Executive Summary budget supports this burden. There are no contributions to cover the risks of illness in the Mauritian social protection system. Mauritius needs to mobilise significantly more resources to ensure that public health care is sustainable. 26 1.91 Mauritius’s social policy, its sustainability, and its capacity to eradicate poverty meet the basic needs of the education and health services. They protect the people against illness, unemployment and old age. However, Mauritius needs to reflect on its entire social system, which it built by accumulating benefits. The sources of inefficiency are numerous and there are many key challenges. However, the problems are not yet acute. This is the most appropriate time to tackle, discuss and resolve them. 1.92 The state is very involved in delivering potable water, proper sanitation, energy, ICTs, housing and land. Public enterprises deliver most of these services and provide them at affordable costs. The rates of access are quite high. Access to telecommunications and the Internet is the highest in Africa. With regard to access to housing, nearly 90 per cent of the houses are privately owned. The state has introduced different ways of providing plots of land and houses at affordable prices, or even free of charge, to poor families. The state has also made provision for housing credit facilities and subsidies to low-income households. The state grants subsidies to all, without distinction. This creates a problem, because there is no monitoring of the enterprises in charge of public services. Mauritius needs a targeted policy here. It also needs to introduce incentives to increase access to new ICTs and to personal computers. 1.93 The state has done much to ensure gender equality. It has strengthened the institutional and legal framework to promote the rights of women and achieve gender equality. It has signed or ratified all the international codes and standards on gender equality and their protocols. It amended the constitution in 1995 to make sexual discrimination illegal, and passed national legislation to increase the protection of women in several areas. It established a number of institutions to promote gender equality. They include the MWRCDFW and the NWC. 1.94 The situation of Mauritian women is contradictory when it comes to access to different services or levels of responsibility. With regard to education, the enrolment rate for girls is equal to, or higher than, that for boys, and girls have a significantly higher rate of success. With regard to health, there is good cover for maternal and infant health. Executive Summary 1.95 There are gender inequalities at several levels in the economic sector – like access to work and to positions of responsibility. Salaries and incomes for equivalent work are also unequal. There are also inequalities in politics. These are that: (i) women have a very low rate of participation in general elections (barely 8.8 per cent of the candidates are women); (ii) only 12 of the 70 parliamentarians (17.1 per cent) and only 6.4 per cent of municipal councillors are women; (iii) no women are members of top trade union management at the national level; and (iv) only two of the 20 ministers are women. Finally, violence against women is rampant, despite the laws that make domestic violence a crime. Sexual harassment also persists, particularly in the workplace. 1.96 Mauritius must continue to improve its policies if it is to make progress in achieving gender equality. This means that it must meet the commitment of SADC members (including Mauritius) to the 30 per cent quota of women in the different structures of power (government, Parliament and political parties). It must provide more resources to the ministry responsible for women’s rights and organisations. It must highlight the gender dimension in all areas and in all statistics. Political, labour and associated organisations should take the lead in implementing the 30 per cent quota and integrating the gender dimension with their activities. 1.97 The government involves all stakeholders when developing policies and in order to promote participation in development at all levels. The government consults the NESC mainly in the prebudget discussions. The most important ministries, trade unions and employers, the Regional Assembly of Rodrigues, and civil society organisations for the youth, women and the elderly are represented on the NESC. It plays an important and acknowledged role in promoting dialogue and national consensus about major socioeconomic issues and development programmes. The government consults civil society organisations about developing and implementing various national plans and programmes. However, they are not structured, have few resources and lack the capacity to make proposals. In contrast, the private sector is well organised and structured and has very strong intellectual capacity. The JEC and the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) are representative bodies of employers. They are privileged partners of the government and Parliament. They participate in labour-related consultations and often take the initiative in major issues. Trade union confederations are also participants in major consultations. They also sit on the NESC and 27