WINDHOEK, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Namibia has made steady progress in reducing early marriages as well as empowering women politically, a Sustainable Development Goals baseline report released by the Namibian Statistics Agency Tuesday shows.

While highlighting challenges on the issues of women abuse, including both physical and emotional abuse in urban and rural set ups, the report places Namibia at a better level of women emancipation.

"In general, early marriages are declining in Namibia as noted in the reduction on women married by the age of 15 from 2.2 percent to 1.6 percent between the years 2000 to date," the report said.

On women in positions of power, the baseline report said as at 2018, the Namibian parliament almost reached parity with about 46.2 percent of seats in parliament being held by women, a move closer to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional target of a 50 percent representation from women.