Africa’s prosperity depends on achieving gender equality

Despite the progress made toward gender equality over the past century, women worldwide still lag behind men in pay and job quality. The global labour-force participation rate for women is just 53 percent, compared to 80 percent for men. This is not due to a lack of will or effort. Childcare obligations, limited access to education, and poor workplace and public-safety measures often curtail women’s ability to secure “decent” work. 

For this reason, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to achieve “full and productive employment and decent work for all” by 2030 (SDG 8). But this objective cannot be achieved as long as African women face significant barriers to equal pay and job opportunities. 

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), “decent” employment implies fair wages, safe and healthy working environments, job security, and equal opportunities and treatment. While several African countries have made efforts to improve women’s access to decent work opportunities, recent research by the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) underscores the challenges facing policymakers. 

The study, which involved researchers in six countries, covered two African states: Kenya and Senegal. In Kenya, researchers found that while more than 75 percent of women participate in the labour market, only 39 percent are employed in the formal sector. In Senegal, the study said 70 percent of women have been engaged in vulnerable jobs over the past 30 years, with little to no improvement despite government interventions. 

A separate study focusing on women’s integration into the labour market in eight sub-Saharan countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone – found that, with the exception of Sierra Leone, women are less likely to be employed than men. Moreover, women are primarily engaged in insecure, low-paying, and informal jobs. 

Unsurprisingly, motherhood and childcare-related duties significantly impede women’s ability to realise their full potential in the labour market, owing to regressive social norms that perpetuate gender inequality. To address these disparities, public policies must be thoughtfully designed and tailored to specific contexts. For example, PEP researchers recommended that governments offer affordable, high-quality, and safe public childcare services. This includes establishing day-care centres within public schools and subsidising private childcare services in countries like Kenya and Senegal. 

A 2018 ILO report, based on data from more than 90 countries, also highlighted the role of caregiving work in advancing women’s economic empowerment. Globally, 19.3 percent of women work in care jobs, compared to 6.6 percent of men. Given that the number of people who need care is expected to grow to 2.3 billion by 2030 (from 2.1 billion in 2015), the report advocated doubling investment in the care economy to $18.4 trillion. The ILO projected that this would create 269 million new jobs by 2030 and enable countries to meet multiple SDGs. 

But there is no one-size-fits-all model for creating high-quality care jobs. With this in mind, the African Population and Health Research Center assembled a team of international and regional experts to evaluate the early childcare and long-term care systems in Kenya and Senegal. 

Drawing on insights from Kenya, the researchers outlined several steps that governments can take to recognise, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care work among different stakeholders. These include investing in high-quality, affordable childcare services; enhancing the capacity of county-level government departments to oversee unpaid caregiving through adequate budgetary support and intra-governmental cooperation; aiding local entrepreneurs who serve low-income women through public and private investment; among others.  

Among its seven core objectives, the African Union’s Agenda 2063 highlights the need to achieve gender equality and parity in the political, economic, and social domains. But this goal will remain out of reach until we develop a holistic, evidence-based, Africa-centric care economy that enables women to participate as equals in the labour market. 

The writer, Jane Kabubo-Mariara, is a professor of Economics at the University of Nairobi
        -- Project Syndicate