Sex Gender equity indicators percent percent percent

152 Table 9.5: Adult literacy rate, by residence, and by sex in percentages; Gender equity indicators, by residence Sex and gender National Urban Rural Kuchi equity indicators

a. Sex

Both sexes 34.3 53.6 28.7 7.5 Male 49.1 68.2 44.4 13.4 Female 19.0 39.1 12.5 1.1

b. Gender equity indicators

Absolute difference 30.1 29.2 32.0 12.3 Gender parity index 0.39 0.57 0.28 0.08 Nationally, only 19 percent of women 15 years and over is able to read and write, compared to 49 percent for men. The corresponding figure for rural women is a low 12 percent. As shown in Table 9.5, these figures result in poor gender equity indicators, with large absolute differences between male and female literacy and low female-to-male literacy ratios gender parity indices. Although the absolute gender differences between urban and rural populations are of similar magnitude close to 30 percentage points, the performance in terms of the ratio indicator is twice as high in urban areas 0.56 as in rural areas 0.28, indicating the disadvantaged position of rural women. The maps of Figures 9.9a and 9.9b below allow a comparison of literacy rates by province and sex. The regional distribution shows relatively high literacy rates in eastern Afghanistan for men and extremely low literacy rates for women in the southern – mostly Pashtun – belt. Of the altogether 9.7 million illiterate people 15 years and over in Afghanistan, 5.9 million or 61 percent are women and 3.8 million or 39 percent are men. The absolute gap of 2.1 million could be interpreted as the number of women who should be made literate to achieve at least equality between the sexes. The youth literacy rate – the rate calculated for the sub-population aged 15-24 – is one of the MDG indicators to measure progress towards achieving universal primary education MDG goal 2. It reflects the outcomes of primary education over roughly the previous 10 years. As a measure of the effectiveness of the primary education system, it is often seen as a proxy measure of social progress and economic achievement. Table 9.6 again indicates large differences in youth literacy rates by residence and sex, and especially the difficulty to service the Kuchi and the female rural population. The overall youth literacy rate of 52 percent would imply that Afghanistan is one of the countries with the lowest literacy in the world. ANDS Indicator 3.c MDG Indicator 2.3 Literacy rates of 15-24 year olds Male

66.3 percent

Female

36.7 percent

Both sexes

51.7 percent

153 Figure 9.9: Adult literacy rate, by province, for a males and b females in percentages a: Males b: Females 154 Table 9.6: Youth literacy rate, by residence, and by sex in percentages; Gender equity indicators, by residence Sex and gender National