Research from the Mastercard Foundation finds that tackling barriers to women’s workforce participation in Africa can boost GDP by 5% within the next six years.
By Maggie Mancini
Tackling systemic barriers towards the participation of young women in Africa’s workforce will drive an estimated $287 billion to its economy by 2030, boosting GDP by 5%, a new report commissioned by the Mastercard Foundation reveals. Conducted in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, the study reinforces the crucial role of women’s economic empowerment in driving the continent into a new era of transformational growth.
The report outlines a series of immediate, actionable solutions for government, private sector, and civil society to reverse the steep decline of young women’s contribution to Africa’s GDP from 18% in 2000 to 11% in 2022. The most pivotal areas to tackle include care burdens that restrict women’s access to the labour market, poor education completion rates, the need to bolster competitive skills in key sectors and adopt gender-inclusive employment policies, and lack of access to financial services.
The report notes that effective private sector-led approaches and government-funded models focussed on expanding childcare centres and employer-provided childcare can alleviate the burden of care on young women and create over 11 million jobs by 2030. With agriculture, education, food and accommodation, trade, wholesale, and retail sectors among Africa’s highest employers of young women, the Foundation advocates for the roll-out of apprenticeships and bootcamps to accelerate young women’s participation in these high-growth areas. The ICT sector is also identified as a leading industry to catalyse substantial productivity, boasting a higher rate of renumeration for women compared to men in Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda.
The study spotlights Namibia as a key model for other African nations to follow in prioritising the economic benefits of gender equality, having increased women’s economic participation from 40% to 42% in five years. Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda have the potential to achieve the fastest growth should they replicate Namibia’s strategy.
Women’s unemployment rates have historically been higher than those of men, a disparity further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 26% of girls complete secondary school, and the high burden of unpaid care work keeps 35% to 40% of women out of the workforce. Furthermore, financial inclusion remains a significant challenge, with 63% of African women being unbanked compared to 52% of men.
