"Mother's Day" — Zambia's Statutory Monthly Menstrual Leave

Zambia's "Mother's Day" entitlement gives every woman employee, regardless of parental status, one day of paid leave per month that she may take on any day, for any reason connected to menstruation, without providing a medical certificate or an explanation to her employer. The practice originated informally under colonial-era administration in 1953, was formalised into national labour law in 2015, and is now codified in the Employment Code Act No. 3 of 2019 (cited in secondary sources as Section 47), which applies to both public- and private-sector employers.
A 2025 peer-reviewed comparative study (Sedegah, Mantey & Appah, Journal of Gender, Culture and Society) examining whether Ghana should adopt a similar policy describes Zambia as "the first and only African country" with a statutory menstrual-leave entitlement, and notes the policy is trust-based, requiring no certification. No formal impact evaluation of take-up, compliance or workplace outcomes specific to Zambia was located; independent news coverage (e.g. The Independent, Quartz Africa) has reported that the policy remains debated among Zambian employers and the public, with some employers reportedly reluctant despite legal consequences for refusal.
The entitlement is best read as a long-standing, low-cost statutory right rather than an evaluated programme: its durability across seven decades and its embedding in binding national law are well documented, but rigorous evidence on whether it changes women's workplace experience or health outcomes in Zambia specifically has not been published.

Read the full analysis: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/zambia-period-day-off-women-menstruation-law-gender-womensrights-a7509061.html