There is an opportunity to close the remaining gender digital divide and harness the skills developed by women and youth to develop the ICT sector. While comparatively few Sudanese have access to the internet at present (17 percent men and 11 percent women), this is likely to change with time. While less than a third of the graduates from STEM programs are female youth, female youth dominate the share of graduates in ICT—they are thus well placed to help Sudan’s service sector industry develop its IT services and its marketing services. These female and male youth should be employed in a variety of sectors with the objective of getting these sectors’ IT services up to speed. At the same time, women whose domestic responsibilities inhibit them from seeking employment outside of the home, and who nonetheless desire to engage in some form of income-generating activity, should be taught—as connectively increases—how to use the internet to make basic economic transactions so that they can more easily complete those transactions from their homes. In sum, it has been found that “lower earnings for women in adulthood due to low educational attainment lead to losses in human capital wealth defined as the present value of the future earnings of the labor force” (Wodon et al. 2018).

Recognition by the Government of Sudan, particularly local authorities, of the important role entrepreneurial activities play is essential and—if done right—should benefit workers by providing additional opportunities and protections. As mentioned in different places throughout this report, many women find it difficult to work after they get married due to the caregiver role, and the accompanying household responsibilities, they are expected to assume. At the same time, this report cited several studies that showed that women with no more than modest formal educations and/or vocational trainings could, under the right circumstances, open and operate successful small businesses out of their homes while still fulfilling their caregiver roles. The FGDs with male and female adults and youth in all three regions noted a desire for increased vocational trainings and basic business trainings so that more people could operate small businesses like the women mentioned above. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, which the government is currently preparing, offers an opportunity to address the constraints to employment in the agricultural sector, the service sector, and the informal sector.

# **_Create an enabling environment that lifts gender-specific constraints_**

The main obstacle to improving women’s, and to a lesser extent youth’s, economic opportunities, irrespective of their geographic locale, their educational level, or their socioeconomic circumstances, is a combination of certain laws and certain cultural norms. Since laws are more tangible than cultural norms, it is recommended that attempts to amend aspects of the law be tackled first.

Lifting regulatory constraints to women’s economic participation is key. Discriminatory laws limit equal opportunities and constitute a threat to women’s economic security, position in society, and overall wellbeing. The WBL 2021 report finds that better performance in the areas measured by the index presented is associated with more women in the labor force and with higher incomes and improved development outcomes. Of the 190 countries that are covered in this report, Sudan is fourth from the bottom, with Sudanese women having less than a third of the rights that Sudanese men have in the measured areas.

Amending aspects of the 1997 Labor Code would be a significant first step in improving women’s economic opportunities. For example, the 1997 Labor Code prohibits women from having the ability to 58