individuals Educational Plans for students identified with SEN and curriculum adjustments, purchase of specific materials (software, educational games and equipment for students with SEN).

68.As the study on school violence also considered institutional violence, non‑violent education will be part of the trainings referred above, planned by the SIEPC. When corporal punishment practices are identified, they are referred to the General Inspection of Education, that has appreciated several such situations and opened disciplinary proceedings, some of which already concluded.

Employment

69.Considerable progress has been made in 2018 in the establishment of the Care System, in terms of: the definition of services to be provided, as well as their regulation; the development of information and knowledge management tools; the development of training modules and their implementation; and the dissemination of the Care System. Several normative instruments were developed, including: Decree-Law nº58/2018, November 14, on the norms for the establishment and operation of nurseries, in particular the minimum standards for infant care facilities (0 to 3 years), defining the criteria for their creation and/or accreditation, for physical space, equipment, safety and hygiene and technical-pedagogical prerequisites; institutional tools were developed to harmonize the process of accreditation of care facilities for infancy; and a Ludo-Pedagogical Orientation Guide for Children from 0 to 3 years is being developed. The regulation instruments for social facilities for older persons and persons with disabilities are being finalized; the Professional Profile of Infancy Carers (level 2 of professional qualifications of the National Qualifications Catalogue) and of Carers of Dependents (older persons and persons with disabilities, level 3) were approved through a joint Order of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education (Joint Order nº1/2019, January 11). The definition of Professional Qualifications is key to orient quality professional training offers and, in turn, the availability of trained carers is key to ensure the rights of persons that are care dependent, and to provoke a paradigm change on care work, from being mainly performed by women, as an unpaid activity, to paid work. In terms of training, the first trainings of carers have been conducted for the two professional profiles defined in Praia, Sal and São Vicente, for a total of 105 trainees (93 women and 12 men), which has enabled the establishment of an initial Pool of Carers. In terms of care services, projects contracts have been signed with non-profit associations, identified through a public selection procedure, as well as Town Halls, in the context of the Protocol for the Municipalization of Social Services. Investments have been made in kindergartens and facilities for older persons (Day Care Centres), through the concession of public facilities for the establishment of nurseries; rehabilitation of facilities; financing of equipment; provision of ludo-pedagogical materials. In respect to persons with disabilities, in April 2018 a Financial Grant for Associations Operation was launched, for non-profit Associations working in this domain. The grant subsidizes fixed operational costs (rent, water, electricity, office supplies and cleaning materials) of 11 associations, among which the Association for the Promotion and Inclusion of Women with Disabilities – APIMUD, while the remaining 10 associations work both with women and men with disabilities. To be noted that other associations, not receiving this grant, receive support from the MFIS for the implementation of specific projects. Most of the projects selected work with children, adolescents, youth and women, leaving however a gap in respect to elderly persons with disabilities. A Care and Rehabilitation Centre for children and youth with disability was also established. Praia’s Town Hall provided the space for the facility, which is housing the Centre and: a Training Nucleus for Professionals working on disability and family members; the headquarters of the Federation of Organizations working on disabilities; and the administrative headquarters of non-profit associations working on disabilities. One of the Centre’s lines of work is improving care and support services for children and youth with disabilities.

70.In terms of benchmarks for the establishment of the Care System, Cabo Verde has benefitted from technical assistance from the Ministry of Social Development of Uruguay, through a South-South Cooperation protocol. Capacity building was provided in this context on several occasions, to MFIS staff and stakeholders, enabling the progressive appropriation of quality criteria to consider, at different stages and on different aspects of the Care System. The fact that the Care System is being established rapidly does not mean challenges do not exist: for instance, Cabo Verde faces the challenge of organizing services that respond to care needs on different islands/municipalities of the country in a complementary and integrated way; of implementing family support networks; of training human resources at different levels; of ensuring that the job opportunities created for carers are decent work opportunities; of integrating care in the social protection system.

71.Social security in Cabo Verde covers approximately 227,439 persons, 206,241 through the contributory subsystem and 21,198 through the non-contributory subsystem, according to the latest published data. This means that the contributory regime covers close to 40% of the population (counting both direct and indirect beneficiaries). The non-contributory regime serves persons in poverty, at risk and/or socially excluded. Women that do not contribute to the contributory system have access to social security (i) when they are indirect beneficiaries, through the existing family benefits of the contributory sub-system; (ii) when they are beneficiaries of the non-contributory sub-system. To be noted that the coverage of the contributory sub-system is increasing: the survey on employment of 2017 indicates that close to 41% of the employed population is registered at the National Institute of Social Security (INPS) (48.8% in urban settings and 18.6% in rural ones), 41.9% of women employed and 40.3% of men employed. In urban areas men are more likely to be registered than women (49.2% e 48.2% respectively), while the reverse applies to rural areas, where employed women registered at INPS amount to 20.2% (men 17.6%). To be noted that the latest information on the non-contributory sub-system (not published yet) show its coverage is also increasing: in 2018 the number of its beneficiaries increased to 22,487. To be noted that social pensions has been increased from 5,000 CVE to 6,000 CVE, as well as the annual limit for acquisition of medicines in private pharmacies (50% increase, going from 2,500 CVE to 3,750 CVE).

72.Cabo Verde is also implementing a Social Inclusion Income policy, consisting of a direct monetary transfer to families in extreme poverty that have children under 15 years of age under their responsibility, coupled with income generating measures. The monetary transfer is monthly, for a two-year period (5,500 CVE) and beneficiary families are identified through the Unified Social Registry, now operational: in 2018 (commencing in July) 1,026 families were benefitted, 54% of which represented by a woman and 46% by a man. In these families, a total of 52 children were out of school, 39 girls and 13 boys. Beneficiary families are followed by the social team of Town Halls and the MFIS has the responsibility of preparing Guidelines for the orientation and mobilization of resources to be applied in activities for their productive inclusion. Beginning of 2019, the number of beneficiary families increased to 2,410.

73.Measures to promote the corporative social responsibility of large hotel chains, mostly located in the islands of Sal and Boavista, are foreseen in the Program for the Empowerment of Women, recently formulated. The Program includes advocacy campaigns for corporative policies that promote decent work for women, especially in the tourism sector, and the strengthening of public institutions, trade unions and CSOs to this effect (training, policy dialogue and awareness campaign).

74.The beneficiaries of the REMPE regime that are registered at the INPS has increased: from 330 in 2015 to 3,745 in 2016, of which 2,085 are women and 1,660 men. To be noted that the first trade union for informal sector workers was established end of 2017 and launched at the end of a seminar on the Transition from Informal to Formal Economy: the Services, Domestic and Informal Sector Workers Union (SSTDI) is a mechanism for informal sector workers to organize to better participate and defend their labour rights during the process of transition from informal to the formal economy. The President of the SSTDI is a women.

75.The National Employment Plan (PNE 2018–2023) was developed in 2018, under the coordination of the General Directorate for Employment, Professional Training and Internships (DGEFPEP). The PNE focuses especially on youth’s and women’s employment and has a specific sub-product on youth employment (15–34 years) – the National Action Plan for Youth Employment (PNAEJ). The PNE identifies and documents gender professional segregation as a problem, as well as women’s over representation in the informal sector and the PNAEJ has a specific gender section. The PNAEJ proposes 4 strategic measures: (i) economically empower youth and women through the promotion of youth’s businesses and entrepreneurial initiatives; (ii) establish new employment opportunities for youth and women through active employment programs and measures; (iii) direct human resources education, training, qualification and innovation policies towards youth and women’s increased employability; and (iv) promote the labour market integration of youth and women. Additionally, the DGEFPEP counts on the Program for the Empowerment of Women (mentioned above) and its encompassing gender situation analysis and intervention proposals, which focus on (i) policies to stimulate decent work and social protection for women, and (ii) women in agribusiness, tourism and care sector value chains. The Business Promotion and Support Institute (Pro-Empresa) substituted ADEI, but with strengthened responsibilities in brokering access to bank credit or microfinances (as access to financial credit is a major constraint for entrepreneurs) and follow up and support to business development (after its establishment). Pro-Empresa implements the Youth start up program: the program finances 18–35 years old youth that completed higher education or professional training, and at least 40% of financing is destined to women’s businesses. This program stimulates the labour integration of women and men with higher education, especially in the case of women with degrees, as they have higher unemployment rates than men. Within this program, Pro-Empresa and the Business Incubation Centre (BIC) have launched an innovation challenge for women, where 30 female entrepreneurs work in groups of 3 to convert ideas into business models. The winning project in offered a twelve-week acceleration program and incubation with BIC. This initiative has been conducted in Praia and São Vicente. Pro-Empresa also implements the program Development of Micro-entrepreneurship, benefitting men up to 40 years of age and women without an age limit.

76.The 2016 Labour Code revision was a one-off revision and, as explained in its preamble, was meant to create indispensable tools for an effective economic growth, the improvement of business competitivity and the enhancement of the employability of Cape Verdean human resources. The revision was determined by the need to undertake reforms that ensure a more flexible labour market, that generates employment and stimulates the growth of the private sector, investment and productivity. The improvement of the labour market’s capacity to absorb labour supply, especially for young men and women, is indeed one of the greatest challenges Cabo Verde faces in order to reduce poverty and strengthen social cohesion. The one-off and focused revision has meant that other aspects of the Labour Code were not considered for revision on this occasion, among which the incorporation of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.

77.Cabo Verde is analysing the possibility of ratifying ILO Convention No 189 on Domestic Work. Independently of the ratification of the Convention, measures are being considered in order to improve the situation of domestic employees, who in Cabo Verde are mostly women: in 2016 a total of 12,584 persons were domestic workers, 11,816 women and 768 men. A Proposal for the Regulatory Framework of Domestic Work has been drafted by a working group, including the ICIEG, the Labour General Directorate, IGT, INPS, the Cape Verdean Association to Combat GBV (ACLVBG), the recently established SSTDI and UN Women. The proposal is under discussion.

78.The ACLVBG conducted a survey with domestic workers and developed an analysis of the Labour Situation of Domestic Employees and associated public policies, in partnership with various institutions (IGT, INPS, DGEFPEP, CIGEF) and civil society partners (NGOs and trade unions). An Action Plan was prepared, in a participatory way, to respond to the challenges and recommendations of the analysis. The establishment of a Domestic Workers’ Association was one of the 9 proposed measures of the Action Plan and it was created in August 2018 (ASED-CV), with support from the ACLVBG, that ensured the training of members on the relevant legal frameworks, supported the elaboration of the association statute, provided a space for the association at ACLVBG headquarters, helped prepare a leaflet on domestic workers rights and duties, and materials to disseminate the association. The main claims of the ASED-CV are linked to the application of the minimum wage to domestic employees, working hours, right to holidays, among others.

Health

79.The collaboration between the Ministry of Health and NGOs providing reproductive health services – mainly VERDEFAM, is close, considering the complementarity between services provided by health facilities and the NGO. NGOs have the capacity to work close to communities and highly excluded groups, facilitating their access to reproductive health services. In this context, since 2009, a collaboration protocol was signed between the Ministry of Health and VERDEFAM, which will soon be updated. Technical supervision is ensured through visits, based on a formative supervision approach, based on dialogue and with a focus on improvement. A supervision checklist exists – the same used for public reproductive health services, listing the items to be verified and discussed. This tool enables a report to be generated at the end of the visit, including recommendations. The comments that have been made to the ONG are linked to the quality and timeliness of reports on services provided (data sharing), as well as on product management. Women and girls can submit complaints at the Direction of the health facilities.

80.A summary leaflet was prepared to disseminate the main results and recommendations of the 2015 study on women with disabilities access to sexual and reproductive health services: the leaflet organized the results of the study by sexual and reproductive health (SRH) rights. The Ministry of Health is implementing measures to address the findings of this study: technical meetings and meetings with the health hierarchy have been conducted, to share the findings and reflect on them, as well as to disseminate SRH rights and duties and the laws that protect them. These meetings have been conducted in partnership with APIMUD and other meetings are being programmed, to include more health staff; 33 health staff from all Health Delegations of the country participated in a training conducted by Handicap International, on health and SRH rights of persons with disabilities and this training is being replicated at each of the Health Delegations of the country, in order to include more technical and support staff (already conducted in 3 Delegation of the island of Santiago – Tarrafal, São Miguel and Santa Cruz and scheduled for April in Santa Catarina); a guide on SHR rights is being finalized, for dissemination and also as support material for trainings on SRH rights for health personnel and other target groups; a micro program has been aired, summarizing information on modern contraceptive methods, including simultaneous translation to sign language; other options to promote accessibility to information are being analysed, namely the adaptation of other information materials on SRH and HIV prevention to braille.

81.Moreover, end of 2017 the CCS-SIDA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health conducted a bio-behavioural study on the vulnerability of persons with disabilities to HIV/AIDS: the study revealed an HIV prevalence of 2.3%, specifically 3.5% among men with disabilities and 1.7% among women with disabilities. This rate is higher than the HIV prevalence among the general population: according to the DHS (IDSR III 2018) preliminary data the HIV prevalence rate for the general population is 0.6% (0.7% for women and 0.4% for men), corresponding to a decrease in HIV prevalence among men (1.1% in 2005) and increase among women (0.4% in 2005). The findings of the bio-behavioural study show that persons with disabilities are quite vulnerable to HIV/AIDS: although they know of the existence of HIV/AIDS and have access to condoms and use them, they are subject to multiple vulnerabilities (poverty, low educational level, low income) and are hardly ever targeted by STI/HIV/AIDS awareness raising strategies and campaigns, while they are also exposed to violence (sexual, physical, stigma): 45% of the sample of persons with disabilities refer they have suffered some kind of violence (14.4% verbal, 10.4% physical and 4.7% economic), most of which in their neighbourhood (31.2%), household (28.0%) or on the street (17.2%). Over half of those that suffered violence have not done anything (seek help, file a complaint, etc.) after the latest episode of violence (53.8%). Over 1 in every 10 persons with disability refer their first sexual intercourse was not consensual (14.5%), affecting women more than men. Altogether, women suffer more than men from physical, psychological and sexual violence.

82.The SRH services provided to girls and women include antenatal counselling; contraception information and provision of modern contraceptive methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies; pre-natal, birth and post-partum monitoring; perinatal care and promotion of breastfeeding; prevention, attention and follow-up to abortion and its complications; prevention of STI/HIV/AIDS and provision of ARV treatment; prevention and treatment of breast and cervical cancer; prevention and treatment of infertility and menopause complications; prevention against physical and sexual violence and support; communication for behaviour change and adoption of healthy life styles; human sexuality and responsible maternity and paternity; gender and promotion of women’s empowerment. Specific facilities have been established for teenagers in some Health Centres of the country, to ensure easy access, privacy and confidentiality of SRH services for girls/teenagers, an initiative to be extended to all of the country’s Health Centres this year. These facilities are foreseen by the Adolescent Health Plan (2018–2020) and are designed as Adolescent Friendly Health Facilities (ESAD), providing integrated services beyond SRH, including mental health, nutritional education, among others. The attention provided is multi-disciplinary and focused on the promotion of health and healthy lifestyles. The facilities are equipped with a multipurpose room to conduct group chats on issues of interest to adolescent, both female and male, chosen by them. These Centres have partnerships with local stakeholders, including CSOs that ensure the dissemination of these facilities/services at community level, and collaborate on specific themes according to the know how they have. A certification mechanism for ESADs is under development. All Health Centres in Praia already have ESADs, as well as 2 Health Centres in the island of São Vicente, 2 in the island of Fogo and the Health Centres of Boavista, São Domingos and Santa Catarina. Ribeira Grande de Santiago also has an ESAD, operating in a facility provided by the Town Hall.

83.The right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG) is guaranteed and IVG services are provided. By way of illustration, between 50 to 60 IVG are performed each month at Praia’s Hospital, in addition to curettage procedures which are counted independently. IVG services are subsidized according to the established Health Care Price List of the National Health System and, in situations of violence and life risk the established costs are waived.

84.Presently women are not represented, at decision level, in the existing mechanisms for the prevention and management of vector-borne epidemics. However, women are well represented on the Committee dealing with HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (CCS-SIDA) through several women’s NGOs and a representative of women living with HIV.

Climate change and natural disasters

85.Cabo Verde is a State party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change since 1995. The main lines of action to counter the adverse impact of climate change are the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the resilience of the population and ecosystems. Cabo Verde has intensified the production of renewable energies, especially solar and wind energy, and formulated in 2015 the National Renewable Energy Plan, a roadmap to become 100% renewable for electricity generation, as well as the National Energy Efficiency Plan. The strategic documents of the aviation sector (for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the sector) and agriculture and water (which foresee the use of renewable energy to pump water and the treatment and re-use of waste-waters for agriculture) are also relevant.

86.In the context of its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), Cabo Verde initiated in 2018 a Project to Strengthen the Adaptation and Mitigation Capacity of the Forestry Sector and a gender capacity building kit and tools to monitor the gender impacts of the project are being prepared. In the context of a Project to Integrate Biodiversity Conservation in the Tourism Sector and Strengthening Cabo Verde’s Protected Areas System, the project team is being trained on gender sensitive planning and management methodologies, and indicators to monitor and evaluate gender issues are being established: a gender analysis is being prepared, based on which a Gender Action Plan will be defined for the Project. The Project for Agriculture Adaptation to Climate Change will be intervening in 10 rural zones/ hydrographic basins of the islands of São Nicolau, Santiago, Fogo and Brava, targeting 6,075 beneficiaries with a focus on women head of families and youth (men and women). Overall, the guidelines in the environment sector are for the systematic use of sex disaggregated data and implementation of gender mainstreaming strategies, as well as considering persons with disabilities (women and men).

87.Cabo Verde developed in 2017 its National Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) (2017–2030): it is organized around 7 priority intervention areas, including the integration of DRR into development processes, sectoral planning and management. The Strategy defined 2 crosscutting issues: gender equality and environment sustainability. The gender section of the Strategy focuses on the need for sex desegregated information on risks and disasters and a gender sensitive analysis of underlying vulnerability factors, as well as of the results and impacts of proposed measures to reduce the risks of disasters. Proposed measures include measures to promote: the participation of women in DRR structures, mechanisms, decision and management positions; participation of women’s organizations in DRR platforms; gender mainstreaming in all response preparation activities, response mechanisms (contingency and emergency plans, evacuation, etc.), as well as post-disaster recovery programs; gender sensitive training, awareness and education DDR programs.

Economic and social life

88.Notwithstanding overall progress in poverty reduction in Cabo Verde, the final results of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (IDRF III 2015) show that absolute poverty (affecting 35% of the population), continues to affect women more than men: 52.9% of the poor population is female and 47.1% male; as for extreme poverty (affecting 10.6% of the country’s population), 53.6% is female and 46.4% male. In rural areas, 53.1% of the poor and 53.6% of the very poor are women.

89.The majority of households in Cabo Verde are headed by women (53.3% according to the IDRF III) and these household are especially affected by poverty: 60.5% of poor households are represented by a woman (versus 39.5% of those represented by a man), and 62.1% of very poor households (versus 37.9%). Differences are greater in urban areas, where 62.8% of poor households are represented by women and 66.3% of the extremely poor households. The poor family typologies are different according to the sex of the household’s representative: in those represented by women, most families are mono-parental with children (61.1%), and in the case of men, two parent families with children (72.2%) and only 7.3% mono-parental with children. To be noted that in poor households the dependency ratio is 76.5% and in extremely poor households it is 89.1%, and conversely it is 51.4% among non-poor households. The dependency ratio in extremely poor urban households reaches 95.6%.

90.The high proportion of inactive persons among the poor is also to be noted: 32.1% among the poor and 38.5% among the extremely poor (26.7% among non-poor households). Women heads of household tend to be more inactive than men head of household, especially when they are poor (38.6% versus 22.2% respectively) or very poor (44.2% versus 29.1%), a proportion that is 32.8% among non-poor households headed by women (20.3% in the case of non-poor men head of household).

91.Commercial banks in Cabo Verde have been implementing specific credit lines for micro, small and medium businesses, which are likely to improve women’s access to credit (as they are more present in small businesses). The Cape Verdean Business Bank (BCN) signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Financial Cooperation (IFC) to stimulate access to credit of small and medium businesses, and close to 3,000 businesses are to be benefitted over a five-year period, through credit and consultancy services. At least 20% of beneficiary businesses must be owned by women (minimum 600 businesses) and the financial component is especially aimed at improving growth strategies for women owned business. Microcredit continues to benefit women mostly, although less so than previously: in 2018 women clients represent 69% of the total clients (75% in 2010). The activity sectors covered by microcredit are mainly trade, agriculture and services.

Rural women

92.The results of the General Agricultural Census (RGA 2015) were presented end of 2017 and provide some data on women’s access to land for agriculture. The agricultural population represents 34.8% of Cabo Verde’s population (182,396 persons), representing a decrease of about 17.9% in relation to the previous RGA (2004). Women represent 50.9% of the total and men 49.1%. The active agricultural population totals 92,322 persons, 49.7% women and 50.3% men. Agriculture is primarily carried out through family-run units (45,399) and only 140 non-family-run units (65 of which are schools that have vegetable gardens). Nearly 9 out of 10 family-run units produce for self-consumption (87.5%, both in the case of women run units and men run units) and only 3.3% for the market, in this case most run by men: 1 in every 4 family-run units that market products is run by a woman (23.9%) while 76.1% are run by men. As for sources of income, 73.4% of family-run units practice dry farming, 18.9% irrigation farming (more productive), 85.3% livestock farming and 31.7% forestry (most of them accumulating at least 2 of these sources of income). The most visible difference between women and men run family units is still in irrigation farming, practiced by under 1/3 of women and 2/3 of men (respectively 29.9% and 70.1%): in some islands and municipalities the proportion of women is even lower, as is the case of the islands of Santo Antão and Fogo, where less than 2 in every 10 units practicing irrigation agriculture are run by women. As for agricultural land possession, 18.6% of the agricultural population owns or has rights over agricultural land, 8.5% women and 10.1% men. Different typologies of land rights exist and the only one where women are more present than men is rental (51.3% versus 48.7%), a typology of possession that is less stable than other types of land rights.

93.The program to combat rural poverty signed a cooperation protocol with the ICIEG, to strengthen work to combat gender stereotypes in rural communities and to promote increased and improved participation of women in decision making. In this context, the ICIEG has been conducting trainings for women beneficiaries of the poverty reduction program: (i) to strengthen their entrepreneurship and small business management skills and (ii) on gender and self-esteem, with a focus on participation in Community Development Associations and Regional Committees of Partners. The Poverty Reduction Program is discussing with Town Halls (presently Tarrafal and Porto Novo) ways of making land available to women, so they can be beneficiaries of the Program, giving visibility to the fact that women are disadvantaged when land is not in their hands. Other advocacy efforts are underway with the Town Hall of São Miguel, through a joint project with the MFIS for inclusion through income: funds have been made available for a vegetable production and marketing project and 10 women are being supported to submit requests of access to land, water and technologies at the Town Hall and assistance from the local Delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture. Local gender diagnosis are another tool for advocacy for rural women (please see details on this in the final section, on SDGs).

94.The 2010 Census data shows that women are the majority of the elderly population in rural areas: out of the 18,313 elderly that live in rural areas, 59.4% are women, however the proportion of elderly women in urban areas is slightly higher (60.7%). Data published by the INE on the characteristics of elderly women are not always desegregated by area of residence (urban/rural), as such some of the indicators referred apply both to rural and urban women. In this age group a considerable proportion of women are widowers (34.1%), while 31.3% are married, 18.4% single, 7.5% divorced and 6.9% in de facto unions. Over 3 in every 4 elderly women are illiterate (78.3% versus 66.3% in the case of men). The main means of living of elderly women are a pension (29% versus 23.6% of men), depending on their family in Cabo Verde (24.5% versus 7.6%), retirement pension (15.2% versus 33.6%), social support (12% versus 8.1%), depending on their family abroad (7.1% versus 2.8%) and work (7.1% versus 19.2%), showing that elderly women are more dependent economically than elderly men. The majority of elderly are heads of households (57.9%) or partners of the head of household (18.2%): in both cases women are the majority (respectively 52.5% and 70.6%). A very high proportion of elderly living in rural areas have very low comfort levels (75.9%) or low (67.8%) and elderly women (rural and urban) are over represented in the lowest levels of comfort (59.1% very low and 62% low). Almost all elderly live at home (versus collective accommodation), but 9.6% live in one-person households (57.4% of which are women).

Disadvantaged groups of women

95.The measures implemented to promote non-discrimination of women with disabilities and their access to SRH services and education have already been described in previous sections (sections on education and health). Measures to combat discrimination against immigrant women have also been described (especially in section on Access to justice). As for their access to SRH services, education and work, the DGI works towards the social inclusion of immigrants promoting their (i) access to information on their rights and duties; (ii) access to education and training; (iii) promoting a culture of gender equality among immigrant communities in Cabo Verde; (iv) strengthening municipal tools for immigrants inclusion; (v) promote the social participation and strengthening of immigrant’s associations. In 2017–2018 the DGI continued its partnership with the DNE, through the Department for Adult Literacy and Education, and literacy and training projects benefitted a further 50 immigrants (12 women and 48 men). An all-Muslim women’s class was established in Praia, considering unwillingness to participate in heterogenous classes. In the island of Sal, a literacy class was initiated in 2018 but there were challenges in the participation of both men and women due to their work schedule and, in the case of women, their need to obtain authorization from their partners to participate. The Ministry of Education is looking into the possibility of other class formats, of shorter duration, in modules, to be managed by the Centres for Life-long Learning, as opposed to classical literacy courses. Trainings in entrepreneurship and business financial management has also continued: the DGI conducted 2 more trainings in Praia and Assomada, benefitting 40 immigrants (21 men and 19 women). Several social inclusion projects were financed, specifically 11 projects of immigrants’ associations aimed at institutional strengthening, capacity building for women for self-employment, entrepreneurship and business management, socio-educational activities, training in Portuguese and Creole languages (in 2017 and 2018). In terms of migrant women’s access to SRH services, previous work will be continued, namely talks on family planning, SRH, prevention of STI and HIV/AIDS, both for immigrant women and men; information and training for health professional on the specific health needs of the immigrant population, in particular women; awareness raising sessions and dissemination of information on health care and the national health system targeting the immigrant population. Some health facilities have introduced changes to their consultation hours and organized mobile teams to reach specific neighbourhoods, in order to respond to the needs and conditions of specific populations. This is the case of Boavista, an island of concentration of immigrants, with special attention to the neighbourhood of highest concentration (Boa Esperança).

96.As described in the IXth CEDAW report (paragraph 216), Cabo Verde has been working towards ending discrimination of LGBTI persons, both women and men. In 2018 Cabo Verde became the 1st African country to join the Equal Rights Coalition. The ICIEG and its partners will continue to work on awareness raising for the general population of gender diversity and support the empowerment of LGBTI rights organizations, in order to eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity: 3 LGBTI associations exits, all working on women and men’s rights, the LGBTI Association of Praia has a women president.

Marriage and family relations

97.In respect to de facto polygamy, changes in attitudes and practices are a medium to long term effort, entailing continued educational work on gender equality. Such educational efforts are underway, through education and community work, including with immigrant communities, as already mentioned in other sections. Although there are no studies to quantify the dimension of de facto polygamy, it is in plain sight that such situations have been decreasing in the country across the years. It is important to note that progresses made in Cabo Verde in terms of women’s empowerment (educational levels, access to on information on rights, economic autonomy, etc.) is leading to changes in attitudes in relation to de facto polygamy and reducing its social acceptability.

98.The Civil Code regulates the rights and responsibilities of married persons, the economic implications of marriage, as well as issues related to inheritance. The Civil Code attributes equal legal capacity to women and men and the effects of marriage on the person are governed by the principle of equality: marriage is based on full equality of rights and duties of the spouses (article 1624); the command and representation of the family are the responsibility of both spouses, who should agree on the organization of life in common with a view to the family’s well-being and the protection and promotion of reciprocal interests and that of their children (article 1625); domestic management is the responsibility of both spouses and they may agree to assign domestic management to one of them, according to their habits and conditions (article 1626); paragraph 3 of this same article establishes that both spouses must contribute, proportionally to their income or revenues, towards the family’s living costs according to the family’s social and economic condition, and paragraph 4, that the contribution towards living costs can be the work performed in the home or in caring and educating their sons/daughters (that is, reproductive unpaid work). The following articles establish, based on the principle of equality between husband and wife, the right to name, right to freely choose a profession, right to freely establish and perform operations on bank deposits, and reciprocal duties. The couple can choose their matrimonial property scheme when they get married, namely community of acquired goods, general communion of goods or separation of goods/property. The subsidiary regime is the community of acquired goods regime, that is applied in the absence of a choice by the spouses. Most marriages in Cabo Verde are celebrated with this regime, with very little exceptions. Article 1682 define common goods that are part of the communion of goods: a) the product of the spouses’ work; and b) goods/property acquired by the spouses during their marriage, the only exceptions being those foreseen by law (basically previous goods/property of one spouse acquired before marriage, donations or inheritances). Article 1688, on the participation of the spouses in joint property states that spouses participate in half of the joint communion of assets and liabilities and that any other arrangement is null. Article 1642, on after death arrangements, establishes that each spouse has the authority of disposing of his/her own property and of his/her share in joint property, after the death of the other spouse. In respect to separation and divorce, either spouse can request divorce and the grounds for the request do not alter the rights and duties of each spouse, that are based on the separation of persons and goods/property on equal terms between men and women. On asset administration and disposal, marriage has the following effects: each spouse administers his/her own goods/property and the other spouse’s if she/he has vested this power to him/her, each spouse having legitimacy to perform ordinary administrative acts on the couple’s joint property, but for any other acts the consent of both spouses is necessary (article 1635), for instance in the case of disposal of real estate (article 1638) or encumbrance of real estate (article 1639); each spouse also has to administer the revenue from his/her work (article 1635, nº2, a).

99.The problems that exist in Cabo Verde are not linked to the legal framework on inheritance or matrimonial property. Rather, it is due to the prevailing culture of informality in respect to the transfer of property, especially real estate, including in cases of inheritance. This informality is driven by excessive bureaucracy and costs of associated taxes and fees, as well as lack of knowledge of the applicable legal framework. To be noted that no evidence is available that this informality affects women and men differently. The ongoing reform, mentioned in paragraph 148 and following of the IXth CEDAW report, took several measures to facilitate the formalization of informal transfers of real estate, including in inheritance situations (paragraph 148, iii) in particular).

100.The difficulties that women face in situations of separation and divorce have not been the object of a systematic assessment, however day to day situations point to difficulties linked to socioeconomic condition: it is common for separated couples to continue living in the same house, to avoid asset-sharing and the establishment of an allowance, due to economic impossibility; frequently resources are not available to afford a lawyer to support asset-sharing, who would contribute to ensure a just division of joint goods/property; only persons with a salary below 20,000 CVE can benefit from legal assistance and those who have higher salaries, even if still modest, have to pay lawyer and court costs, both very costly. It is likely that these constraints affect women more than men considering more women than men are economically dependent.

101.The Civil Code defines a de facto union as a stable, singular and serious coexistence of bed, table and accommodation among two persons of different sex with legal capacity to celebrate marriage, for a period of at least 3 years, and that intend to establish a family through full life in common (article 1560). Article 1562, on the formalization of marriage, refers in paragraph 5) that recognizing a de facto union is equated to the formalization of marriage. Recognizing a de facto union means conducting a recorded recognition (article 1711) in the presence of the Registrar, provided the co-habitation of the man and woman complies with the necessary pre-requisites, that are basically the same that apply to marriage (both applicants in full possession of their mental faculties and without any matrimonial impediments), that both applicants are over 19 years of age, and that it can be concluded that their life in common has the stability, unicity and seriousness of a marriage. Paragraph 2) of this same article introduces the possibility of recognizing a de facto union independently of the years of co-habitation when one or more descendants of the couple exist (that is, before 3 years of cohabitation when the couple in a de facto union has children). As per article 1716, a recognized de fa c to is equivalent to a marriage and produces the same legal effects, counting form the date of the beginning of the union. Thus, the same legal dispositions apply, as described above, recognizing to both co-habitants (woman and man) the same rights and duties, the same economic and patrimonial consequences, and enabling the couple to choose, when they recognize the union, the property scheme, as in the case of marriage. In divorce situations of a recognized unions, the dispositions in relation to child custody, allowance and asset-sharing are the same as for marriage, considering they are legally equivalent situations.

102.Nonetheless, only a small proportion of de facto unions are not recognized in Cabo Verde, due to the informal nature of this type of relationship, as well as to the lack of knowledge of the applicable legal framework. The Civil Code provides some answers to the sociocultural reality of de facto unions. Namely, article 1719 introduces the notion of «recognizable» de facto union, even if not recognized: when a de facto union has ended, but fulfils the requirements for its recognition (recognizable union), any of the parties can request the Court to grant her/him an allowance; the right to her/his share in joint property (as if it were a divorce: in this case the subsidiary regime applies – community of acquired goods); the right to live in the family home, should there be underage children of the couple at her/his charge. Paragraph 2 of this same article foresees that when one partner dies, the asset-sharing of joint goods/property can be requested by the rightful heirs, who in Cabo Verde are usually the sons/daughters; and paragraph 5 establishes a period of 3 years, counted from the date the recognizable (even if unrecognized) de facto union ended, for ex‑cohabitants to claim their rights. The possibility also exists of ending a recognizable de facto union by mutual consent, that does not require a court procedure: the ex-cohabitants can agree on parental authority (when underage sons/daughter of the couple exist), division of joint goods/property acquired during the union and the use of the family house, provided they do it within one year of the end of the union, through a public deed or a private written agreement validated by a Judge, a procedure in all similar to divorce by mutual consent, with the necessary adaptations (article 1721).

103.Available remedies for women after the dissolution of de facto unions are legal information and legal assistance. Cabo Verde’s Bar Association guarantees legal assistance to persons without economic means (details on legal assistance provided in paragraphs 101 to 104 of the Common Core Document). Legal information is provided by NGOs and all Town Halls (22) under the protocols signed with the Ministry of Justice, in replacement of the services previously provided by the Legal Houses.

Data collection

104.The delay in the publication of the results of two major statistical operations – the RGA and the IDRF III, delayed the characterization of the situation of rural women and women in poverty. Nonetheless, this limitation has been overcome with the presentation of the RGA results in September 2017, and the final results of the IDRF III (2015) end of 2017, and its publication for public access in 2018.

Sustainable Development Goals

105.Gender equality is crosscutting to the Government Plan for the 9th Legislative term (2016–2021), as well as the PEDS (2017–2021), and considered as a key issue for the country’s sustainable development. The PEDS was developed through a participative process with sectors and gender mainstreaming was supported in several working groups for the elaboration of the PEDS. Sectors, as players of the national planning system, are required to align sectoral planning and budgets to the PEDS. As referred in paragraph 213 of the IXth CEDAW report, a rapid assessment of the Government Plan shows it is well aligned with SDGs, especially SDG 5. This also applies to the PEDS, developed considering the principles of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs. The PEDS refers, program by program, the SDGs each program contributes to and 74.4% of the impact indicators of the PEDS results framework are SDG indicators, enabling their integrated monitoring and evaluation.

106.The Ministry of Finance, through the National Planning Directorate (DNP), is responsible for the monitoring of progresses in SDG achievement, as well as PEDS implementation. The DNP works in close partnership with the INE, that established intersectorial working groups to gather and compile data on SGD progress and regularly update it. The ICIEG is a member of 3 working groups, on SDG 5, 8 and 10. Cabo Verde submitted in June 2018 its National Voluntary Report on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. The report describes ongoing gender policies and presents most SDG indicators desegregated by sex.

107.The gender intervention pillar of the PEDS, as is also the case with the strategic axes of the PNIG (2015–2018), are organized around 3 key issues, namely economic empowerment of women (productive and reproductive economy, education and professional training), in close alignment to SDG 5 targets 5.4 and 5.a; physical autonomy of women and girls (GBV combat, health and sexual and reproductive rights), aligned to SDG 5 targets 5.2, 5.3 and 5.6; and leadership and political participation of women (participation in decision making spheres and politics) corresponding to SDG 5 target 5.5. The strategic axe Institutional strengthening for the gender mainstreaming in public policies pertains to coordination, technical support, statistical production and analysis, gender sensitive planning and budgeting tools, in support of gender mainstreaming in the country’s development frameworks and sector and local levels.

108.As already mentioned, Cabo Verde has implemented a Gender Marker for the State Budget, the country is thus advancing towards the achievement of SDG 5 indicator 5.c.1.

109.At local level, a program for the localization of SDGs is under implementation in 9 pilot municipalities (ant to be extended to all others). The program started with awareness raising on SDGs (disseminating the SDG framework, linking SDGs to the different departments of Town Halls and municipal priorities, as well as the priorities of the population and local stakeholders, including women and CSOs working on gender equality), followed by a participatory diagnosis and the development of Municipal Strategic Plans for Sustainable Development (PEMDS) and their implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The results framework of PEMDS include 5 pillars for sustainable development, namely: (a) Local Economic Development and Employment; (b) Social Services; (c) Environmental and Risks Management; (d) Governance and Decentralization; and (e) Promotion of Gender Equality. Programs are developed for each pillar, to respond to the challenges identified in the diagnosis phase, that are the further detailed into projects. Guidelines include a recommendation that one project in each of the first 4 pillars is a gender equality promotion project. Each program signals the SDGs to which they contribute, as well as to corresponding PEDS programs, in order to facilitate dialogue and coordination with the national level and relevant sectors for implementation. The Practical Guide for the Localization of SDG and Municipal Strategic Planning, prepared by the program to support the planning process, has a specific section on gender mainstreaming, that identifies 3 steps aligned with the PEMDS elaboration process, as well as the tools and methodologies to be used by the gender facilitators (gender awareness raising/training, training on gender mainstreaming in strategic planning, including the preparation of local gender diagnosis, and monitoring and evaluation). PEMDS are developed through a Platform of local stakeholders from all municipal sectors (private and public stakeholders). The training plan for Local Platforms is defined based on the training needs of each Platform and includes training in gender equality, gender sensitive planning and budgeting, alignment of Plans and programs to SDG 5, etc. Subsequently a Work Commission is established for each of the 5 pillars of the PEMDS, including a Gender Commission, while the other Commissions also have the responsibility of including gender equality in their discussions. The Commissions will also have a role in monitoring and evaluation, jointly with other stakeholders (relevant Town Hall counsellors, etc.).