The study Can Africa Claim the 21st Century? made the argument that Africa has enormous unexploited potential, especially the potential of women. Specifically, it pointed out that women comprise one of Africa’s hidden growth reserves, providing most of the region’s labor, but their productivity is hampered by widespread inequality in education as well as unequal access to land and productive inputs.The report concluded that gender equality can be a potent force for accelerated poverty reduction.2 The economic importance of women in Africa was reinforced by the Africa Commission Report, which noted that “all the evidence agrees that [women] make a greater contribution to economic life than their menfolk.”3 The World Bank’s Africa Action Plan (AAP), developed in response to the G8 Summit in 2005, also reiterates the central contribution of women to African economies (see Box 1).The AAP progress report presented to the Bank’s Board of Directors in March 2007 included women’s economic empowerment as one of eight flagship areas for increased focus during implementation.
Gender inequality plays a significant role in accounting for Africa’s poor growth and poverty reduction performance.A recent review of available evidence indicates that gender inequality in education may limit growth; that inequalities in access to land and productive inputs reduce agricultural productivity, investment, and modernization; and that inequalities in time burdens, alongside high demographic growth rates, all contribute to reducing women’s ability to participate effectively in, and to benefit from, economic growth.4 The legal and regulatory environment is a core element of the investment climate, and is also critical for competitiveness. In particular, property rights, labor laws, personal security, the performance of the judiciary, and the time and cost required to register, license, and operate a business all affect competitiveness and the dynamism of the private sector.This environment may affect men and women in quite different ways, as in many African societies laws and customs impede women to a greater extent than men in obtaining credit, productive inputs, education, training, and information needed to start and operate a business.
Although in some cases there may be gender-specific legal and administrative barriers, for the most part the regulatory environment will be “gender-neutral” in principle, but with possibly gender-differentiated outcomes in practice —for example, women may be less able than men to afford long and expensive registration procedures. For these reasons, women may be more disadvantaged than men in starting-up and managing enterprises.
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