Gender Inequality, Governance, and Poverty in Sub‐Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-174
Author(s):  
Migbaru A. Workneh
Keyword(s):  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan

scholarly journals Educational Gender Inequality in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Long‐Term Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joerg Baten ◽  
Michiel de Haas ◽  
Elisabeth Kempter ◽  
Felix Meier zu Selhausen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan

Financial Inclusion and Gender Inequality Reduction: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 367-372
Author(s):  
Sylvester Ohiomu ◽  
Evelyn Nwamaka Ogbeide-Osaretin
Keyword(s):  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Reduced inequality and gender equality are parts of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) towards global development, but the financial sector appears daunted in respect of financial inclusion for these noble goals. Concerns are more on gender inequality in the area of full utilisation of financial and human resources. Hence, this study investigated the impact of financial inclusion on gender inequality in sub-Saharan Africa. The study employed the generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation method on panel data on some countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The result of the study revealed that financial inclusion substantially reduced gender inequality. Financial inclusion access was found to drive down gender inequality more than usage. Female educational levels were found to have a substantial but negative impact on gender inequality. This study recommends that there is a need for an increase in commercial bank branches to increase accessibility to financial services. The government should increase its expenditure, and this should be channelled towards financial development and higher levels of education for females to improve financial literacy.

Gender inequality, reproductive rights and food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa – a panel data study

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-208
Author(s):  
Deeksha Tayal
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Relative Impact ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Food Deficit ◽  
Adolescent Fertility ◽  
Sub Saharan

Purpose This paper aims to suggest that gender inequality plays a significant role in explaining the prevailing magnitudes of food insecurity in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides empirical evidence for the underlying hypothesis that removing discrimination against women, particularly, with respect to their reproductive health and rights, depicted in high adolescent fertility rates and maternal deaths, will be an important pre-condition for addressing the hunger and undernourishment challenge in the region. A theoretical linkage has been conceptualised and supported through findings from panel data analysis of a set of 20 countries in the region, over a period of 16 years (from 1999 to 2015). The key result is that the relative impact of health inequality on food insecurity is higher and significant, in comparison to disparities in education and economic participation of women. A unit increase in adolescent fertility rate leads to an increase in undernourishment by 19.4 per cent, depth of food deficit by 1.15 per cent and a decline in average dietary energy adequacy by 0.21 per cent. Design/methodology/approach In the paper, time series data set for 20 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa is generated by using world development indicators (World Bank) of gender inequality and food security statistics of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Data set involves trends in variables over a period of 16 years (1999 to 2015). A panel regression analysis with fixed effects is undertaken for testing the underlying hypothesis. To capture the linkage in a detailed manner, the author has fitted four models for each of the three measures of food security. First model captures the specific impact of gender differences in secondary school enrolment on food security in the region. Second model assesses the impact of gender inequality in labour force participation, and the third model explores the impact of health inequality in terms of adolescent fertility and maternal mortality on food security indicators. In the final model, the relative impact of all the four gender inequality indicators on magnitude of food insecurity in the study region is assessed. Findings The findings from panel data analysis provide empirical support to our hypothesis that gender disparities prevailing in Sub-Saharan Africa have an adverse impact on the level of food security in the region. Individually, increase in both, gender parity in secondary education and ratio of female to male labour force participation rate, has a negative influence on prevalence of undernourishment and depth of food deficit in the region. But, when the relative impact of gender inequality in education, economic participation and health are considered together in a single model, adolescent fertility rate, followed by maternal mortality ratio became the two most important indicators negatively influencing the magnitude of food security in SSA. A unit increase in adolescent fertility rate, leads to an increase in undernourishment by 19.4 per cent, depth of food deficit by 1.15 per cent and a decline in average dietary energy adequacy by 0.21 per cent. Research limitations/implications Scarcity of continuous time series data for the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa limits the scope of analysis. Social implications Government policies and programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa must focus on successful implementation of sexual and reproductive health and rights of women, as underlined in Goal 3 of sustainable development goals (SDGs). This would require deeper levels of interventions aimed at transforming gender roles and relations through involvement of men and boys as partners. Elimination of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls, and ensuring easy and affordable access to sexual and reproductive health services, particularly in fragile and conflict affected areas, are some of the important measures which may facilitate movement of the countries in the region, towards the target set by SDG 3. Originality/value Indisputably, women play a key role in a nation’s food economy, not only as food producers and income earners but also as food distributors and consumers. Nevertheless, they face discrimination in every dimension and phase of life, which hampers their ability to successfully fulfill this responsibility. The paper provides a theoretical linkage and empirical evidence on the underlying hypothesis that targeting various forms of gender disparities in the African sub-continent, particularly those relating to reproductive health and rights of women will pave the way for reducing the magnitude of hunger and food insecurity in the region of Sub-Saharan Africa. Few papers in my knowledge have explored the linkage between gender inequality and food insecurity, but none have empirically emphasised the reproductive health dimension of this association.

Twentieth-Century Transformations in Notions of Gender, Parenthood, and Marriage in Southern Ghana: A Critique of the Hypothesis of “Retrograde Steps” for Akan Women

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 15-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Boni
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Gender Relations ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Feminist Anthropology ◽  
Labor Division ◽  
Sub Saharan

In the course of the 1970s, one of the principal focuses of the emerging feminist anthropology was the reassessment of issues of gender inequality. Drawing their inspiration from Marxist theory going back to Engels, some works historicized female oppression and analyzed its political and economic determinants. To demonstrate that gender inequality was the product of specific historical formations, the observable gender relations were, at times, opposed to a prior egalitarian social order in which value differentiation was not attached to the gendered labor division (e.g., Leacock 1981). The approach was criticized by those who believed that female subordination characterized present and past societies on which solid documentary evidence was available (e.g., Rosaldo 1974). The idea that gender realtions in some non-western societies were marked by parity prior to the degradation produced by colonization was not abandoned, however, and influenced neighboring disciplines.Recent studies concerned with the transformations of gender relations in sub-Saharan Africa over the twentieth century tend to stress the decline in social and economic position of women. Ethnographic, economic, and historical studies state that the traditional value attached to being female is threatened by the economic and political developments of the last century. Women are said increasingly to lose their previous independence, to have to cater for children and elderly by themselves, and to lose ground in productive activities (Robertson and Berger 1986; Mikell 1997a; Baerends 1998).

Gender Inequality, Governance and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Migbaru Alamirew Workneh ◽  
Zerayehu Sime Eshete ◽  
Francesco Figari
Keyword(s):  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan

scholarly journals Goat - a Sustainable and Holistic Approach in Addressing Triple Challenges of Gender Inequality, Climate Change Effects, Food and Nutrition Insecurity in Rural Communities of Sub Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Never Assan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Change Effect ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
Climate Change Effect ◽  
Sub Saharan

Goat-centered approach can transform rural agrarian households and communities toward gender inclusive climate change adaptation in agriculture to enhance food security and nutrition in Sub Saharan Africa. Gender inequality, climate change effect and food and nutrition insecurity are the most defining and deeply intertwined socio-economic and environmental challenges in rural communities in sub Saharan Africa. This chapter offers an overview of potentiality of goat rearing as a sustainable and holistic approach in addressing triple challenges of gender inequality, climate change effects and food and nutrition insecurity in rural communities. The failure to address gender inequality and deal with the climate change effect has thrown the Sub-Saharan Africa into a state of perpetual food scarcity due to compromised food production, consequently condemning the rural communities and its people to extreme poverty and nutrition insecurity. Because of this scenario, a number of both internal and external development agencies, have put several measures in place to alleviate the situation, which has for long preyed upon the region and continues to frustrate food stability in the region. The total failure of the previous autonomously attempt to address the triple challenges of gender inequality, climate change effects and food and nutrition insecurity at the household level give ground to prominence on the endorsement of more sustainable and multifaceted approaches. A proposition is made that goat rearing is one such initiative, which combines the empowerment of women in agriculture to ensure availability of the basic food needs of the household, while sustaining animal production due to goat’s adaptability to the climate induced harsh environmental conditions. The goat centered multifactorial approach to address the triple challenges is focused on the exploitation of the interlinkages among these socio-economic and environmental ills. The major assumption is that goat rearing in rural economies simultaneously curtails the risk of food and nutrition insecurity by acting as an entry point of gender equality, while leveraging on the opportunities that goat rearing will effectively offset adversities posed by the climate change effect. In most instances, women are potentially more vulnerable compared to men as they directly experience the ponderous effects of climate change in agricultural production, in turn compromising food and nutrition security. Goat rearing is central in the removal of systemic barriers that hold women back from equal participation in agriculture, by broadening their socio-economic opportunities, hence, playing a significant role in agricultural value-chains. The goat-rearing sustainability concept is based on establishing and maintaining the circumstances under which people and nature can subsist in productive harmony, that allow fulfilling the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations. Despite the climate change adverse effects, the goat population has continued to proliferate in harshest agro-ecological regions, which demonstrate that goats have managed to adapt to the current unfriendly climate induced environmental conditions. It is assumed that promoting goat rearing will narrow the gender equality gap between men and women, and enhance the participation of women in agriculture, hence, improving productivity, and food and nutrition security. Goats due to their numerical population advantage and deeply embedment in rural communities have constantly contributed to rural poor resource farmers’ livelihoods in many ways, and their contributions tend to be significant. This chapter offers an overview of potentiality of goat rearing as a sustainable and holistic approach in addressing triple challenges of gender inequality, climate change effects and food insecurity in rural communities of Sub Saharan Africa.

scholarly journals Gender inequality, health expenditure and maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: A secondary data analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Chirowa ◽  
Stephen Atwood ◽  
Marc Van der Putten
Keyword(s):  
Maternal Mortality ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Maternal Mortality Ratio ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Inequality Index ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Sub Saharan

Background: This article provided an analysis of gender inequality, health expenditure and its relationship to maternal mortality.Objective: The objective of this article was to explore gender inequality and its relationship with health expenditure and maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). A unique analysis was used to correlate the Gender Inequality Index (GII), Health Expenditure and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR). The GII captured inequalities across three dimensions – Reproductive health, Women empowerment and Labour force participation between men and women. The GII is a composite index introduced by the UNDP in 2010 and corrects for the disadavanatges of the other gender indices. Although the GII incorporates MMR in its calculation, it should not be taken as a substitute for, but rather as complementary to, the MMR.Method: An exploratory and descriptive design to a secondary documentary review using quantitative data and qualitative information was used. The article referred to sub-Saharan Africa, but seven countries were purposively selected for an in-depth analysis based on the availability of data. The countries selected were Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique,South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Results: Countries with high gender inequality captured by the gender inequality index were associated with high maternal mortality ratios as compared with countries with lower gender inequality, whilst countries that spend less on health were associated with higher maternal deaths than countries that spend more.Conclusion: A potential relationship exists between gender inequality, health expenditure, and maternal mortality. Gender inequalities are systematic and occur at the macro, societal and household levels.

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