Sao Tome and Principe is a small island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western coast of Central Africa, with roughly 220,000 residents. Women’s economic participation in Sao Tome and Principe trails men’s on several measures. The World Bank’s Gender Data Portal indicates that although Sao Tome and Principe behaves similarly to other lower-middle-income countries, its performance on indicators related to women’s economic empowerment more closely resembles its low-income neighbors. The country, however, has made strong legislative strides to safeguard women’s rights, such as passing a Gender Parity Law and reforming labor codes. A more recent program developing women’s economic positions while supporting local agricultural businesses looks promising.

Where Inequality Stands

Women’s economic participation in Sao Tome and Principe is close to men’s on paper, but participation is low for everyone. Available World Bank indicators point to barriers to economic opportunity, although measures of employment, labor-force participation and earnings should not be treated as interchangeable. Among those who work, women are slightly more likely to be in vulnerable employment (35.8% versus 34.2%), and the 2025 youth unemployment rate was 9.4% for women and 8.3% for men. UN reporting indicates that women face economic disparities, but gross national income per capita is not a direct measure of the wage gap.

Educational attainment also paints a similar picture. Research that UNESCO conduced found that the gender gap in school exclusion has almost disappeared, with the out-of-school rate among girls of primary and secondary school age falling from 47% to 28%, compared to a rate of 27% among boys. However, while parity has been achieved in primary and lower secondary education, women trail behind men in educational attainment. Although enrollment numbers are equal at the start, post-secondary education remains scarce for women. With a high adolescent fertility rate, pregnancy remains one of the leading reasons girls leave school early, sharply lowering retention and transition rates into secondary education. Recognizing this, the Disciplinary Act was removed in 2020, which prohibited pregnant girls from attending classes or school activities.

The Gender Parity Law

Women’s economic participation depends partly on who makes public decisions and who holds public jobs. The Gender Parity Law, adopted in 2022, sets a minimum 40% representation threshold for women and men in covered political and public decision-making bodies. The National Assembly approved it unanimously on July 28, 2022, and it entered into force 60 days after its publication on Sept. 19. That was after the September 2022 election, in which women won 8 of 55 seats (14.5%), down from 25.4% in 2018.

The UN declares the government has met the 40% target, and the World Bank reported that women held 41.7% of ministerial positions in 2024, but only 14.5% of parliamentary seats. However, even though targets have been met, the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2026 report scored Sao Tome and Principe’s legal frameworks at 68 out of 100 and experts’ perceptions of enforcement at 48 out of 100. The parity law can affect representation, but it does not by itself demonstrate better employment or income outcomes. One of the largest new projects is in fishing, a sector the 2023-2027 National Development Plan prioritizes for poverty reduction, and the project’s funder has written women’s access into its design.

Investing in Fishing Communities

Fishing is important to livelihoods and food security, and the government is supporting infrastructure and training in the sector. The African Development Bank (ADB) approved a $21.9 million grant for the Blue Economy and Fisheries Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Maintenance (BEFIRM) project. Running from 2026 to 2030, it will rehabilitate three fishing ports, replace 400 wooden canoes with fiberglass vessels and add six cold storage facilities and four refrigerated trucks.

The ADB expects it to directly benefit 30,000 people along the fish value chain, mainly small-scale fishers, processors and traders. At least 50% of its training and cooperative support will target women and youth, with specific provisions for women-led small businesses and cooperatives. An ADB official said women are central to the fish value chain but struggle to access equipment, finance and markets, and that the project will give women fish traders and processors infrastructure, training and pathways to formalize and scale their businesses. These are targets, not results, and the ADB’s release does not say how many of the direct beneficiaries will be women. The ADB says the project aligns with the 2023-2027 National Development Plan, which prioritizes the blue economy for poverty reduction.

Looking Ahead

Both the parity law and the BEFIRM project are young, and neither has yet shown results for women’s incomes. Whether they improve women’s economic participation in Sao Tome and Principe will depend on how they are conducted in the coming years.

– Anjali Pathak

Anjali is based in London and focuses on Good News and Global Health for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr