Gender and Growth : Africa's Missed Potential

In the study "Can Africa claim the 21st century?" the author argues on the enormous unexploited potential the region has in its people, "a hidden growth reserve" as he refers to them, and, most importantly in its women, who now provide more than half the region's labor, but who lack equal access to education, concluding that gender equality can be a potential force for accelerated poverty reduction in Africa. The note looks at women and men in African economies, identifying that women work far longer hours than men, being prominent in agriculture, which leads to estimate that women contribute about two thirds of the total rural transport effort. Case studies show how gender inequality limits growth, and the note further compares this reality to the potential productivity, given a gender-inclusive growth, suggesting key tasks should focus on systematic sex-disaggregation of data, to include economic production data and integration of gender modules in statistical surveys, so as to be reflected in national accounts.