Uzbekistan improves its position in WBL Index 

The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law Index reached 77.1 points in 2022, the organization’s press service reports.

This means that, on average, women worldwide have only 77% of the legal rights that men have and earn 77 cents for every male worker’s dollar. The increase compared to the previous report decreased to 0.5 points, becoming the minimum in two decades.

Significant reforms aimed at improving the legal status of women were carried out in only 18 of the 190 countries assessed. Uzbekistan has become one of the most active in this direction, the World Bank noted.

From October 2022 to October 2023, the republican authorities made several important changes. Thus, the new Labor Code includes guarantees of equal remuneration for work of equal value for men and women, and also removes restrictions on the employment of women in certain industries.

The World Bank also noted the criminalization of domestic violence in the country, including physical, psychological and economic forms. Corresponding amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Responsibility were adopted in April 2023.

The reforms allowed Uzbekistan to improve its position on indicators of wages and marriage. Thanks to this, the overall score of the republic in the WBL 1.0 index increased by 11.9 points and amounted to 82.5 points out of 100.

In the overall ranking, Uzbekistan reached 85th place – the level of Singapore, Turkey and the UAE. The country came out on top in Central Asia and became one of the 5 countries with the greatest progress in gender equality, along with Jordan, Malaysia, Sierra Leone and Togo.

In addition to Uzbekistan, reforms aimed at ensuring equality in the workplace were carried out in Azerbaijan, Jordan, Malaysia, Oman and Sierra Leone.