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Why Macroeconomic Policies in Africa Remain Gender-Blind

The pursuit of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment remains a significant challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Although countries have reaffirmed global and regional commitments through Sustainable Development Goal 5 which calls for closing gender gaps, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which anchors gender equality at the centre of economic transformation, macroeconomic policies across the continent remain largely non-responsive to gender.

Both fiscal and monetary frameworks continue to overlook women’s distinct economic realities, reinforcing systemic inequality rather than alleviating it. Evidence from recent the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) landscape studies illustrates how these gaps manifest. In Ghana, reliance on consumption taxes such as Value Added Tax (VAT) disproportionately burdens low-income households where women dominate, reducing disposable income and constraining their ability to invest. Similarly, in Kenya, fiscal austerity and expenditure cuts to health, and education sectors have constrained women’s labour participation and time-use flexibility. On the monetary front, restrictive credit policies and high interest rates across East and West Africa have excluded women entrepreneurs from affordable finance, despite evidence that women face higher loan rejection rates and lack collateral.

Compounding these fiscal and monetary gaps is the persistent lack of gender-disaggregated data, which makes it difficult for governments to design and evaluate policies that affect women differently. Entrenched socio-cultural norms further distort macroeconomic decision-making, perpetuating the undervaluation of women’s unpaid and informal contributions. The landscape studies confirm that the combined effects of fiscal bias, monetary rigidity, and policy blind spots have entrenched structural barriers that continue to constrain women’s economic empowerment across the region.

Status of macroeconomic policies and women economic empowerment (WEE) in African ccountries

Unpaid care and domestic work represent a significant yet undervalued component of the global economy that perpetuates gender inequality. Women often face a “double shift,” juggling unpaid household responsibilities with low-grade, low-paid jobs, which contributes to persistent gender inequities in the labour market.

Women constitute 56.78% of the labour force participants in sub-Saharan Africa (compared to 68.93% men), producing 49% of food while earning only 70 cents of every $1 made by men –showing a 30% gender pay gap. Regional disparities are evident across Africa. East African women in Kenya spend 11.1 hours weekly on domestic work compared to men’s 2.9 hours, West African women in Nigeria spend six times more hours on unpaid care work than men, South African women spend 3.7 hours daily on unpaid care work compared to men’s 1.2 hours. North African countries follow the same trend, with Egyptian women spending five times more hours on unpaid care work than men and Moroccan women dedicating 4.5 hours daily to unpaid domestic tasks compared to men’s 1.5 hours.

Enhancing women’s participation in the labour force and improving their access to financial services will foster a more inclusive and equitable economic environment for them. Women continue to face occupational segregation and wage gaps with majority of them still concentrated in lower-paying and less secure jobs within formal and informal economies. A study by Bandara (2015) shows that for every 1% increase in the labour gender gap, there is a 0.43–0.49% decrease in output per worker across Africa. For sub-Saharan Africa, the economic losses due to these gender gaps amount to over US$60 billion annually, representing about 5% of the region’s total annual output. This reflects the significant economic impact of gender inequality in the labour market.

The informal sector’s dominance in SSA disproportionately affects women’s employment patterns. The agricultural sector employs 62% of SSA’s women—the highest rate globally—yet despite their substantial contributions, most lack economic and political influence and survive on less than two dollars daily. Solutions involve improving technology access, expanding training programmes, and supporting transitions to formal employment.

Limited access to education and skills training for women and girls limit their ability to compete in the labour market and secure better-paying jobs. Women in Africa experience significant educational disparities marked by lower secondary education completion rates, with high dropout rates among adolescent girls due to early pregnancy, inadequate support, and economic constraints. In Africa, women have achieved only 47% of human development outcomes compared to men, with significant educational disparities evident in youth literacy rates.

Implementing gender-sensitive monetary and fiscal policies eases the financial burden on low-income earners, including women. Inconsistent implementation of Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) across African nations hinders progress, as GRB practices often lack standardisation and comprehensive application, reducing their potential to drive meaningful change. Regular audits of tax policies for gender biases and adjustments to support women, particularly those in low-income brackets, are crucial.

Additionally, encouraging investment in sectors that predominantly employ women, such as healthcare, education, agriculture, and trade, through targeted fiscal incentives can promote gender diversity and strengthen women’s rights at work. The AFIDEP Landscape Studies (2024) from Kenya, Ghana, and West Africa highlight how macroeconomic policies in these sectors directly influence WEE outcomes. In agriculture, women form the majority of smallholder farmers but face limited access to credit and land due to restrictive fiscal measures and inadequate public investment. In trade, high tariffs and informal taxation constrain women cross-border traders, reducing profit margins and mobility. Similarly, limited government spending in social sectors such as healthcare and education narrows women’s employment opportunities and reinforces occupational segregation. These examples demonstrate that fiscal and monetary policies shaping taxation, public investment, and credit access have direct macroeconomic implications for women’s productivity and income security.

In Africa, the lack of gender-disaggregated data hampers effective policymaking and targeted interventions for gender equality and digital financial inclusion. Kenya’s integration of gender-specific indicators has improved targeted policies, but socio-cultural norms still limit women’s access to opportunities. Tanzania and Uganda focus on gender-disaggregated data for unpaid care work and disparities in education and land ownership, but overcoming cultural barriers requires sustained effort.

Recommendations and conclusion

Macroeconomic interventions with lessons from other countries

It is essential to adopt, enhance and sustain interventions that advance positive outcomes related to women’s economic empowerment. This section details macroeconomic interventions that could enhance WEE based on lessons from other countries:

• Implementation of reforms that address gender-based discrimination in the labour market. This includes enforcing equal pay for equal work, increasing minimum wages as women tend to be concentrated in the lowest-wage jobs, promoting women’s participation in non-traditional sectors, and supporting work-family balance through policies like parental leave and flexible working arrangements. In Tunisia, legislative measures have been enacted to codify social norms into gender-equalising labour practices, ensuring fair treatment and equal opportunities for women in the workplace.
• Address economic instability and insufficient social protections that make informal workers particularly vulnerable. South Africa’s efforts to support the informal sector focus on improved regulation, mentorship, social protection, and enhanced access to technology and education. Kenya has implemented the women’s enterprise fund to support business formalisation and women-owned enterprises, tackling barriers to financial services.
• Enhance women’s educational access, skills training and participation in digital literacy programme African initiatives to enhance women’s educational access have shown promising results, exemplified by the Gen-Up project in Cameroon and Sierra Leone, which uses mentoring systems to improve women’s transition to the labour market through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes. In Nigeria, programmes linking female literacy to income-generating activities demonstrate this approach despite facing cultural and economic challenges.
• Promoting GRB at all government levels will ensure equitable resource allocation and enhance better support for women’s needs. It is essential to train policymakers on gender-responsive issues to help design policies that address their distinct impacts on men and women. The GRB framework in Uganda channels funds toward maternal health services, family planning access, and educational programmes for women and girls while GRB in South Africa has been successfully implemented to target public funds toward social services that directly benefit women and children. This approach has led to substantial social impact, as evidenced by improved health services for women and reductions in domestic violence rates.
• Emphasise the importance of leveraging gender-disaggregated big data to create evidence-based policies. This could be through improved data collection that addresses intersecting inequalities, for instance, South Africa’s Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Indicators Project shapes interventions against gender-based violence, with programmes like Promundo aiding social norm change.
• Recognising and integrating unpaid care and domestic work into national economic frameworks. Some countries, including South Africa, Ghana, and Tanzania, have made progress in recognising unpaid care work in national accounts reflecting its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), though many still struggle with economic policy integration. The initiatives align with international frameworks like the Beijing Platform for Action, which advocates integrating unpaid care work into development policies.

Conclusion

Gender disparities in Africa requires a multifaceted approach that integrates gender perspectives into fiscal and monetary policies in implementation of targeted reforms across various sectors.  Overcoming barriers such as fragmented data sources, insufficient funding, inadequate training and skills, social protection from vulnerable employment and cultural resistance is crucial for making meaningful progress. Collaborative efforts among policymakers, researchers, civil society, private sector and other stakeholders are essential to achieving sustainable gender equality and fostering inclusive development across the African continent.